Nibble Tray for the Twins

Gerber Puffs, Teddy Grahams, Yogurt Melts, Banana Cookies, Peas and Cheez-its.

I got crafty

I was inspired by a blog that I can't seem to locate now... where they crafted this same gift for their child's teacher. I remember the child was in kindergarten... but I can't for the life of me find the blog now to give them proper credit!

Anyway, with the end of the school year just a couple days away, I figured I better get on it. I made Lili's teacher (and the TA) a survival kit. It was simple and quick- I used the bead boxes from Michael's ($2.99) and filled them with assorted supplies and necessities:



The cute shaped paperclips, page clampy things and magnets also came from Michael's- they were in the dollar bins. I bought the chocolate (milk chocolate Dove Promises, yum), mints, erasers, Tylenol (doesn't every elementary school teacher need a supply of Tylenol?) and hand sanitizer at Walmart. Oh and the post-its, which really didn't fit until I broke the bricks in half LOL

I also bought a 12 pack of cute pencils, but they didn't fit in the boxes.



On the lid, I attached a thick piece of scrapbook paper trimmed to size. I used these sheets of double sided sticky stuff- and man, that stuff was STICKY. Lili and I choose papers with the lines, since it was more school-ish. We bought coordinating alphabet stickers and spelled out her teacher's names. You should have heard her- "Capital M little R-S-dot-space big A little L-T-M-A-N"



I tied them shut with a piece of yarn, and used that to secure the pencils to the outside since they wouldn't fit in any of the compartments. We added a gift tag (the back has the To: and From: stuff) and we're good to go! (I meant to put the bird on the other box but wrote the wrong name on the tag :X) Aren't the cute?



So, what do you think? What did you give or are you planning on giving for teacher gifts?

Cream Cheese Frosting

I decided to make cupcakes to bring to the barbecue yesterday- and thought I'd use some food coloring and make them red, white and blue. But because I made a butter cake and not a white cake, the white was kind of yellow. And because I didn't put a ton of food coloring in, the red was more pink and the blue was more turquoise.

I baked a dozen cupcakes, and with the rest of the batter, I made a half cake. Despite the color being off, it all tasted great. I think the best part was the icing. Want my secret recipe?

Cream Cheese Frosting

(What is the difference between frosting and icing anyway? I always use the terms interchangeably.)

1- 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
½ stick butter, softened
1- 1lb box powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract

Mix it all up and you'll be in heaven. Dip strawberries directly into it. Frost your cupcakes, cakes, muffins and pumpkin bread with it. You won't regret it. And you'll never go back to the canned stuff.