Summer Activities
Recipe: No Bake Cookies
I always loved it when my Mom made No Bake Cookies when I was a kid. It has been fun making these cookies with my girls now. I had some oatmeal and peanut butter I needed to use up recently so I made these cookies for one of our recent road trips and for a friend who had a baby. These cookies are delicious and inexpensive to make. The most important step of this entire recipe is making sure that once the first set ingredients is boiling to allow them to boil for 1 minute, if you do not let it boil for 1 minute the cookies will be runny and not set up well. These cookies are a perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter.No Bake Cookies:
- 2 cups Sugar
- 4 tablespoon Cocoa
- 1 stick Butter
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1 cup Peanut Butter
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla
- 3 cups Oatmeal
In a heavy saucepan bring the sugar, cocoa, butter, and milk to a boil. Let them boil for 1 minute. Stir in peanut butter, vanilla, and oatmeal. Lay out the wax paper, drop mixture by the teaspoonful and the cookies have cooled. The cookies will harden as they cool.
Photo by alibree
Our Little Visitor – Do You Know What It Is?
Fun animal in our yard! A couple weeks ago we noticed Skipper was circling a tree and when we went out to investigate further we found this furry little creature in the tree. It decided after a few minutes to come down and was chased by across the yard by Skipper. After it made it’s way out of the yard we looked up online and in a couple books what it could be. Brina was the one to figure it out first by looking at the pictures in one of the animal books we had at home. Do you know what it is?
From what we can tell it is a………
A Woodchuck (best we could tell anyway) that our sweet dog managed to chase up a tree!
Summer Activities: Picnics on the Porch
Brina and Karlie are having a "picnic" on the front porch. Skipper, the girls faithful outdoor friend, is nearby in case they drop any crumbs! A new favorite spot for the girls to eat their snacks, lunch, and goodies is on the front porch. A couple years ago my parents got me a glider for the front porch and it has been a huge hit with the entire family. The girls like to sit on the glider and eat because Skipper is not trying to snatch their food but they can still eat outside. Their drinks are usually on the table next to the glider whenever they are playing outside to help remind them to stay hydrated.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Skipper gets her fair share of extra food from the girls. On the hot days when the girls spend a lot of time outside all three of them (the kids and dog) crash by the evening. One time after a full day of playing with the girls we watched Skipper walk up to the front door mat (where she enjoys napping) and literally flop over in exhaustion. She’s enjoying all the attention but it wears her out too.
Does your family have a favorite spot to eat picnics at home?
Summer Activities: Fun Family Day at Home!
School’s out and the summer heat is here. We love spending time as a family outside, however, some of that time involves finding cool activities to do during the summer heat. There is always something fun to do during the girls summer vacation away from school. Below are some of the fun adventures we did on a recent Saturday together.
Swimming in the Pool
- Brina and Karlie Swimming in the Pool!
Eating Ice Cream
Daddy, Karlie, Brina and Skipper enjoying a bowl of ice cream on the front porch! Napping in the Hammock
Karlie snoozing in the shade on the hammock after a swim in the pool! Playing Under the Jungle Gym – Sand Fun
Brina "cleaning" the sand off the Jungle Gym after swimming in the pool! Science Experiments
Growing Rocks in a Rainbow of Colors! Since one of the girls is into "sharks" I choose a shark background for this experiment. 
Brina and Karlie watching the rocks grow! It was an interesting experiment over a couple days! Fresh & Healthy: A Refreshing Twist to Ice Water
Summer Time Favorite Drink - Ice Water with Fresh Lemon Slices! One of our favorite inexpensive, easy, and refreshing summer drinks we like to serve at our house is Ice Water with Fresh Lemon Slices! Lemonade is delicious but can be a little too sweet at times. Many times on the hot summer days the kids just want ice water so to add a little more to their drinks we will buy lemons when they are on sale, slice them up and add them to the water pitcher. It is very refreshing!
Refreshing and delicious - Cool lemon water on a hot day! I need to look for some more lemons on clearance! The girls and I drink this a lot since we spend some time almost every day outside!
Song: “Empty Me” by Chris Sligh
It is easy to get swept away with everything that is going on in our own lives even during the summer months our schedules can be jammed packed with fun activities. Being selfish comes in many different forms (many are unintentional) from not taking the time to spend with your family and friends to holding onto stuff or failing to rely on God for your source of strength and encouragement. Sometimes we need to be “emptied” so God can refresh us with his truth. Thanks Chris for this great song!
Book: “The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room” by Stan and Jan Berenstain
I love my kiddos, however, there are days I feel like all I do is pick up after the entire family. It is amazing how quickly the house can get cluttered. When you add all the kid books, toys and goodies it can become a mess in a hurry. The girls do help pick up but the process is not always the most efficient and every so often we make a point to go through the toys and books they have to keep our home from getting cluttered with extra stuff. We like the book The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room by Stan & Jan Berenstain. They have a whole series of great “character” books that our girls enjoy. This is one of the books Mommy pulls out occasionally to read because it is good to not only remind the kids but the adults in our household that it is important to take care of the items we have. Also, I like how they encourage the cubs to share with others. I think it is important that we are good examples as parents first followed by teaching them through books and spending time organizing / putting away their toys with them. What is one of your favorite Berenstain Bear books?
Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4
Another week of doing Groceries $40 for 4. I was able to stock up on some items but overall it was a quiet grocery shopping week. I stocked up on non-perishable products this week. We are trying to eat up our perishables this week since we have a lot of produce already in the fridge from previous weeks and the garden. A lot of the items we picked up will be great for the upcoming road trips we have this summer! I am hoping to get back on schedule next week with grocery shopping. Below are my grocery shopping adventures for the week!
Groceries from Dollar Tree and Publix! Publix Groceries:
- $4.36 at Publix for 1 Capri Sun Fruit Punch (10 packs), 1 Inglehuffer Wasabi & Horseradish (on clearance and great dip with fried green beans), 1 French’s Mustard (on clearance), 1 Publix Vanilla Waffer (1 penny with a $10 purchase, bought 3 birthday cards and a dog treat for Skipper which brought my total up to $10 so I could get the wafers for $0.01). I used a coupon to get the 1 penny Vanilla Wafers and a $2 coupon for the 3 Hallmark cards (not pictured but helped bring up my total to $10).
Dollar Tree Groceries:
- $10.15 at Dollar Tree for 1 box Alphabet Crackers, 1 box Lance Chocolate Cookies (6 individually wrapped packages), 1 box Animal Crackers (6 individually wrapped packages), 1 Stax Sour Cream & Onion, 3 Kool Aid Freezer Pops (24 Count), 2 packages of Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread, and 1 box of Minees Cookies (10 individually wrapped packages). These items are great for summer activities and traveling. I am looking forward to our upcoming road trip adventures with the family!
Groceries from Family Dollar & Walgreens Family Dollar Groceries:
- $1.75 at Family Dollar for Old El Paso Taco Dinner Kit, Mrs Freshley Chocolate Chip Cookies, Vitners Potato Chips Sweet BBQ, and Vitners Potato Chips Triple Cheese. All these items were on clearance and will come in handy for our upcoming road trips.
Walgreens Groceries:
- $0.00 at Walgreens 2 Cheeseburger Hamburger Helpers Meals. These items were on clearance and I used a register reward to pay for them.
I am excited to be back doing our Groceries $40 for 4 budget again. This week I spent $16.26 on groceries. Even though I wasn’t even close to the budgeted amount for the week I was still able to stock up on several items. Thankfully I was able to keep the amount within reason although I would like to see a little extra left over for those weeks when I find a really good deal or go a little over. Plus I hope to have more time next week to do more regular grocery shopping. We were down to one vehicle this week because the van was in the shop so it was a little more difficult juggling 4 schedules with 1 vehicle but we managed to make it happen!
It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks! As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me. I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too. The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.
Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances. Life doesn’t always go as planned. We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given. Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life. A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others. There is so much more to life than having all the stuff. We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.
Fresh & Healthy: How We Split Our First Cherry Tomato 4 Ways
- Our first tomato this year was a sweet little cherry tomato!
The garden has been a wonderful teaching opportunity for our kids in many ways from the science of preparing, planting, and maintaining it to sharing with others and many more great learning moments. One of the most exciting parts about the garden is seeing the plants start producing vegetables and fruits. The tomato plants took (months according to the girls) to turn from green to red. We have made it a point to split the first type of vegetable or fruit that comes out of the garden four ways. The first pick of lettuce, summer squash, zucchini, etc….were easy to split among the family. The first tomato happened to be a little red cherry tomato. The girls giggled thinking their was no way we could split it four ways. We teased them about making 4 sandwiches out of the tomato and they thought that would be impossible. My sweet husband came up with a great solution that was a huge hit. The girls had a blasting watching us come up with a delicious treat to share with the whole family. They were amused and excited to eat their first BLT sandwich of the summer!
Making our first "tomato" sandwiches of the summer season! We took a tortilla, small scoop and cut out 8 little circles to make our sandwiches.
Cutting up our first tomato to eat on our sandwiches! Daddy carefully cut the tomato into 4 slices.
Our first BLT sandwich - the mini version! The first cherry tomato became a mini BLT’s for the family. We had tortilla’s for the bread, fresh lettuce from the garden, the fresh cherry tomato and a small piece of bacon. Who’s ready for a BLT?!
My first BLT sandwich of the summer with fresh lettuce and our first tomato from the garden! The girls giggled while eating their bite sized BLT sandwiches. They didn’t think Mommy and Daddy could make 4 sandwiches with our first tomato since it was a cherry tomato. We did it and they tasted delicious! These would make great appetizers and you can use fresh garden veggies to put them together. Make up a few, your kids will LOVE them!
Fresh & Healthy: Our Garden – Cabbage, Tomatoes, Purple Beans, Green Beans, Strawberries, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Peppers, Lettuce, and Peas!
We are loving the fresh vegetables from our garden! I didn’t have a chance to take pictures last week with all the traveling, guests, and fun activities. This week I did better at taking pictures but the girls ate a few items before the camera came out, they have been enjoying helping more in the garden now that they are on summer break from school.
Here are some of the fresh veggies we were able to eat and share this week:
Fresh Cabbage, Tomatoes, Peppers, Strawberries, Summer Squash, Snow Peas, Green Beans, Purple Beans 
Fresh from the Garden Leafy Lettuce, Summer Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, Regular Tomatoes, Sweet Basil, Dill, Snow Peas, Beans, and Banana Pepper. 
Fresh Fruit and Veggies - Tomatoes, Zucchini, Pepper, Summer Squash, Purple Beans, our first Cucumbers, Lettuce, Strawberry, and Snow Peas A few strawberries, tomatoes, and some other veggies barely made it inside to be rinsed before they ate them so the pictures didn’t happen. After picking one day the girls informed me “we picked a rainbow of food from our garden today Mom”. We had a lot of stormy nights the past couple weeks with hail, heavy rain, and high winds. We even had a tree fall down in the yard and break our fence during one of the storms. The garden has “shifted” a little bit but thankfully continues to produce some goodies despite the damage. We haven’t gotten a lot of any one vegetable or fruit but we have a nice variety of goodies to eat every week. Plus we haven’t had to water for a couple weeks.
We were able to share some of the veggies this week with family, friends and people at our church. During the summer months our church does a “Corner Harvest” where people can share fresh produce from their garden. It is neat to see what other families are growing and share our produce.
What are you eating out of your garden this week?
