October 8, 2015 by Krista

Build a Jack-O-Lantern Printable

Hey there! I’m thrilled you’re here today! Are up to your eyeballs in Halloween spirit yet?

Today, I have a fun Jack-O-Lantern printable for you. I have been trying to take more teaching moments with Little J. He doesn’t have nearly the itching desire to learn like Big J seems to and it’s been harder to take educational moments with him and it’s been frustrating. Not to mention, I have an 18-month old who’s daily mission seems to search-and-destroy. I think he’s succeeding. Ah, well, we need to get rid of stuff before Christmas gets here anyway, right?

BUILD A JACK-O-LANTERN PRINTABLE

Pages: 1 2

October 1, 2015 by Krista

Halloween Bucket List Printable

How is it already October?! Didn’t we just go back to school a couple weeks ago? According to my calendar, we’re almost half way through the semester! Along with October comes lots of fun things: sweaters, pretty colors on the trees, pumpkin everything and, here at While He Was Napping, October Spooktacular. It’ll be a month full of fun Halloween posts to help you get in the spooky spirit, and, before you know it, All Hallow’s Eve will be upon us. Make sure to check out the archives from the pat five years too, for even more fun Halloween ideas.

HALLOWEEN BUCKET LIST PRINTABLE

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

A month seems like a long time, but I often find it’s not. I created a Halloween Bucket List for us to use so that we can make sure we get all the haunting good fun we can manage out of Halloween before it’s gone for another year. My mom doesn’t like Halloween, so we didn’t do much to celebrate it when I was growing up. I enjoy doing fun Halloween activities with my boys and I want them to have some fun memories of the Halloween season when they get older.

To get your own FREE copy of this fun printable, click on the image above. Another window will open and you can download the file and save it to your computer. Then print it. You can frame it and mark off the completed activities with a dry erase marker… or just let the kiddos color in the Jack-o-lantern after you do the activity. That’s the route we’re taking this year – simple.

Want more fun countdown ideas? Check out these other printables:

Kid’s Halloween Activity and Boredom Buster Jar
We use this one as more of a boredom buster jar for when we need something to do and my boys are having a hard time coming up with something. I don’t have to spit out idea after idea because they are in a whiny mood and shoot down every suggestion. They pick a slip and they can do that or go play in their room.

Halloween Countdown Calendar
I did this one with Big J back when he was my only crazy boy, but I think I will try it with my younger boys this year… I always have a had time finding things to keep them out of trouble. Their attention spans don’t seem to be as long as Big J’s was at this age. I’ll take all the ideas I can find!

Halloween Bucket List (2013)
More fun activity ideas from our Halloween Bucket List of a couple years ago.

September 30, 2015 by Krista

Save Your Memories with Amazon Cloud Drive

Just the other day, my mom brought me her cell phone and “Can you fix this?” A daughter’s favorite words, right? But, she is my momma and she did raise me and all that stuff, so… I started looking around to figure out what the problem was. Turns out her phone was so full of photos that it wouldn’t do much of anything else. At all. “What do I do?” she asked. “I don’t want to lose all my photos!” And then I introduced her to the wonderful world of cloud storage. Do you have Amazon Prime? Did you know that if you do, you already have access to Amazon Cloud Drive? You get unlimited photo storage and 5 GB of storage for videos and other files. Amazon Cloud Drive lets you securely back up and store existing content collections and automatically upload endless amounts of new content, including photos, videos, movies, music, and files. Amazon Cloud Drive can be accessed via the web on Mac, PC, and your mobile device. The easiest way to get started is using the Amazon Photo app, available on Android and iOS devices, which automatically backs up your camera roll – freeing up valuable space on your device, so you can take more pictures and videos!

SAVE YOUR MEMORIES WITH AMAZON CLOUD DRIVE

Setting up Amazon Cloud Storage is easy and only takes a few moments. Here’s step-by-step directions to get you started. Don’t lose precious moments because your device gets lost or ruined. Take a moment and set this up, especially if you already have Amazon Prime! If you don’t have Prime, Amazon has two price plans:

Unlimited Everything Plan ($59.99 per year—equivalent of less than $5 per month): Store an infinite number of new and existing photos, videos, files, documents, movies, and music in Cloud Drive.

Unlimited Photos Plan ($11.99 per year—equivalent of less than $1 per month): Similar to the Prime member benefit – non Prime members can also store an infinite number of photos in Cloud Drive without worrying about taking up space on phones, cameras, or other devices. This plan also includes 5 GB of additional storage for videos or other documents and files.

Ok, ready? Watch how easy it is to set this up. It does take a little bit of time – maybe 20 minutes – but it’s so worth knowing your photos won’t be lost even if you have some sort of disaster. Now, it’s on your desktop and you can backup your computer. But what about all those photos on your phone?! Installing Amazon Cloud Drive on your phone is even easier than on your desktop – and probably what you really want anyway. Save the photos! Here’s what to do to set it up on your mobile device. In addition, the Amazon Photo app allows you to access your photos and personal videos across devices (for example family photos you may have uploaded via the web). I set up instant upload to the cloud for the gallery on my mom’s phone. She was able to delete the photos that were taking up 13 GB on her phone. Her phone ran much more smoothly after that. Shocking, I’m sure. But she can now see photos she takes with her phone on her larger tablet screen. And, whenever she takes new photos, they will automatically back up to the cloud. Even if she looses her phone or it breaks or it gets ruined, her photos and files are safe. That is the most important thing to me in cloud storage. Instant upload for my photos and lots of space to store them all. I use my phone not only to capture photos of my kids and our lives, but for my blog as well. I love knowing I won’t lose my photos if something happens to my phone, but it is also incredibly convenient to have my blog photos automatically backed up to the cloud. It cuts out a step in the whole “composing a post” process, because I don’t have to transfer my photos to my computer. Not only that, I don’t have to worry about storing them on my hard drive, taking up valuable hard drive space; and, there’s no threat of my hard drive crashing and loosing all the time I’ve spent on editing those photos. I spend an average of 1-2 hours editing photos for a single post and I love knowing my time spent editing won’t disappear if my computer crashes. Storing to the cloud is just super convenient! Cloud storing makes sharing photos easy! Photos and files can be shared via private links from within the Amazon Photo app or by selecting a folder or file to be shared using the web interface on your computer. Sharing your photos is fast, easy and secure. As with anything you put online, there is a chance that someone somewhere will try to get their hands on it. Amazon has secure servers to store your photos and files. Your photos are protected within your account.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

September 25, 2015 by Krista

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BakeInTheFun #CollectiveBias

It’s official… autumn is here! Hooray! I love summer, I really do. But, since becoming a mom, autumn has slowly stolen my heart. The colors, the traditions, the holiday season kicking off, and the foods. Oh, the foods. So many fabulous flavors come with the autumn season. One of my favorites is apple and my sweet tooth has a soft spot for caramel. How perfect is the caramel apple combination? Perfect enough for some cupcakes! Caramel Apple Cupcakes have some of autumn’s best flavors all in a delicious little cake just bursting with flavor.

I’ve got a killer recipe for you today that will make you taste buds scream “AUTUMN IS HERE!” They are super easy to make – from a box! Wanna make baking even easier? Enter the #bakeinthefun sweepstakes by voting for your favorite submission. You could win a KitchenAid! Get the details! Let’s get to baking those amazing autumn Caramel Apple Cupcakes, shall we?

CARAMEL APPLE CUPCAKES

Print This Recipe

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 22 mins

Total time: 32 mins

Serves: 24 cupcakes

Cupcakes bursting with delicious autumn flavors - caramel apple. Soft, moist cakes full of apple flavor and topped with creamy tangy frosting.

Ingredients

15.25 oz Pillsbury™ Moist Supreme® Caramel Cake Mix
¼ cup Mott's® Apple Sauce Original
¼ cup oil
3 eggs
½ cup water
½ cup Snapple® Apple

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Spray lightly with cooking spray, if desired to help the cupcakes release more easily after baking.
Combine the cake mix, apple sauce, oil, eggs, water and Snapple® Apple in a large bowl.
Mix until well combined.
Fill each cupcake liner ¾ full.
Bake 22- 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool 10-15 minutes before removing cakes from the pan.
Cool completely before frosting.

You’ve got the cupcakes, now comes my favorite part of making cupcakes: the decorating! When I think of caramel apples, I think bright green and that beautiful brown caramel color. I wanted to put those on display on these cupcakes. While I was at Walmart the other day, I saw these new M&M’s® I couldn’t pass up – M&M’s® Pecan Pie! They were perfect with their fall colors to use as a garnish.

Print This Recipe

Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 24 cupcakes or 48 mini cupcakes

Tart apple and sweet caramel combine in this delicious cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

2 sixteen oz cans Pillsbury™ Supreme Creamy® Cream Cheese Seasonal Frosting
2-3 Tbsp caramel sauce (I used a store-bought ice cream topping, but you could make your own)
Lime green gel food coloring
M&M's® Pecan Pie flavored for garnish
M&M's® Milk Chocolate Harvest for garnish

Instructions

Prepare a pastry bag with a large round icing tip. The larger, the better.
Place the empty pastry bag inside a tall glass and fold the top of the bag over the rim of the glass.
If you want to create a marbled effect in the frosting, draw lines or dots inside the bag with the gel food coloring.
Fill the bag with the Pillsbury™ Supreme Creamy® Cream Cheese Seasonal Frosting. Add a small squeeze of food coloring into the glass as you put each scoop of the frosting into the pastry bag. When the bag is full or the frosting is all in the bag, remove it from the glass.
Squeeze the frosting around a bit to help mix up the food coloring. You just want it streaked, not completely mixed; don't squeeze and mix it too much.
Pipe the frosting onto a cupcake, starting at the outer edge and moving inward in a circular pattern, ending with a point in the middle.
Put the caramel sauce inside a zip top bag. Snip off just the very point of one corner of the bag.
Drizzle the caramel sauce on the cupcake. I put it between the lines of frosting, which helped hold it where it needed to be and kept it from dripping all over. If you frost the cupcakes with a knife, you can drizzle little zigzags of caramel sauce on the tops of the cupcakes.
Garnish the tops of the cupcakes with M&M's®.
Place the cupcakes in the fridge until ready to serve.

Bake In The Fun Caramel Apple Cupcakes CloseUp

I really love the way these cupcakes turned out. The apple is just tart enough and the caramel just sweet enough… it’s a perfect combination. It’s autumn in a little cake. I can’t think of a better way to start out the season! Grab everything you need at Walmart to make these delicious treats and check out these other delicious recipes! And don’t forget to enter the #bakeinthefun sweepstakes!

MARS Bake In The Fun Sweepstakes

Grab your ingredients for these deliciously Harvest-inspired cupcakes on your next trip to Walmart. All ingredients can be found in the grocery section of the store.

September 23, 2015 by Krista

I Will Be Grateful For This Day Printable Quote

It’s been a long few weeks over here at the Napping Household. Mr. Napping has been traveling with work a lot and my days have been full of boys, running errands, meetings, blogging, teaching classes, cooking dinners, working out, trying to get my house under control from the chaos that was summer and just overall craziness. Baby N has started biting – super, right?! – and my brother-in-law dropped in for the weekend with about a day of prior notice. Did you miss the chaos of summer part… Our guest room has been the catch-all and multi-purpose room for the last few months. That all breaks down to my nights being much shorter than I would like them to be. I’m sure some of you out there can relate. I am not the only one with full and crazy days and nights with more time out of bed than I wish.

I guess you could say I’ve been a little overwhelmed and stressed. So, by the middle of week 2 on a two-week stretch in the single parent world – kudos to those of you who do this day in and day out, you are superstars! – I wanted nothing more than to binge on an entire bag of OREO’s while my kids were in bed and then some chocolate cake… and maybe just a bit of ice cream.

I was looking through a collection of quotes I have on my phone in a Keep note and this one struck me. I will be grateful… I needed to see it. Repeatedly. So, here it is in printable quotation form. Even though the days are long and the nights are anything but, some day, I will miss this. I will miss the giggles and the snuggles, the bedtime stories and the games. I might even miss the toys on the floor… maybe? Maybe not. In any case, I don’t want to wish the days away or miss the special moments that are interspersed with the bickering and messes. I will not miss it. I will recognize it. I will be grateful for the good and not dwell on the less than good. I will be grateful for this day. Not every day is good, but there is good in every day! …And that might have to be my next inspirational printable quote. Click the image to get the download link and print off your own high resolution copy.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

BUILD A JACK-O-LANTERN PRINTABLE

HALLOWEEN BUCKET LIST PRINTABLE

SAVE YOUR MEMORIES WITH AMAZON CLOUD DRIVE

CARAMEL APPLE CUPCAKES

Privacy Policy