Move-It Bingo

I came across this bingo game that I had created for an elementary classroom activity for one of my kids several years ago. It's nothing fancy, but something that would be fun to get kids up and physically active at school or at home.

The rules or simple-- you play it like any other bingo game, except that every time you draw a new piece, participants have to perform that exercise. For the sports activities--like throw a free throw, soccer, kick, baseball bat swing- just go through the motions. Depending on how hard you want to make it, you can make each person do the activity for anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds.

Download the bingo cards here:

Move-it Bingo Cards

Peach Cobbler Coffee Cake

I should have gotten a picture before we started dishing up. It doesn’t look like much, but this peach cobbler coffee cake is delicious and was so easy to make. My kids gobbled it up!

I used fresh peaches from my tree. I started making a cobbler then decided to add a few twists. What I ended up with was a peach upside down cake/cobbler/cinnamon streusel coffee cake that was amazing!

Ingredients

Peach filling:

• 5 fresh peaches- peeled and diced (can use an xl can of peaches instead)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 cube) butter, melted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon 

Cake mixture:

• One white (or yellow) cake mix
• 1/2 can (about 3/4 cup) sprite or 7up (I used diet 7up and it worked great)
• 1 tsp cinnamon 

Streusel topping:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 cube) butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients for peach filling and spread evenly into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

Combine ingredients for cake mixture and stir just until mixed (No need for a mixer; I just used a fork fir this step). Drop cake mixture in dollops into the peach filling. Spread as evenly as possibly. (Note this will swirl in some of the peach Filling wort the cake batter). 

Bake in preheated oven. Combine streusel topping while baking. Pull cake out after 20-25 minutes and sprinkle topping generously over the top. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. (Note that baking time may vary depending on the juiciness of the peaches/moisture content if the cake).

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

The BEST S'mores Cookies

These are my all-time favorite cookies! (I may or may not be eating one of these amazing s'mores as I type these.)  My daughter and I just made a double batch as party of our themed food for my friend's Toy Story Party we were throwing ("Delicious Hot Shmoes" as Buzz would say). 

The BEST S'mores Cookies

Here's the must-have recipe for the BEST S'mores Cookies

1 c (2 cubes) butter (best at room temperature)
2 c brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 c graham crackers (about 1 box of graham crackers)
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I prefer sea salt)
2 c chocolate chips
1 c marshmallow bits

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Crush graham crackers (I put them in a zip lock back and using a rolling pin to crush them).
3. In a separate bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar together.
5. Mix in egg and vanilla. 
6. Add in graham/flour mixture until well combined.
7. Mix in marshmallow bits and chocolate chips.

The s'mores dough is just as good as the cookies! Could eat this everyday...

      8.  Grease pan or use silpat inserts (these are the best for baking cookies! No need to grease pans and keeps things from burning!)

     9. Scoop 1" balls of dough onto cookie sheet. (Cookie scoops like this one save so much time and effort. The padded grips are nice for comfort).

   10.  Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes.  The cookies will look slightly underdone.

ENJOY!

Everything You Need for a Toy Story Party

I love throwing theme parties.  In addition to a few original ideas, I spend time crawling the internet to find the other great resources.  Since I'm gathering these resources anyway, I figured I might as well post them for other's to enjoy as well (and hopefully save you all some time).

My close friend and neighbor is moving several hours away (cry many tears!).  She is obsessed with Toy Story (she has a whole bedroom in her house dedicated to Buzz, Woody, and friends).  So, what else could I do but throw her a Toy Story Moving Party!  (And I figured I could re-use the items for my twins birthday party in a few months).

HERE YOU WILL FIND EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO THROW A TOY STORY PARTY!

Invitations

I used the free background images I found at OhMyFiesta to create a cute party invitation.  (If you don't have fancy photoshop type program, I just copied and pasted the image into a Word document and added text.  Then used the snipping tool to create a jpg). This invite is for a good-bye party, but you can customize it to a birthday or anything else (Example: "You've Got a Play Date with Destiny" at Child Name's 4th Birthday Party. Come have Fun to Infinity and Beyond!) .

You can download a free editable copy here.   

If you use this invite, you may also need to download these fonts-- Bunch Blossoms (for "So, Long Partner") and Agent Red (for "Infinity and Beyond").  You can also opt to create your own Toy Story font here.

Toy Story Themed Food 

No party is complete without theme food!  Here's the food ideas I'm using (plus a few extra).

• "There's a Snake in My Boot": I found these mini cowboy boots to fill with chocolate pudding and gummy worms. 
• "I Don't Think Those are Lincoln Logs": Brownies or tootsie rolls
• "You Have Saved our Lives. We are eternally GRAPEFUL": Green grapes. Can put them skewers for a fun touch.
• "Somebody's Poisoned the Waterhole": Water, punch, or soda
• "Delicious Hot Schmoes": S'mores cookies (or real s'mores). I have the best s'mores cookie recipe. (I'll try to update with a link to the recipe soon!).
• "You're not Turning Me into Mashed Potatoes": Mashed or baked potatoes
• "Son of a Building Block": Lego candy or make your own chocolate or candy building bricks with these molds.
• Slinky Dogs: Hot dogs, corn dogs, or Vienna sausages
• Pizza Planet Pizzas: Pizza (of course)
• Al's Cheese Puffs: Cheetos or a big bucket of generic cheese puffs
• Evil Dr. Pork Chop: Pork chops or pork rinds 
• Mr. Potato Chips: Potato chips
• Hamm's Ham & Cheese: Ham & cheese sandwiches, Canadian bacon pizza, or something yummy wrapped in bacon

For the food place cards I used the cute blank place cards from The Suburban Mom blog.  I have included the free printable cards I added words to here and here.

Cupcakes

There's also some fun cupcake toppers ideas.

• Free printable on Suburban Mom blog
• Free printable on Over the Moon blog  
• Cake toppers (pictured): https://amzn.to/2WnzXUD 

These Alien Cupcakes are adorable!  If you are lacking in cake decorating talent (like me) you can opt to buy a Bucket of Aliens on Amazon to put on the top (there's 25 in the pack and their about 1.5 inches tall- so perfect for cupcakes).  You can alternatively use blue cupcake wrappers and green frosting add three of these cute candy eyes. 

Fun Toy Story Quotes

There's so many fun quotes from the Toy Story movie that you can use in your decorating by putting in frames or hanging on the walls or from the ceiling.  You could also use these as part of an activity (fill in the blank or guessing game).  You can find a more inclusive list here. But here's a few of my favorites:

"To infinity and beyond."

"You've got a friend in me"

“You got a play-date with destiny!”

"You're my favorite Deputy"

“You’re cute when you care.”

"Reach for the Sky"

“There is no way out. Just kidding. Door’s right over there.”

"So long, partner."

Activities

I love photo booths.  They are a great way to commemorate the event and ham things up (pun intended)!  It also fits really well into playing Mr. or Mrs. Potato head with different fun photo prop pieces.  I got this cute cloud backdrop that looks like Andy's room and these some fun themed props from Amazon.  There's also this one has specific Toy Story background and props.  If you're ambitious, you could even make your own etch-a-sketch frame.

From: https://www.designdazzle.com/toy-story-etch-sketch-photo-booth/

 Here are some links to other fun activities I found:

• Toy Story Bingo free printable
• Toy Story Activity pages free printable coloring, dot-to-dot, activity, and road trip bingo pages
• Pin the Tail on Bullseye free printable from Disney.com
• Buzz Light Year pinata on Amazon

Party Favors

• Thank you tags: Free printable from Suburban Mom 
• Toy Story labels or name tags
• Cloud party favor boxes
• Toy Story stickers
• Toy Story Party Favors

>

 

Decorations

There's so many fun options for decorations!

• TOYS: Use any Toy Story toys you have on hand or even little green army men from the dollar store.
• SIGNS: Pre-made free printable signs here that you can hang or put in frames.
• BANNER: Here's a cute free printable Happy Birthday Woody themed banner from the Six Sisters Stuff blog
• PICTURES: Andy's room drawing free printables

Of course there's plenty of great decorations to be found on Amazon too (my favorite go to!).

• Balloons: Cloud balloons (10 pack) cloud balloons (50 pack) Cow print balloons (12 pack)
• Cow print tablecloth (that matches Woody's vest)
• ABC Blocks (you can also buy blank boxes at Home Depot to make your own)
• Hanging Alien Honeycomb
• Hanging swirl ceiling decorations
• Buzz and Woody Table Decoration
• Plate & Cup Set (for 8)

Note: Amazon products are affiliate links.