Big Summer Fun: Wrapping Up

Am I the only one who thinks summer flew by this year? I can't believe August is just around the corner. I've started thinking and planning (kind of) our school year already, and I have been wishing to get back into the school routine again (things run smoother here with a routine).

Worn Frame Edges by Lynn Grieveson

Worn Strips No. 10 by Lynn Grieveson

Petit Jacques Kit by Lynn Grieveson

Home and Garden Papers by Katie Pertiet

Fine Line Border Lines No. 4 by Katie Pertiet

all www.designerdigitals.com (click layout for direct links)

Yet another part of me still wants to take time to soak up these last summer days. We took a family walk around the block last evening. It was so nice to be outdoors as a family. I pulled out our summer bucket list and we've done many of the activities on there, but I had hoped to do more. Due to the heat, my back, and just feeling crummy lately, we've had to nix some bigger outdoor activities (like camping, going to the zoo, hiking etc.) but I'm finding I'm just enjoying being with the kids doing simple things like letting them run through the sprinkler, watching them build sandcastles in the sandbox, and bringing them to the pool. I'm going to enjoy these last care-free days of summer before our schedule gets packed with classes, co-ops, and other activities.

So this will be the final Big Summer Fun link-up! Link up a current summer post or your favorite summer post of the summer!

Big Summer Fun Link-Up

This past week we've actually been able to cross off a few things from our summer to-do list:

** We made ice cream (see ice cream recipe and printables)

** We went to the Farmer's Market and picked up some peaches and did some canning for the first time! I was so glad my mom was here to help me out. We started out small because I didn't want to be so overwhelmed that I would never do it again :)
Here are some recipes that look interesting to me:
Cia's Oil Roasted Jalapenos
Della's Sweet and Sour Pickles
No Pressure Green Beans
Blueberry butter and more----lots of canning and preserving ideas here!

** Celebrated my daughter's 12th birthday

Sarah, from Digital Reflections is traveling to Egypt with her family this week. She's listed some of the activities that she will be doing with her kids. I love seeing what she is doing!

Feel free to check out our Big Summer Fun master list too for more great ideas.

So I'd love to see what you all have been doing this summer! Feel free to link up your summer-related blog posts from the past week.

Ice Cream in a Bag

This week on the HomeSchool Village the theme has been cooking with kids. I don't know if the activity we did is technically considered cooking, but it does involve food and is yummy!

Since it has been so hot out and we were celebrating my oldest daughter's birthday, I thought a fun thing to do would be to make ice cream. This was on our summer to-do list and since my nephews and niece were coming over, we thought making ice cream in a bag would be a special treat. I had originally planned on taking step-by-step photos but 1. it was hot 2. I'm preggo 3. high temperatures and being preggo don't mix well. :)

I did manage to take one photo of my 3yr. old eating her ice cream though :)  This recipe is so easy and yummy! The only thing you need to remember is to wipe the outside of the smaller bag once you take it out of the gallon-size bag. It is covered with salt and can ruin your ice cream tasting experience.

2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
6 Tablespoons of rock salt
1 pint-size Ziplock bag
1 gallon-size Ziplock bag
ice-cubes

Pour the first three ingredients into the pint-size bag. Seal it tightly.
Fill half of the gallon-size bag with ice and then add the rock salt.
Place the smaller bag inside the bag with the ice. Seal it tightly.
Shake, shake, shake and shake some more!

When it looks like ice-cream, take the smaller bag out from the bag of ice. Wipe the outside with a wet rag, open the bag and eat with a spoon! It was very good!

So what things have you been able to cross off your Big Summer Fun list?

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Chalktalk with JDaniel4's Mom

One of the biggest struggles I have during the summer is coming up with lunches and snacks. My kids are constantly hungry! I'm always on the look-out for healthy snacks that are budget friendly. I've seen a lot of posts regarding Muffin Tin Monday and noticed that my friend JDaniel4's Mom participates in this regularly. I decided to talk to her to find out what it was all about and to see how she handleslunches with her crew.

1.What is Muffin Tin Monday? 

Muffin Tin Monday is a weekly blog carnival hosted by Muffin Tin Mom. Moms from  around the world gather to post pictures on lunches they have created for their children in muffin tins. Some weeks there is a theme posted that most of the moms follow and other week’s moms are asked to come up with their own themes. There is a list of theme or no theme weeks listed on her site. It is so helpful if you like to plan your muffin tin in advance.

2. Do you only do this special meal on Mondays as a treat?

 We do a special themed lunch once a week. I do meals in muffin tins a lot. At lunch time and sometimes dinner time I ask my son if he wants to eat on a plate or a tin. I have five or six tins in a cabinet that is at his level. He is able to reach in and select his choice of tin.

3. How do you plan what will go in your Muffin Tin meals?

If there is a theme I go by the theme the Muffin Tin Mom has listed. If there isn’t a theme, I create a tin based on my blog theme of the week. Monday through Friday all my blog posts revolve around a weekly theme.

I try to use foods we already have at home in my tins although I have been known to use Muffin Tin Monday as an opportunity to try new foods out on my son.

Some tins are planned during the week and others come together as stand in front of my refrigerator and see what we have.

It is so helpful to look at what other Muffin Tin Moms have done and try to replicate them with my own twist. Muffin Tin Mom has a gallery set up on Flickr.

4.  What types of snack foods do you usually serve in the summer?

We are trying to eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables this summer. My son loves fruit chews. I am hoping to wean off them to real fruit.

5.  Do you have a set snack-time?

JDaniel gets a snack after naptime in the afternoon. We don’t have a set snack time in the morning. If we are going to eat lunch early, he doesn’t usually need a morning snack.

6. Where do you find your cute shaped muffin tins? 

I have found them all over. Target has had some their dollar section. I have purchased some from A.C. Moore and Michael’s with 40% off coupons. I have a bunny egg plate that I found on clearance at a grocery store for 75 cents. Some Muffin Tin Mom’s have talked about great tins they found at Goodwill. Holiday related tins seem to go on sale right before the holiday. Hobby Lobby has great cupcake liners that you can pick up very cheaply there.

7.  What is your favorite Muffin Tin meal so far? 

I loved creating the tins during the color series. It was fun to come up with all red, purple, blue, green, and orange foods. 

JDaniel loves the tins that I have used cookie cutters to make letters or shapes with. He loved his Dad lunch.

8. Do you have any tips for preparing and/or cutting down the cost of snacks and lunches?

We coupons and stock pile based on store specials at my house. I use Southern Savers and other deal sites to plan my shopping.

9.  What is your favorite recipe?

I made a quinoa salad recently that my family really enjoyed.

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup rinsed quinoa

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of honey (My friend Kathleen says honey is supposed to help with JDaniel's allergies.)

1/4 cup of lemon juice

1/2 teaspoons of coarse salt

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 cup of cut up pieces of apple (It calls for Granny Smith and we had Gala.)

1 cup of finely cut celery

1/3 cup of raisins (It called for golden raisins and we had regular brown ones.)

1/3 cup of finely chopped parsley (We didn't have parsley.)

1/2 cup of chopped almonds, toasted ( I took a handful of almonds from a can of mixed nuts.)

Directions:

Bring the quinoa and water to a boil.

Reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes. The quinoa will be tender and the water absorbed.

Let it cool.

Mix the honey, lemon juice, and salt. Slowly add oil until blended.

Add remaining ingredients to the quinoa and toss well.

Add the dressing and toss.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve cool.

This recipe will feed 6 to 8 people. Both JDaniel3 and JDaniel4 has seconds of this

JDaniel4's Mom is a former teacher and educational technology trainer who now blogs at JDaniel4'smom You can find reflections, reviews, resources for moms, giveaways and more on her blog.

Big Summer Fun Link-Up

Sorry about getting this posted so late in the day. I had to hit the discount bread store early this morning for discount Monday. I try to do this at least once a month to stock up on all our bread products for the month. I love that I can get whole wheat specialty bread and whole wheat buns, bagels and English muffins for so cheap! This seriously helps our budget. Someday I might actually make my own bread, but I'm not there yet. Freezer is full, lunch is eaten and now I'm finally getting around to blogging! :)

The past couple of weeks two of my kids got to participate in swimming lessons. It has boosted their confidence greatly!  My son has almost finished all the levels and now is comfortable swimming free-style, back stroke and the butterfly.

 My 8 yr. old finally conquered her fear of the diving board! That was a big step for her. Her swimming skills have improved greatly.

The rest of us spent time at the pool too. I'm so grateful for a wonderful pool community to belong to. This is how we've been spending most of our summer days lately.

I hope you've been stopping in to see what Big Summer Fun Sarah from Digital Reflections has been doing with her family!  Today she has a great post on Capturing the Best of Summer.  Also, if you haven't already, check out what her family did for 50's week!

So what fun summer things have you done this past week?  Was it a craft? Good summer recipe? Vacation or field trip?  We'd love to see what other have been doing this summer too!  Feel free to link up on our Big Summer Fun Blog Hop! Though it's not a requirement, linking back to the this post or grabbing our Big Summer Fun blog button for your blog would be nice! ;)  Can't wait to read what you've been up too.

What are you doing this summer?

Last week was the busiest week of my summer. I'm still tired but totally fulfillled. My children and I participated in a week-long event at our church called SERVE. SERVE WEEK began at our church in 2002 with 30 youth who served our local community for a week. Now in our 9th year, SERVE has expanded to include over 300 participants ages 3 to 19 and over 200 adults serving in leadership!  Yes, even 3yr. olds! :)

I had originally planned to have a big recap post of our week for today, but due to water issues in our home, I need to get off the computer and finish cleaning up the mess. The good thing is I got a new washer and dryer out of it! :)

So I'm curious as to what you all have been doing this summer. Have you done any cool crafts? Vacations? Other summer fun ideas? If you have a blog post about it, link up!

Sarah from Digital Reflections has finished her Italy week and is moving on to 50's week! She'll be posting more details later today and tomorrow, so be sure to check out her site.

Big Summer Fun: Italy

Oh my goodness, if you have not been keeping up with what Sarah is doing during her "travel to Italy" with her kids this week, you need to head on over to her blog. So many terrific ideas: Biscotti, gelato, Michelangelo and more!  Oh, and on today's post, she has a cool  ice-cream maker giveaway!

Chalk Talk with Paula Gilarde

Today I'm chatting with Paula Gilarde! Paula is well-known for her awesome scrapbooking pages. Paula creates paper, digital, and hybrid (paper plus digital) layouts. I thought she would be the perfect person to ask how to incorporate the crafts our children create and other memorabilia on scrapbooking pages.

1. What are some ways to showcase memorabilia such as pamphlets or crafts in our scrapbooks?

I often scan or photograph bulky items in my scrapbooks. I do this for digital or traditional scrapbook pages. I have occasionally included the piece of artwork but generally my kids like to keep it for themselves so I duplicate.

2. Do you have any examples?

He hearts art - I scanned my son's drawing and printed it onto cardstock

She makes art - I used my daughter's drawing and cut it up. That didn't go over too well with my daughter when she saw it so I generally scan now!

When Pigs Fly - I scanned the cartoon that my daughter drew and used it in my digital layout

Write - I took photos of the multi-page story my daughter wrote when she was in kindergarten.

3. If you take photos of crafts, what do you do with the originals?

If I don't want to keep the originals I let the kids have them = they hang them in their rooms or use them when they are playing school.

4. Do you have any hints for scrapbooking summer events and vacations?

I find digital scrapbook templates are the easiest way of incorporating a lot of photos on a page -- generally for events and vacations I have lots of photos. I'm a fan of Lynn Grieveson's two page templates - often the templates can be used individually or together as a two-pager layouts.

5. How do you get started on a page? Do you have a plan before or does the page just evolve?

I don't always have a plan. I'm usually much faster when I do have a plan though! Using ads for inspiration (photo placement especially) is one of my favorite jumping off points. I'm also a  big fan of using digital scrapbooking templates.

6. Since you do both digital and paper scrapbooking, how do you create your finished albums? Do you combine the two into one album? Create theme scrapbooks?

I paper scrap, digi scrap and I also do hybrid scrapbooking which combines the two. My paper and hybrid pages are all in the same albums -- I use the American Crafts D-ring albums because it's so much easier to move pages around. This is important to me since I don't scrapbook chronologically. I usually print my digital layouts in Shutterfly 8x8 albums.

7. What is your favorite recipe?

My favorite recipe: Layered Bean Dip from Cooking Light. This is so easy to make and so yummy!

Ingredients

• 1  (16-ounce) can fat-free refried beans
• 1  (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2  cup  reduced-fat sour cream
• 1  cup  bottled salsa
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) preshredded reduced-fat Mexican blend or cheddar cheese
• Chopped cilantro (optional)

Preparation Preheat oven to 375°. Combine beans; spread in an 8-inch square baking dish. Spread sour cream over beans; top with salsa and cheese. Cover; bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Uncover; bake 10 minutes or until bubbly.

My name is Paula Gilarde and I live outside of Boston, Masschusetts with my husband Matt and my two children Molly and Tommy (7 and almost 6). I am an equal opportunities scrapbooker, spending most of my free time making paper, digital, or hybrid scrapbook layouts. I blog at Live.Scrap.Repeat. My work has been published in Simple Scrapbooks, Scrapbooks Etc., Creaking Keepsakes, and other idea books and magazines. I was named a member of the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame in 2007. I also teach a self-paced class called "How to Use Photoshop (Elements and CS) for Digital Scrapbooking."

Scrapbooking Summer Memories

I have been thinking about how I wanted to document our summer and I think I finally have a plan! I'm going to be making an 8x8 (maybe I'll do 12x12) Shutterfly album of our whole year! That doesn't sound very innovative does it--lol! This is how I hope to accomplish it:

For each season of the year I will have a title page.  Here's my title page for the summer. This was so easy because I used Lynn Grieveson's summer quick page!  All I had to do was drop in my photo and add a title!  Recognize the sun in the layout? Yep, it's the same one used in our Big Summer Fun button. Lynn graciously let me use it for this series. Thanks Lynn! Using quick pages is a super easy way to get a layout done. You can find out more in my article Working with Digital Quick Pages.

See how easy? Page 1 in my album done! :)

Since I am a Project 365 drop-out (when you take a photo a day), I thought that maybe I'll be able to handle "The Monthly" instead. Cathy Zielske came up with this project as a way to document the year. You can read and see examples of this project on her blog: The Monthly Project. I plan on starting now with our summer photos. It doesn't seem as overwhelming to scrap highlights of the month. I always get bogged down with scrapping events that I usually don't scrap them at all! This seems doable to me --scrapping monthly event highlights. :) I'll be using a combination of Cathy's templates and Michelle Martin's template. To keep help keep me accountable, I will post each month's layout during the first week of the following month. Remind me if you don't see it! :)

So how will you be documenting your summer memories? Scrapbooks? Journals? Blogs? I'd love to hear about your plans! :)

Big Summer Fun: Italy

Sarah from Digital Reflections is going to Italy-----well kind of ;) Head on over to her blog to see her plans for Italy week at her house. She'll be updating all week on their adventures.

Our Morning Craft

I wasn't planning on doing a craft today, but my 3yr. old sat down at the table and asked to do one while I was making homemade oatmeal for breakfast. I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't going to take no for an answer on this one. Thankfully, I still had a couple of foam craft kits that I picked up from Hobby Lobby. She chose to do the dino craft. What I loved about this craft is that all the pieces came with glue dots on them, so all we had to do was peel off the stickers and place the pieces on the dino. I was able to help her with this craft while making breakfast. It was quick and easy and made her happy. After it was done she walked around singing a T-Rex song (probably from Barney).

See, crafts don't have to be planned or complicated at all! :)

Don't forget to enter the "Stock your craft stash" giveaway! Ends 6/13

My Craft Stash Organization

Craft week at Spell Outloud continues! I thought I'd share how I am currently organizing most of my craft supplies. Now a long, long, time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away----ok, it was really only several years ago and 5 states away---I was a professional scrapbooker. No seriously, I didn't make that term up---lol! There are such things as professional scrapbookers. :) In my previous house, I had a huge room devoted to all my scrapbooking supplies---which was a lot! I had many different storage carts, drawers, cabinets and shelves. Now I no longer have a room, but do have a pretty good-sized closet to store our stuff. When I switched to digital scrapbooking, I got rid of most of my scrap stash, and had lots of empty organization bins. Just recently I thought I'd put them to good use again and use them to organize my kids' craft supplies.

When I was a paper scrapbooker, I had purchased a Plano fishing tackle box to store all my embellishments. Now I use this box for some of our smaller craft supplies.

I used my Brother label maker to label all the individual drawers. I love that it is very portable. We can carry it to wherever we are crafting with no problem.

I also have several plastic craft storage box to store small items in. These stack neatly on a shelf and they are pretty cheap. I can usually find them under $2.00 at my local hobby or discount store.

Next I have two 6-drawer Iris carts. These use to house all my scrapbooking paper. Now we use them to keep our craft supplies organized.

I have drawers labeled:

*fun foam sheets
*tissue paper
*cotton balls & paper sacks
*popsicle sticks
*misc. crafts
*glue guns
*adhesives
*Chrismtas
*craft kits
*scissors & cutting mats
*water colors and brushes

I also have two 3-drawer white plastic carts. I have drawers labeled:

*recycled crafts ---this is where I throw all the paper towel/toliet paper tubes, plastic lids, paper plates, cool containers that might make good crafts etc.

*fun foam pieces - I have fun foamies in plastic bags by theme and then put them all in this drawer.

*card making -- prefolded cardstock and envelopes

*large stamps -- I have lots of foam stamps that I let the kids use.

*punches

*extra school supplies

I also have 3 of these Sterlite bins on a shelf that contains our construction paper packs, loose notebook papers and scratch paper/drawing paper.

So that is what my craft organization looks like for now. It seems to be an ever-changing process though :)  All I know is that if I keep up with the system, creating happens more often. I can't stand when I know I have a supply but can't find it (believe me--this still happens even with my organization!) So how do you store your craft supplies?  Do you have a dedicated craft closet or cabinet? If you have a blog post about your craft organization, please link us up! I'm always on the look-out for organizational ideas.

Crafts: Giveaway

We're talking crafts this week on Spell Outloud. Mama Jenn shared some of her craft tips the other day. If you haven't checked it out, be sure to do so! :) Since I am a crafty (like in arts and crafts--lol) person, people assume I always do fun and creative things with my children at home. Well, I will admit that it has not been a natural thing for me to do. Many times I just didn't want to deal with a potential mess, or I didn't have time to think up some creative activity for them to do.

I have loosened up over the years and we now do incorporate many more crafting activities in our month than in past years. For one, my youngest three really love to do crafts. It's almost like a love-language to them. I can see their moods changing when I take time to set up a special craft for them to do and sit and watch them do it, or create along with them.

One of the best things I have done is stock up on craft supplies. This includes individual items and craft kits (I plan to show how I store all the items in my craft stash later this week). Right now at local hobby stores I have found that many of their craft kits are on sale. I like to have several on hand for when I don't have time to plan something.

Usually I like for our crafts to have a purpose. I center them around themes or books.

Planting a Rainbow Craft
Seahorse Craft
Miracle of the Fish and Coin Craft
Turtle Craft
Butterfly Crafts

Sometimes though, we just do a craft for child-management sake. :)

Summer is the perfect time to take crafting outdoors! No worries about messes! Mud painting? No problem! Paint and then hose off. Tie-dying t-shirts?--perfect outdoor activity. We'll be showcasing some of the crafts we end up doing this summer. For some great craft inspiration also check out Skip to My Lou's Craft Camp and Tip Junkie's Summer Crafts.

GIVEAWAY: CLOSED

One of the thing that makes doing crafts easier is actually having the supplies on hand. This ups the likelyhood of the craft actually getting done (at least at my house:) ) This giveaway is to help stock your craft supply closet (or bin). The winner will receive:

1- 50pc. pack of 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 foam sheets
1- 100pc. pack of chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
1- bottle of Elmer's Craft Bond Tacky Glue
1- 125pc. pack of 1/2" pom poms
1 - 48pc. pack of 1/4" pom poms
1- 42pc. pack of 10mm wiggle eyes
1- 24pc. pack of 14mm wiggle eyes
1- 60pc. pack of 7 mm wiggle eyes
1- craft case full of fun foam shapes

Rules: This giveaway is open only to the U.S. only (Don't worry international friends--there will be one for you later this summer!)


1. Mandatory: Leave a comment telling about a favorite craft you have done or a craft that you plan to do this summer. It is fine if you link up too!

2. Extra: Follow on Google Friends Connect
3. Extra: Subscribe to this blog
4. Extra: Tweet this giveaway and leave the link to your Tweet (when you see your tweet, click on the time you posted and it will bring you to the permalink to that tweet) You can use this: "Stock  your craft stash giveaway at SpellOutloud http://bit.ly/cXylMj @SBMozer"

You must leave a separate comment for each entry. 4 totally entries possible. 

This giveaway is open from June 8 - 13th.  A winner will be chosen at random and the winner will be posted on Monday, June 14.


Please make sure there is some way I can contact you :) If the winner does not respond after 3 days, then I'll draw another winner.