Daily Hearts of Love for February

I have done different types of hearts for the kids in February, but I think they are going to love their daily surprise this year. I contacted aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. and asked them to tell me one thing they love about each of the kids. Every day from Feb. 1st-Feb. 14th, the kids will get 

a surprise message from a different person. 

Little Mermaid Photo Board

I started by drawing this with pencil and outlining with Sharpie. 

Then I used acrylic paint and cut out the faces to finish the board. 

2019 Super Bowl Commercial Bingo

This will be our 5th time playing Super Bowl Commercial Bingo. The kids really look forward to this every year.

To print and edit these, you can view the document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18HUFGVLMg7MpNm9XqCCy6CDcIH-Sp78Wxb2atEl3fx4/edit?usp=sharing

Homemade Chocolate Cake

To bring some fun and entertainment to days that we are just spending time at home, I like to celebrate the National Day Holidays. Today just happened to be National Chocolate Cake Day! 

I found a recipe at this website: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/hersheys-perfectly-chocolate-chocolate-cake/

It was delicious! 

Ingredients: 

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (I use one cup milk with 1 tsp vinegar)

1/2 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla 

1 cup boiling water

Frosting ingredients: 

1/2 cup melted butter

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Start by mixing the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Add the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer for a couple of minutes. Add the boiling water. 

Place in two greased and floured 9 inch cake pans. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

While it is baking, make the frosting. Beat the cocoa powder and melted butter together. Add the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Whip until it is creamy. Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to put on the cooled cake. I had enough frosting to put some between the two layers, on top of the cake, and on the sides of the cakes. 

This is definitely a chocolate cake I would make again. 

Lunar Eclipse Activities

Tonight there will be a full lunar eclipse and a super blood wolf moon. We decided to do some moon activities today to celebrate.

We started by making some moon rocks. We mixed equal parts flour and water and added a little silver tempera paint. The kids dunked cotton balls in the flour mixture and put them on a pan covered with tin foil. We baked them for about an hour at 300 degrees.

I mixed one cup of Epsom salt with 1 tsp. of vinegar and some silver paint. I let it dry for about an hour on paper towel. Then we shaped it to look like the surface of the moon. The kids took turns taking slow motion videos of their cotton ball moon rocks hitting the "surface of the moon". 

We also made constellation sensory bags. We put clear hair gel, glitter, and foil star confetti in a Ziploc bag. The kids had fun moving their stars around in the bag. (It takes a lot of hair gel to fill a bag.)

I found an Earth ball at the Dollar Tree. We used that and also blew up a yellow balloon to represent the sun and a silver balloon for the moon and did some visual representation of a lunar and solar eclipse. 

We had some moon and eclipse treats as well. 

We made a crater cake. I found the recipe on http://scratchinit.halversen.com/2013/03/craters-of-the-moon-cake/

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 Tbs cocoa

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 cup milk

5 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 cup meteorites (nuts, chocolate chips, etc.) 

Start by mixing the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 9 inch cake pan. 

This will make it look like a sand volcano.

Make three craters in your pan. Fill the big crater in the center with the melted butter, the medium crater with the baking soda, and a small crater with the vanilla. 

Add the vinegar to the baking soda crater. The volcano will spill over the surface of the moon. Then dump the milk over the other craters and "flood" the moon. 

Stir the ingredients together. 

Add the craters and bake for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees. 

We made whipped cream to eat with the crater cake. 

The last craft Rachel did was to make a picture of the moon out of tin foil. 

They probably had the most fun dissecting the cotton ball moon rocks! 

I finished the night by making some "moon" cheese bread. (http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2014/01/snowman-cheese-bread.html) 

Now we just have to wait and see if the sky will be clear enough tonight!