My brother Jeff recently visited the country of Jordan and was introduced to a lemon juice drink speckled with mint. It’s considered a sipping drink as it’s pretty strong and flavorful. He loved it so much that he came up with his own recipe for Mint Lemonade and he’s sharing it with all of us.
Recipe for Mint Lemonade:
4 cups water
2 1/2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (8-10 lemons)
1/4 cup finely diced mint
1 cup sugar
First, prepare your mint. My brother likes to de-vein the mint leaf, so it doesn’t taste too earthy, then dices it up super fine.
Then squeeze your fresh lemons. I highly suggest an automatic lemon squeezer, making the process of squeezing 10 lemons a snap.
Then add your water and sugar and blend. I love these blenders with spouts, I’m going to have to get one as I’ll be making this tasty drink a lot.
Now start sipping! The blend of lemon and mint is delicous. I also love the green flecks of mint that come out. You can strain the mint if you don’t want it to show up, but I think it makes the drink all the more fancy. This is one of my new favorite drinks. I love all things sour and this lemony drink fits right in. Thanks, Jeff, for sharing your yummy creation.
For birthday’s, I love to pick party themes and play games and eat cake all centered around a theme. My little girl just turned 3 and for her birthday she chose to have a Care Bear Party. We celebrated with hearts, rainbows, and bears - Cheer Bear’s her favorite. And I have to say that life has now come full circle for me as my daughter has embraced the love of Care Bears, “Care-a-lot, we care-a-lot, clap clap - clap clap“! You can even take this fun Care Bear quiz to see which little bear you are. I’m Harmony Bear - always helping others get along!
Once my kids choose what type of party theme they want, I get to work on what games can be played or what the cake will look like to support the theme. There’s lots of great party websites out there with supplies, games, and cake ideas.
Here’s a few Birthday Party Sites I check out for almost every birthday:
For the Care Bear Party, my daughter wanted “cupcakes with fire” (meaning with candles)! I made cupcakes with rainbow colors of frosting. Then shaped the cupcakes on a tray into a rainbow, just like the tummy of Cheer Bear.
When my daughter’s two friends first arrived, I had blown up balloons for them to kick and hit around. They would be content on playing with these for the whole hour! Then we played a few games centered around Care Bears: A Care Bear Blanket Toss, Pin the Rainbow Belly Badge on Cheer Bear, and a treasure hunt for their go home goodie bags.
My son has been planning his next birthday theme for months, except it keeps changing. It’s Ninja Turtles, then worms, then Transformers, then Star Wars, and so on. What fun theme’s have you chosen for parties?
Well, we had a great time at the party. I’ve learned what can make or break a party as a parent. I’ll be posting more on birthday tips soon. Happy Birthday my little princess!
I can’t remember where I saw this great idea, (if it’s yours, let me know) but a special fairy came to the home and left goodies in the good little child’s backpack on the first day of school. Well, I caught up with that same fairy and she made it to our house this year for my son’s first day of Kindergarten.
We placed his backpack outside his door and he went straight to bed so the First Day of School Fairy could leave something special in his backpack. Right when he woke up this morning, we heard him cheer and he came running to tell us what was inside. The fairy brought a few school supplies, activities for when he gets home from school, and an after school snack. Boy, that fairy is somethin’ special. I hope she’s able to come back next year!
Here’s a few other First Day of School ideas to be shared:
As we’re getting ready and excited for the first day of school (next Monday), we’ve been reading some fun children’s books that talk about school. Here’s a list of fun books for going back to school.
Thanks to all of you who entered! One lucky winner was chosen at random through the website Random.org. #242 Jen S. is the winner of a beautiful Scrabble Tile Pendant from Homestudio. I’ll get your information to to them and they’ll ship off your new necklace. Congrats! For everyone else, visit Homestudio for purchasing your own pendant, they sell them buy 2 get 1 free. Or make your own from the Scrabble Tile Pendant Tutorial Homestudio provided us. Thanks Mark and Stefani. Happy Scrabbling!
I’ve always known there was some craft to be done with a bath sponge. Our Guest Make and Taker Sharla, from My Little Gems, is sharing how they used these sponges to make fun silly creatures.
Thanks to Marie for the opportunity to guest post on Make and Takes. I really enjoy this blog and all the others out there who inspire me in so many ways.
I’m a stay at home mom who taught school for almost 10 years before staying home. I have two boys ages 3 and 1. We live in sunny Arizona where it is often too hot to go outside in the summer. So this summer I have tried to come up with lots of fun and entertaining things to do with the kids while staying inside. I love to create, exercise, and find fun inexpensive things to do. Here is an idea we came up with using bath sponges.
Here is what you will need for the creatures:
pipe cleaners (chenille stems)
net sponges (we call them loofahs) from the dollar store
googley eyes
glue gun
crimping pliers used to make jewerly are helpful but not required- (any tool to flatten wire will work.)
Thread the pipe cleaner through the netting in a few places so that it does not rip through. Thread the second color close to the first one but in a different spot. Twist the two colors together to make the desired legs, arms, or antennae. Older children could twist the pipe cleaners together and even thread them through the sponge themselves.
Using a hot glue gun, place a dab of glue on the sponge where you want the eyes to be. Carefully place the eye on the glue spot and use a popsicle stick or other tool to push eye into the glue. This will help you so you don’t burn yourself. When you place hot glue on a netted-sponge, it will spread out when doing this because the surface is not completely solid, so be careful.
Now add any parts to your sponge you desire. We added a little mouth with a small piece of pipe cleaner. If you have small loofahs, you can cut the top strings apart and tie several together to make one big creature. HELPFUL TIP: After placing the pipe cleaners on, bend the ends down just a bit and press together so the wire does not stick out. I found that using some crimping pliers worked really well to get the wires flat so that they don’t poke the kids when they are playing with them.
Obviously, this isn’t meant to be used in the bathtub or shower. It could be used as a puppet, or a quiet toy for those times when you need one. My son (who is 3) just enjoys playing with them and using his imagination. Have fun creating and pretending!
Thanks Sharla for sharing such a crafty idea. We’ll be having fun creating our sponge creatures and making them come to life.
My kids love to eat hot dogs for lunch. So I’ve been trying to serve them a little different to spice things up a bit.
Ollie the Octopus: I found this fun hot dog idea from Easy Recipes for Kids. I cooked the hot dog first. Then cut 8 octopus legs, but left a large section at the top for the head. Even a fun mustard smiley face was drawn on. Then we named the octopus Ollie before he got gobbled up.
Wiggly Worms: When I did the post about the How to Eat Fried Worms, I had a comment from Abra Leah to make hot dog worms. So of course we had to try it. She says to cut up the hot dog strips, toss them in boiling water for a few minutes, and then drain the water. Now you’ve got worms for lunch.
Hot Dogs on a Stick: We used the same lollipop sticks from our Grape Pops. These were easy to dip and fun for them to eat.
Today’s giveaway is an actual “Make and Take”! We get to learn how to make these fabulously simple pendants and a winner gets to take one of them home as well. Home Studio, the hugely successful Etsy company, is sharing with us how they make their Scrabble Tile Pendants and giving one away to a Make and Takes reader!
Home Studio is a husband & wife team, Mark and Stefani, who’ve come up with these beautiful and unique designs for their pendants. The gorgeous designs from Home Studio is what sets them apart from the rest. You can buy their pendants in their shop, or see their pattern to make them yourself: Scrabble Tile Pendant Tutorial. These pendants make lovely necklaces or charms, and are perfect for gifts.
They’re giving away this beautiful pendant called, Cherry Blossoms in Black and a silver plated cable chain to go with. To enter, leave a comment on this post by Thursday, August 21st @ midnight for your chance to be randomly selected. I’ll announce the winner on Friday morning. Good luck and have fun crafting your own pendant in the meantime.
Cindy at Skip to My Lou has asked me to guest post a fun storytime and activity over at her blog. She’s celebrating a week of books and getting people excited to read, spreading the word about Read to Feed. So for today’s storytime, come visit me at Skip to My Lou to see what craziness a few silly animals are having.
