Thursday, June 30, 2011

Pudding Popsicles

These are delicious!  Creamy and rich with many possiblities.

Here is what you need:

1 small pkg instant chocolate pudding
1 3/4 cup half and half
10 Oreos, crushed


Mix together the pudding and half and half with a wire whisk.  Have your kids crush 10 Oreos in a Ziploc bag, by hitting the Oreos with a spoon.  Pour the Oreos in the pudding and stir.  Spoon the mixture into your popsicle maker or in small cups with popsicle sticks.  Freeze.  To get them out of the popsicle molds you can run warm water on the outside of the container.


Variations with this recipe:
Try using the mint, peanut butter or chocolate Oreos.  Try different variations of pudding such as cheesecake pudding with blueberries or strawberries (July is national blueberry month), banana pudding with crushed vanilla wafers, or vanilla pudding with diced bananas and strawberries.




Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Yogurt Pie ~ June is National Dairy Month

This pie is so easy and very good.


All you need is:
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 container of Cool Whip
2 (6 oz) containers of yogurt, any kind (I used Key Lime Pie)


In a large bowl mix together the Cool Whip and yogurts.  Once it has been mixed thoroughly, pour mixture in the pie crust.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours and then serve.


Just think of all the possiblities...strawberry yogurt and fresh strawberries, orange creme yogurt, lemon yogurt, banana cream yogurt, chocolate mousse yogurt with an Oreo pie crust.  Post a comment and let us know what you try.


Enjoy!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Homemade Bomb Pops-National Bomb Pop Day, June 30th

I love Bomb Pops!  From the very first one I had at the local golf course as a kid, I was hooked.  They are patriotic, a perfect combination of red, white and blue. 
We decided to try to create our own.

We started with cranberry juice.  Fill a 9X13 inch pan with 12 plastic solo cups.
Fill the cup with about 1 inch of cranberry juice.  Freeze.
Fill another inch with 7up or Lemonade. Add popsicle sticks.  Freeze.
Once that layer is frozen, add blue Hawaiian Punch.  Freeze for a final time.



YUM, and enjoy.







Sunday, June 26, 2011

Microwave S'mores-National Camping Month

I was at the store this afternoon and discovered the most amazing new product!  Stackermallows by Kraft!  They are flat little marshmallows that are perfect for your indoor s'more.



Place 1 graham cracker on a plate.  Put a Stackermallow on a chocolate bar on the graham cracker.
Cook in microwave for about 15 seconds.


Cover with another graham cracker and eat. 

YUM YUM.


National Camping Month-Flashlight Bubbles

Flashlight Bubbles
Have you ever blown bubbles at night? Your kids will think you are strange for suggesting it, but when you throw a flashlight in, they will love the idea!
Grab a pack of colorful tissue paper.  We got this pack from the
Dollar Tree, for yes, $1.


Cover a flash light with tissue paper and place a rubber band around it
to keep it in place.

When you turn it on it will reflect the color of the tissue paper. 

Blow bubbles and shine the colorful flash light on the bubble.  It of course reveals a rainbow on the outside of the bubble, but when you look at the center of the bubble it will reflect the color of the tissue.


Saturday, June 25, 2011

Simple Fire Starters - National Camping Month


Looking for a great way to make a quick firestarter for your camp fire?  This is super simple and guaranteed to start a quick fire.
Start with crayon nubs


Roll the nubs in waxed paper.


Light and ignite. 


To make it even more flamable, create this "bird's nest" out of jute.  Just fray the jute to mold into a bird's nest and place the firestarter in the nest.  Ignite and watch it go up in flames.  Of course, you need twigs to keep adding to it until you get a good fire going.

Happy Camping!



Happy Birthday, Eric Carle! - June 25

My very creative friend, Melanie, posted this on her blog, Espresso Yourself Creatively.  http://www.espressoyourselfcreatively.com/2011/06/very-hungry-caterpillar-inspired.html

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" inspired windsock/kite & sandwiches


It's a bird. It's a plane. It's...a caterpillar kite? Or a windsock, depending on which kid you ask. Inspired by all the great bug books, we read a few of our favorites today and had a blast with painting outside. All the boys have made caterpillars from small plates at preschool, but took it one step further and tied it to ribbon. The wind kept blowing it away, and before we knew it...a kite was taking flight!




Grab some paper plates & start painting!





Love, love, love washable outdoor paint!

Punch holes in the sides of the plates &
tie the plates together with ribbon.



We glued on googly eyes:


Our caterpillar, looking for some food:



Two of our favorite books:
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (Eric Carle)
"Caterpillar Spring Butterfly Summer" (Hood/Gevry)





Even though we'd had a big snack, to quote Eric Carle: "...but we were still hungry."
So, we headed in to make these fun caterpillar inspired sandwiches:


Easy, easy with a Pampered Chef circle sandwich maker,
and my toddler loved decorating them with fruit loops, grapes, and sprinkles:)



At our picnic we even saw a butterfly flutter by,
but who puts down a sprinkle sandwich to take a picture?


"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks
to us every hour, if we will only tune in."
(George Washington Carver)

Banana Boats Recipe

I know I already posted this in honor of it being National Camping month.  But, I thought it beared repeating in honor of the Great American Backyard Campout today.  Will you be camping out tonight?  What fun activities can you share with us that you do on a campout?  Recipes?  Games? Traditions?  Please share them with us on our Facebook Page or blog.  We would love to hear from you.








Banana Boats
An all time favorite.
Ingredients:
chocolate chips
bananas
graham crackers

Slit the banana down the center. Slice the banana while it is still inside the peel. Stuff with chocolate chips and cook over heat.
NEW IDEA: We ran out of spoons to eat our banana boat, so we had to improvise. We happened to have lots of graham crackers from the s'mores so we hulled out the boat with our graham crackers. Delicious!


Wintergreen Lifesavers Spark- Great American Backyard Campout June 25


Get Sparky For the Great American Backyard Campout

These fun candies appear to freshen your breath and taste great, right?  But, did you know that when you bite on a wint-o-green lifesaver in the dark, it makes a spark? Actually, all sugar produces a spark when chewed, but it’s invisible to the human eye. So, why can you see a spark when eating a wint-o-green lifesaver? The wintergreen oil turns ultraviolet light into blue green light, thus allowing us to see the spark!



So, tonight when you are outside, grab those wint-o-green mints and set off some sparks.

Great American Backyard Campout- June 25

Fudge Stripe S'mores
I'm sure we have all had traditional s'mores with chocolate bars, graham crackers and marshmallows. 
Check out this fun and easy twist on s'mores. 

Recipe:  1 package of Fudge Stripe Cookies
              1 package of marshmallows.

Roast marshmallows and place warm marshmallows between fudge stripe cookies.


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

International Fairy Day- June 24

FAIRY GARDENS    
Two years ago, my horticulturally gifted sister-in-law, inspired my daughters to do something fun and creative.  They started their first Fairy Gardens.  My daughter, Maddie's first garden was created in an old bird bath and my other daughter, Carolyn's garden was started in a plant saucer.   That lasted a while, but the fairies quickly outgrew that area.  This year the girls decided to combine their gardens into one big garden on the side of our patio. 

A fairy garden can be hidden among your current garden, or in individual containers.  Our neighbors started a garden this year.  They created a bed for their garden.  They found lots of fun accessories from www.hearthsong.com.  These are perfect for the young fairy gardener.  You can even order fairies.

If you would like to try your hand at creating a fairy garden, here are some fun, inexpensive ways to do that.  I recently taught a class where 11 girls created their own garden.  This is perfect for a summer birthday party, and took about 1 1/2 hours to complete.

First.....Start with a saucer or container for your garden. 

Second.....Figure out what kind of plants you want to include in your garden.  We purchased some Irish Moss, and dug up some ground cover from our yard.  You can use flowers, alyssum and they even sell miniature trees especially for fairy gardens. 

Third.....Figure out what you want to include in your garden.  We created these fun little houses out of mini bird houses from Michaels.  The houses are only $1.  We used our jig saw and cut the hole to be a doorway and sanded the edges.  It took about 10 minutes to do 11 houses.   We used acrylic paint to piant them, and even embellished the roof by hot gluing stones on them.

Fourth....We created some fun wishing wells.  Gather twigs and sticks, some bark, a small glass jar like a baby food jar, two rubber bands, and a glue gun.  Wrap the rubber bands around the jar tucking twigs and sticks under the bands.  Place two taller sticks directly across from each other to hold the bark roof.  Hot glue the bark to the taller sticks for the roof.  You can fill the jar with blue stones or allow it to naturally fill with water.

Fifth....Gather some fun decorations.  We used natural rock, big and small, and blue glass stones from the Dollar Tree.  The blue stones make great water, creeks and ponds.  We found these fun miniature clay pots and butterflies at Michael's.
 
Last....decorate to your heart's content. 

Many garden supply stores sell fun benches, bridges, arbors, chandeliers, and more.  We even used old tea cups and small terra cotta pots for little houses.  Whatever creative thing you and your kids come up with, is sure to be a hit with the fairies that will visit your garden.




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