Reese's Stuffed Crescent Rolls

If you've been reading our blog for a while, you know that we love to stuff things into crescent rolls and we love to do things with left over Halloween candy.  Today's Pinned it, Did it! post combines both of those things!

My girls and I couldn't wait to make these as soon as I told them about the pin I saw.  We LOVE Reece's Peanut Butter Cups and these are so easy to make!

You'll need:

• 4 Reece's Peanut Butter Cups
• 1 can of crescent rolls (8 rolls)

That's it!

You'll start by unrolling the crescent roll doughs and laying them on your baking sheet.  

Next, cut each Reece's in half.  Place one half on the fat end of each roll.

Roll up each crescent around the halved Reece's making sure to tuck the sides so the chocolate doesn't melt out as it bakes.

Bake according to the crescent roll package.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.  (I could not find my powdered sugar so it's not included in our final photo).

The original website says they are best served warm but I didn't mind them after they had cooled a bit too!

My girls thought they were ooey, gooey, and yummy!  I'd call this pin a success!!

Ours vs Theirs.  What do you think??

Bloggy Bootcamp Chicago Recap

As Lindsi said on Friday, I was away this past weekend for a blogging conference--Bloggy Bootcamp Chicago to be exact. What is Bloggy Bootcamp? It is a one day blog and social media conference put on by The SITS Girls and hosted in 4 major cities around the U.S each year. This year they added a 5th stop in Chicago for their first ever 2 day Brand Edition. The Chicago Brand Edition was focused on the business of blogging.
Around 150 women gathered together to learn how to be better bloggers, to network, to learn how to enhance their social media presence, and the biggest reason, to learn how to work with companies and brands to earn more income from blogging.  I can not begin to tell you how much I learned from Bloggy Bootcamp Chicago!  I have 20 pages of notes and too many photos of slides to count!  I'm still wrapping my head around all the stuff I want to do for our blog now!
My trip, however, started with a little fun.  The conference did not start until 2:00 on Friday but it was cheaper to get to Chicago on Thursday night (so proud of myself for taking the Mega Bus all alone!).  Soooo...I headed out with Sarah from The Will To See, Jen from Life With Levi, and Amy from Grinning Cheek to Cheek (in that order in the photo on the left) to explore the city! Our two biggest stops were Millenium Park and Navy Pier.
And yes, we may have gotten slightly lost on our walk to Navy Pier...thank God for nice taxi drivers!!
The sign below just begged for a photo opp so Jen and I climbed on up!
The conference on Friday focused on what brands and bloggers want from each other. Relationships was the key thing. However, I did go ahead and change our "about me/us" pages based on what I learned!
Friday night was spent with some awesome girls celebrating Jen's first annual 29th birthday!
So much fun to meet other fun bloggers who "get it"!
Saturday was overwhelming with so much information!  I now have schedules to make, websites to check out, social networks to join, books to read, and so much more!  It's gonna take me more than a month to catch up to all I have written down!  That's ok, Toys In The Dryer will be a better blog because of it! Be on the look out for some very minor changes around here!
Finally, Saturday night was spent with some other awesome bloggers eating the famous Giordanos Pizza. The calories were well worth it!!
If you have not been to a blogging conference (especially a Bloggy Bootcamp) I highly suggest you attend one! It's an awesome way to network and spend some time with people to understand your excitement and frustrations about blogging. I can't wait for the next one!

I can so say I'm a :

Santa's Arrival at the Mall of America!

We know that we have a "local event" section on our blog and that most of the local things we promote are published there so that we don't overwhelm our out-of-area readers....however, every now and then something really exciting happens that we want to publish on our main page to get the maximum exposure.  This would be one of those events!

Santa is coming to the Mall of America!!

Ok, what's so special about that?  Santa visits lots of malls...
Well, this year Santa is arriving with REAL reindeer and singing elves!!
I don't know about you, but Lindsi and I are just as excited as our kids are to see this great event!

Santa's arrival ceremony will start at 6pm on Thursday, November 8th 

at the Mall of America Patio (Southwest corner of Nickelodeon Universe)

It will consist of a festive parade through Nickelodeon Universe and performances by cast members from the Broadway musical “Elf,” showing at the Ordway Music Theatre December 5 – 30. Kids can also make their own Elf hat, write letters to Santa and snack on cookies, milk and hot cocoa provided by Nestle Tollhouse.

After the ceremony, head on over to West Market Square for photos with Santa (until 9pm).

Can't make the arrival ceremony?  No problem, there's more ways to meet Santa Claus this holiday season! Busy families can schedule an appointment for photos and visit with Santa in a more intimate setting between Nov. 10 and Dec. 24. The Santa Experience is located on Level One South near Macy’s. To book an appointment, please visit www.professorbellows.com (click on "Santa" then "Make Reservation).  Click HERE to see Santa's schedule.

Lindsi and I are taking our families to Santa's arrival, are you?  Look for photos after the ceremony!

Operation Christmas Child

"Mom, I want to respect the world."
"What do you mean?"
"I want to help poor people mom."
That was a true conversation I had with Nutty just a few days ago.  I'm not sure where it came from, but I am so glad she wants to give back, and I had just the thing to help her "respect the world."

I discovered Operation Christmas Child a few months ago. It is a non-profit organization that inspires people to pack shoe boxes with Christmas gifts for children in developing countries around the world. Filling a shoe box is the perfect way to teach your children values such as compassion, kindness, and generosity.

After telling Nutty and Tottie about the shoe box gifts, and showing them some Operation Christmas Child videos (because they just couldn't quite understand it with a simple explanation), they were all excited about packing their first box!

We ran to our local Dollar Store and Target to find some gifts that not only would fit in a shoe box, but also that my girls would love to have for themselves.  After all, I'm trying to teach my girls that sometimes it's better to give than to receive and being generous means that you give things that you may want to keep.

I wrapped the box in Christmas paper and the girls filled it up with the loot we bought at the store.  The girls kept talking about the girl who would recieve the box.  They wondered where she lives and what she looks like.  Nutty wrote a letter and both drew a picture for the girl.  We included our address in the letter in hopes that our recepient might write back to us.

We are extremely excited to drop off our box at our local drop off site and track to see where it goes!

Have you created an Operation Christmas Child shoe box with your children?  If not, here's how you can do it:  Read below or watch the How to Pack a Box video.

1. Use an empty shoe box (standard size, please) or a small plastic container. You can wrap the box (lid separately), but wrapping is not required.

2. Boy or Girl?  Determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl, and the child’s age category: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. You can download a label online or click the Follow Your Box option to get a special label to learn the destination of you shoe box gift.  Tape the label to the top of your box.

3. Fill it up!  Fill the box with a variety of gifts that will bring delight to a child such as toys, school supplies, and hygiene items.  A list of suggested gift items is available here.

4. Donate $7.  Please donate $7 or more for each shoe box you prepare to help cover shipping and other project costs. You can give online by using our Follow Your Box option, or you can write a check to Samaritan’s Purse (note “OCC” on memo line) and place it in an envelope on top of the gift items inside your box.  If you or your family are preparing more than one shoe box, please make one combined donation.

5. Drop Off.  Put a rubber band around your closed box then Click to find the closest drop-off location to you and drop off your box during OCC’s National Collection Week--Nov. 12-19, 2012.


**National Collection week is Nov 12-19th**
Gifts are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.


You can also send shoe box gifts year-round to: 
Samaritan’s Purse
801 Bamboo Road
Boone, NC 28607

This holiday season build a box with your family to teach kindness, compassion, and generosity.

Operation Christmas Child and influencer marketing platform BlogFrog have teamed up with 200 bloggers like me to spread the word about this great cause. 

BlogFrog will match the first 200 boxes that are built.  Pledge your commitment below to build a box today on Facebook or Twitter!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Operation Christmas Child. The opinions and text are all mine.

Gingerbread Playdough

I am on playdough duty this month at my kids pre-school. This means I have to either buy a ton of Playdoh OR make three batches of my own. I chose to make my own. I like to do this because I can add glitter, colors, smells and other things to it to make it unique. November is a perfect month for some Gingerbread Playdough! Here's the recipe.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground clove
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2-3 teaspoons ginger
2 Tablespoons oil
1 cup water

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and mix while cooking over a medium heat. It will appear very soupy in the beginning but do not fret...it will thicken up as it heats. You will know it is done when it starts to turn a darker brown color and when you think your arm is going to fall off from stiring it. Dump the dough out on your counter top and knead with your hands until cool. Place in an air tight container or plastic bag. I'm giving these away this year to some kids so I made one up in a cute Mason jar and attached a cookie cutter to it with some festive ribbon. Enjoy!