Month: March 2014


Mar
2014

Muppet’s Favorite ~ Beaker Cookie Pops

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Disney-Inspired Treats

Beaker PopBeaker, with his adorable little “Meep” noises and willingness to help in any situation, is one of my family’s top five favorite Muppets.

In actuality, Beaker is my husband’s favorite Muppet.  So when planning our son’s upcoming Muppet’s themed birthday party, I had to create a Beaker-themed treat.   I’m happy to report that after catching a glimpse of this sweet cookie pop my husband exclaimed, “That’s my favorite thing you’ve ever made!”  Success!  If you know someone that loves this shy Muppet as much as my husband does, surprise them with this easy to make treat.

Here’s the simple tutorial of how I made Beaker into a cookie pop.

Beaker Cookie Pops 001

Gather Supplies:  I used Vienna Fingers cookies for the head of Beaker, candy eyes and orange peanut M&Ms for his nose.  You’ll also need cookie pop sticks.

Beaker Cookie Pops 002

Additional supplies:  I used white and orange candy melts by Wilton candies.

Beaker Cookie Pops 006Step 1. Separate each cookie sandwiche’s top layer from their bottom layer.

Beaker Cookie Pops 007

Step 2: Melt a small amount of white chocolate.  Dip the cookie pop stick into the white chocolate and place it in the center of the pop.

Beaker Cookie Pops 009Step 3: Put the cookie sandwich back together very gently.  To make it stay together easily, I added a dab of white chocolate to the bottom of the top cookie layer before placing it back together.

Beaker Cookie Pops 013Step 4: While the chocolate hardens around the cookie pop stick, melt a small amount of orange chocolate.  Once melted, put it inside of a snack size Ziploc bag.

Beaker Cookie Pops 014

Step 5: Lay down a sheet of wax paper on your counter.  Then snip a tiny hole at corner of the bag with the melted orange chocolate and pipe Beakers hair on the wax paper.  Allow five minutes for the candy hair to harden.

Step 6: Mix the remaining white melted candy with the remaining orange candy.  This will give you the slightly lighter orange color for Beaker’s face.  If needed, add more orange candy melts until you have enough to dip the cookie pops.  I used a shallow pan to dip them in, by dipping one side and then flipping it over to dip the opposite side.  Place the cookie pop on wax paper after dipping.

Beaker Cookie Pops 024Step 7: Attach Beaker’s hair on the cookie while the chocolate is still hardening.  Once the hair has been secured, add his eyes and nose.  Allow all the chocolate to harden.

Step 8: Once hardened, you can now add Beaker’s mouth by using a toothpick to lightly carve into the chocolate.

That’s it!  If you’re not ready to enjoy these treats, I recommend placing them in a airtight storage container and keeping them in a cool area.

Are you ready for this weekend’s premier of Muppets Most Wanted?  Here’s to hoping Beaker gets some screen time!

This Friday I’m happy to be participating once again in the Favorite Food Friday blog hop hosted by Disney Day by Day.  If you love Disney food, hop over to Disney Day by Day to check out more Disney food. Today he’s featuring FRUSHI!  YUM!  Disney Day by Day even links you up with the recipe to make this Epcot Flower & Garden Festival favorite.  Check it out at:

http://disneydaybyday.com/favorite-food-friday-frushi/

If you have a Favorite Disney Food item that you’ve blogged about, why not link up?  Stop by Disney Day By Day for details!
DisneyDayByDay


Mar
2014

Animal! Muppet Cupcake Tutorial

categories: Disney-Inspired Party Planning, Disney-Inspired Treats

animal cupcakeDoes your family have a pick for Favorite Muppet?

In our house, Animal is one of our top five favorite Muppets.  Today I gave it my best attempt to make an Animal-Inspired cupcake.  If you like how he turned out and would like to make Animal cupcakes for your kids, here’s a quick tutorial!

Muppet cupcake 003Gather the following supplies:  Candy eyes, Tic-Tacs, Juju coins, red & orange icing, and cupcakes.

Muppet cupcake 010Start by icing the cupcake with orange icing.

Muppet cupcake 012Next, add the eyes and nose.

Muppet cupcake 015Then add his seven wonderful teeth.

Muppet cupcake 031Using a Star decorator tip, pipe Animal’s orange and red fur icing.  Last, but not least, add his black eyebrows.  It’s that simple!

Animal cupcake take 2 006

Which Muppet is your family’s favorite?  I’m working on a few other Muppets-Inspired ideas to share with you shortly.  So far, I’ve shared with you Kermit and Animal Inspired ideas.  Look for my family’s other three favorite Muppets to show up on the blog in upcoming posts.

This Friday I’m thrilled to be participating in the Favorite Food Friday blog hop hosted by Day by Day Disney.  If you love Disney food, hop over to Day by Day Disney to check out more fun Disney food. He’s featuring the “Grey Stuff” cupcake today!  Check it out at

http://disneydaybyday.com/favorite-food-friday-grey-stuff-cupcake/

DisneyDayByDay


Mar
2014

Preparing for a “Muppets Most Wanted” Party

categories: Disney-Inspired Crafts, Disney-Inspired Party Planning

Kermit photo 002“It’s time to get things started..”

“Muppets Most Wanted” will be opening in theatres on March 21st and my family couldn’t be more excited.  Add a hysterical group of Muppets to any birthday party and wouldn’t you be excited?

My son Gavin will be turning seven in April.  I can’t even believe it.  I know how cliché it is to say that, but it’s true.  When he chose a movie theatre birthday party with his classmates over our annual family birthday party the realization that he’s not my baby anymore smacked me straight across the face.   So with his decision made, Gavin and I did a bit of research to see what movies would be showing during his birthday month and what movie do you think he chose?  Well of course, “Muppets Most Wanted”!  The fact that Gavin picked this movie has made it easier to deal with the reality of my baby becoming a big boy.  Yes, it’s purely the distraction that his party will be Muppets themed.  I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about making a “few” Muppet-Inspired items for the party.  Seriously, who could blame me?  It’s the Muppets!  Needless to say, the planning is well underway.

Today I thought I’d share a few things that I’ve started to put together for his classmates’ “Thank you” bags.

The photo was taken from Disney Wiki.
The photo was taken from Disney Wiki.

Is it Kermit?  Or is it Constantine?  Hmmm…

This fly loving frog’s likeness could be transformed or disguised whatever way a little artist decides with the use of washable markers and then washed off whenever he wants to create again.  Or even better, if you have a dry erase marker kids could clean it off with a tissue.

Masterpiece KermitHere’s how I made this simple craft.

The images above are of a  4″ x 6″  laminated photo of Kermit.  I found the Kermit image on the Disney Wiki site.  It’s perfect because he’s looking straight forward.  Then I saved it to my Pictures file, uploaded it into Publisher and sized it to 4″ x 6″.  After I printed it out on copy paper,  I cut it out and laminated it using the pouches you see in the photo below.  It couldn’t be more simple!   If you don’t want to use a laminating machine, contact paper can be used for the same effect.

Kermit photo 009

 This “Disguising Kermit” card will be one of a few special Muppets related items that Gavin’s guests will find in their party bags.  I decided to use these adorable Muppets backpacks as party bags.  I found them at SUBWAY.  Each Subway Fresh Fit for Kids Meal comes with one of six fun Muppet style backpacks.  These are the three styles we chose for our party.  Subway has a wonderful Muppet campaign going on right now.  Have you seen the commercials?  Adorable!  You can visit Subway’s website for more Muppet fun.  Here’s a link to “Get Things Started!”

http://subwaykids.com/

Kermit photo 010

 Each party bag will include a small tribute to several of our favorite Muppets.  Can you guess what item Fozzie would want us to include?  Yep, we’ve included one of those!

Look for more Muppet-Inspired fun this week on the blog!


Mar
2014

Reading Disney & Seuss History with Uncle Remus

categories: Reviews

img028Last week I stumbled upon a link between Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss, his first wife, Helen Marion Palmer.

In the mid 1940s, Helen Palmer Geisel was an author for Walt Disney’s Little Library series, which was part of The Little Golden Books company.  One of her authored books is titled, Walt Disney’s Uncle Remus copyright 1946, 1947.  This is actually a retelling, since the original Uncle Remus stories were by Joel Chandler Harris.

Haven’t heard of Uncle Remus?  Uncle Remus is a character within Disney’s Academy Award winning film, Song of the South.  Not only did the film win an Academy Award, but it inspired a popular Disney attraction found in several of its parks, Splash Mountain.  The attraction features a fun-loving character, Brer Rabbit, whom I among many, have really come to adore.  After watching the animatronic characters and listening to the music while on the attraction, I came to the conclusion that Brer Rabbit outwits Brer Bear and Brer Fox.  But other than that I didn’t know much about their story.  Since Song of the South has never been released for purchase within The United States of America, I presume many of you reading this are also curious to know more about this film.  After doing a bit of on-line searching, how excited I was to find the Uncle Remus book available for purchase on Amazon.

After reading critics concerns about the movie, I decided to read the book to myself before reading it to the kids. The book arrived late last week and for a Little Golden book, it’s an interesting read.  The book is written in eye dialect, which took a bit to get use to reading.   It’s broken down into three cute stories and two of the three stories were used in the theming of Splash Mountain. What I found in reading the stories is that Brer Rabbit likes to get into a bit of mischief, tormenting Brer Fox and Brer Bear.  In a way, it reminds me of the mannerisms, of dare I say, Warner Brother characters, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.  Uncle Remus was a fun read and I plan to share the two stories that can easily be connected to Splash Mountain, with my kids by end of this week.  I have to admit that I doubt I’ll be reading Uncle Remus using the exact eye dialect, but the overall story will hopefully come across.  Today I’ll share a bit of it with you!

The following pages and illustrations were scanned from the book.  I’ve chosen these two pages to show you a glimpse at the writing style and to how the book’s stories fit within the attraction’s storyline.  The illustrations are the work of Bob Grant for The Walt Disney Studios.

The first story within the book is Brer Fox an de Rabbit Trap.

Brer Bear

The third story is called Brer Rabbit’s Laffin’ Place.

Laughing Place

I’ve sure from looking over the two pages you can easily see scene’s in Splash Mountain!  I hope you’ve enjoyed todays look at bit of Disney history.  During this week of reading celebration in schools across our nation, I hope you have the opportunity to find a few moments to open a good Disney or Dr. Seuss book with your family.

You never know, you just may stumble upon your Laffin’ Place!


Mar
2014

It’s a Jolly Oscar Night With Mary {Free Printable for Personal Use}

categories: Disney-Inspired Crafts, Disney-Inspired Party Planning

Mary Poppins cakesIt’s Oscar’s Night!

Don’t you just love the Oscars?  All the glitz and glam is so easy to get wrapped up in.  The next thing I know, I’m up until midnight making sure I’ve seen the last award handed out.

Once upon a time, before babies arrived,  I attended Oscar parties.  They were so much fun and I truly miss going!  This year I decided to throw my own little party for just our family.  I don’t know about you, but my favorite movie of the year was Saving Mr. Banks.  I wish it was nominated for more awards other than Best Original Score, but regardless I decided to theme some snacks for the evening after the film, Mary Poppins.

This is honestly the most impromptu “party”, having just decided to put it together this morning.  The kids and I watched Mary Poppins last night and during the animated sequence Miss Mary ordered some Raspberry Ice, cakes and tea.  So this morning Victoria and I ran to the store and we found these adorable Strawberry Shortcakes and also some Black Raspberry Sparkling Ice.  Then I jumped on-line and found this website with “Free Mary Poppins clip art”.  I DO NOT recommend using the clip art from this site on items you make for sale because I’m certain they are copyrighted to Disney.  However, for our impromptu party they worked perfectly.

http://wondersofdisney2.yolasite.com/poppins.php

If you loved Saving Mr. Banks and want to throw your own Poppins Oscar party tonight, you can use the clip art in the fashion that I did. Here is a PDF named Mary.  It’s of the penguins and Mary Poppins flying.  It’s sized for the straw and cupcake decorations.

Mary

I hope you all enjoy the Oscars tonight and if you have snow headed your way, I hope you’re at home warm and safe.  Maybe if Elsa wins her Oscar for Frozen she’ll stop this crazy snow!