Build a Fort

Another inside activity that I did with Hudson this week since it has been so hot outside. He loves building forts and playing in his camping tent. So I thought it might be fun to switch it up a bit. We made a fort in his room with the following things:

• old sheet
• string (length depends on your ceiling height)
• clothes pins or chip clips

I took an old sheet and cut two small slits about 2 inches apart at the center. Place your string through the slits so that it's coming out the top of both holes. I used rick rack because it was all I could find. Then I looped it on the air vent on Hudson's ceiling. Since the rick rack is hanging the sheet low, it did not block the air coming into his room. Then we took the clothes pins and attached the edges of the sheet to his curtains and tied another edge to his closet door knob. Then I placed his play toy door (which my future brother-in-law made and was such a clever idea!) at another side to hold the sheet up and create an entrance.  Get creative with what you have around the house or in the room to hold up the sheet. Once we were done it made a great, fun, new place to read books, play with his toys, and tell stories. Hudson loves telling stories! :)

Cereal Box Guitar

So it's been averaging about 115 degrees outside this week! Too hot to go outside and play... So we've been doing some new activities and crafts inside to keep Hudson entertained. I was inspired by the very cute cereal box guitars Melissa over at Frakers Acres made. You can find them here. This morning we made a guitar from an empty cereal box and a few other supplies. Here is what you'll need:

• empty cereal box
• paper towel roll or wrapping paper roll cut in half
• rubber bands or we used silly bands (it's all I could find!)
• scissors or a craft knife works even better
• masking tape
• stickers or whatever you want to have you child decorate their guitar with

First tape the top of your box closed. Now trace a circle in the middle of the cereal box, I used the masking tape roll to make my circle. Cut out the circle; if you have a craft knife it will be much easier then using scissors.

Use the craft knife to now cut an "x" shape at the center of the top of the box. Make sure it is large enough to push the paper towel roll through, but not so big that it falls right through. Now push the paper towel roll through the "x" that you cut. Make four small cuts at the end of the roll, like the picture above. Place tape over it and push it back up to the top of the box. Secure with extra tape inside and on top.

Your box should now look something like this at the top. Now you can add your rubber bands. However, I could only find one rubber band in our house... So we used silly bands for the other strings.

Have your child decorate the box with stickers, markers, paint, or anything else they might like to put on it. This can also be done at the very beginning. Now you can sit back and let your little one entertain you!

Free 4th of July Party Printables

Check out these free 4th of July party printables on Catch My Party created by 9 to 5 Mom. You can view the whole collection here. The collection includes: invitations, party circles, tented cards, drink straw flags, favor tags, sparkler holders, matchbox covers, and a “Let Freedom Ring” banner. Very cute!

Red, White, and Blue Desserts

Check out the recipes for these beautiful 4th of July desserts on Martha Stewart's site. There are plenty more to choose from too.

Finger Paint Birthday Banner

Hudson and I made this birthday banner for Casey today. Since it was so hot outside we painted it inside on the floor and used brushes, then he put his hand prints all over it at the end. We used store bought finger paint, but here is a recipe for homemade. We used paper from a paper roll that they sell at Ikea, which was perfect for making a banner! Hudson had a lot of fun doing this, and it is more fun then having him just color a card. We even put Max's hand print on the banner :)

SCD Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

It's Casey's Birthday tomorrow and I made him a Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) friendly cake. We've actually made this recipe before and it is pretty good! It is made with peanut butter of course! We love our peanut butter! I found the recipe on Pecanbread.com here. I doubled the cake recipe and divided the batter into two 9" round cake pans that were buttered. I also doubled the frosting recipe, but had quite a bit left over, so one batch would probably be plenty. I also used frosting between the two layers.

Here is the recipe that I used for two 9" rounds and one batch of frosting:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups SCD peanut butter
• 1 cup pure honey
• 2/3 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs

Preheat oven at 300 degrees. Beat eggs, honey, and baking soda together. Then add the peanut butter and mix well. Divide the batter into two buttered 9" cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Frosting:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup pure honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup SCD peanut butter

Cream the butter. Add honey and vanilla, mix well. Then add the peanut butter and beat until smooth.

Grilled Shrimp with Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs shrimp, or less depending on the size
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for asparagus
• salt and pepper
•  1/2 head of cabbage
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 bundle of asparagus

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup red onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 tablespoon honey
• salt and pepper

 To prepare the dressing, combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Set aside. Place thawed shrimp onto skewers then into a shallow dish with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover and place in refrigerator until ready to grill. Trim the ends of the asparagus and place in a Ziploc baggie, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place in the refrigerator. Next wash and dry the cabbage. Slice the cabbage very thin, so that it is shredded into thin pieces. Place in a bowl and set aside. Slice the avocado and set aside.

Prepare grill and heat to medium high heat. Place asparagus and shrimp skewers on the grill. Cook the shrimp for about 2 minutes on each side or until pink. Grill the asparagus for about 4-5 minutes; cooking time varies depending on the thickness of the asparagus. Toss the cabbage with some of the dressing; you will have some leftover. Place the cabbage on each plate, top with asparagus, avocado, shrimp, and drizzle some extra dressing on top.

The dressing for the cabbage is so yummy! Very fresh tasting, perfect for a summer dish. It is from Bobby Flay's cook book Boy Gets Grill. He serves the dressing with a slaw on shrimp taquitos. We left out the tortillas and added avocado to ours. It was really good! Serves 2-3 people.

Cobb Salad

We've been eating a lot of salad lately and I was wanting to make one that would be a little more filling, so we could eat it as a meal. I had never made a Cobb Salad before, but really liked how this one turned out. The homemade blue cheese dressing is by Emeril and I like that it is a lighter dressing then a typical creamy blue cheese dressing. This recipe can also be easily doubled to feed more people.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of bibb lettuce, washed, patted dry, and chopped.
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 eggs, hard boiled and sliced
• 5 strips of bacon, well cooked and crumbled
• 1 chicken breast, grilled and shredded (or sometimes I use a cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, about 3/4 cup shredded chicken)

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 a lemon, juiced
• 1/4 lb blue cheese
• salt and pepper

Mix the olive oil and lemon juice together, whisk in the blue cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use. Place the lettuce in a large bowl or on each plate. Top with the remaining ingredients. Mix the dressing well, pour over the salad and toss. 

DIY Resin Flowers

So I have seen these resin flowers on lots of earrings and hair clips; however I had no idea how you could make them. I found a great tutorial over at Ris C Handmade. It looks like you can buy the molds for around $5.00 to $8.00 at Mold Muse on Etsy. Not sure what the other supplies cost, but you can find all the details and a full tutorial here.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

This is a great Summer salad because it is loaded with fresh berries and has a fresh lemon poppy seed dressing. If you wanted to serve it as an entree you could top it with grilled chicken breast.

Ingredients:

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds

Salad:

• 6 oz package baby spinach
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 8 oz strawberries, sliced
• 1/2  cup blueberries
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
• 1/2 medium cucumber, sliced

Combine all of the ingredients for the dressing and mix well. Cover and refrigerate until needed. Place all of the ingredients for the salad in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over top, toss and serve. Serves about 8.

 

Cupcake Fondue

This is a really cute idea! I found it on Pizzazzerie, and it is created by Amanda Krueger of Bake it Pretty. You can find the recipe and all the details here. This would be really fun for a little girls birthday party!

Peanut Butter Pie

Our family is a bit crazy about peanut butter, so this pie is made quite often. I actually can't believe that I haven't posted the recipe for this yet! If you like peanut butter you are going to want to try this one out! It has an Oreo crust, peanut butter pie, topped with cool whip. Yummy!!!

Ingredients:

• Double stuffed oreos
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup cool whip, plus more for on top when serving

Place about 4 cups of oreos into a food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs. You won't need to use the whole package of oreos, but if you want a thicker oreo crust you can add more. Using the double stuffed oreos will help the oreos stick together better to form the crust. Pour the crumbs into the pie pan and press them until firm. Make sure to press the crumbs about one inch up the sides of the pie pan also. Places the pie crust in the freezer to set. Next beat the peanut butter, cream cheese, condensed milk, and cool whip until smooth. Pour into the pie crust and place back into the freezer for about 2-3 hours to set. Remove the pie from the freezer about 10-20 minutes before serving to allow the pie to soften slightly. Top with cool whip and serve!

DIY Moon Sand

Hudson got some Moon Sand for his birthday this year and loves playing with it. When I mentioned this to my sister and she told me that you can make it yourself from just a few ingredients. So I found this recipe online from Irresistible Ideas, Play Based Learning. I used blue playsand that I bought at Walmart and mixed it all up in a plastic bin. You can add more water as it drys out, just be careful not to add too much or it will become soupy. Hudson ended up adding more water to his and liked playing with it when it was really wet too, it just won't stick together and stay together. We also got out some old cake pans and muffin tins for him to play with it in.

Mix together:
4 cups sand
2 cups cornstarch
1 cup of water







Linking up Here!

Burlap Garland

Found this wonderful burlap garland at Ucreate Parties by WhipperBerry. You can find the full tutorial here. I love this picture and also the doilies hanging below the burlap garland is a very cute idea!

Homemade Puffy Paint

Found this wonderful recipe at Sandy Toes and Popsicles. I've been trying to find lots of new and fun activities to do with Hudson. Especially now that it is getting really hot outside. It seems like we always do the same things; so I am trying to mix it up a bit! He loved painting with all of these fun colors and thought it was pretty cool how they puffed up. We started by painting on paper, but moved onto cardboard because it really works better. We just cut the flaps off of an empty diaper box. We used the neon food coloring that you can find in the grocery store, along with some other cake decorating food colors. They made fun and bright colors! We used 6 tablespoons of the flour and the salt and separated it into an old muffin tin tray, then mixed in the colors. This makes enough for about 4-7 kids to paint with, depending on how much paint they use. However, it does puff up better if you apply it on thick.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon self-rising floor

1 Tablespoon salt

Food coloring

Enough water to make a paste

Directions:

Mix the flour, salt, and water together until you have a thick paste. Next separate some of the paste into different dishes or an old muffin tin works great. Then add your food coloring. You can use paint brushes or cotton swabs to paint on cardboard. Make sure you brush the paint on thick so that it will puff up when you're done. Once you are finished painting place the cardboard picture in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.