Long time no talk!

I haven't posted in about a week, but tomorrow is a new day and Ill post to let you know what we've been up to!

Loaded Brownies - kid friendly recipe!

Fully Loaded Brownies
Makes 1 8" x8" pan of brownies
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
1/2 cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (250 mL) sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp (5 mL)  Vanilla Extract
¾ cup (189 mL) all purpose flour
1/3 cup (80 mL) Cocoa Powder
¼ tsp (1 mL) baking powder
pinch salt
¼ cup (63 mL) milk
3 cups (750 mL) Mini Marshmallows
½ cup (125 mL)Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips and Chunks
½ cup (125 mL)  Chopped Pecans
4  Graham Wafers, broken into small pieces (1/2 cup (125 mL)

1. Pre-heat your oven to 325°F (163°C) and line the bottom and sides of an 8” x 8” square baking pan with two over lapping pieces of parchment paper, set aside.
2. Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time mixing in between each addition. Stir in the vanilla and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Sift together the flour, cocoa and salt and baking powder, mix them into the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk, mixing just until it comes together into a batter.
3. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven until a tooth pick inserted into the middle of the brownie comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove the brownie form the oven, top with the marshmallows, chocolate, pecans and graham pieces. Return them to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.
4. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Gently lift the brownies out of the pan, peel back the parchment paper, slice and serve. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Happy Cooking!

Countdown - 22 days until Christmas

So, I was counting up, when I should have been counting down...so today would have been 3, but instead, it is 22.  22 days until Christmas, WOW. 

Todays activity for the 25 days of Christmas is for our family to make a Christmas Blessings Jar.  What this means, is that we are all going to write down five things we feel blessed to have.  After we write them down, we'll stick them in the jar, and put them on the counter.  I'm going to tie some ribbon around it, and decorate it up a little, and it can also double as a decoration.  When Christmas is over, we'll put it away with all of our other Christmas decorations and then next year we can read them, and add to it, and continue on, throughout the years.

*Hopefully* we'll still have this keepsake when the kids are grown, and they can have something to look back on.  

CONTEST!!!

Starting today and ending January 1st 2011 (Wow, 2011!)   I will be hold my first Fan Referral Contest. The object is to gain a total of 100 fans by January 1 2011!

Rules:  My facebook fanpage MUST reach 100 fans by January 1, 2011
If 100 fan are not reached, I will end or extend the contest deadline.


Here's the cool part!   
The prizes!
Top referrer: Your choice of ANY hat (child or adult size) hand made by my wonderful, creative, talented, beautiful, extremely awesome friend; Andrea.  :)  Here is a link to her Facebook page so you can get an idea.  This prize has a value of $25.00.  Once the winner is announced, they can make the choice of which hat they would like, and I will put the order in to Miss Andrea.  She is a busy lady, but trust me, it will be worth the wait! Shipping will also be covered by yours truly. 

I will also give away a $10.00 amazon gift card to one lucky (random) fan of my page.  

To enter:
1. Refer everyone you can by selecting the "suggest this page" and adding everyone in your friends list

2. Tell them that when they "like" the page, to leave a comment saying who referred them.

On January 1st 2011, I will count all the referrals and whoever has the most, wins!  So invite as many people as you can.  You don't have to keep it on Facebook, if you're a part of other forums, or you follow other blogs, just post this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ramblings-of-a-Manic-Mommy/138900119494647 and tell them to say who sent them!

Let the referring begin!!!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 2 - December 2nd.

Today is a busy day for my girlies, they had French club after school, and then at 6:30 they have their weekly church group.  So, needless to say, our activity for today has to be a quick one, so I chose "Read a Christmas story" for us.  So, tonight when they get home they can get "pajamafied" as we say, and then we'll read 'The Christmas Mouse' story. 

Just a quick tip for anyone who is doing this, or would like to, you can do only the 12 days of Christmas, which is less planning, and probably much easier.  Also, one tip that someone gave me, is to leave your envelopes unsealed so that you can switch your activities if something comes up and you have to make a quick switch. 

Have fun!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 1 - December 1st.

Well I said I would post daily for our families 25 days of Christmas, and I failed horribly for December 1st. I've been working on our advent calendar every time I get the chance, but it's still not quite done, and here it is almost the end of day 2!  Im sure I'll get it done tonight. 

Anyway, the activity for December 1, was for each of my kids to have a chance to pick out a new Christmas tree decoration; so off we went to my favourite store - Dollarama!  :)  That was pretty exciting for them, they couldn't decide, and changed their minds about 3 times, each.  In the end, they were all happy. 

Nataya's choice

 Annie's choice

Oriah's choice

I'll be posting today's activity right away!

Apologies

Hey guys, this is just super quick to let you know I'm going to have to hold off on the contest announcement until later n tonight, possibly tomorrow morning.  We had a rough night last night with our two year old daughter, and when I woke up, I remembered we have a doctors appointment this morning.  THEN, Robert called to tell me he's getting off early and t be ready to go to the city, so....I'm off!  Watch for it tonight/tomorrow morning!