DONUT WAFFLES

I posted a picture of these last week on instagram and I got a few requests for a recipe. So here it is! I'm not a huge fan of sweets for breakfast (am I the only one?) but these make a perfect dessert. Elliott helped by taste testing and adding the sprinkles. They really are pretty easy to make and if you have a waffle iron, it sure beats using hot oil to make donuts. Essentially they are donut batter cooked on a waffle iron. I love cake donuts and these are pretty close without having them fried. The glaze is a vanilla bean glaze, but really you could add any flavor you want! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 C flour

6 T melted butter

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 C sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 vanilla beans - cut and scraped

2/3 C buttermilk

Powdered sugar

Cream or milk - I used cream because, why not?

Ok, first, melt your butter. Not so much it boils, but enough it is almost all the way melted, then let it sit while you do some other stuff. 

Next, whisk the flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

Whisk the sugar, salt, and melted butter together. Stir in one of the vanilla bean's contents, and eggs and mix that. 

Next, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until the lumps are out. 

Now it's time to cook them up! You can make them as big or as small as you like, but I suggest smaller and on the crispiest waffle setting.

When they are all made and cooling on a rack, make the glaze!

Mix some powdered sugar, the second vanilla bean contents and your cream or milk until you get the consistency you want. If you like it thicker, add more powdered sugar. If you want it thinner, add more cream. You get the idea. 

Dip or drizzle on the glaze to each donut waffle and top them off with a few sprinkles. Then devour. Try your best to savor them, but no judgement if you can't. 

VALENTINE PARTY STRAWS

We are heading out for the weekend, but before we do we have one more project for you. Are you getting pumped up for Valentine's day? We are! When I was growing up, my mom used to make us themed breakfasts for holidays and we kids loved it. I am trying to keep up the tradition with Elliott by making some themed items for his breakfasts like pink pancakes etc. These straws are super fast to make and a lot of fun to use and they are perfect for Valentine's day! You can see the full tutorial over here on Momtastic. 

WATERCOLOR GIFT BAGS

Like a lot of kids, Elliott is really into painting. He paints most days and most days his choice of paint is watercolor. Of course I love it too, so that might have something to do with it. For his birthday, I wanted to wrap his gifts in something he would love and when I saw these white paper bags I knew they would be perfect for watercolor. Most gift bags you'll see have a shiny coating on them which would prevent you from doing much of anything fun with it. This is just thick white paper so it makes for a great blank canvas. To make your own, just grab some paper gift bags (I found mine at our local party store), stick something like cardboard inside before you start painting to prevent the paint from bleeding through, and go to town with your mad art skills!  They are really easy to make and I guarantee the kiddos will love it. And what would be even more fun, let the kid do the painting for a little friend's gift! Both kids will get a kick out of it.

VALENTINE PUZZLES

Just a fun little Valentine's day activity to make for your little ones. You can make them as easy or as hard as you want by making the pieces bigger or smaller. These could also be easily turned into some fun Valentines to give to little friends. You can see more details over here on Momtastic.

KISS VALENTINE TATTOOS

I can't tell you how much I love these little kiss tattoos. As if I could say no to any temporary tattoo, but aren't these fun? We aren't throwing any kind of Valentine's day party this year, but wouldn't these temporary tattoos be perfect for one? Or give them out to little friends along with a note for an easy Valentine. They come in two sizes - both of which are great for little faces. You can download both sizes here. As with all of these homemade tattoos, you will need special tattoo paper, print it out, follow the directions that came with your paper and be sure to cut out your designs. We have been having a lot of fun sticking these on each other, and I am pretty sure you will too! 

Again, you can download the tattoos right here. Enjoy!