Fun Summer Ideas for 2011

The kids have been out of school for only ten days and they are already bored.  All they seem to want to do is play computer games, watch TV, and hang out with friends.  I want to make a regular schedule of having them read for 20-30 minutes in the morning five times a week as well as reviewing some math a couple times a week.  We would like them to earn their "fun summer activities" by accomplishing some chores, making their beds, keeping their room clean, reading, and assisting me with cooking. I was inspired by The Crafting Chicks who made an fun list of 50 summer activities!  I came up with my own ideas of things we would like to accomplish as a family this summer.

Our 50 Fun Summer Ideas!

1.  Hike Battle Creek to see the waterfalls.

2.  Make strawberry freezer jam.

3.  Go jogging in the foothills (me).

4.  Hike and explore Timpangoes Cave.

5.  Volunteer at Strawberry Days and enjoy the events.

6.  Go to the temple with John and big sister to do Baptisms. 

7.  Make Block Art, Owl Boxes, etc.

8.  Sign up for swimming lessons for the girls.

9.  Go on a couple camping trips!

10.  Make slime, play dough, and giant bubbles!

11.  Make pudding pops and home made juice popsicles!

12.  Hike Bridal Veil Falls!

13.  Attend summer parades!

14.  Cool off by eating snow cones!

15.  Water, weed, and watch our box garden grow!

16.  Visit Yellowstone National Park.

17.  Soak in a hot spring!

18.  Pass off some personal progress goals with big sister!

19.  Go to an outdoor movie in the park or Drive In.

20.  Roast a perfect marshmallow or eat some Smores!

21.  Watch Fireworks!

22.  Hike Silver Lake!

23.  Create some silhouettes to hang on the wall!

24.  Go on a bike ride!

25.  Make fruit kabobs!

26.  Have a picnic in the canyon or park!

27.  Make ice cream in a bag!

28.  Make a clothesline photo holder craft.

29.  Go to Park City's Alpine Slide!

30.  Finish my cookbook project.

31.  Have a BBQ and swim with my sister's family!

33.  Have a spa day doing facials and manicures.

34.  Watch So You Think You Can Dance! 

35.  Teach little sis how to ride a bike.

36.  Plant some pretty wild flowers in a planter box!

37.  Buy a slip and slide or wacky sprinkler!

38.  Make Fish Bowl Gelatin or Glass Block Jello!

39.  Take the kids to Kangaroo Zoo!

40.  Make some cute flower flip flops!

41.  Go to the library and check out many cool books!

42.  Make a toy boat and watch it float down a stream!

43.  Go to a Utah water-park!

44.  Finds some good deals at flea markets and yard sales!

45.  Have a game night outdoors (cards and game boards)!

46.  Go to Mill Creek Canyon for hiking and fishing!

47.  Have a water fight with water guns, balloons, etc.

48.  Listen to a free concert in the park!

49.  Go to Cascade Springs and Alpine Loop!

50.  Ride the ski lift at Sundance!

Ack, Nearly 40 Years Old!!!

On June 10th was my hubby's big 36th birthday! Since we love to try new recipes, you maybe wondering what was on the Birthday boy's menu... Well, we made something delicious of course such as two types of skewers, a fruit salad, and coconut lime rice!

 

Herb Sirloin Beef and Italian Vegetable Skewers

Ingredients:

1 pound of beef sirloin 

2 green peppers

1 white onion

1 package of extra large mushrooms

1 bottle of Italian Dressing

Desired amount of rosemary, black pepper, and tarragon seasoning. 

Directions:

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Cut the vegetables into uniformed sizes around 1 inch squared or cubed pieces. A useful tip when you have meat and vegetables about the same size, you will have even cooking. In a large bowl, soak vegetables in Italian Dressing.  Season the meat with the herbs.  Place skewers through meat and vegetables.  Bake for 15 minutes turning at least once or until desired doneness.  We still had some pink in the middle of the sirloin. 

Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

recipe by Our Best Bites Cookbook on pages 46 and 117.  Our thoughts about this recipe: Wow, what a kid friendly recipe!  Even my picky eater loved this dish!  We enjoyed dipping the pineapple and bacon-wrapped chicken pieces in the extra teriyaki sauce!  We will be making this dish a lot in our household!  Next time we will marinate the chicken in the teriyaki sauce for a few hours before cooking. 

 Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice

recipe by Our Best Bites Cookbook on page 203. Our thoughts about the recipe: We added a little zesty twist by adding some fresh lime juice, lime wedges, and a little half and half.  The kids gobbled this dish up! We loved the creamy richness of the coconut milk flavor, YUM.

Birthday cakes can be so over rated in our household sometimes! Since my husband is a huge fan of sherbet, I was inspired by Make and Takes to make this fabulous watermelon pie instead of birthday cake!  We made it a little different than the website by just layering the sherbet on top of each other.  It was very easy to make and turned out very well!  What a fun and refreshing summer treat!

As you can tell, he loved his watermelon pie!!!

I made a "reel" cool fishing birthday card and bookmarks for my hubby!!

The Fishin' Birthday Card!

The front of the card says the following: "Happy Birthday Fishin' Fool.  The catch of the day of all the fish in the sea we are so glad we caught you!"

The front and inside of the card looks like this from left to right:

On the left inside of the card says: "Reel Women Fish" and on the right says: "We hope your birthday is fin-tastic!"  I left plenty of space on the bottom for us to write birthday wishes to him!  I used some brown twine to make fishing line on the front of the card and a small sewing button as embellishments.  The card turned out cute if I say so myself!  

The Fishin' Bookmarks

Card and Bookmark Credits: The paper and elements are all by Kaye Winiecki @ The Lily Pad  I used the following fonts: CK Fun and Segoe Print.

In the evening of his birthday, we went on a family outing to Highland Glen Park.  John was able to enjoy a little fishing time on the pond even though he didn't catch anything. The girls feed some ducks and played on the playground. John seemed very content spending time with us, eating good food, and looking at his new home-made bookmarks/birthday card!  What a great day well spent!!!!  I love you, babe! XOXO

Sleepless Nights Scrapping Memories

I've been busy scrapping lately and learning how to use photoshop element actions with my photographs!  It has been fun learning how to edit photos and scrap some cute pages!

Here are some of my recent favorite digital scrapbook layouts!

My Little Mermaids, 2004

Credits: The template is by Rainy Day Designs and everything else is by Kay Miller Designs. 

Salt Lake City Aquarium, 2010

Credits: paper and orange reef by Kay Miller Designs.  The aquarium alpha and doodles are by Kate Hadfield.  I used the following fonts: Love Ya Like a Sister and Segoe Print.

Fairytale Memories, 2011

Credits: The template is by Rainy Days Designs. I used a lot of different elements from Kaye Winiecki's kits such as the following: Green Jelly Alpha, Ruby's Room, Paper Daisies, It Pays to Believe, Felty Friends, and Once Upon a Paper.  Some of the papers are by Karah Fedricks. The Fireflies are by Natalie Braxton and the sun element from ABC Felties by Valerie Wibbons @ The Lily Pad. I used the following fonts: Love Ya Like a Sister and Grumble.

Sixth Grade Graduation, 2011

Congratulations Big Sister!

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe that I am a mother of a pre-teen already! Where does the time go?  I wish my kids would stop growing up too fast!  In August she will enter the most awkward phase of her life- dreadful junior high!   Junior high memories were my least favorite phase of growing up.  Peer pressure was the pits, my hormones were out of control, and I spent hours grooming myself in front of a mirror because I could never leave the house without perfect hair, outfit, and make-up!  I see my daughter already doing the same crazy behaviors that I did at her age! I sure hope she survives through the next couple brutal years of junior high better than I did.   Anyway, on Friday May 27, 2011 @ 10:00 AM, John and I attended big sister's sixth grade graduation.  A couple months ago, we bought her a darling black and white striped dress with a belt around her waist that she planned on wearing during this special occasion.  She wore a cute silver heart necklace, white leggings underneath the dress, and black flats for her shoes.  For her graduation cap, she had a plastic fedora black hat with blue ribbon tied around it.   The gym was decorated Hollywood style (stars, a vintage popcorn machine, and old film strips were all over the walls with baby photos of each child)!  In the photos below, Big sister was with her teacher Mrs. Day and above Mrs. Day's head is her adorable baby picture! It was a lovely ceremony!  The teachers and principal gave a small talk and there was a slide show of each student that included a baby picture and their current school year photo.  They all received their sixth grade certificates and file organizer for junior high!  We checked out little sister so she could be apart of the event too!  The school gym was packed!  Many people had to stand in the back or sides of the gym!  What wonderful job the PTA and mothers who volunteered to make the graduation a huge success!  We had refreshments from Mimi's Cafe delicious banana and carrot/walnut bread. 

  Way to "GROW", Big Sister!   

The Stylish Dress

After the graduation, we took the girls out to lunch to their favorite BBQ 

restaurant The Smoking Apple!  Big sister ordered ribs, corn bread, sweet cream corn, and yummy fries!  She also enjoyed some bubbly apple beer non- alcoholic of course, duh!  After stuffing ourselves, we dropped the girls off back to school.  Big sister had a talent show (which she didn't sign up for but enjoyed watching her friends perform) and little sis needed to practice her dance moves for the dance festival next week with all the second grade classes.  After school, big sister went to her friend's house.  A bunch of girls and a couple boys were all invited to a graduation party.  Big Sissy was so excited to be among many friends.  She is definitely my popular social princess with TONS of friends who adore her!  Look out junior high, big sissy is coming!

Mother's Day Card and Spa Day

A couple days before Mother's Day, my activity day girls made a darling Mother's Day card, which  I was inspired by Craft Ideas and Family Fun.  We also planted some cat grass and talked about gardening too.

Mother's Day Flower Bouquet Card

I got the pattern for the flowers Craft Ideas Flower Bouquet and the flower pot from an unknown site.  I searched and cannot find the template that I used for the pot, DOH.  You can easily draw a flower pot or find another one on the internet!

Supplies:

Scissors, construction paper (purple, blue, pink, orange, yellow, red, and green), templates of flowers and flower pot, popsicle sticks, glue, markers, and card-stock paper for the card.

Instructions:

Trace the flowers/yellow circle pieces on colored construction paper and cut them out.  I only did the pansies and tulips by the way.  I cut the pansies out by following the directions on the template.  Glue the yellow middle on the pansies.  Next, fold the middle of the petals of the pansies to add some nice character to the flower.  You can also fold the middle of the tulips too.  Measure out the stem by placing green construction paper over the popsicle stick.  Glue the green paper on the stick and glue the flowers on the green sticks.  For the flower pot, along the edge of the top I cut a hole in the middle of the pot.  Then gently slid the flowers in the pot.  We cut out some squares and wrote a message on a white piece of card stock.  Fold a piece of white card-stock paper in half and glue just the outer edges of the flower pot.  

The girls each wrote a message inside their cards!   They had a lot of fun making these cards and they were super easy!  It took about one hour to assemble them together.

It was Mother's Day a day after my daughter's baptism.  So she gave Grandmother the home-made card on Saturday, which John, myself, big sister, and little sis signed with a message.  I think it turned out darling if I say so myself!  Granny sure loved it!

Spa Day: Facials and Manicures

For activity day this week, we talked about grooming and self esteem since they go together.     We had the girls pair up and take turns pampering each other.  First they did facials then either painted toes or finger nails.  

Spa Supplies: 

Nail polish, nail stickers, towels, face clothes, oatmeal, Gentle Baby essentail oil, warm water, extra virgin olive oil,  lavender tea for soaking wash clothes/and for drinking.

1.  Wrap towels around neck and front of shirt.  
2.  Apply oatmeal mask.  For our masks, we did the following simple oatmeal recipe:
Oatmeal Mask
3 T. Oatmeal
2-3 drops of Gentle Baby essential oil
warm water 
Mix together the mask ingredients and apply gently all over the face.  Keep it on for a couple minutes. While the masks dried, they painted nails and applied some groovy stickers on their nails while the facials dried.  

3.  We had several rags in a warm pot of lavender tea.  The girls gently wiped off the oatmeal mask with the warm lavender tea.  Then they applied extra virgin olive oil on their face to bring some moisture back. 

My co-leader also made some lavender tea for us to drink.  Since it was a cold rainy day, I enjoyed it, but the girls thought it was gross... Ha ha ha!  I don't blame them.  I am sure when they are older they will appreciate a warm cup of herbal tea!

Little Sis helping another girl in the group and below is her turn getting pampered!

Lastly, I discussed some other recipes and foods that can improve dry or oily skin.  I sent the girls home with the following handout, which I got from Our Best Bites: Spa in Kitchen:
Facial Recipes
Tightening Strawberry-Lemon Mask
1/4 C roughly chopped strawberries
3 T corn starch
1/2 t lemon juice
Use a mini food processor or a fork to mash the strawberries into a pulp. Stir in lemon juice and corn starch. If the mixture is too runny to stay on your face, add more corn starch. Smooth onto skin and let sit for about 20 minutes or until dry. Rinse off with water (and a wash cloth helps) and pat skin dry. Moisturize after.
Honey Yogurt Mask:
1/2 T honey
1 T plain yogurt
1 t cucumber pulp
Warm the honey in the microwave for just a few seconds. Just to make it easier to stir. Add yogurt and combine. Use a microplane or a fine-holed cheese grater to make the cucumber pulp. Add it to the honey-yogurt mix. Chill if you want a cool mask, or just use as is. Apply to your face, pop a couple of cuc slices on your eyes and chill out for about for 3-5 minutes (or longer if desired). Rinse with water and pat face dry. Moisturize after.
Moisturising Avocado Treatment:
1/2 mashed Avocado.
Apply plain avocado to the skin, or use one or more of these add-ins:
Honey- brightens, tightens, and fights wrinkles and acne
Oats- moisturizes and mildly exfoliates
Yogurt- refines pores and sooths irritation
Egg white- great for oily skin
lemon juice- great for oily skin
Egg Yolk- great for dry skin
Olive Oil- extra softening and moisturising

Joyful May Events

What a busy last couple weeks!  I did a couple fun achievement day activities with my 8-11 year olds.  We planted some plants in our box garden and boy are they getting drenched by rain lately, grrr!  I will blog more on those subjects later. We had a couple major events in our family! I attended a wedding shower.  My beautiful niece Melinda got married to the man of her dreams Jeff on May 6th in the Salt Lake City temple, which was an all day event.  We were so happy to be among so many family members!  They are such a cute couple!  We attended her sealing/wedding, stayed for pictures, went to lunch at the Lyon House, and went to the reception in the evening.  I absolutely love this photo of Melinda!  She looks so happy!  Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Smith!

 John and me waiting at the temple.

Our family at the wedding reception.

The next day was my youngest daughter's baptism.  I stayed up really late (2:30 AM) preparing the food.  Our niece and nephew stayed the night and was able to help us make the food.  Thanks James and Heather!  We had about 40 people who attended the baptism.  It was so fun to have some family from Arizona and southern Utah attend the baptism!   A funny thing happened to us that night before the baptism.  After dropping off some our nieces and nephew in Highland, we went to a couple stores to get some ingredients for our food.  Around 10:30 in the evening we started the potato salad, magic bars, pasta salad, jello salad, etc.  To our surprise, we were missing a whole bag of groceries, ack!  We searched our car and the house, they were no where to be found.  So John had to drive to Highland Walmart (not our usual shopping store since it is near the place we dropped our family members off, grrrr).   He brought in our receipt and explained to them the things we were missing:  a bag of coconut, a large bag of chocolate chips,  two cans of mandarin oranges, shredded parmesan cheese, two cans of sweetened condensed milk, and pepperoni.  Obviously, we were missing a lot of key ingredients to make some of my things!  Luckily, they had record that our bag of groceries never left the store and John was able to get them again.  The next day we made peanut butter brownies.  It was a crazy morning getting ready and doing last minute cleaning!  My daughter received a rose from her primary teacher, Sister Taylor.

We left for the baptism about a half an hour before it started.  When I got there, her baptism jumpsuit was waiting for her in the changing room, but I forgot towels for John and my eight year old.   I recall with my oldest daughter, I forgot a dry pair of underwear, but I did remember the towels. So I hurried home and grabbed a couple towels.  By the time I got back, it was starting.  There were three kids in our ward being baptised that day.  There were a couple talks and we sang a few songs.    My daughter was second to be baptised.  She gasped when she entered the baptismal font due to the water being so cold.  Luckily, all went smoothly.  My oldest daughter had to be baptised twice due to my husband not raising the right hand!  She was one cold girly afterwards.

She was baptised by her father, John.

I was missing in the picture due to getting towels at home!

After she and John changed into dry clothes, she received the Holy Ghost from my father in-law, Joseph.  It was a beautiful blessing and we all could feel the Spirit when she received it!  Later that day, my daughter told me she felt warm and happy when she got the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The happy sisters!

Here are most of the guests at the Baptism!  We were missing John while he was changing into dry clothes!

Getting ready to receive the Holy Ghost

Here are most of the guests some left (my side of the family), but I got their photos at the house!  Many family members from John's side of the family attended: Uncle Duane, Grandpa and Grandma Free, Marilee, Rich, Holly, Becca, baby Kate, Stacy, Ryan, Avery, Joe, Diana, Josh, Daniel, Andrew, Adam, Michael, Rachel, Heather, James, a couple extended Brazilian Silva family members, Matt, Chiaki, Kent, Anna, and Erika.  We had a couple friends Amy and her daughter came.

Below is my brother Nate with my little girl.  The rest of the people are the Hahn family: Ruth and her three darling girls!  Ruth's husband Keith is my ex step brother who couldn't make it due to working as an ICU nurse!

Afterwards, we went to our house.  I asked some local family members to bring  camping chairs so that we all have something to sit on!  I had a lot of help from people bringing a salad, a fruit platter, desserts, rolls, meat, cheese, etc in addition to what I made.

Two happy friends enjoying some good food!

Over all it was a wonderful day.  We had lovely weather (it rained the next day) and enjoyed interacting with many family members this past week. I am so proud of my girl for making the decision to become baptised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Lastly, another joyful event took place this past week!  My nephew Justin married a sweet girl (Keli) from Brazil. Keli is 3/4 Japanese and 1/4 Brazilian.  She can speak three languages.  They met while he was serving in Japan.  In fact, he was the missionary that baptised her a couple years ago!  What a neat story they can tell their children/grandchildren someday! We had the opportunity to get to know Keli better while she was visiting a couple months ago.  Since most of his family currently lives in Brazil as well as hers, they decided to get married/sealed in Brazil.  They will be returning to the United States next month so that Justin can finish school.  Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Silva!

Photo by Tobar Photography (Kelli Tobar).

What a wonderful month to rejoice such important events!   I am so grateful for my family and friends who support us!  

Easter Weekend Highlights

We had a fun Easter Weekend!  John's parents came to visit us for the weekend.  They stayed on an air mattress in our living room.   John was able to to finish our box garden.  I will be blogging more later on that subject!

Saturday afternoon, we ate lunch at Olive Garden with G&G Free, Mike, Rachel, and Jessica Free.  My nephew Justin Silva was our waiter. We had a great time visiting with everyone as well as indulged on some amazing Italian food!  We even got to sample some delicious desserts  free of charge!  Thank you, Justin!

Granny and I enjoyed watching the mini series of North and South based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell while the guys went to buy some raspberry plants.  The kids dyed some Easter eggs.  We absolutely loved the movie and cannot wait to get our hands on the book!  If you haven't read or seen this beautiful masterpiece please do!  We highly recommend them!

On Sunday morning, we enjoyed attending church with G&G!  I made some cinnamon rolls with a zesty lemon frosting for an afternoon treat while the girls played games with Granny and the men were taking naps. 

They played Pretty Pretty Princess and Apples to Apples Junior!

The winner was....  GRANDMA!   She had the most bling!

For Easter dinner, we went to Marilee's house (my sister in-law).  We had ham, cheesy potatoes, vegetables, fresh fruit, home-made rolls and salad.  It was a lovely meal and the best was dessert!  Marilee made a scrumptious strawberry shortcake!

 Strawberry Shortcake by Betty Crocker

Strawberry Shortcake

4 cups of strawberries

1/4 c. sugar

2  1/3 c. Bisquick mix

1/2 c milk

3 T. butter, melted

1/2 c. whipping cream

Preheat oven 475 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix strawberries and 1/4 c sugar, set aside.  In a medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, milk, 3 T. of sugar and the butter until soft dough forms. On a ungreased cookie sheet drop dough by spoonfuls or in a round cake pan.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Meanwhile in a small bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.  Split warm shortcakes or large cake, fill and top with strawberries and whipped cream.

After dinner, my father in-law talked about the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He always does a wonderful job in sharing his experiences and testimony!  Next, we played some games such as Do You Love Your Neighbor, Boggle, and Book of Mormon Trivia.  The kids jumped on the trampoline and played baseball in the back yard.  Some people went for a walk while others just talked with each other.  Afterwards we came home and the kids wanted G&G to see Tangled.  They absolutely loved Tangled especially the silly horse!  Overall, it was an enjoyable weekend with John's parents that went by so quickly!