Cupcake Nirvana

Last week a bunch of my friends had a movie night at their house. We watched "Bednobs and Broomsticks"- a Disney classic starring Angela Lansbury. The movie was good (very '70s), but the best part of the night was the dessert.

My friend Tara posted about these cupcakes a few weeks ago. Since I read her blog, I knew I had to try these, I just needed an excuse to make them. And then I was invited to movie night. Perfect timing!

These are chocolate-chip cookie-dough cupcakes. You read that right. As in, everything you love about cookie dough in a cupcake form. You make cookie dough (but instead of eggs, use milk because they don't cook all the way) and freeze it into little balls like so:

Then you just mix up your favorite vanilla cake mix. Pour it 2/3 full into cupcake liners and add a little frozen ball of chocolate-chip goodness in the middle:
When they've finished baking, they look like this in the middle:
Can you say amazing?? This one doesn't have frosting because I was so excited I couldn't wait any longer. I decided to see what they looked like inside before I devoured this "sample". Below we have the final product, complete with cookie-dough buttercream (brown sugar and vanilla makes it taste like cookie dough!).
They were a huge hit! It made about 22 cupcakes, enough for me to take to movie night, leave some leftovers for the boys and still have leftovers for me (and my roomie). You can check out the blog where Tara got the recipe here. If you're even thinking about making them, stop thinking. Just go get 5 sticks of butter and dive right in! Enjoy!

Sometimes, you just have to spell it out

I teach Kindergarten. Duh, you knew that. But I bet you didn't know how explicit I have to be when I give directions. As in, before you go to your seat, make sure you stand up. Simple things. Things that come naturally as an adult but have to be spelled out for 5 year olds. Take the bathroom for example.

I'm working in a beautiful new building. Everything in my room is beautiful and new and pristine. And I would like for it to stay that while for at least a little while. Including the bathroom. So on the wall in my bathroom is this:

The girls' sign is pretty straight forward. It just helps them remember to close the door and pull their pants up before they come out. (Which they forget all the time). But take a closer look at boy's step 4:
Apparently this is a hard step to master. They pee ALL OVER THE PLACE!! Like seriously, how hard is it to pee in the toilet? A few days ago during rest time a girl when in, then came right back out saying "Teacher, they're pee in the bathroom!" I went in, and sure enough, pee all over the place. Pee that could only have come from a boy. I immediately summoned all my boys to come to the bathroom, where I proceeded to give a lesson on how to use the toilet the correct way.

Hopefully now they get it. This was their 2nd bathroom lesson. They'll probably forget again. But at least they have nice step-by-step instructions to help them out if they forget!

What ever happened to fall?

I posted a little while ago about the lovely fall plants that I put out on my back patio. Beautiful orange and yellow mums that just scream "fall!" But I forgot to tell you what I saw when I walked into Home Depot that saturday morning in SEPTEMBER:

SEPTEMBER! It wasn't even October yet, and they already had Christmas stuff up. There was one small corner full of fall/Halloween stuff (which you can't see in the picture), but the rest of the "seasonal" area was covered in Christmas. I mean, hello! Why can't we celebrate the season that we're actually in? I am a firm believer in this.

I refused to put up Halloween decorations (not a ton, just a few little pumpkin things) until October. And promptly on November 1 they will all be put away. Christmas stuff cannot come out until the day AFTER Thanksgiving, and not a minute sooner. Am I the only one who does this? Because according to Home Depot, people are already decorating for Christmas.

This week I taught my students about fall colors by making paper chains. They had to pick 2 colors to make a A-B pattern with (integrating Social Studies and Math, go me!). We are enjoying learning about fall and will talk about the winter holidays when it actually is winter. Until then, we're celebrating Fall.

too funny not to post

I've posted about the funny things my kids say before. I hear it all the time. And I wish I could remember even a small amount of the funny things they say. I don't always remember but I did get a good one from today:

boy: "Can I go wash my hands?" (sure, this question seems harmless enough. read on.)
me: "It's rest time, why do you need to wash your hands?"
boy: " 'cause I digged in my nose and there was boogers."

This is an exact quote. I even wrote it down so I would remember. Too funny! These kids crack me up. I had to stop myself from laughing while I told him yes, please go wash your hands. And don't "dig" in your nose anymore!

Happy Fall Y'all!

It was officially the start of fall this past week. I love fall, for so many reasons. Sweaters, cold nights, peppermint hot chocolate @ Starbucks, the colors, I could keep going. It may be my favorite time of year (Spring is a close contender). The weather here has been FABULOUS, so I went to Home Depot last weekend to work on sprucing up my outdoor space.

Let me first say that I do have a back patio, but I don't really use it. I wish I did. I wish I was the kind of person to sit out there and read a book or have a nice meal. But I don't have the right patio furniture. I just haven't found anything that I love. So I have this table (in the picture) and that's about it.

But don't the mums look nice? They were on sale at Home Depot= score! And the window that you see in the picture is at my kitchen sink. So when I'm doing dishes, I can look outside and enjoy the pretty view. So happy fall y'all!

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