Cornucopia

Mark *loves* the word cornucopia, and loves thinking about filling one. So we decided to make them for his classmates for Thanksgiving.

Mark's school is awesome, and the parents in the class really want to be involved. I'm room mother for the class (believe it or not, no one had signed up when the opportunity came up -so I jumped on it!) I love how easy my job is, because there are so many parents willing to participate.

Today Mark's class is having their Pilgrim/Indian Feast, as it's the last day of class before Thanksgiving. Mrs C, the teacher, sent out an email to all the parents with a sign up sheet. Not more than 30 minutes after the list went out ALL the slots were full! Everything that I tried to sign up for, someone would beat me by a few seconds. So I chatted with the teacher and decided as room mom I'd bring a favor for the kids to take home. And the idea for the cornucopia was formed.

I initially found one on The Decorated Cookie. I thought it was cute, but decided to personalize ours more, and not use cookies for the "goodies" inside the cornucopia.

I liked the idea of the waffle cone though as the cornucopia - so I bought them. I then bought assorted gummy and candy fruits and veggies. I put in one circus peanut, one Swedish Fish, a sour watermelon pieces, gummy rasperries, candy fruit slices (two different kinds), fruit snacks in the shape of fruit, and gummy cherries. They turned out pretty cute. Mark gave one to his teacher as soon as he ran into school, and she said "yum!" So I bet they will be a hit with the kids as well.

Gobble Gobble

Mike's work has a Thanksgiving potluck every year. I'm always called upon to make something for it. I've made pies in the past, beer bread and other goodies. This year I made gingerbread (a loaf of gingerbread with cool whip to go with it) and turkey cupcakes.

The turkey cupcakes were simple to prepare. I made chocolate cupcakes and frosted them with chocolate frosting. I added an extra spoonful of chocolate frosting toward the "back" of the turkey. 4 candy corn pieces make up the turkey's tail feathers. The "face" of the turkey is a nutter butter cookie, with part of it torn off. I then stuck it in the frosting. The "eyes" are actually candy eyes! I discovered them when I was looking to buy white and black frosting to *make* the eyes. These are even better! You simply stick a little frosting on the back of the eyes and stick them on the cookie. The red part of the turkey is also frosting. And there you go. I did find some adorable cupcake wrappers through swagbucks - they were on www.ZiggityZoom.com.




From what Mike says, they were a hit!

Acorns for Breakfast

Mark has been fascinated by acorns lately. So I made him acorns for breakfast. It's really east to do- take donut holes and dip the top part in chocolate frosting. Roll the frosting covered part in brown sprinkles. Tear a thin pretzel stick in half, and insert one half into the donut hole. And there you go- acorns for breakfast. I stuck them in the fridge overnight. Daddy enjoyed them too - as he was my "quality control" tester. Mark recognized what they were immediately and his eyes lit up. He was so excited that he asked to take a few to his teacher - so we did.