Yummy Summer: Celebrate

I have a Summer birthday.

As a kid I always missed getting cupcakes at school and the big celebration in the classroom,

but my mom always made up for it with super fun birthday parties!

Now I love to throw fun birthday parties for my kids because it's a great creative outlet for me and I get to relive all my fun parties as a child!

But, my children can't really understand why as adults we don't really have birthday parties!

(I kinda don't understand it either!!)

So for my birthday "party," this little dude wanted to set up a hot dog stand!

(I'm in love with his knee highs and cowboy boots!)

"And Daddy, there must be tikki torches."

We brought a table in to our pergola to eat our dinner and it was so much fun until someone screamed, "dead rat!"  Super cool birthday surprise!

(they weren't kidding!)

I love this picture for many reasons, but mostly because I really look 41 in it!

(tired, a few more wrinkles, slouchy)

"WHAT?" you say, "there is no way you could be 41!"

You're too kind.

I am.

My mom always said she hates photos of herself blowing out the candles.

I can't imagine why!

Hurrah!

I made it - another year older!

Summer is a great time to celebrate someone you love.

It doesn't have to be their birthday, it doesn't have to be fancy,

just throw on some knee highs and cowboy boots, light some tikki torches, serve hot dogs and homemade cake (leave out the dead rat) and let someone know how much you love them!

How are you making this Summer Yummy?

Yummy Summer: Summer Reading

This is a very common scene in our home

My little girls are avid readers!

One of them in particular is rarely seen without a book.  

We call her Brigitta (from Sound of Music!)

I always praise them for their reading and tell them I think it's so cool that they love to read.

For many years I've aspired to be a "reader."  I often joke that I'm illiterate because I never read.

It's really hard for me to find a good book.

I feel like I don't retain anything I read.

I often fall asleep when I start reading.

But I really admire people who read and I want to be one of them!

That is why I affirm my girls so much in their love of reading - book are magical portals into other worlds and ideas.  They ignite the imagination and provoke deeper thoughts.

Books are rad!

Readers are even radder! (yep, that's a word)

These bookmarks were a gift to the girls for their birthday - Mark My Time.

They record how long it takes you to read a book, or you can tell your child to read for 30 minutes and set the count down timer - hands down the coolest gift ever for a kid who love to read!

I had a crazy thought a few months ago that scared me - one day my girls are going to clue into the fact that I never read and say, "why doesn't mommy ever read books?  I guess I won't read anymore either."  And I will be the end of their reading career!

How can I constantly praise them for reading and say it's so cool, yet I don't do it?

I saw on Pintrist the top books you should read before they become movies this year.

One in particular caught my eye

"The Hundred Foot Journey" by Richard Morais

I read the review and thought it sounded pretty good.

I tucked it away in my mind and exited out of Pintrist.

STOP - go back and get it on Amazon NOW!

(I'm pretty good at being lazy and "waiting" to do things later)

I did.

And this has become my favorite summer reading spot - a little sectional my husband built.

I'm almost finished and I don't want it to end!

I think I'm actually becoming a reader!!

Does that mean I'm rad?

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So help me out - I'm going to need a new book in about 1 day and I need some suggestions!

What is your favorite summer read?

Who is your favorite author?

Please send along your book recommendations and if you haven't read

The Hundred Foot Journey

and you love travel and cooking - read it!

Go grab a book and make it a Yummy Summer of reading!

Yummy Summer: Watermelon Salad

So I've seen these delightful summer salads drifting around the internet for sometime, 

but truth is, I'm not a huge watermelon fan (for shame - I know!)

and not a big feta fan either.

Until we had some friends for dinner and this little summer salad seemed to be

the exact match for kabobs and flat bread!

Watermelon Feta Salad

• 1 small seedless watermelon, preferably chilled
• 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 10 mint leaves, minced
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

I've converted!  This salad is amazing, easy and a cool crisp refresher for a Summer BBQ!

What is your favorite summer salad?

Yummy Summer: Pizza Party

Our children left for Camp Grammie yesterday, 

so my husband and I celebrated with a Pizza Party on our patio!

Some dear friends came over, no children, and we dined for about 4 hours with uninterrupted conversation!

On the menu:

Traditional Combination Pizza

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Rosemary Potato Pizza

Thai Chicken Pizza

We like to make pizza on the BBQ using a pizza stone.

That way we don't heat up the house and the crust is perfectly crisp!

Last night we thought it would be fun to do mini teasers before each pizza

 to prepare everyone for what was coming.

First up, Salad Bite

A sliver of tomato, slice of cucumber, wrapped in Romaine lettuce and drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette, all in one small bite!

Can you guess what pizza this preceded?

Traditional Combo

Second mini teaser was a Shot of Potato Salad

This came before our BBQ Chicken Pizza

It's my favorite potato salad recipe, simple, no frills, a hit ever time!

Here is the Potato Salad recipe

(I don't really follow exact recipes, so play around with it to your liking!  I also like the potatoes to be on the cusp of falling apart, so that the potato salad comes out a little more like mashed potatoes with solid chunks.)

Our third mini teaser was Prosciutto wrapped Asparagus

One small bite of delight!  I blanched the asparagus and wrapped it in prosciutto, then simply drizzled with olive oil, balsamic and fresh cracked pepper.

This came before our Rosemary Potato Pizza.

We saved our favorite pizza for last!

The mini teaser was a tasting spoon of Thai Mango Salad

Thinly sliced fresh mango tossed with lime zest, lime juice, red pepper flakes and a touch of sugar.  I let it marinade for a few hours and served it cold, topped with a cilantro leaf.

(this would be over the top with a few crushed peanuts mixed in)

A cool treat that came before the Thai Chicken Pizza.

It was a beautiful evening with great friends, wonderful conversation and a fun food experience!

How are you enjoying some "grown up" time with friends this Summer?

How about a little Pizza Party on the patio?

Yummy Summer - Hide It In Your Heart

Last week my children were in Vacation Bible School at our church and it was the first year in a long time that I didn't volunteer!  Praise Jesus!
So I took the week off blogging and enjoyed mornings without children.
It was glorious!
So today I'm making up for it with 2 Yummy Summer treats!
A few years back I chose a few verses to concentrate on for the Summer and have the children memorize.

I wanted to do the same this Summer and as I've been reading Ann Voskamp's blog, I saw that she has a scripture memory plan for the year!  Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm using a selection of her verses to memorize this Summer.  She has adorable printables (I mean totally cute people!) so I printed them, cut them out, bought precious, tiny, wood clothespins and hung them up!

They are a lovely Summer decoration, and our tool to memorizing scripture this Summer.
You can check out the printable verses and bookmark that outlines the memorization plan here on Ann's blog, or simply click the photo above.
AND...
Another Yummy Summer treat - Ann is the famous author of 1000 Gifts (if you haven't read it, do!) where she stresses the importance of living a life of gratitude.  She talks about counting all the gifts that God gives and challenges us all to keep a gratitude journal and list at least 1000 gifts throughout the year.
Well, she has another adorable printable to help you start counting your blessings and I've been doing it on my own for sometime now, but for the summer, we're doing it as a family.
Each day, Ann suggests 3 different gifts to look for.  Kind of like a scavenger hunt of sorts.
For example, for June 30 it says, "3 gifts you gave today."
We read it in the morning and then at dinner, with my journal, I ask everyone to share a gift that they gave today and what it meant to them.  I write their answers in my gratitude journal.
Here is her printable guide of the 3 different gifts to look for each day. (Of course you can list any gift you received that day that you are thankful for, but her promptings are a fun way to get the children searching throughout the day for specific ways God shows His love for them and the gifts that He gives.

How are you hiding God's Word in your heart this Summer?

Yummy Summer: Blueberry Muffins

Each year I take the children berry picking at a local farm.

I've found that early June is best for blueberries around here.

I was hoping for a load of raspberries this time as I've been pinning raspberry jam recipes!  

But no such luck - too early for raspberries!

But the blueberries didn't disappoint.

I added my own touch to a blueberry muffin recipe I found and they turned out perfectly!

Go get some fresh local blueberries and try this recipe - you'll thank me!

Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour

3/4 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/3 c. canola oil

1 egg

1/3 c. milk

1 c. fresh blueberries

topping:

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. flour

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 c. butter (softened, not melted)

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder.

Place canola oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture.  Line muffin tin with 8 large cupcake wrappers (they stand up fairly high over the top of the pan).

Toss blueberries with 1 Tbsp. of flour.  Fold in blueberries.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour,  2 Tbsp. brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

Bake for 20 to 23 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Should make 8 large muffins.

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What yummy things are you baking this summer?

Yummy Summer: Ping Pong Balls

Welcome to my second Yummy Summer post!

I hope you'll join me each Monday for some fun Summer ideas about activities to do with your children, recipes to try, ways to relax...  and I hope you'll share your ideas too of how you're going to make this Summer extra Yummy!

 Ping Pong Balls

Something we love to do in the summer is swim!

I'm so grateful for a pool and for 3 children to love to swim! 

 Being in the pool can wipe a kid out like no other activity!

When I was planning my daughters' Splish Splash Swim Party, I was looking for new pool games and came across Ping Pong Balls as an alternative to dive toys!  How brilliant!

Throw a bunch of Ping Pong Balls in the pool and let kids swim after them!

$10 at the Dollar Story got me 2 baskets with holes and 8 packages of Ping Pong Balls

and that just might be the best $10 I'll spend this Summer!

Now that the birthday party is long over, the fun has not stopped with the Ping Pong Balls.

The children pretend that they are mermaids and the balls are 

pearls scattered in the sea that they must retrieve.

Or they all act like baby seals in the water and one child throws out balls as a "treat" when they do tricks!

They are endless fun.

I highly recommend buying some Ping Pong Balls to add to your pool fun this summer - totally Yummy!

And if you don't have a pool, wouldn't a basket of Ping Pong Balls be a fun gift to take a friend when you go to their pool?  Perfect hostess gift that will thrill the kids!

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What are you doing to make this a Yummy Summer?

Yummy Summer: Summer Supper Club

Yummy Summer is a series where every Monday I'll share something to make your Summer extra Yummy!  An adventure for your children, a new recipe to try, a craft project, a suggestion for date night, Moma time, all sorts of delicious ideas for this Summer!

I hope you'll share your ideas too using the comments box.  Tell us your great ideas to make this a Yummy Summer!

Kickin' off Yummy Summer with a little suggestion for the grown ups!

Summer Supper Club

Several months ago I invited 6 women to join me for a study of Ann Voskamp's book, 1000 Gifts.  

God brought each woman there for a specific reason and I have to say, it was a magical group of women.  Everyone is so different, yet we have a lot in common.  Everyone has great wisdom to offer and life experience to share.

Needless to say, we were all sad when the study ended.

Since Summer is often busy with vacations, we knew meeting weekly wouldn't work, but once a month would be totally doable!  So we grabbed Shauna Niequist's book, Bread & Wine, and started our 

Summer Supper Club!

"A love letter to life around the table with recipes," is Shauna's caption!

The book is filled with stories, life's gifts, heartbreaks, celebrations and how they are all experienced best with dear friends around the table.  She offers discussion questions and menu suggestions. 

Each woman brought something and used the recipes Shauna offers.

Everything was incredible!

Here are 2 little fun tips I have for serving cheese:

1.  Use fig leaves to place the cheese upon

2.  Crackers, bread sticks, bread... they look so much more pretty displayed in a glass!

And because the title of the book is Bread & Wine,

I made homemade baguettes!

AH-MAZING!

The salad was to die for, and the homemade vinaigrette.... probably won't buy dressing ever again!

Of course there was lots of wine!

Another fun aspect was getting to cook together!

The main dish was steaks au poivre and risotto.

My girlfriend went to a real butcher shop and got beautiful filets.

 Did I mention lots of wine?!!

I didn't capture a picture of the dessert, but it was blueberry crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream!

The whole evening was just right.  

Wonderful women, incredible food, great conversation, laughter, perfect weather, and remnants of a night well spent all over the kitchen that I get to clean up today!

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This Summer, get a few girlfriends together for a special dinner.

Have everyone bring something and make it extra special with flowers and candles and splurge a little on the best ingredients - you'll be glad you did!

How are you making this a Yummy Summer?

Yummy Summer

It's so close I can taste it!

Summer is coming up and I just can't wait.

We have one more week of school and then let the fun begin!

A couple of years back I did a series on my blog called Yummy Summer.

Each week I shared some fun ideas for kids, crafts and recipes to try in the Summer. 

I have to say, that was one of my favorite Summers as a mom thus far.

What I loved so much was that the blog series forced me to be intentional with our Summer and actually do the things I dreamed of doing, not just posting them on our family chalk board.

So... this Summer, I'm bringing back the Yummy Summer series and I hope you'll join me in sharing ideas of things to do with our littles and girlfriends to make this an amazing, intentional Summer!

Yummy Summer will begin Monday, June 2nd.

You can search my blog for "Yummy Summer" to see the posts from a few years back.

Or you can click here

Yummy Summer

I'm at a 2 day conference that is rocking my world!  So this will be a short post, but I can't wait to share with you the amazing things I'm learning over the next few weeks.

I do want to thank everyone that linked up for the Yummy Summer series.  Here are the linked up posts if you missed them.  Have a great weekend!

The Muncies
Summer

Team Hassler
Yummy Summer
Music in the Park
Butterflies
Dashboard Cookies

Capturing Motherhood
Summertime

The Jaffe Family
Frogs Finally Found
Reader of the Week
First Day of Summer

Yummy Summer - End of Summer Splash

This is my last Yummy Summer post. I hope this little series has been fun and given you a few new ideas of things
to try with your families this summer!

My last idea for summertime fun is an “End of Summer Splash” – or an end of the summer party. We did this last year and had so much fun that we’re working on another big splash for next month.

We invited all of our little friends over for all sorts of water play to say good bye to summer (although the weather is fabulous until late October in California, we still have to go back to school!).

We swam, played in the water table, splashed in the kiddie pool, played in the sprinklers, but the most beloved activity was the water fight! Simple buckets of water at either end of the grass and cups for everyone! It was a blast.

Each mother brought lunch for her children and I made lunch for the mothers. This year I’m going to go pot-luck style for everyone. And this year I might theme it up – rainbow style!

Check out some fun ideas I’ve pinned on my pinterest board!

Start planning now for a fun backyard end of summer party to give the season it's proper farewell!
I hope that you enjoy every last weeks of summer and if you do anything fabulous, please share!

We love to try new things around here.
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Yummy Summer is a weekly project to share our summertime ideas.
Join the fun:
• post your fabulous idea for a summertime craft, day trip, activity, tip, recipe… you name it! And either link up or share your ideas in a comment below.

Yummy Summer - 3 Fun Ideas

My Yummy Summer posts are almost over, so I’m going to throw out a few ideas today of fun things to do with your littles this summer.

I’d love to know what you are doing with your children this summer – do share!

First Up – The Cook Out
Even though we have a BBQ, there is something so fun and special about having a little backyard cookout where the kids get to be involved. Our children are still little, so we opted to use charcoal instead of wood so that there were not big flames to worry about! We gathered around the “fire” and roasted hot dogs and for dessert – s’mores of course!
If you don’t have a little fire pit, you can get an inexpensive disposable hibachi grill at the market and use that. Put it in an unexpected location in your backyard and enjoy the cookout! Something so small can provide lots of fun and great memories for your family.

Second Up – Go Local
Even though I’ve lived in Southern California for almost 15 years, I’m still discovering new and fun things to do. I just discovered a little Mexican Ranch about 10 minutes from our home that does a kids’ program on Tuesdays in the summer. We headed out and for $4 we got to feed sheep, goats and see long horned steer, watch the blacksmith, learn to wash clothes the old fashioned way on a washboard and make homemade tortillas! It was a blast. If you are in So Cal, check out Leonis Adobe in Calabasas
It’s amazing what you can find in your own local community that is fun and new for your family this summer.

Lastly – The First Time
Every summer I try to allow my children to do something “for the first time.” I think it is fun to create a summer highlight that they will always remember. It can be something big like their first airplane ride. Or something small like their first time seeing a movie in the theater (which is what we did this summer!). But they’ll always remember the summer when they ____ for the first time!

Some ideas for Summertime Firsts:
First movie in the theater
First sleep over
First time waterskiing
First time swimming without floaties
First time to a water park
First popsicle
First camping trip
First time on an airplane

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I hope you all are having a wonderful summer! What yummy things have you been doing with your littles?

Yummy Summer is a weekly project to share our summertime ideas.

Join the fun:

* post your fabulous idea for a summertime craft, day trip, activity, tip, recipe… you name it! And either link up or share your ideas in a comment below for everyone to enjoy.