Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies

So, I was craving chocolate cheesecake. Mostly Olive Garden’s chocolate cheesecake but I wasn’t picky. I was however broke and lazy. But not too lazy to come up with an easy cookie version to satisfy my craving. These are what I came up with. But I have to warn you, you want to eat these cookies warm because they slowly lose their awesome as they cool and turn into regular chocolate cookies. I tried adding more cream cheese, but then they got goopier, and I had to just keep adding more flour…    Just eat ’em warm.

Ingredients:

1 Stick (8 tablespoons) Butter, softened

1/2 Carton (4 oz) Cream Cheese, softened

1 Egg

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder or 2 oz melted Cocoa Squares

1 & 1/3 cups flour

1 Cup Chocolate Chips

1 Cup White Chocolate Chips

Cream butter, cream cheese, egg, and sugar together.

Add baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate.

Add flour.

Add chocolate and white chocolate chips.

Scoop cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Do Not Over Cook!

Should make 30 cookies.

If you have more than 30 cookies you will want to decrease the cook time. I cannot stress enough how un-cheesecakey these things are the drier they get!

Enjoy!

Please follow me if you liked this post! And share the awesome with your friends!

❤ Sunny

Crayon Containers

This is another simple upcycle. I just get really excited when I find a container that fits something perfectly. and this is one of those times. 🙂

So I needed a better way to keep crayons together for my kids’ Road Trip Kits (I will post those soon!) because the original boxes just weren’t cutting it. Then I found these:

I swear these Talenti containers were made to hold crayons! Check this out!

A whole 64 pack fits comfortably in one container! I don’t know why, but my kids are so much better at putting the crayons back away in these than in the original box. So now instead of cleaning up this:

not only on the floor but melted in the car, I can put away this:

And my life is just a little bit easier. Plus, you know, I get ice cream.

You can personalize a paper sleeve to glue around the container if you like, but we like seeing the crayons through the clear plastic, and writing their names on top in a light colored crayon worked just fine.

I know this is not much of a “how-to” post. But that is okay, because I am making up for it with my next post: Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies!

See you at the next post,

❤ Sunny

StoryBots

My little guy was turning two and I wanted to get him something he would really love. He LOVES StoryBots! (Actually our whole family loves the StoryBots.) He really wanted a lovey to hold at night but there are no StoryBot toys. So I had to get creative! I had plenty of scrap felt on hand with a generous amount of left over red so I made him a Boop pillow to hug and smaller bots to play with for fun. The people in charge of StoryBots said they are working on getting some toys out soon but don’t have any yet. So until they do you can use the patterns I made to make some StoryBots of your own!

Storybots Patterns 

 Storybots Pattern_Boop

Now a couple of notes before you start. I highly recommend using felt or fleece for the bodies and hands & feet and yarn for the arms & legs. Speaking of arms and legs:

You will want to tie a knot in the side of the yarn that will be sewn into the body of your bot. Otherwise when your dear one pulls on their arms (and they will!) the arm will come right out.

Also, if you plan on putting the arms of Pillow Boop on the front of his body, you will need to do a few extra things besides just knotting the yarn or his arms will definitely come out.

First you’ll need a bodkin. It is a large needle with an eye big enough to thread yarn through. You can find it in the needle section of any craft or sewing store.

Next you will want to cut out a circle from the same fabric as the body. About an inch diameter should be fine. The hands should already be sewn onto the yarn (Knotted at the end before you sewed them or they will slip off. Pull the arms to the length you want, them pull through the circle.

You will then make a series of knots into the circle. They do not have to look pretty. But there should be several of them woven in and out of the circle and securely knotted.

Now THAT should not come out of your pillow without someone really wanting it to! My 2 year old and 4 year old are constantly pulling on his arms and they are still firmly in place!

Please message me with any questions or problems you may have! Also I would love to see or hear about your successes! If you enjoyed this please follow me and share with anyone you know who would like this!

❤ Sunny

 

Bubble Paper

When I was a bored 12 year old I thought it would be fun to put food coloring into bubble solution. And you know what? It was! Now I have seen other people do this on Pinterest, but considering I made this up in something like, 1990, I am convinced that I am the first person to ever think of this in the history of the world. 😉

 You will need paper, bubbles, food coloring, and small bowls. I have an assortment of colored paper as well as white because I love the effect of Darker bubbles on the same color paper. Looks more stationary-like to me.

Pour about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of solution, depending on just how much bubble art you want to make.

Mix in the food coloring. My kids decided to do purple, blue, red, and green.

Blow bubbles onto the paper. You will get the best looking bubbles on paper if you blow them right onto the paper so they stick for a second, like this:

Now look at that!

Now you can tell that we opted for a lighter mixture because we were making stationary to write letters. But if you don’t like how light the mix is, just add more food coloring! This mix is about 5 drops per 1/3 cup bubble solution. These took about an hour to dry in this hot, dry climate, and then they were ready to write on!

I have used this technique when I needed magical looking paper. When my kids started writing letters to the tooth fairy her stationary looked just like this! Great minds, Right?!

The kids 6 and under got a little bit frustrated with this project. They didn’t have the patience to blow the bubbles directly on to the paper and ended up with a lot of wet and globby papers. Also they kept mixing the colors by dipping wands into other colors which frustrated the older kids. But they loved the effect on the dry papers and loved drawing and writing letters on them!

What do you think? Did you like this project? I would love it if you would let me know! Also, if you enjoy this site, please follow me! and invite your friends to do the same!

❤ Sunny

Personal Ponies

Do your kids love My Little Pony? Do they wish they were ponies? Mine do! Here’s how they can ponify themselves!

 Use your browser to look up My Little Pony Outlines and click on Images. So many choices should come up! Here are some of our favorites.

First print out your favorites. Then put a blank sheet on top of one of the prints.

Next trace your pony in pencil and add any embellishments (hair, wings, horn, cutie marks) that you would like.

Next you will want to outline your pencil drawing in black marker. (It makes it look cooler and more professional).

Then Color! I find crayons work better, because you can shade easier than with markers. But 4 year old wanted to use markers. He named his pony BeeZee.

8 year old is a science enthusiast and drew a chemistry beaker for his pony’s cutie mark. Two year old contributed to his picture by adding chocolate ice cream fingerprints.

I hope you have lots of fun with this! I would love to see any ponies you have made!

❤ Sunny

Lego Bucket From Detergent Container

This is exactly what it sounds and looks like. The official Lego containers I had for my kids could no longer hold all their glorious bricks. I had a pile of these in the laundry room, and my ever handy pack of permanent markers and voila! One less pile of toys without a home in their closet!  My daughter decided she could do her own. She is very much a Super Girl.

Please share if you enjoyed this post!

– ❤ Sunny

Fire Cracker Pops

 

Okay, so yesterday was Independence Day. I wanted to make a treat that would be fun but wouldn’t melt. Unlike the awesome cupcakes my 10 year old made all by herself that you see behind the pops. When I was a very little girl there was a kid’s party at my Grandma’s church where they gave us these popcorn balls on a stick that when you ate to the center there was a lollipop inside! I’ve always wanted to recreate these fun treats for my kids. But we are not huge popcorn ball fans. Solution? Krispy Treats! I thought they would be so simple! They weren’t. Until I figured a few things out. Now you can make them for your next hot outdoor party!

So you of course start with lollipops. Tootsie Pops are a personal favorite so I used those. I made the Krispy Treats according to the directions and figured if I just greased up my hands enough I could grab chunks and mold it around the lollipop. Wrong! That did not work at all. It stuck to my hands, the krispies kept falling off the pop, and I couldn’t get the M&Ms to stick. So I went another route.

I pressed the krispies into a greased pan old school style. Then pushed the pops into the krispies to cover them up. After about five minutes I was able to cut squares out with the pops inside

Next, sprinkle your M&Ms in your plastic wrap square before inserting the krispy pop. You can then wrap the plastic wrap around the treat and mold it into a ball, Like so: Then you may tie the occasion-appropriate color ribbon around the bottom.

Awww! Look how much they love them!

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, share with a friend!

❤ Sunny

Welcome To The Farm!

Hello everyone! This is a blog of fun creative stuff to do with kids, for kids, or for yourself because why not! We all crave creating, we are creators by nature, and most of us have a very limited budget. So dive in! I have created this paradise for you!

– ❤ Sunny