me and my girl

Let's Cool It!

Ahhh.... the long, hazy, hot, humid days of summer..... they're officially here :)  This is the time of year when most of our outdoor activities are done early in the morning and afternoons are reserved for swimming and relaxing.  For the last week, however, all we can manage to do is avoid the numerous thunderstorms that darken nearly every day.  This week, Emma, Claire, and I wanted to share a bright and cheerful recipe for some wonderful Strawberry Lemonade.  It is very easy for the little ones to help out with...and they love eating as many of the strawberries as possible, so you have to work fast!  This is the perfect drink for relaxing in the shade after a nice long swim or for sitting inside in awe of the thunder, lightning, and rain...as is the case for us  ;) Strawberry Lemonade

5 lemons    about 1 1/3 cups for the lemonade and 1 lemon sliced in rings to add to the cups and the       pitcher 1 pint fresh strawberries, diced, chopped, sliced, or pureed...it's your choice 8-10 cups water 1 cup sugar

Wash each lemon and strawberry very well.  You will need the juice of about 4 lemons if you are using an electric juicer.  If you are using good old muscle power and a hand juicer, you may need 5 lemons or so.  Add the juice to the pitcher along with the sugar and stir.  Add the water and strawberries.

You may prepare your strawberries in a variety of ways, you can dice them, slice them, puree them, mash them, freeze the slices....whatever you prefer.  For ours, we diced them, then mashed them just a bit to release the juices.  Stir the strawberry lemonade mixture and add the lemon slices for garnish.

Sip slowly and Enjoy! **Hi, I'm Sandra! I have been married to my wonderful husband for 12 years and I am a homeschooling mom to four blessings. You can learn more about me here.   I would love for you to stop by and visit with me at my blog, My Inspired Heart, and see what creative adventures my family and I are up to!

Shear Joy!

One of Brooke's favorite things to do is re-decorate her dollhouse with fabric.

She's such a good big sister, helping Breanna follow in her footsteps.

This is the nearly-finished product:

***Deb is mom to four children, two of them crafty girls. When she's not crafting or schooling the children, she can be found working on her latest Sonflower Sisters curriculum or posting on their new blog: www.AsWeWalk.com.

looking forward to the tooth fairy!

Kristen helped her 5 year-old daughter make an adorable tooth fairy envelope since she is looking forward to the "big" day when her tooth falls out!  Aubry and I will be making one of these since her two front teeth are wiggling enough to make it impossible for her to eat an apple.

Kristen even wrote up a simple tutorial here.  Check it out!

salt dough fun

My kids love to play with dough of any kind.  Play dough, pie dough and now salt dough are favorites.  All you need are some cookie cutters, a rolling pin and some miscellaneous kitchen utensils and your kids will have tons of fun!

***You can find a simple salt-dough recipe here.

My kids always act like they are working out when they use the rolling pin.  Muscles flexed, face serious and a bit strained:

I lucked out and found a set of ABC cookie cutters for $1.00 at the thrift store:

Everyone in the family now has their name forever in salt dough:

Happy creating!

Sprouting Some Fun!

Here is a fun treat for you, your kiddo and your kitty (if you have one). Wheat grass is extremely easy to grow and is great for green smoothies and/or nurturing your cat. This also makes a great science lesson even for the smallest ones in your family.

 

First, buy some wheat berries. They can be found in any supermarket that sells bulk grains or in health food stores. Place them in any kind of dish and cover them with water.

 

Soak the berries for 24-48 hours or until they begin to sprout. We change the water if it begins to look cloudy. Sprouted berries are fun to look at and pull apart.

Sprinkle the sprouted berries on top of your potting soil. You can use a very shallow dish if you like. (Pie tins make a nice little indoor lawn.) Go ahead and pack the berries close together--the seeds take up more room than the grass will. Water the soil, cover tightly with plastic wrap and put the pot into a dark place.

When the seedlings have fully sprouted, remove plastic wrap and place the pot near a window to continue to grow and green up. This is a great time to talk about why plants are green.

 

Within a few days you have grass! You can give it to your cat when it is a few inches tall. You want to leave enough time for the roots grow deep enough that your cat doesn't tug the blades completely out of the pot. If the grass is for you, you can start cutting whenever there is enough for your purpose.

Grass makes our indoor kitty frisky!

 

 

Enjoy!

wisdom has two parts

Mary Jars

We recently read the biblical account of Mary breaking her alabaster jar of perfume over Jesus' feet and wiping them with her hair. We made our own Mary Jars with these small glass vases. We used puffy paint on some, and colored permanent marker on others. They made great gifts. They'd be even better with a ribbon and tag with the Scripture reference on them.

***Deb is mom to four children, two of them crafty girls. When she's not crafting or schooling the children, she can be found working on her latest Sonflower Sisters curriculum or posting on their new blog: www.AsWeWalk.com.

Princess Streamers

My girls love anything and everything princess...lots of dresses, shoes, lip gloss, dancing, magic wands, purses, glittery gloves, hair pretties.....but, we were lacking one important thing!  Princess streamers!  A princess must have her very own flowing streamer to dance around with, you know. Emma's dance class this year had something similar, and when I saw these cute heart shaped bangle bracelets, I knew exactly what to do with them.  Here's how we did it....

You'll need one bangle bracelet per child and a variety of ribbons to tie onto the bangle.  After I purchased these fairly inexpensive ribbons, I thought about regular gift wrapping ribbon....it would probably be a cheaper alternative and you could curl the ends a little.  But, any ribbon should do just fine.

Just select which ribbon to start with and cut it to your preferred length...enough so that it streams easily, but not so long as to trip your little ones.  Tie them onto the bangle and then once more to ensure that it is in a knot and will stay put.

Continue cutting varying lengths of ribbon and tying them in place....this is so easy for even the smallest kids to do themselves.

Once you have your desired amount of ribbon tied onto the bangle, you're all done!  How easy is that?!  And, how fun and easy this craft would be for a princess party, tea party, sleepovers, or just a lazy summer afternoon with nothing better to do than pretend to be a princess.

We know you'll have so much fun with these!

ENJOY, Friends!!

***Hi, I'm Sandra! I have been married to my wonderful husband for 12 years and I am a homeschooling mom to four blessings. You can learn more about me here.   I would love for you to stop by and visit with me at my blog,  My Inspired Heart, and see what creative adventures my family and I are up to!