Rice Krispy Valentine Pops

Yesterday, the girls had to bring a snack to their Adventure Guides troop meeting.
(Adventure Guides is a Daddy/Daughter group through the YMCA, it used to be called Indian Princesses)
My girls (and Kevin!) LOVE Rice Krispy treats, so we decided to make Rice Krispy Valentine Pops. These are really easy to make & don't take much time at all!

Here is what you need:

-Rice Krispy cereal
- Package of Marshmallows
-Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter (mine is  3 inches..similar one HERE)
- 3 TB Butter
- Paper Straws 
- Candy Melts (or frosting)
- Valentine Sprinkles


Directions:
Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter & 10 oz package of Marshmallows over low heat:

Once the butter & marshmallows are completely melted, remove from heat & add 6 cups of Rice Krispy cereal:

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray & then spread the rice krispy into the pan:

I let them harden up for about 30-45 minutes and then I use my heart shape cookie cutter to create hearts.

The 3 inch cookie cutter made 15 heart shaped rice krispies.

 Then, it was time to put the straws/sticks into the hearts.
I cut my paper straws in half:

I melted candy melts (or you can use frosting...I am not a big fan of frosting, so I prefer candy melts)
Add a dab on the straw (this helps make it stick) and then insert the straw to the base of the heart and push to the top of the heart (this gives it stability)

Aren't these fun?

You can make them even more fun by adding sprinkles!
Spread a thin layer of melted candy melts (or frosting) on the hearts:

Then add sprinkles!

Sprinkles make everything more fun :)

 We did a variety of sprinkles

I just love how these turned out! 

 If you don't have paper straws, you could use Popsicle sticks or plain white lolipop sticks.

 I like the paper straws because they are thicker & they are fun with the stripes :)

 You don't even need to add sticks to these, you could just make them heart shaped rice krispies with sprinkles.
We used white candy melts, but you could also use pink candy melts (or pink frosting) if you wanted.

 Kate had the great idea to package them up in a sandwich bag...I used fold over sandwich bags and trimmed an inch off the bottom. Then we tied it with some bakers string.

Too bad I don't have a Valentine printable to attach to these...I will have to work on that for next year ;)

My girls loved bringing these cute treats to their friends!

If you need more Valentine Treat ideas........Here's what we will be making this weekend:

Ritzies // M&M cookies // Chocolate Peanut Butter Heart Cookies //

 Nutella Brownies // Valentine Popcorn // Valentine Hugs & Kisses

Every year, we make a variety of goodies & deliver them to neighbors & friends.

 For the Valentine popcorn, we use THIS printable:

Valentine Cookies in a Jar {HERE}
I give these to my girls teachers & the School office staff, custodian, crossing guard, etc.

 

As you can tell...I like A LOT of Valentine's treats :)

I'm excited to add Rice Krispy Pops to our treat collection!

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My Valentine's Day Flash Sale ends on Sunday!

  Give yourself the gift of good skin this Valentine's Day!

***Flash sale ends 2/14***
Any NEW Preferred Customer will receive your choice for FREE:
Multi Function Eye Cream or Anti Aging Lip Serum ($60 value each) 

CURRENT CUSTOMERS: if you refer me to a friend that becomes a PC
I'll GIFT one to you as well!!

All products have a60-day empty bottle, 100% of your money back guarantee!
Email me to place an order:

melissa_larson17@yahoo.com

Find out what products are good for your skin {HERE}

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Have a great Valentine's Weekend!

St. Patty's Day, March Madness & World Water Day

What a busy week it has been!
It was conference week (which if you are a teacher, know how crazy that week is!)
We also celebrated St. Patty's Day, one of my favorite days of the year!
It was 3 years ago on St. Patty's Day that we told the girls I was pregnant.
You can read that post {HERE}
And, here he is...my Irish Lad, Lukey!

 Our leprechaun arrived like he does every year, with a box of Lucky Charms & a treasure map.

Finding the map:

There was a trail of gold coins (rolos) leading the kids to their treasure.

They love grabbing the map & finding out where the treasure is:

 The pot of gold coins is always near the treasure.

 The treasure was Rainbow Fishies for Luke, Watercolors & Skittles for the girls:

The girls opened up the paints right away & made Leprechaun pictures:

 The leprechaun also does some mischief around the house
 Boulder's water was turned green:

 And he left a mess in our bathroom:

Some people might roll their eyes at us for doing ridiculous things like this on holidays that don't really matter, but to us, this is the stuff memories are made of.

I love spending a few minutes dying things green and making green food and sending my kids on a treasure hunt. It is so fun for us. It only takes a few extra minutes out of my day, but to see the wonder & excitement on my kids faces makes it all worth. 

They are only kids once...and next year Kate will be 8....will she even believe anymore?

My motto is to make it fun while it lasts! But, to each their own!

 We are part Irish, so it is fun for us to celebrate St. Patricks Day.

 Normally we have our traditional Guinness Stew for St. Patty's dinner, but since the weather was so nice, we decided to have a court St. Patty's Day block party. I was assigned to bring dessert, so I whipped up some Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Rolos in the middle & Bailey's Irish Creme frosting.

 YUM!

 The kids got chocolate & vanilla cupcakes:
Everyone hanging out:

 Cornhole, Corned Beef & Cocktails. It was a great St. Patty's Day.

 In case you missed it, I have a Rodan + Fields March Madness Special going on this month.

Email me melissa_larson17@yahoo.com to place an order or if you have questions!

Speaking of March Madness, did you fill out a bracket?
March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year.
That's why I haven't blogged in a few days...too busy watching Basketball!  

Luke is more into his trains than watching basketball :)

I have Duke winning the whole thing, who do you have?
How is your bracket doing?
Mine was doing okay until this afternoon. Kansas lost & I had them in the Finals against Duke.
But, I picked a few upsets that have panned out & I am still in first place for my Poo...for now :)
 This is what my bracket looks like now:

Did you know that today, March 22 is World Water Day?
In honor of World Water Day, yesterday we joined Team World Vision's 6K for Water.
 We each walked for a child in Africa who now has water for life.
Right now 748 million people in the world don't have access to clean water.
  Over $5000 was raised for today's event. $50 will give a child in Africa water for life.
Here are the kids that we walked for:

 I was so proud of the girls, they walked the entire 4 miles!
It was a great lesson for them, we explained that the girls on their bibs that we supported have to walk 4 miles each day to get water & sometimes that isn't even clean water.
We let them know that now those girls will have access to clean water for the rest of their lives!
If you want to donate to the 6K Water for Life, you can click my sister's fundraising page {HERE} She organized the event, I am so proud of her!
She is a part of Team World Vision and this October, she is running the Chicago Marathon for World Vision and to bring awareness to the lack of clean water in Africa.
Another organization that helps provide clean water is Charity:Water.
If you have read my blog for awhile, you know that in 2009 myself and 5 other bloggers started Project 320 where we raised money for fresh water wells through charity:water.
Read my Project 320 Posts {HERE} We raised over $15,000 for charity water & helped fund 3 wells in Africa with Project 320. Clean water has been a passion of mine for over 5 years, and I think World Water Day is so important....to bring awareness that millions of people in the world don't have access to clean water.


Hope you all had a great weekend & Happy World Water Day!