day 225: first day survival kits

the finished articles......and maybe a few m&ms missing

day 225 and the school room is still going through its makeover thanks to some time away holidaying.  it needs to be finished during next week as we start school in two weeks time! yikes, i can't believe how fast this summer is going and i feel very lucky to have done so much and spent most of it with family and friends.

this year the peeps are moving into uncharted territory, especially for ben who is going to have a huge year of home learning.  he is ten but will be starting year 9 english, maths, and science.  its going to be a big step up for a boy who loves learning and his mama who realised this week just how big a jump up from primary learning this is going to be ... it's exciting but heart stopping at the same time~!

i was looking through my home school projects board for resources to compliment the curriculum i am putting together and found this first day of school survival kit from bee in our bonnet.  i thought this was a great idea for the peeps only to discover when i went to  bee in our bonnet for further investigation it was supposed to be for teachers!  not easily put off and wanting to set the year off on the right foot i decided to make the peeps first day of school survival kits :)  the items all went into an embroidery box for each peep and the bits and pieces that made up the kits were colour coded according to their favourite colours (yellow and green for ben, red and pink for pollyanna).

yellow peanut m&ms.....yumm

red peanut m&ms.....yumm

for the peeps first day of school survival kits i went with the following:

• m&m's
• erasers
• pencils
• staplers
• yellow pins (for the places they want to visit)
• fruit sticks
• sharpners
• pegs
• glue sticks

i then used my new favourite publishing tool (my memories software) to make the kit toppers ... :)

outcome:   this little kit will hopefully ensure the peeps (and teachers if you are gifting this) know that you are right behind them for having a successful, fun filled year ... that's what i hope the little bit of effort says anyway!  these were really fun to put together, not sure if that's because i love shopping for stationery or whether it's because i know my peeps will laugh when they open up their little boxes and say "did you get these off pinterest mum?"  yes, that is almost an automatic question from my peeps nowadays if i try to make something new ... and you know what, more often than not it is!

my sincere thanks to bee in our bonnet for this great idea.  whether for peeps or teachers everybody deserves to start the first day of school excited and enthused about the year of learning ahead.

days 223 and 224 and we are safely home

the peanut butter and banana smoothie

days 223 and 224 coming at you tonight from home ... we are safely home after a three day adventure to a beautiful spot just north of auckland.  it was glorious, the peeps were great (most of the time), the company of a dear friend is always the best, and the weather even came to play!

day 223 saw me making cupcakes with a box of vanilla cupcake mix and lemonade.  the recipe is pinned to my recipe must do's board and comes from cookies and cups. shelly used a fruity soda can and a funfetti cupcake mix but i went with vanilla and lemon. so i am guessing you could use any flavour cupcake mix and any flavour of soda! as i was away on holiday, i wanted a lazy easy icing so i purchased betty crockers vanilla icing to add to the top of these little beauties.

what i used

look how frothy the mix goes as soon as you add the soda!

fill the cases to 2/3's full

baked and ready to ice

iced and ready to eat!

outcome: who knew you didn't need eggs and butter to make beautiful cupcakes.  they were so delicious and just as beautiful and moist today as they were yesterday ... so perfect if you have a party and want to make cupcakes a day ahead of time.  my usual cupcake recipe is normally only good for the day they are made so i am stoked these remain just as yummy the day after.  i am making these for a gift on sunday, that's how good they are!

my thanks to shelly at cookies and cups for this outstanding cooking secret ... ignore the cake mix packets just add soda for the best, moist baking ever!

day 224 and i was very tired when i got home this afternoon.  after eating lots and lots of unhealthy food for the last 3 days i wanted something nice and simple to eat to fill me up.  i found this yummy looking smoothie that also looked nice and nutritious as well.  this recipe is from the chiquita banana's website and is pinned to my weight watchers recipes happy days board on pinterest.  cool website and if your peeps love banana's as much as mine do, this site is definitely worth a look for all sorts of neat recipes.

what you need for the peanut butter smoothie

blend all the ingredients together and serve .. easy!

the finished smoothie ... so yummy and totally filling :)

outcome:  i have never had peanut butter and banana's together before and it was surprisingly good.  not a combo i would have naturally put together but it was actually really nice and boy was it filling.  this is definitely something i will add to the after school snack list as it's pretty darn nutritious, yummy, totally kid friendly, and nice and easy to make ...  plus for a growing tween boy, it's much more likely to FILL him up than a lot of other snacks!

my thanks to chiquita banana's for this recipe that i will use again and again with the peeps for after school (whilst  filling my glass!) ... love recipes that are filling, healthy, and liked by the peeps ... happy days, happy days ;)

day 222: and p365 hits the road again!

the places you've been

day 222 and the peeps and i are off with a couple of dear friends to have some midweek fun while my sweet husband heads to work.  we are going somewhere i have never been before, the tawharanui peninsula [map]  it's supposed to be a beautiful part of new zealand and i am excited to explore it with one of my dearest friends, lana.  we are also taking one of polly's sweetest friends, hayley.

the five of us are heading up their to stay until thursday and i am reliably informed there is NO cell coverage in the area .... so there will be no blogging, BUT there will be creating! amazingly i could fly to singapore and still be able to blog each day, but if i head an hour and a half north for relaxation i can't :)  one day the entire country will have cell coverage and i will be able to blog till my hearts content no matter where i am in this fine country!

anyway (!) all this travelling got me to thinking about the peeps and knowing where they are going and where they have been ... a while ago i pinned a great idea that cements the above.  essentially you put a big map on the wall and the peeps add push pins to the places they have travelled.  this idea is not new and i pinned it from jesse papirio and i loved how she pinned the places she had been in blue and the places she wanted to go in yellow.

i purchased a big map of new zealand and a map of the world and put them up in the classroom.  the peeps put pins in all the places they had been in blue and then as we study and they find out about new places they can add the yellow pins for the places they want to go in the future.

ben pinning taupo on the new zealand map

the world map

pollyanna pinning singapore

outcome:  it's one of those simple ideas that is completely underrated.  already it has shown rewards for my youngest peep who has a greater appreciation for scale and distance and for just how big the world is and how many places she can go!  what an easy idea for the classroom walls and it is already paying educational dividends :) LOVE pinterest creating!

my thanks to jesse papirio for acting on this idea and then pinning the results to pinterest, it inspired me to get busy and do my own.

day 221: weight watchers egg salad

egg salad in tomato and pepper nests :)

day 211 and i am looking to start the year with some slimmer recipes to continue slimming down ... christmas is over and the holidays are fast coming to an end so it looks like it might be time to get back on the weight reducing horse!

i figured this egg salad would be the perfect way to ease back into healthy food ... looks delicious and nothing like rabbit food ... teehee!  the egg salad is from the yummy life website and is pinned to my weight watchers recipes happy days board on pinterest.

i started off with every intention of following this recipe as per the instructions.  unfortunately i had a male look in the fridge and thought i saw plain yoghurt ... it was actually vanilla bean :(  don't get me wrong, i LOVE vanilla bean yoghurt just not in an egg salad.  i had already boiled and peeled the eggs when i went to retrieve the not so plain yoghurt, so thought i would wing it instead.  enter curry powder and hummus!  i added 1/2 a teaspoon of curry powder to the eggs and three heaped tablespoons of hummus as well.  i also added the salt, pepper, and one tablespoon of mayo that was in the original recipe.

and this is when i discovered the yoghurt wasn't as plain as i had though

the two saving ingredients!

the finished egg salad with it's two extra ingredients!

the recipe then suggests serving it in a variety of ways, i went with the tomato basket option for three of my family members.  and for the other two peeps (who are less keen on tomato) i made pepper baskets to serve their egg salad.

the nests for the salad

the finished, filled nests

it went really well with the rest of our dinner :)

outcome:  this was delicious!  really, who knew hummus would make an egg salad so yummy!  we all loved our little egg nests, and while the outcome wasn't quite what i had planned at the start of the day, it did not disappoint, and i even felt a little proud of my concoction!

my thanks to the yummy life, i apologise whole heartedly for butchering your very delicious looking recipe and while mine was a triumph i am very keen to give the original recipe a go in the near future.

day 220: peanut butter m&m cookies and a wrap of pinterest creations on the raod in taupo

the family bach, is always such a relaxing place for a getaway !

day 220 was yesterday while we were in taupo, which is halfway between wellington and auckland on the north island of new zealand (here is a map if you want to see where in the world i have been this past weekend!)  .... so what did we get up to?  

this adorable girl and her very sweet poppy did some of this

we three did some time in here ... teaching my littlest sister how to make  this cake so she can wow her new flatmates

 

we did a fair amount of eating

we didn't do any of this as the weather continues to be terrible

we did a fair proportion of this because the weather was foul ...  

 

he did a lot of this when the weather allowed for it

we mostly did this

some of us tried to do this, some better than others

these two did a lot of this which meant we were really well fed

and finally i did some of this to keep p365 going :)

yesterdays creation was another recipe ... peanut butter m&m cookies ... they were REALLY good, not too peanut buttery but the combination between the sweet and salty tastes was an absolute winner :)  the recipe was made according to the instructions from the curvy carrot (such a cute name for a website) and it is also pinned to my recipe must do's board.  the adorable family i spent the weekend with kept eating the m&m's so the only change i made was to top up the m&m count with some chocolate drops leftover from the banana s'mores.

speaking of which, the s'mores i made for pinterest on saturday were a big hit for dessert.  we were all agreed they won't have been half as successful without the crunchy cereal on top, so when you make them don't do it without adding the crunch factor!  the recipe is on my summer loving board and is from quick dish by tablespoon .. another cool name for a website :)  we had our banana s'mores with ice cream as well, YUMMO.  the recipe was SO easy and while the men (my sweet dad and husband) did overcook them on the bbq slightly (the marshmallows disappeared totally from sight, but their lovely sweetness stuck around thankfully!) they were mighty fine and definitely something i would happily make again.  they would be perfect for school camps and such things as the peeps could easily make them for an easy sweet treat.

what you need for banana s'mores

filled and ready to be wrapped

i chose to make these while drinking brancott estate rose, that's optional but totally adds to the experience ;)

this lovely man was in charge ....

with this lovely man of the s'mores grilling

the end result ... the crunchy cereal totally makes these divine :)

ok, back later today with day 221's creation :)  but in the meantime my gratitude goes to the curvy carrot and quick dish for fantastic recipes that fed the crew with such delicious food while we were relaxing in taupo ... made taking p365 on the road a joy!

day 219: banana s'mores

Day 219 and we made the most delicious banana s'mores tonight for dessert but the wifi coverage is so poor I can't post with photo's! We return late tomorrow, so I will post when I have a chance :)

day 218: p365 creations take to the road so pinterest came through with some car games!

we are ready to hit the road!

day 218 and we are off to hatepe (just south of taupo) today to stay with family for the weekend, so pinterest creations 365 will also hit the road and be done while we are down there :)  unfortunately the ability to post from there might be a little hard as the cell coverage is terrible!  we shall see, my banana s'mores and peanut butter m&m cookies for making saturday and sunday may have to be posted when we return on sunday ....  on the plus side at least i have printed the recipes so i can continue with my making and baking while we are away!

as we are taking to the raod, the peeps need some entertainment for the 4 hour car ride so the trusty travel packs i made on day 54 for air travel will also be used to store all their goodies in for car travel!  REALLY love these travel packs i made as they have proved so useful over and over again for travel and storing everything in one tidy place.

 i wanted some new printables to put in their packs so for today's creation i searched pinterest for travel games and found these awesome car games from the whimsical fig.  they are pinned to my whimsy board on pinterest.  such a gorgeous blog and the games are ideal for the car.  i printed them out at A5 size so they fitted perfectly into the packs ....

the new printables

travel packs with their new printables

outcome:  peeps are super excited to see new printables (the old ones also from a pinterest search have been well used!) in their packs and as for whether they entertain, we shall have to see after the 4 hour car ride ... wish me luck!

my sincere thanks to the whimsical fig for providing some very cool printables for car travel.  love that they are the old fashioned games that never go out of favour!