I finally got to pull out the great patriotic bunting I left packed away for four years because we were moving from place to place to place to place. Now we’ve bought a home and I get to be the dorky mom who decorates the outside of her house for all the holidays!
The great thing about my Memorial Day decorations is that I get to leave them up through the Fourth of July! If you’ve ever tried to nail into stucco, I figured out the trick to hanging outside decor on stucco—no nails needed. Email me if you need to know, but I’ll post about that another day.
Easy Summer Fun:
Yardwork and Coke. Yes, again. The kids are still totally happy with this arrangement.
Celebrating Memorial Day! It’s not all hotdogs and popsicles, it is a day of remembrance, but hotdogs and popsicles were had by all.
Grilled hotdogs. I can’t remember when the kids decided that Memorial Day and Independence Day must include grilled hotdogs, but it works for me—too easy!
We had our first round of homemade popsicles of the season, and they’re not only easy, but organic and cheap! (Scroll down for the amazing recipe.)
Jameson had her first non-cousin sleepover! Long story short, I’ve successfully avoided sleepovers for thirteen years, and while I’m happy to have any kid sleep over here, Jameson is still not going anywhere overnight unless I am related to the host family. Even then, I have a short list of people I trust, so simply sharing my blood doesn’t cut it when it comes to my kids’ safety.
Night swimming. Even better, night swimming past 9:00, which is usually bedtime, but not when you have a sleepover.
Apples to Apples with the girls until 11:30. I told her mom they’d be in bed by 11, but we needed to play one more round. Don’t just let your kids hole up in their rooms with their friends! Get to know their friends and get to know how your kids act when they’re with their friends. It’s fascinating!
Cheap and Easy Homemade Popsicles:
Ingredients:
1 jar of Santa Cruz* organic strawberry lemonade (32 oz for $1.25)
Directions:
Pour into popsicle mold and freeze.
THAT’S IT!
Tell me, where are you going to find a box of 10 organic popsicles for $1.25?
*This is not an ad for Santa Cruz lemonade! I just buy that brand because it often goes on sale for $1 a jar (yes, I feel a bit ripped off over that extra quarter), and comes in 32 oz jars, which fills 10 popsicle molds with some left over. Santa Cruz strawberry lemonade makes great popsicles, according to my kids. I wouldn’t know, because popsicles hurt my teeth.
$20 Summer Fun Budget
$0 popsicle mold (I bought this popsicle mold and 1000 popsicle sticks last year—best purchase ever!)
104 Days of Summer Vacation Day 1: Yardwork and Coke
104 Days of Summer Vacation Day 2: Family Game Night
