lemonade ~ stayin' cool

Wow! We have had some intense heat here in Maryland. The highest temperature was 104 with the heat index hovering around 110!

There were a couple days I snuck out after breakfast to water our garden and flowers and came back in dripping wet from the humidity and heat.

On top of that heat, we had some incredible storms pass through as well. The storms knocked out power to thousands of people in this sweltering heat. Thankfully, we only lost our electricity for several hours.


I’ve been pulling out my old tricks to keep my boy's little hands busy as we have been staying indoors to stay cool. I decided making lemonade would keep their hands busy and refresh us as well.

I found Paula Dean’s lemonade recipe online and decided it was simple enough for the boys to make with the help of my husband.

The boys enjoyed cutting and squeezing the lemons.

And my husband made the simple syrup.

Careful pouring.

It was delicious!

The boys gave it two thumbs up!

It was easy, fun and refreshing!

We will definitely keep this recipe on file!

Cheers to stayin’ cool!!

my heart glitters

Our house might not have much pink glitter in it,

but when my boys bring me a leaf

in the shape of a heart,

my heart glitters!

Spare yarn & sticks

My boys gravitate toward sticks. Whenever we are outside they are always finding the perfect walking stick or saying “this stick would be perfect for a bow and arrow!” It doesn’t matter how big or how small, we always end up with several “perfect sticks” when we hike through the woods. I don’t mind: sticks are free and are great for imaginative play.

The other day I thought about how they could decorate them. I pulled out some spare yarn and told them they could pick out several colors and they could each wrap a stick. They were very excited and had fun picking out the colors and thinking of different ways to wrap the sticks.

I like how they turned out.

Free sticks and spare yarn…a very easy and low cost craft!