2nd Annual Academy Awards Party

We had so much fun celebrating the Academy Awards last year, we decided to do it again. (http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2018/03/academy-award-party.html) The kids love to dress up and do "interviews" on the Red Carpet. This year we made Red Velvet "Carpet" Brownies and a trophy cheese bread.

Red Velvet Brownies

Ingredients: 

4 eggs

2 sticks butter, melted

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

red food gel coloring

1 1/2 tsp vinegar

1 1/2 cups flour

Swirl Ingredients:

1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat the eggs with a fork in a small bowl. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, place the melted butter, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, red food coloring, and vinegar. Mix that well. 

Whisk in the eggs. Fold in the flour until it is just mixed. 

Pour the batter into a greased 9x13 inch pan, leaving out about 1/2 cup of the batter to place on the top of the swirl mixture. 

Make the swirl: Use a mixer to beat the cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, egg yolk, and 1/2 tsp of vanilla in a bowl. 

Place spoonfuls of the mixture on top of the brownie batter that is in the pan. Add the remaining batter on top of that. Use a knife to swirl the mixture together. 

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Cool before cutting. 

We had fun using the photo board trophy we created last year too. 

Stuff the Orlando Magic Mascot Valentine's Day Box

On our trip to Florida over Christmas break, we decided to spend one night at the Orlando Magic basketball game. (Ironically, they liked this part of the trip more than the very costly Disney experience!) The kids loved the experience so much they both wanted to make the mascot, Stuff, their Valentine's Day box. Their favorite part of the box is the ability to shoot yellow things out of the nose, just like the real Stuff. 

The yellow blowout noisemakers are attached to condiment bottles with tape. (The tape has to be tight to create a seal around the noisemaker.) 

The box and toilet paper roll arms and legs are covered in tablecloth. We added felt for the jersey, styrofoam balls for the nose and shoes, and colored foam was used for the wings, arm decorations, and hair decoration. A pipe cleaner was used to go around the eyes and popsicle sticks and foam star stickers make the top piece. 

Valentine's Day Escape Room

For the past six years we have done a Scavenger Hunt for Valentine's Day. This year I decided to make it a little harder now that the kids are getting older. So...I came up with an escape room challenge. These envelopes will be posted around the room (in specific places identified in the clues or behind locks with specific combinations from the clues). 

This is what is in their first envelope.

The second envelope will be behind a picture on the wall that says friendship (the word they unscramble in the first clue). 

The second envelope has 12 squares that can be put together to make a picture. The numbers on the back of the picture make the code they need to find for the 3rd clue. 

The 3rd envelope has a joke. The answer to the joke can be decoded. The answer has the word sew in it. The 4th envelope will be found in the sewing machine. 

The 4th envelope has another joke. The answer to that joke has the word magnet in it. I highlighted the word magnet for them. The 5th envelope will be in the drawer that we keep the magnets.

The 5th envelope has cut up heart pictures. There are 8 matches in the envelope. Two hearts have an X on the back. Once they find the match for those two cards, they will get two codes. The two codes will unlock the 6th envelope. 

The final envelope has a list of words without vowels. Each of the words I boxed in are all related to flowers. One of the brain teasers that is in there is about flowers. The answer to that brain teaser is the final code. 

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! 

6th Annual New Year's Eve Balloon Activities

Today is my favorite day of activities with the kids. We look forward to this event all year! 

I added a new twist to our 6th Annual New Year's Eve activities: at the top of each hour, the balloon activity is to perform a New Year's Eve tradition from around the world.

12:00 Noon: Scotland and Ireland:bonfire and sparklers (fireworks)
1:00: Colombia: Carry empty suitcases around the house
2:00: Brazil: wear special underwear (red-love, yellow-money, white-peace
3:00: Armenia: bread with good luck wishes kneaded in
4:00: Japanese: buckwheat Solba noodles
5:00: Denmark: jump off chairs to leap into January
6:00: France: eat a stack of pancakes
7:00: Turkey: open front door and sprinkle salt to bring peace and abundance to the house
8:00: Philippines: display 12 round fruits
9:00: Ireland: hit walls with bread
10:00: Dutch: eat olibollen doughnuts
11:00: Czech Republic: cut an apple in half and look at the core to predict the coming year
12:00: Spain: eat 12 grapes

I write the activities on a sheet of paper and cut them up into strips. I place the strips inside a balloon and write the time on the balloon. When the time arrives, the kids take turns popping the balloon to find their next activity.

The other activities to fill in the rest of the night are as follows: 

12:16: do a walking water experiment (fill classes with different colored water. Place a paper towel in the glasses and watch the colors come together.)

12:33: complete the year in review questionnaire

12:47: make bath bombs

1:11: do dry ice experiments (we added dry ice to warm water in champagne glasses, we then added a little soap to each glass. We also carbonated orange kool-aid. The last thing we did was make a giant bubble with the dry ice.) 

1:52: make a penguin sensory bins--using water beads as the base. 

2:08: STEM challenge-build a raft and a slide for the penguin sensory bin

2:50: Rice Krispie Clocks

3:15: Pick "One Word" to concentrate on this year and paint your word on canvas

3:45: Make soft pretzels

4:15: glitter/water/dish soap experiment

4:32: magic milk experiment

5:20: Make shrink key chains of resolutions and visit the concession stand

5:42: Make 2019 cheese bread

6:20: elephant toothpaste experiment in champagne glasses

7:10: make brownie trifles

7:43 make color disappear experiment

8:14: hot chocolate bar

8:30: photo shoot

8:50: 2019 hand print craft

9:10: Chopped food challenge

9:51: burn ice

10:20: Ivory soap challenge

10:44: firework painting with toilet paper roll

11:05: visit the concession stand again

11:20: streamer ball of prizes

11:35: glow ring toss game

We end the night with a balloon drop we hang from the ceiling and a toast at midnight. 

Here are links to our past New Year's Eve parties: 

http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2017/12/2017-new-years-eve-balloon-countdown.html

http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2016/12/2016-new-years-eve-balloon-countdown.html

http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2015/12/new-years-eve-balloon-countdown-for-kids.html

http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-new-years-eve-balloon-activity.html

http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2013/12/new-years-eve-balloon-countdown-for-kids.html

Christmas Vacation Photo Board and Movie Night

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation has been a classic Christmas movie experience for my family since it came out in 1989. While this photo board is more for the adults, the kids got a kick out of the snacks we made for the movie night. 

The famous station wagon photo board was a little more for the kids. 

We made Aunt Bethany's Jell-o mold (I put Cheerios under the Jell-o), puppy chow ("Ol'Roy dog food), egg nog (vanilla milkshakes), and I had a tray with different types of jelly and bread sitting out too for the "Jelly of the Month Club".