Des Moines Area passes I swear by

I (my family) have been members to the Science Center, Blank Park Zoo, and AdventureLand for three years/seasons. A main reason is because of my husbands work schedule it's not always easy to go on one big vacation, so we get passes to do family things.  Here's some of the perks and reasons I love having passes, or memberships:

Science Center of Iowa

I love their exhibits, and the imax theater.  On Wednesday you can get a half off Imax admission in the afternoon to see an Imax documentary, For members it's like $2.50 for an Imax movie This is also available to nonmembers too! but I think it's  (It's worth seeing every movie they have)  I like that I can bring in my own lunch and not have to buy food from the Sci Cafe, however it does seem that every time we are there I use my membership to get %10 off from the Sci Cafe because I am always forgetting something (aka pop.) The science center is my go to place on a cold winter's day, or on a hot summer day. I much prefer to go during the winter months and for me with two small kids at home and one in Elementary it's worth it!

Our favorite thing to do there is the Small discoveries, and what we call the lego rocket room, we spend all day in those two rooms. they have big blocks, a bubble area to make huge life size bubbles, a pretend kitchen where you can cook your own food, a food market area for children, a ball run. Up stairs is where you could find all the big kid, and more toddler things to do, they have balls that float on air, rockets you make and launch, a lego race way, and a huge ball wall that is amazing!

I have often met friends at the Science Center, which is a great place for an indoor playdate!


Blank Park Zoo

I love Blank Park Zoo for the chance to get out of my house and walk around and see animals with my children. It's a beautiful zoo. I love it for small kids, it's a perfect place to go for 3 hours and then leave. Our favorite part is always the fish feeding and the Sea Lions. I always leave feeling like it was a good time, For my boys is like an adventure playground! Everything is a new adventure even if it's been the 10th time we have visited the zoo this year.




Adventureland

Yes I take my three kiddo's and their cousins (6 kids totally with just me) and yes I am exhausted by the end of the day.... But totally 100% worth it! I got a secret about Adventureland..... It's not that bad in June on a Tuesday and Wednesday. So we spend most of our early vacation break at Adventureland. There have been times that we have had the wave pool to our selves because no one goes to adventureland in June... Seriously what's up with that?

Yes the water park is where we spend most of our time at Adventureland. We use the family bathrooms to change and usually we don't have to wait to long to change, they have 3 family bathrooms that I know off.  I have yet to buy a pool pass to our local pool, since Adventureland is really the only place that my kids wants to go and on a good day I can drive and get there in 15 Minutes.

Summer is hot, and if you know where your going, you can be in the shade about 75% of the time, there were only a couple days this summer that we went to Adventureland that It was to hot and unbearable.

I really do love their rides, I just really love the water park Adventure Bay more!

I also love that they discount their season tickets in December for Christmas Presents, it makes worth your money to get your pass in December, If you go to Adventureland 3 times it pays for it's self, and Parking is included!

I hope that this blog post helps you see the value in some of these passes. By far these three places are the places I have made lots of memories with my family and friends and I am grateful for the chance to use them!

Caramel Teacher Gifts

Remember about a month ago I posted about a Craftsy Class on making Caramel? Yup, I have since made two batches of Caramel, and I can't get enough of the caramel! Seriously I have given them away to about 20+ people and they all are amazed at how good the caramels are, and one of my friends have said that the caramels taste like those expensive ones you get at Hallmark. It's that good. It should be, Carole Bloom, a well known cook book author is the instructor of the class. cheek her out.

The recipe is very simple, which I like, the only thing that I would note is that Caramel is all about the timing, so be careful that you don't over cook the caramel!  YOU HAVE TO USE VANILLA BEAN PASTE! the Vanilla bean past makes the caramel! and it might be worth ordering the wrappers on amazon, I have cut out the wax paper sheets 4x4 and it took like 20 mins to get the caramel cut and wrapped the caramels.

Caramels

Yield: 64 candies 
 1¾ cups (350 g) granulated sugar
 1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream
 ¼ cup (85 g) honey
 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
 ¼ teaspoon sea salt
 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste
 Unflavored oil, such as canola or safflower

Method 1. Line an 8-inch (20-cm) baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick baking spray.

2. Place the sugar, cream, and honey in a 3-quart (2.8-l) heavy-duty saucepan over medium heat. Stir for a few minutes to dissolve the sugar. As the mixture cooks, run a damp pastry brush around the edges of the mixture to dissolve any stray sugar crystals and prevent the sugar from crystallizing. Do this two times.

 3. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Place a candy thermometer in the pan and cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until it registers 250 F (120 C).

 4. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter until it melts. Add the salt and vanilla bean paste and stir in thoroughly.

 5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Place the pan on a rack, cover with plastic wrap, and let cool to room temperature.

 6. Rub the blade of a large chef’s knife and a cutting board with oil. Remove the candy from the pan by lifting out the foil. Invert the candy onto the cutting board and peel off the foil.

 7. Trim off any ragged edges, then cut the candy into 1-inch (2.5-cm) squares, cutting 8 rows in each direction. Immediately wrap each caramel in waxed caramel papers.

 8. The caramels will keep at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

I like little treat bags to bag them up, I get the treat bags after the season for next year so I always have them for the next year.

This recipe will be something I make every year for gifts!

The perfect cupcake Craftsy Class review

I love cupcakes, everything about the process: picking out the ingredients, making the batter, frosting and of course then putting on the finishing touches with some sprinkles, and eating them makes me giddy! So I had to take the Perfect Cupcake class by Jennifer Shea from Trophy's cupcakes At Craftsy. It was like a match made in heaven! Seriously I loved watching this class. OK, I binged watched the class and then went to bed dreaming up different type of cupcakes an how to frost them.  Then daydreaming what I want to do when I am rocking my toddler to bed... so yeah, it's been fun.)

So the nuts and bolts of the class is this, it's not just a cupcake class. It's a baking class that taught me how to make lemon curd, Pie crusts, jams, creme brulee, a Lavender cream filling, and loads of other components to make a great cupcake.  She gives you some of her recipe that Trophy bakery uses everyday in the class hand outs the tips she gives you along the way is also very practical and useful. The lesson is jam packed with useful ideas to help with making the perfect cupcake.

I must say that the my favorite part of the class was watching/learning the different texture and flavor of the cake it's self. After pondering about all the different ways I could make a cupcake was incredible!  I couldn't take my eyes off of the decorating your cupcake lesson,The perfect cupcake class by Craftsy was very informative and worth the time and rescources to perfect a cupcake. Jennifer did a wonderful job teaching. Part of the Craftsy online classes is being able to ask questions about the content of the class and have the instructor give feed back, Jennifer did, and all the feed back were really good and helpful.

 Here are some of the cupcakes that I made so far!

filled cupcakes ready to be frosted!

The filled cupcakes were: black berry cherry jam filled (inspired by the blue berry slury from class) a Pinata cupcake, My kids really liked those, and Caramel Filling.

Caramel filled Cupcake

Marshmallow creme, or meringue frosting with vanilla caramel filled
 cupcake

Cherry Raspberry Jam filled cupcake with marshmallow or Meringue frosting

Roll frosted technique, great for fast frosting!

Display of cupcakes for a girl party

The filled cupcakes were for the teachers for my daughter's school, they were all delighted to have received such a wonderful cupcake! I got a lot of complements from the teachers, and they couldn't believe that there was caramel in side of them. (I kept the Jam filled cupcakes. for the family!)

The motivation behind taking this class was so I could figure out a good cupcake to make for gatherings and bake sales, and this class was perfect for that, I can't wait to keep experimenting with the different flavors and textures. 

Iowa Chocolates

So for my Husband's birthday I wanted to do something "sweet" for him, so I made him some chocolate caramel truffles.

Thanks to the Art Of Caramel class from Craftsy! It was really simple! use a favorite mold, mine was from a jello jiggler mold that turned into a chocolate mold.
1. Make the caramel sauce, as you would for apple dip, then chill it. (I would cook the caramel just a bit longer, like two minutes longer than the recipe said.) once it's cool keep it in the fridge, I made this a day before.
Watch this video, on how to do the rest!

 2 Melt the chocolate, I used semi sweet chocolate chips and some hershey bars.
3. make a mess and get the chocolate into the mold and leave some room for caramel. Let that shell harden.
4. Add the cool caramel to the chocolate, then seal the caramel with left over melted chocolate. Put it in the fridge to harden, then pop them out. Since it was hot and humid I kept the chocolates in the fridge.

Bath Salts

As I promised, I thought I would share my awesome bath salt recipe, that is awesome! (love it for so many things) The most expensive thing is the essential oil, but you don't use a ton and it will last for a while, I am learning a ton of things to do with essential oil and I am a bit addictive to it's power.

This bath salt will make you think your in a spa, a great way to unwind after a busy day with kidlets!

Bath Salts (makes 6 - 2 cups containers) with a bit to spare for a bath for you
12 cups Epsom salt (1- 4lb pkg)
1 1/2 cups of baby soap ( I wanted the most gentle soap I could find for sensitive skin)
5-7 drops of Lavender essential oil
4 drops of red food coloring
3 drops of blue food coloring
6, 2 cup containers (I used Zip Lock containers when they were on sale at Christmas)

Mix the soap, essential oil, and food coloring together in a bowl, then add the epsom salt into a big bowl or tub (I used my sensory table tub and had by 4yr old mix it with me) then you let it dry over night or to let it dry outside for the afternoon if it's really hot. Then package them into 2 cup containers.

So getting to the prices of each one,

Salt $4
Essential oil $10 (but for one batch I am going to say about.50, a little bit goes a super long ways)
Bath soap $2 you won't use the whole bottle and I used baby magic with a coupon so it wasn't that much, but average you will spend about $2
Food coloring, I had- free
Zip lock containers .75 But you could easily but the salt into a zip lock bag and save money that way also.
Paper and stickers- free from my stash,
Grand total= 7.25 for all of it, so about 1.25 per gift, I think that is a great deal for something personal that you made with your daughter, I see this working out really well for Christmas.

My inspiration for this recipe is from:
http://paulaparrish.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/diy-bubbly-bath-salts.html

Teacher Gift

Here is a cute little back to school teacher gift, it is just small enough to fit a package of M&M's in, instead of cutting out all the little pieces that the school bus had, I used the print and cut feature and I am happy how it turned out. included on the bus is a cute little apple book mark that I really like also, however next time I will use thicker paper and the book mark will be smaller, but it works and I still like it.

This is where I got my inspiration
http://kreationsbykimberlyrae.com/blog/videotutorialsilhouetteguest/

Materials used:
Silhouette cutting file School Bus Box
Silhouette cutting file Apple bookmark
Staples white card stock
DCWV Celebration paper stack - Red Striped Glittered

I love giving gifts and I hope to post more inexpensive gifts soon, I love making stuff in jars, like cookie and brownie mixes and bath salts. So look for those soon!