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Growing up, my mom decorated for every holiday.  From the wall decor to the mantle, the plates to the placemats–everything was swapped out for the next holiday.

My love language is food, so finding ways to treat my loved ones is how I celebrate holidays like St. Patrick’s Day.  These festive OREO Pops are covered in chocolate and topped with themed sprinkles.  Because you can make an entire package of cookies at once, they’re perfect for a class party or any celebration.

St. Patrick’s Day OREO Pops

These St. Patrick’s Day OREO Pops are actually so simple to put together.  OREO Cookies, candy melts, and assorted theme sprinkles are all it takes!

I saw all of the sprinkles for St. Patrick’s Day end-capped at my Michael’s Store when roaming.  These are the sprinkles used in the pops:

Gold sugar sprinkles

Gold coin sprinkles (Available at Michaels)

Shamrock sprinkles (Available at Michaels)

Did you know you can use the Michael’s app to score great coupons?  Make sure to screenshot the coupon in advance so you aren’t fumbling with the app trying to access it in the checkout line.

If you happen to be shopping online, I adore this festive St. Patrick’s Day sprinkle collection.

The pops are perfect for sharing with your children, but also so pretty that you can serve them alongside a glass of Guinness for grown-ups too.

Looking for more St. Patrick’s Day recipes?

The Cutest Leprechaun Cookies

Nutter Butters are covered in two different colors of chocolate to make the sweetest little leprechauns.  Get the rest of the details in the post.

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Each holiday is marked by the treats coming through our kitchen. With Valentine’s Day behind us, I’m ready to channel my inner Irish and get ready for St. Patrick’s Day.   My girls and I love baking adorable treats.  But we also love quick and easy holiday hacks.

These super cute Leprechaun cookies are perfect for making with kids!  The cookies are store-bought, so your job is solely to transform them into a happy leprechaun.  They’re made with candy melts and a few commercially available supplies.

Decorating can be done using squeeze bottles, which are a great thing to have on hand for bakers.  But if you’re looking to save (money or kitchen space), a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off totally works.

The cookies are great for sharing with the people who make you feel lucky.  If your child’s class or friend group doesn’t have allergy concerns, they also make an adorable snack for a classroom party.

The Cutest Leprechaun Cookies Recipe

To make the leprechauns, you’ll be dipping Nutter Butter cookies in melted candy.  Green makes up the hat with a thin black brim.  To give a little extra luck of the Irish, a shamrock sprinkle tops his hat.  My sprinkles were end capped at my local Michael’s store, but a similar sprinkle is available on Amazon.

The orange beard takes an ounce more precision, but is appropriate for beginning bakers.  The edible candy eyeballs can be set into hardening candy.  The little faces each have their own personalities when the eyes aren’t perfectly placed!

Looking for More St. Patrick’s Day Baking Supplies?

Perfect Soundtrack for

St. Patrick’s Day Baking

Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies 

Dropkick Murphys

The Chieftains

U2

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My husband and I got married just two days before Valentine’s Day.  The timing wasn’t exactly deliberate, but a convenient time for our schedules and the family we had traveling from out of town.  It’s made the whole week surrounding Valentine’s Day a fun celebration!

Knowing that our wedding was falling when others would typically be out celebrating with their own valentines, we added as many personal elements as we could.  We created a playlist of our guests’ love songs, used their lyrics as part of the decor, and honored their relationships’ longevity through an anniversary dance.

With another anniversary and Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, I’m on the hunt for festive ways to celebrate.

This easy recipe for red velvet cookies starts with cake mix.  It’s an easy hack to make your baked goods come together in a snap.  They’re rolled in sugar to make them sparkle and topped with creamy white chocolate chips.  Another fun way to mix up your baking is to reserve your chocolate chips.  Don’t mix them in the batter but instead top your cookies with them mid-way through your baking.

Get the easy Red Velvet Valentine’s Day Cookie recipe to share with the people you love!

Red Velvet Valentine’s Day Cookies Recipe

Celebrating holidays with a sweet treat is one of my favorite ways to share my love with my family!

Disneyland Date Night Ideas

Promoting love has always been part of our celebration as a couple.  Another of our favorite traditions is visiting the Napa Rose at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.  With farm to table flavors, an incredible wine list, and upscale California atmosphere, it’s our favorite place to celebrate special occasions like anniversaries.

Check out even more Disneyland Date Night Ideas here. 

Now that we have three little valentines of our own, finding fun Valentine’s Day activities and recipes makes for even more fun.  Our daughters are great bakers love helping in the kitchen.  If you’ve got bakers at home, this recipe is a fun one to make with kids.  Otherwise, share it with your love this Valentine’s Day!

Red Velvet isn’t just for Valentine’s Day!

Try this recipe for a Minnie Mouse party

or any day that needs a little extra sweetness.

Do you have any special Valentine’s Day traditions?  Share them in the comments!

We received a complimentary meal to facilitate this review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The new year is upon us, and like so many we are trying to make some changes to our eating habits.  In my family of five, we have two meat-eaters and three vegetarians.  You’d think that having vegetarian kids might mean that they willingly eat healthy.  Vegetables are a struggle, and the list of foods that make the kid-approved list is terribly narrow.  Add in that the kids all inherited my sweet tooth, and there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Souplantation Winter Delite Menu

So part of our 2019 plan is focusing on presenting better options, both in nutritional value and also just varied offerings.   When we were invited to visit our local Souplantation to sample the Winter Delights menu, I jumped at the chance.

My kids love Souplantation, and visiting as we dived down the path towards better choices was so perfect.

Souplanation is a salad bar and buffet, filled with farm-fresh, made-from-scratch recipes, that’s perfect for families.  Matt and I made ourselves custom salads; the kids skipped traditional salads and instead filled their plates with assorted foods like broccoli florets, raisins, and rotini rainbow pasta.

Being able to select their own food, mainly the quantity on their plate, makes my picky eaters a little more brazen in their choices. Plus, Souplantation offers vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-friendly foods to suit our diverse dietary restrictions.

My kids tried some new foods and cheered that there were also some of their favorites available, too.  Hello, pizza, garlic bread, and mac and cheese.  My kids adore you.  Want to know what’s best about those traditional kid favs? The sizes!

As we try to do better, reminding the kids that having their favorites is okay.  Have the pizza, but make it a small slice.  Eat the muffins, but make them mini muffins.

Sweet Orange & Cranberry Muffin Recipe

We filled up without feeling bogged down at Souplantation thanks filling up our salad plates and sampling other yummy foods.  To keep the good food vibes we were enjoying going, I decided to make a Souplantation seasonal recipe at home.  These Sweet Orange & Cranberry muffins are a sweet way to celebrate the freshest flavors.  I opted to make mini muffins, just like at Souplantation.

Trying new flavors in sizes that make sense is part of the reason we adore Souplantation.  Nibbling on our yummy Sweet Orange & Cranberry Muffins at home  makes me so excited to go back to try more from the seasonal menu!

Save the recipe for later

Ready to sample the fresh flavors of Souplantation with your family?  Find your nearest location here. 

This post may contain affiliate links.  Please see my Disclosure Policy for more information.

We basically started watching Christmas movies when the kids were still wearing their Halloween costumes.  Thankfully the explosion of popularity in cheesy Christmas movies kept us entertained most of November.  When December hits, it’s time to pull out the classics and other family favorites.

Elf is hands-down my favorite Christmas movie.   Will Ferrell is genius as the adopted elf growing up in the North Pole who goes on a journey to find his birth father, who just so happens to be on Santa’s naughty list.  It’s filled with holiday spirit and so many quotable moments.

Best Elf Quotes

• Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?
• You sit on a throne of lies.
• SON OF A NUTCRACKER!
• You smell like beef and cheese.
• Deb, you have such a pretty face.  You should be on a Christmas card.
• I like to whisper too.
• I’m in a store, and I’m singing!
• I’m a cotton-headed ninny-muggins.

Buddy’s got a thing for sweets, and when asked what he loves to eat for breakfast he shares another classic quote: We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.

Inspired by Buddy the Elf’s favorite breakfast meal, these cupcakes are the perfect treat to share for an Elf movie night.

Buddy the Elf Inspired Cupcakes

With the busy holiday season, it can be a huge time savings to use a cake mix as the base for your cupcakes.  These are made with French Vanilla cake mix, and then topped with some of Buddy the Elf’s favorite breakfast foods: “spaghetti”, M&M’s, sprinkles, and marshmallows.

It’s not advised that you actually eat these for breakfast, but who am I to judge?

Any Elf fan will adore these sugar-filled treats.  We think they’re prefect for a family movie night or holiday Christmas party!

Looking for more Elf party ideas?

Want to make an Elf-themed movie night even more fun?

Try these Elf-inspired activities

• Make paper snowflakes to transform every room into a winter wonderland.
• Spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear.
• Dodge taxis.  Watch out for the yellow ones; they don’t stop.
• Read holiday stories.
• Play telephone since everyone likes to whisper!
• Throw snowballs.  If you live in a warm climate, like I do, you can use cotton balls and throw them in buckets.

I adore Elf and all its holiday cheer.  Do you have a favorite Christmas movie?  Share it in the comments!

All thoughts and opinions are my own.

There are certain recipes I need each year to make it feel like the holidays.  The most delicious fudge that takes hours of stirring; my aunt Betsy’s mint chocolate brownies with their layers of chocolate, mint, and perhaps heaven.  Each year I know that I need the traditional favorites, but I also love to add in new treats to the mix.

These Holiday Thumbprint Cookies are going to be your new favorite cookie!

You may have had the peanut butter blossom cookies before.  The yummy peanut butter cookie is rolled in sugar.  Once baked, a Hershey Kiss is added to the top.  The peanut butter/chocolate combo is to die for.  Let’s mix it up this holiday season by combining these traditional blossom cookies with some hints of red velvet goodness.

One of the things I love most about these cookies is that there’s something for everyone.  My peanut butter lovers are happy; my chocolate lovers are happy.  Plus, having a job for each of my three daughters is a huge win too.  You would be surprised that they are all actively looking for jobs, but when it comes to baking they all want to get their hands dirty (literally and figuratively).

Unwrapping the Hershey Kisses is  great job for my preschooler.  She also is very good at “poison testing” to make sure the kisses are suitable.  The peppermint bark flavor is like a chocolatey cane cane.  The red and white striping of the kisses is perfectly matched to the red cookies and white sprinkles.  If you can’t find them in your local store, feel free to swap in any flavor of kiss that you adore. 

Cookie Exchange Recipes

Looking for more recipes to bring to a cookie exchange this holiday season?  Remember that it doesn’t have to be a cookie.  Any sweet treats are popular for swapping with friends and family.

Cotton Candy Fudge

Looking for a way to treat your little ballet dancer?  Make Sugar Plum Fairy-inspired fudge that’s filled with cotton candy flavored sweetness.

Maple Butterbeer Cookies

Accio cookie!  These maple butterbeer flavored cookies are downright magical!

The holidays are here, and it’s time to start baking.  What treats will you be making this holiday season? 

This post may contain affiliate links.  Please read my Disclosure Policy for more information.

Did I only children so I could share my love of all things Harry Potter with others? No, but it is such an amazing part of being a mom!  I tell my girls about waiting at midnight for books to be released and then calling in sick the next day because I had to stay home and read.  Thankfully, my girls have all fallen in love with the series so now it’s a full family affair.

For her birthday last year, we headed to Universal Studios Hollywood so that she could experience all of the magic of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  It totally lived up to the hype for us!  Every detail is so perfect.  And, they had butterbeer ice cream!

 

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A post shared by Melanie Walsh (@clementinecounty) on Jul 5, 2018 at 2:12pm PDT

It was so dreamy, especially on a hot SoCal day.  If you’re looking for more SoCal family fun, make sure to follow me on Instagram.

Maple Butterscotch Cookies

With completion of each book for my 9-year-old muggle, we try to make something special.  Like being a Potterhead is a secret club and after each book she’s further indoctrinated.  These Maple Butterbeer Cookies are a sweet way to celebrate any occasion.

Play a great game of Quidditch? Have a cookie!

Found your lost invisibility cloak? Have a cookie!

Harry Potter fans know that butterbeer is the beverage of choice for many-a wizard.  We have made a DIY version of the beverage using cream soda and vanilla ice cream, with butterscotch mixed in for good measure.  These cookies are a serious upgrade to that flavor with a few butter-rific flavors mixed in.

If you have used vanilla extract in your baking, the two extracts for this recipe are similar.  You’ll use butterscotch extract (similar to this) and butter extract (similar to this).  With maple syrup mixed into the batter and drizzled on top, it’s a seriously yummy way to transport your taste buds to Hogsmeade.

If you’re more subtle in your love for HP, these cookies would also make a great fall-themed treat.  Now all you have to do is say, “Accio Cookie!” and follow the recipe below.