If you are still looking for some baking idea for holidays, you’d probably not want to miss on the reindeer faced cupcakes. These are made with a simple cupcake recipe and decorated with most of the items available at hand.
For frosting, I used store brought Betty Crocker whipped frosting. You can also make your own frosting. Similarly, I made eye balls using Betty Crocker white frosting and peices of chocolate chips. You can use eye ball candies for the same.
Getting kids decorate the cupcake adds another level of fun to the making process. There is nothing more enjoyable than to eat your own decorated cupcakes.
Infact, they can be done at any time of the year as these cakes are simple vanilla cupcakes, with a reindeer decoration.
Ingredients:
for cupcakes
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup unsalted butter 2 tsp baking powder
for frosting and decoration
Chocolate frosting (whipped) Vanilla frosting (whipped), for eyes Chocolate chips pieces for eyeball Cracker (cut into piece) for snout M & M’s for nose Cashews for horn
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit and line cupcake baking tin with cupcake liners.
2. In a bowl take dry ingredients that is all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter until smooth and creamy then add egg one at a time until well combined. Add milk and vanilla essence into it and mix.
4. Fold in dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
5. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake it for 15-18 mins or until a tooth pick inserted into it comes out clean.
6. Remove the cup cakes from the tin and let it cool completely.
7. Now make reindeer faces: First using a knife or a frosting tool spread a layer of chocolate frosting. For eyes, take a small ball of white frosting and a small dot of chocolate piece. For snout, take a piece of cracker (broken into 1/4th) and put M & M’s on it for nose. Use cashews for horns.
Playing conversation games is such a classic way to entertain— be it a group at a party or bored kids at home. I am always in hunt of some conversation games that perfectly fit as a conversation ice breaker with my li’l one as also is an all time hit at any gathering of friends and family. Here are some classic conversation games which can be played with family and friends anytime anywhere without almost any items.
Chinese Whispers or Telephone
Here everyone sits in a line or a circle and the first person whispers a message to the next person in line, in his ears. The second one whispers the same message into the next person’s ears and so on. When the message reaches the last person, he announces the message. The fun part happens here, since the message gets significantly distorted during the process. The group is sure to have to a good laugh.
Two Things
In this game, one player gives two statements, one is true and one is false. The other player has to guess which is true and which is false. It can be a good way to also exchange interesting facts specially with children.
20 Questions
One person thinks of something in a room and the others have to guess it in 20 questions or less. The person who has thought of, can only answer in a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. The questions can be like “Is it made of a metal?” or “Is it as big as a ball?” or “ Is it rectangular in shape?” This is even more interesting if you divide the players in 2 teams.
I Spy
The game traditionally starts with a phrase called “I spy with my little eye something”, and then a description is added like made of plastic, like a cylinder, or white in color. The other players guess the item. The person who gusses it becomes the spy.
Just a Minute
This one is a classic and an all time favorite game. In this game, each person is given a topic one at a time and he has to speak on it for 1 minute. This game is a great help in improving speech skills. Preparation time can also be given to players. Some of the topics that can be taken with kids include:
Animals have rights too.
My favorite foods
What is the best time of day for you?
What do you think you would do when you grow up?
My favorite animal
Should kids be beaten for doing wrong
My favorite movie
The most memorable time of my life
My most favorite subject at school
The funniest incident of my life
The person who inspires me
Something I want to learn
The time I laughed the hardest
Fun activities I do with my family
If I were invisible
If I had the power to change something
Three wishes I would make
My favorite food
Something I like to wear the most
The worst food I’ve ever had
The most difficult thing in this world
Your favorite holiday
Early rise and early sleep or late rise and late sleep
What is the best thing of being… years old
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
The Name Game
This game is good to stimulate kids’ thinking while also improving their vocabulary. It requires simple preparation and is fun to play anytime anywhere.
1. Take slips of paper and write all 26 letters and keep them in one bowl.
2. Think about different categories (as narrow or as broad as you’d like them to be) like girls name, countries, vegetables, animals etc. and write them on slips and keep them in another bowl.
3. Take 5 slips and write numbers from 5 to 10.
Now at every turn, each player is required to pick slips from each bowl. If a player picks slips with letter ‘B’, category ‘Vegetable Names’ and time ‘7’ then the person will take 7 vegetable names with the letter B.
Simon Says
In this game, one person becomes the Simon and designates activities to the rest of the players. Rest of the players have to obey the commands. The catch is that they have to obey only those commands that begin with the phrase “Simon Says”. If any player follows the command that doesn’t have the phrase “Simon Says”, will be out of the game. The person who stays till the end becomes the next Simon.
Some interesting command ideas for Simon Says:
Simon says scratch like a monkey
Simon says rub your tummy and pat your head
Simon says to be a king
Simon says crawl like a baby
Simon says pretend to clean the house
Simon says bite your lip
Simon says cry like a baby
Simon says act like a spiderman
Simon says start singing
Simon says walk on your knees
Simon says cuddle your favorite person in the room
Simon says slap yourself
Simon says yawn like a hippopotamus
Simon says do a ball dance
Simon says do a yoga pose
Simon says wink with your left eye
Make Me Laugh
Well, this is the game we all have played at some point (at least heard of if not played). One person gets a turn to make the other players laugh. Whoever laughs first is the looser. So try your tricks, crack jokes, make silly faces or ask funny questions.
Chubby Bunny Challenge
All you need in this game is a partner and a whole bowl of marshmellows. Both the partners start with taking one marshmellow in mouth and say “Chubby Bunny”. If you can say it clearly then you move to another round wherein you add another marshmellow and say “Chubby Bunny” again. The challenge continues until the players say the words clearly or without losing the marshmellow out of their mouth. The one who is not able to continue this loses to the other person.
The Alphabet Game
The object of this game is to have some authentic conversation going on. Here a person starts the conversation with the letter ‘A’ for instance Airballon rides are fun, the second person in the row will say a sentence with the letter ‘B’ for instance But they are scary too!
It’s December already and so is the time for Santa’s elves to arrive. These lovable characters are too cute to find place in homes before Christmas. As we know they are believed to be Santa’s helpers who every night report to Santa about kids’ daily activities. So just they being around, kids try to put up their best behaviour so that they are on Santa’s nice list.
There can be nothing more interesting than to make your own elf and perch it at different spots each morning. Kids can simply have fun spotting them. Here is a simple DIY for these cute North Pole characters.
Materials required:
Plain sheets of paper Play dough (red, white) Doll head Scissors Paint (red), paint brush Knife Glue Rolling pin
Directions:
1. Using plain sheets of paper, make body of the shelf in form of a cylinder. Make paper tubes for hands (and pass them through the holes from the cylinder). Similarly, make the paper tubes for legs and stick it to the body using glue.
2. Using paper sheets, make a cone for the cap and a circle for its neck accessory and trim its edges to make it spiky.
3. Paint the body in red and its cap in red and white.
4. Fix the accessories and the doll head using glue.
5. Now taking a rolling pin, flatten the red play dough and cut it into rectangles to cover its body. Also, make white gloves with white play dough.
Some interesting elf on the shelf ideas:
Have a happy time doing your own elf on the shelf!
I love salads more than burgers. Yes you heard it right! I think, taste always take a backseat when health is on mind. I am always on my on trip to make my own versions of salad every now and then. It gives me immense sense of satisfaction to quickly make my own bowl of salad when I want to go a little light on my dinner. Here I bring you some of my favorite salad recipes.
Chickpea salad
In a bowl, toss cooked chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, bell pepper, carrots and season it with olive oil, garlic (minced), tahini sauce, lemon, honey, black pepper, salt. Canned chickpeas are a good ready to use option; however if using uncooked version, cook it in a cooker for 5-10 mins.
Spaghetti salad
Cook spaghetti as per instructions. In a plate, add chopped spinach, bell pepper, tomatoes, corns, spaghetti and season it with olive oil, Italian seasoning (oregano, thyme, parsley), parmesan cheese, salad dressing ( I used Kraft Thousand Island) lemon juice, salt, black pepper.
Quinoa salad
Cook quinoa for 10 mins or as per instructions. In a bowl, toss your veggies bell pepper, corns, lettuce, carrots, salt, green chili and into it add cooked quinoa. Quinoa is a superfood, however it’s rich in its carb content. Just need to watch the quantity if you don’t want to consume too much of carb.
Mexican salad bowl
In a bowl take cooked (or canned) beans, greens (lettuce, cucumber, bellpepper, avocados, cabbage), corns, tomato onion salsa and season with myonnaise, ranch seasoning mix, taco seasoning, lemon and salt.
For salsa: Finely chop onions, tomatoes, garlic, pepper, red chilli powder, lemon, cilantro, and salt. You can also coarsely grind all the ingrediends in a grinder.
Cajun spice corn salad
Take corns, cucumber, onion, tomatoes in a bowl. Since it is a corn salad, take half the quantity of corns and rest of the ingredients half of it. In another bowl mix together myonnaise, cajun spice and greek yogurt and season your salad with it. You can also add sour cream instead of greek yogurt.
Note: Since store bought cajun spice has a blend of other spices along with salt, you don’t need to add salt in the seasoning mix.
Classic Garden salad
In a bowl, toss lettuce, spinach, cherry tomatoes, carrots, bell-pepper, cheddar cheese, and season it with olive oil, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper. Add croutons. You can buy croutons from store or make your own batch.
Mother’s day
is round the corner. The day which mamas all around the world look forward to–
to be loved, surprised and spoilt.
And why not! It’s such a feeling of pride, fulfillment and joy for mothers to be appreciated for what they do.
However, it might be a tougher road for some amongst us. The day might come rubbing some of the hidden bruises. Truly, they are the special ones, and this is just to appreciate their enormous strength and worth which is beyond words.
The mother who is far apart from her
children.
Step by step, she has been there to see her child grow. When he started to sit, she waited for him to stand. When he could stand, she waited for him to walk. When he learnt to walk, she taught her how to fly. Now when he has learnt to fly, he is somewhere making her feel proud- working, raising, achieving.
The pangs of
separation are bitter. Sometimes she has meltdowns, tearing her world apart. But
again she stands strong, defiant and unbewildered; instilling in herself the
spirit she infused in her child. And she finds joy in his achievements, pain in
his sorrows, mirth in his laughter and life in his life.
The mother who is hopeful– that she
will hold her own child someday.
There she has
been through the journey of innumerable prayers, moments of disgust, lost hope
and revived faith. She in her mind, has made a million pictures of their unborn;
lived a thousand unlived moments of holding, playing, cuddling, and rejoicing.
She just can’t hold over the fact that how beautiful their life would be when
it happens. Days, months and years have passed, she has learnt to live in
acceptance and anticipation.
But this
journey has given her something which is beyond the superficial. An unfazed faith
that there is nothing above God’s will– faith that everlasting happiness is
worth the wait. Forbearance– to stay strong through the most vulnerable moments.
Hope– that the best time is yet to come. And above all, the blessing of togetherness
with her other half, standing by her through thick and thin.
The mother who is bereaving the loss
of her child.
This can be
the most devastating thing that can ever be in one’s life. The child, who brought a new ray of hope, is
gone now. The pain is excruciating. She
has questioned the almighty, willed her own end over her beloved’s, stood
hopeless at the altar– all of it, times and over. But the truth is she has him
no more– lost to the disease, lost to the mishap, lost to the crime. God willed
this to her and the reason is beyond her understanding.
Amidst all the mayhem, she understands that this the time of test. From somewhere in the universe, she gets forbearance and strength to bear something unimaginable like this. She finds connection with God and learns to withstand the deadliest of challenges that life has thrown at her. She learns to part away from something so precious. It was given by him and taken away by him. This is something that teaches her to face any circumstance whatsoever in life.
Someone who has lost her mother.
There can be
nothing more terrible than this. Even a thought like this is enough to run
shivers down anyone’s spine. A mother is the first symbol of strength, love and
dedication. When she is gone, she leaves a void that is irreplaceable and a burden
which is heaviest to bear. The pain might grow less with time but the memory is
un-erasable.
However, God
always compensates for what he takes away. He sends angels to take care of
those in distress. He gives them a stronger mind to withstand; and an ability
to connect to a deeper level. And there she finds a whole new strength; and discovers
life through a whole new perspective.
Unfathomable gift of strength and more power to all such women. I love you, Happy Mothers Day!
Mom's Diary 