Love Floats

It's been so cold here the last couple of weeks that we haven't been very motivated to craft.  The only thing I've been motivated to do is drop off my kid at school and crawl back under the covers to watch episodes of Psych!  Just kidding, while Candace sorts toys in her bonus room I've been catching up on all my touch up painting.  Sounds thrilling huh.  Definitely not blog worthy stuff.

I've seen this idea around for a while where you can use Cherry 7UP instead of root beer for a float.  I thought it looked so cute that I did it for my church Activity Day Girls last week. They looked great but Cherry 7Up left me wanting....it just wasn't strong enough to balance out the vanilla ice cream.  So since we are busy preparing Science Project experiments in our house- we thought we would try an experiment of our own.  My daughter was all too happy to be the judge!

We tried Shasta Raspberry Creme Soda 

                                                           

and Barq's Red Creme Soda.

                                                   
Both are pretty tasty but I think the Raspberry Creme might be a tad better.
They were so easy to make for my girls~I pre-scooped the ice cream and stored them in the freezer until ready to go.  Add a couple of cute Valentine straws and who can resist?

Now if you really want something tasty you'll have to try these Italian Creme Sodas~
Head over to Butter With A Side Of Bread for an easy and delicious recipe for homemade Italian Sodas.  Yum!
                                         

Pumpkin Fluff

I just had to share this yummy recipe that my wonderful friend brought
over to me!  Thank you Stephanie!!!
It was so good and light~plus it's perfect to keep on hand during the holidays!
It's Pumpkin Fluff and I swear you're going to love it!

PUMPKIN FLUFF
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
1 small package of instant vanilla pudding.
1 8 oz container of Cool Whip

Mix together the pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and instant vanilla pudding.  Fold in Cool Whip till thoroughly combined. Serve with Anna's Ginger Thins. They are a perfect little cookie in a cute flower shape, perfect for dipping.  You can find them in your local grocery store or in bulk at Costco.

Candace and I are working on some cute Santa's tomorrow that hopefully we'll finish quick to share with you.  I got them all cut out right before my dear old scroll saw gave up the ghost today and I've never been more thankful for Home Depot's Protection plan.  They issued me a gift card through my email and I was able to go pick up a new one this afternoon.  I'm thinking it was the best money I've spent!

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

Alright, we took one bite of this

deliciousness and just about died.

I'm not a huge fan of bananas and I admit I was

a little skeptical to try it, but I totally trusted our brother

when he said we had to try this.

All he had to say is that it was Paula Dean's recipe.

It was so wonderfully creamy, smooth,

and downright wicked....that we've

been dreaming up other varieties of flavor combinations to try! 

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies

6 to 8 bananas, sliced

2 cups milk

1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding (our brother used banana pudding)

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe courtesy of Food Network! 

 Our brother said they've tried it with coconut cream,

a strawberry lemon combination,

and next we'll have to try something with chocolate!

YUM!!!!

We've had so much fun playing together as a family

and it was super hard to see them go this morning!

This week we are hoping to finish off some of the finishing details

for Candace's master bedroom.

We'll be hanging all the curtains and hopefully getting those bedside tables

painted so we can show you our IKEA hack!

Happy Baking!