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Friday, August 28, 2015

If You Give a Girl a Passport: How to Fill the Last Two Weeks Before the Trip of a Lifetime #ShareFunshine #ad #cbias

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ShareFunshine #CollectiveBias
If you give a girl a passport, she's going to ask for a trip to England. Chances are, if you plan a trip to England, she's going to need some distractions to fill the last two weeks before you go.

Lynzie and I are headed to England in less than two weeks! We're going to spend three days in Bath, a day in Chawton, and two days in Winchester. It's going to be a fun-filled, Jane Austen-fangirl, tea drinking, garden strolling extravaganza! We just need to get through these Last. Two. Weeks.

Lynzie has always been super creative so she's done pretty well filling her hours at a time when we'd normally be starting our homeschool year. This week, she's been having some fun with crafts and snacks. Last night, she made this adorable garden gnome coin bank from a Dr Pepper® bottle. 

Make sure to enter the Share a Little Funshine giveaway and then read on to see how she completed this super cute project. (Widget may take a little bit to load.)

Most of our family members are huge fans of Dr Pepper® so we usually end up including it in fun activities like last year's end of the homeschool year party or as a complement to my candy bar granola bars. This week, I picked up a 2-liter of Dr Pepper® Cherry from Walmart.

I had made Monster Cookies over the weekend so everyone got a little bit of pop to go with their cookie (or half a cookie for the little ones---these are big!). It's really easy to make a pop bottle coin bank like Lynzie made me. First empty the bottle, then wash it and remove the label. 

Next, use a sharp pair of scissors to cut an opening for your coins. Make sure it's big enough to get the coins back out again!

Cut plastic can be sharp so I melted the edges of the opening to smooth them out.

Finally, paint it up super cute and let it dry. What a great idea to make an iconic British garden gnome!

I'm already saving for next year's trip with my adorable new garden gnome coin bank!

Michael has been pretty great about listening to all of Lynzie's exciting plans for England. I love it that my teens get along so great. She even shared her M&M's® Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches with him while they were having a chat outside.

Speaking of M&M's®, they're the key ingredient in my family's favorite Monster Cookies recipe. My mom has been making these for us since I was little and I love to make them once or twice a year for my own family. I use big bags of M&M's® Plain and M&M's® Peanut because I like to have some extras to push into the tops of the cookies to make them extra colorful.

Monster Cookies
1 lb. butter or margarine
60 oz. peanut butter
1/3 c. baking soda
2 lb. brown sugar
4 c. sugar
2 TB corn syrup
1 T vanilla
1 dozen eggs
2 c. chocolate chips
18 c. oats
2 c. each M&M's® Plain and M&M's® Peanut + extra for topping

Mix the butter and peanut butter together in a stand mixer. Sprinkle baking soda on top and mix in well, breaking up any clumps. Pour mixture into a soup pot and add sugars, corn syrup, and vanilla. Beat eggs and add to the mixture. Mix very well with a large spoon. Stir in chocolate chips and oats. Stir in M&M's®. Scoop out cookie dough with 1/4 cup measuring cup and bake on ungreased pans at 350ยบ for about 15 minutes.

With a can of Dr Pepper® Cherry, a yummy cookie snack, some sunshine, and a great book, Lynzie was able to conquer one more morning leading up to our trip. I know it's going to be the experience of a lifetime---even though the last couple weeks can seem like forever!

Looking for instant savings on some of your favorite products? Click here to save on M&M's®, SNICKERS® Ice Cream Bars, Dr Pepper® Cherry, Skittles®, Pedigree Dentastix®. Also, Download the Blippar app from your Apple or Android store to scan your package and receive exclusive content.

3 comments:

  1. I love Dr. Pepper and monster cookies. Have fun in England!

    ReplyDelete
  2. More posts! I can't wait to see what you 'gals' are up to next!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I never thought to upcycle a soda bottle into a coin bank! Awesome idea! Have fun on your trip! (client)

    ReplyDelete

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Mrs. Sarah Coller

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