What's In a Name?

In case it's not blaringly obvious enough ;) just thought I'd say that I've changed the name of our blog! The address and everything else is the same, just the title you see when you first get here will be different. Capital B... Buffat Family, Boys, Blessed. Just adding some personality :)

And could you die over the pic of Coop and Ry looking into the mixer... a new fav :)

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day from the Buffat Family! If your day is off to the same kind of start as ours, then it's "fantastic!" Cooper was eating breakfast just a bit ago and said happily, "This is a fantastic morning!" Indeed... :) I'm excited to share some of what has made our morning and day so fun later this week!

For now, here's a few of the fun suprises Cooper and Ryder have been finding in thier mailboxes over the past couple of weeks...

 And yes, I know, I am the best paper airplane folder ever! ;)

 Fun shaving cream coloring- a neat novelty if nothing else! Shaving cream is one of my favorite entertainment tools right now. :)

Cooper and Ryder colored some homemade hearts and put them in a bag with a few almond kisses for their Dad this morning. I made this cute graphic for the topper!  He is loved :). And so are they!

Happy Valentines Day to anyone reading! (That's the last time... I promise ;)

Never Bored

One of my favorite projects we've done around here lately has been "melty crayons". I had the griddle out after making pancakes one morning and remembered this idea I had seen awhile back. So we tried it out! And LOVED the results...

I turned the griddle on quite low, but not too low (kinda had to keep adjusting slightly up and down), and put a cookie sheet right on the surface. Then I put a piece of normal printer paper on the cookie sheet. We got out Cooper's wax crayons (normal crayons would work too), peeled the wrappers off and started drawing. It worked best when we held the crayon down for a sec before starting to move it around. Using lots of colors on one sheet and smearing them together made for some neat effects! Super fun- one Cooper has asked for many times since! Perfect for our Art Gallery:

I love this thing by the way... It's a long, narrow sheet of wood, mod podged or painted, with clothespins across the bottom for hanging kids' artwork (or whatever). Coop loves having his creations displayed! If you're interested, I do have a couple left from our craft fair last fall. :)

Another fun thing has been window painting! Cooper loves to paint and loves washing the windows, so I thought this would work great for us! Ryder was able to join in as long as he wanted on this one too. See how the cat is wondering what on earth?! Get the recipe for these paints HERE.

And a parting shot: two happy little dudes... we love them!

And if you need a yummy idea for Valentine's morning breakfast... click HERE for this awesome recipe! As I was editing this pic to put it on here, Coop came up beside me and asked if I would "go make us some of those!" You think Ryder agrees? :)

Sweet Heart Treats

I've been missing my friend Monica! Not too long ago she made the awesome decision to homeschool her boys and, while it was the best decision ever (and I am so proud of her!), we simply can't get together or even talk as much as we used to. But if there is anything that we will make work, it is getting together to be crafty with our boys! Last week we finally had some together time and made the cutest Valentine treats EVER!...

The cool lady who thought of this idea was thinkin' indeed! Awhile back Stephen happened upon this ginormous Christmas clearance sale and bought up about 100 boxes of fruity candy canes for 19cents each... (not really but you get the idea...) sooooo, I remembered this fun idea and broke off the ends to try it out! As far as taste goes, these are what they are, but they sure win when it comes to cute! Coop loved sharing with Taron and Keaton when they were here last weekend!

Aren't these lovely?! And I must admit, I could eat about ten of them in a day! They are really yummy! Made famous by Bakerella and adorable by us! The boys' favorite part of the whole afternoon was mushing up the cake and frosting mixture, then making cool shapes and hearts to dip. Really we made the hearts while they crafted rockets, blobs, SpongeBob, snakes, etc. :) Gosh, we love having boys! Anyhow, if you haven't ever made cake pops, you really must! ;) Happy Valentines all!

When Dad's Away...

... Mom and the  boys play! At least once each month Stephen is in Nevada working for two- four days at a time. While he's gone, I try even harder to keep the boys entertained! One of Coop's favorite things to do while Dad is gone is to make cupcakes to give him when he gets back. I love THIS Vanilla Cupcakes recipe. It only makes 12 (24 is too many around here- a bunch end up wasted) and the boys love them! Can you tell ? :)

Another fav activity is painting. Cooper could paint everyday! Last time Stephen was gone, I painted their hands with white acrylic paint and then they pressed against red and pink papers to create handprint hearts! They were intended for Valentines cards, but I put my two favorites into frames for my shelf- I love how these turned out- so cute! Both of the boys loved having their hands painted!

And thanks to Curious George, Cooper loves vaccuuming with this handheld vaccuum! I told him my Dad gave me this as a Christmas gift before I was even married to Stephen     and Cooper now thinks it was a gift from Grandpa to him! :) Makes me smile... He especially loves when I sweep and then let him vaccuum up the pile- suction powered dustpan!

Hope anyone reading has a great weekend!