Homemade Heart Shaped Pizza

This Valentine's Day I had totally forgotten to pick up a Papa Murphy's Heart Shaped Pizza for the kids and since I do daycare out of my home I wasn't able to just pack up and go get one....so I did the next  best thing-created one at home and luckily I had the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury Pizza Crust

3/4 Ketchup

1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning

1 lb Meat-pork, ham, pepperoni

Toppings-chopped: onions, green peppers, mushrooms, olives

1 cup Cheese-shredded

Directions:

1. Roll out the pizza crust and place it onto a greased cookie sheet and shape into a heart shape or whatever the holiday theme may be

2. If you selected to use a meat that needs to be pre-cooked fry on medium heat until cooked. I chose to use italian sausage-1lb of Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage in the regular flavor, you can find it in the breakfast meat department.

3. Combine ketchup with Italian seasoning and place on pizza crust

4. Add on meat toppings along with other chopped toppings you would like

5. Top with shredded Cheese

6. Bake according to pizza crust directions approximately 10mins at 400 degrees or until crust is golden and cheese is melted

Suggestions:

You could make this really simple or add lots of extra topping such as other meats, olives, onions, green peppers to your liking.

Serve with breadsticks

Shape the crust to whichever theme or holiday you are celebrating-clover leaf, candy cane

Get creative, let the kids help and enjoy this easy and fun pizza recipe!

We also enjoyed a yummy dessert-the Famous Popcorn Cake-of course for Valentine's Day we colored the popcorn marshmellow mixture pink and shaped them into hearts

Click  HERE to get the full popcorn cake recipe

For our craft of the day we made Valentine Friends 

you only need construction paper, crayons and glue 

this one was an actual set that i had purchased with my daycare preschool program from

Kids 'N' Fun Crafts-but you could create it with just simply cutting out a heart, 1 hat,  2 hands, 2 feet and four strips of paper for the legs and arms-folded in accordian style.
I had the kids color the parts first before we assembled them together

To learn more about the Kids 'N' Fun Crafts program Click HERE

They offer affordable easy fun that does NOT require a ton of planning-my way to have FUN!

Hope your Valentine's Day was a SWEET one!

 

Creative Mee Mee

So my mom has always wondered what she is good at.....hmmm where do I start?!

For one she is an awesome cook, if anyone has ever eaten her food-it's almost always good-I can only think of one situation where I know I didn't like her cooking and I'm pretty sure she would agree on this one-her  Squab dinner!-for those of you wondering squab is young pigeon-her dish looked almost as good as it smelled-phenomenal...however the taste was not as great, I think my husband who grew up on wild game was the only one who ate more than one bite-all of us agreed she probably didn't need to make that dish again!

That said, I cannot even begin to tell you all the dishes that we request everytime she comes to visit or we make a trip back home. Her knoephla soup is out of this world, dumplings to die for, fried chicken (& feet) yep the feet too and rice, homemade vegetable soup-tastes the best when your out camping-yep soup and camping sounds a bit outrageous but amazing how many people gather once they smell vegetable soup cooking!

ok, so cooking is just one thing she is great at-she has been knitting for awhile, mainly has focused on baby blankets for each of her grandchildren-6 in 6 years has kept her pretty busy! (not to mention a special granddog-Abby-for which she has sewn a dog bed for) -she has dabbled in hats and scarves for the grandkids as well. I must remind you she still works full-time. However as soon as she is ready to retire-I know that my sister and I could employ her full-time in making all sorts of stuff.

Ahlera's deep purple knitted blanky

She is constantly finding new project ideas for the grandkids to create, their latest was making painted butterfly creatures out of coffee filters.

Her most recent creation is by far my FAVORITE-she has been collecting parts and pieces for well over 2 years and she finally had enough to create her grandkid/dog masterpiece

SCRABBLE PHOTO ART



Mee Mee's grandkids/dog



She spelled out each of her grandkids' names and glued each letter down, in order to be able to change out pictures she used double sided photo tape for a less permanent application-as her grandkids/dog grow she can swap out for a more recent picture

She has this piece resting on a shelf in her computer room so she can enjoy it often, you could also put it under a piece of glass on top of a side table for quite the conversation starter or even mount it to the wall as a focal piece.

Mee Mee you are very special to us in soooo many ways and we cannot wait to see what you will be creating next!

Someday?!

Today I received this email forward from my mom, really are words to live by for Everyday Living  and then tonight I learned of another family being torn apart of a devastating cancer diagnosis-Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer -no one is ever prepared for a diagnosis like that and makes these words even more powerful and truly enhances the importance of what this simple email foward really means.

Live well, laugh often and love with all your heart   A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper-wrapped package: 'This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package.' He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box. 'She got this the first time we went to New York , 8 or 9 years ago. She has never put it on , was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is it. He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he was taking to the funeral house, his wife had just died. He turned to me and said: 'Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion'. I still think those words changed my life. Now I read more and clean less. I sit on the porch without worrying about anything. I spend more time with my family, and less at work. I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through. I use crystal glasses every day... I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it.. I don't save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it whenever I want to. T he words 'Someday....' and ' One Day...' are fading away from my dictionary. ; If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now.... I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell.. I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends. She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favorite food. It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come.. Each day, each hour, each minute, is special. Live for today, for tomorrow is promised to no-one.. If you got this, it's because someone cares for you and because, probably, there's someone you care about. If you're too busy to send this out to other people and you say to yourself that you will send it 'One of these days' , remember that 'One day' is far away... or might never come..... No matter if you're superstitious or not, spend some time reading it. It holds useful messages for the soul.

Fight the Frost-Family Fun!



Games Galore "Fight the Frost"

Tired of being inside all the time? Not wanting to go outside because it's too cold? But you need to get your kids out of the house. Fight the Frost is an indoor event for families and young adults to come out and play on the 35+ inflatable games that Games Galore will have set up for the entire weekend of February 17-19. Laser tag also set up. Concessions will be open and parking will be free!

More info coming soon!

TICKETS GO ON SALE:

TBA

TICKET INFORMATION:

6 & Older -$10,
5 & Under - $6Groups of 10+ $9.00 per ticket

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Friday 3p-9p
Saturday 9a-9p
Sunday 12p-6p
Free Parking

Sounds like a fun indoor family event-now I just need to get my kids in bubbles first and soak them in hand sanitizer-ha!....guess that which doesn't kill them only makes them or their immune systems stronger!

please post your outdoor winter ideas in the comments section to keep us all with kids sane now that winter has finally arrived-thanks in advance :)

Addisyn's Wigs for Kids Challenge

I am the mother to 3 beautiful healthy girls and so proud of each and every one of them. Addisyn, my oldest daughter who turns 5 this month shared something with me almost 2 years ago. When i asked her if she wanted to get a hair cut around the age of 3 she told me no that she wanted to grow it out and give it to a girl who doens't have any hair. I asked her where she had heard that from and she didn't really give me an answer. She was already in pre-k so I thought maybe it was something they had talked about or learned in class. I have brought it to her attention several times and the same answer remains-I don't want to cut my hair, I wanna grow it out and give it to a girl who doesn't have any. So we have been growing it out, getting trims in between to keep her locks healthy.

Addisyn with her hairdresser Autum

I'll never forgot the first time we had the "hair conversation" I instantly had tears in my eyes and was so proud of my Addisyn and how she wanted to do something for others-and not just something but a huge dedication on her part of growing her hair out to at least 12" and someday cutting it off to donate to a child who doesn't have any.

I was then left to figure out where and how to go about donating her hair. I did some research and based on Addisyn's strong desire to have her hair go to a child, we choose the organization  Wigs for Kids . They are a non-profit organization that was founded in 1981 and relies soley on donations. Wigs for kids helps children up to age 18 who have hair loss due to a health condition, medical treatment or burn accident. Wigs for Kids creates hand tied custom hair replacements made completely form human hair that range in costs from $1500-$3000. It takes 20-30 ponytails to make one hair piece. Each piece is made to look just like the child's own hair. These pieces are then given to children who otherwise would not be able to afford a hair replacement system.

Wigs for Kid's mission is to help kids feel good about themselves and not have to worry about their appearance while dealing with a tragic event.

Addisyn has decided that not only does she want give a child her hair but also do a fundraiser to possibly help fund the cost of one hair piece. We are currently collecting donations until the time comes to cut Addisyn's hair. She just had a trim last night and her hairdresser Autum at Season's of Style said she is at 9" of where we would cut the hair, so we still have a good 3-4" to go. Addisyn needs a minimum of 12" for the donation.

Addisyn all dolled up after her trim 1/31/12

 

If you feel you would like to help Addisyn fullfill this request she has made, please mail donations to:

Addisyn Dietrich

1634 28 1/2 Avenue S

Fargo, ND  58103

and if you would like to learn more about Wigs for Kids please visit their website at

http://www.wigsforkids.org/

Addisyn with her first donation check
thanks aunti Marian

Addisyn with her 2nd donation check
thanks Aunti Jo!

We will continue with updates on Addisyn's progress so be sure to check back!