Making Lemonade

Lemonade is a simple summer tradition that can be enjoyed by the entire family . . . well almost.  Baby M isn't quite old enough to enjoy it, yet.

B and G on the other hand, not only love to drink lemonade, but they have fun making it as well. 

I have to confess that there is no real science to this recipe or anything.  I sort of came up with it when I was pregnant with B.  He was born in September and it was a  L   O   N  G  hot summer that year.  I was told that lemon helped to settle stomachs.  Well since I spent most of my pregnancy with him feeling rather nauseated, I was willing to try anything to make the feeling go away. 

So here you have it my thrown together lemonade!

You'll need:
3 lemons
1 cup of sugar
1 liter of water
a knife
a cutting board
a pitcher
a juicer

What to do:

The steps are pretty simple.  My 4 and 6 year old were able to help with most of the process.

1.  Wash the lemons

2.  Cut the lemons in half {I did this part}.  I also like to dig out the big seeds that I can see after cutting the lemons in half.



3.  Using a juicer {I'm not sure of the actual name for this tool, but I think you get the picture} turn the lemon halves and squeeze the juice out of them.  I started the lemons on the juicer for B and G.  When they got as much of the juiced out as they could, I helped to get the remainder out.

The lemons will look like this when all of juice is out of them.

4.  Pulp will collect on the top of the juicer.  I try to dig as many of the seeds as I am able to find out of the pulp before dumping it in the pitcher.  You could choose to leave the pulp out if you'd like.  Personally, I think it gives the lemonade more flavor.  So I use it.

We got about 1 cup of lemon juice from our 3 lemons.

5.  Pour the lemon juice into the pitcher.

6.  Add 1 cup of sugar and fill the pitcher with water.

7.  Stir it all together.

8.  I like to add the remaining lemon halves to the pitcher as well.  They add more flavor.

We made some brownies to go along with our lemonade.  They were just a bag mix.  1 made from scratch item is enough me{I know, I know, call me lazy!}

Hey brownies are brownies, and the kids still liked them despite the fact that they were a bag mix!

Oh and by the way these are items #24 and #27 from our Summer Activity List.

Our visit to The Children's Museum

Since it has been so incredibly hot lately I thought a trip to The Children's Museum {this also happens to be # 7 on our summer activity list, too} would not only engage my kiddos, but keep us all cool and not so damn crabby happy.


The Children's Museum {Here's a link if you'd like more info.} is like one of our favorite places to visit, next to Disney World that is. Nothing can top Disney World. So, since we don't live in Florida and we do live within 30 minuets of the museum, off to the museum we went.


In all honesty it is a super nice museum. There are activities and attractions for children of all ages and abilities. The activities are hands on and very interactive. We have a yearly pass. It totally pays for its self in 2 visits. There are 4 floors so it is difficult or nearly impossible to get through everything in 1 day. Not to mention, our kids wouldn't last through the entire museum.

Oh and my favorite part . . . it is SUPER CLEAN! I mean it is a museum for children and it is hands on so as you can imagine, things tend to get goobered up, because let's face it, no matter how hard we try, those darn kids just goober things up! Despite the number of children who come in contact with each area of the museum, it is clean and well taken care of.

This time we decided to begin on the 4th floor and work our way down. We went to the Science works area first.

G is in the water area here. He is trying to build a dam to stop the water so it will not flood the housing development downstream.

Next, we moved onto the Healthy House.  There are several activities within the house that promote a healthy and active lifestyle.  In the kitchen G learned how to make a healthy snack with an interactive touch screen computer.

B pushed a light in the bathroom and all of the germs were illuminated. Of course my boys were very entertained by the fact that there were even germs on the potty! I loved it when they told me I was right about the germs on the potty! {Yay! They did listen, for once.}  When he let go of the button the germs disappeared.

After the healthy house we were off to the construction area.  B and G enjoyed using larger diggers to scoop up piles of mulch.

They also loved the bulldozer that they were able to drive. Look out because this thing really moves!

After leaving the Science Works area we headed over to ride the carousel. With a membership you can ride for free. I think it costs .50 for everyone else.

Behind the carousel are several other areas for the kids to play in.

G especially enjoyed serving ice cream in the ice cream shop.

He also had fun watching these balls roll and drop.

From this area we moved onto the Playscape.  In the Playscape kids can play in several different areas that encourage imagination.  These areas include: sand, water, building blocks, dress up, house, and magnetic items. 

There is even a special place for babies to move around in.  Baby M loved playing with these blocks and looking in the mirrors.

After eating some lunch in the cafeteria {We packed our lunch, but there are restaurants inside the museum that you can eat at}.  We went to the Dinosphere.  Again, there are many different activity options in the Dinosphere.  The boys began with the digging area.

We ended our trip in the dinosaur dress up area.  B and G are trying to protect their eggs from the other dinosaurs!

How have you and your family been trying to keep cool?

Outside Things

It's Summer time so we must go outside!  Here are some simple outside activities we have done:

#  19 Water Bottle Spray Art




I mixed food coloring and water together in a spray bottle that I picked up at The Dollar Spot at Target. 

We spray painted on some paper with the mixture.

#  25 Water Flowers

These watering cans were another good Dollar Spot find!  I just realized that a lot of this post seems to be about Target . . . hmmm does this mean I go there too often?                              

B is able to reach the hanging plants on the porch with the help of a stool . . .                

G waters the plants in front of the porch where he is able to easily reach them . . .                    

Baby M loves to watch her big brothers!

# 5 Blowing Bubbles

                                                              

Blowing bubbles is one of those activities that has so many options.  For example : You could blow the bubbles and then . . .                                                                   

run after them and try to catch them or pop them

  

Or try to have a contest to see who can make the biggest bubble                                                      

Or dance and chase the bubbles with a teddy bear

  

Or laugh at your brothers for being so silly    and . . .

                                                             

chew on your toes!

Summer Activity List Check off

I began the summer all excited to spend time with my kids.  I was looking forward to not following a schedule or needing to be somewhere at a specific time.  I loved the thought of not waking up at 4:30 or having paper work to complete.

Last week I began to get down on myself a little, because, well to put it honestly, things were just not going as I imagined.  For some crazy unexplainable reason I thought I would be able to do all of these fun things with my kids, have a little me time, take naps here and there, and maintain the cleanliness of my home. 

Ok, ok, you all can stop laughing at me now . . . I know I'm nuts.  I tend to bite off more than I can chew, frequently!  I think I do this for a few reasons.  First of all, during the school year I often feel as if I have to put my family on the side burner, in order to maintain things in my classroom.  Second of all, I feel as if I have to justify being home so I need to do some kind of 'work'.

Well this week I decided to throw caution to the wind and say the heck with what I'm 'supposed' to be doing.  I'm going to do what my kids and I want to do!  We have done some of the things on the list, but not as much as I thought we would have done by now (beginning week 4 of summer break).  I mean we did create this list of tasks to accomplish throughout the summer.  It was created so that I would hold myself accountable for accomplishing tasks and to provide my kids with some kind of fun over the summer.

So here we go with items to check off of our Summer Activity List:

Item #30:  Dance to the Radio

I really wish I would have had my phone or the video camera within reach for this one.  It was too funny watching G shake his booty to Radio Disney as he danced in front of the fan.

It's these spur of the moment unplanned events that are often the most enjoyable.  He is so random and ALWAYS performing!  There are often time when we are trying to 'calm' his inner diva.  Today he had the perfect opportunity to shine.

Item # 10 Play in the pool in the yard

Ok so B and G may have dragged out like every toy from the garage to play in the pool, but whateva.  They had fun.  B thought he was pretty cool when he figured out how to scoop up water into the noodle and the squirt it out by blowing on the other end.  He's my thinker.  He's always trying to invent new things.

He also used his new found trick to cool himself off.

Like a good brother he taught his little brother how to squirt the water, too.

They made a new discovery today.  Not only does water make the color of sidewalk chalk darker, but it makes it the puddles of water colorful! 

How cool is that? They were simply playing and having a discussion and came to a conclusion about what water can do. Wow, wonder what science standards that meets?! (Sorry for the teacher sarcasm there. I just couldn't resist!)

                                                   *Added bonus = Mommy got some sun too!


I'm looking forward to some more check offs tomorrow!