Freshly Squeezed Orange Popsicles

Go get some oranges and a few fun containers and make a delicious summer treat.

A few days ago, after juicing some oranges using Little Bit's juicer, I started thinking about how yummy it would be to freeze some OJ and make popsicles.

Then....I got this in the mail...

and, lo and behold, there was a whole article on making your own popsicle molds. While we didn't cast our own molds out of silicone, we did follow the mag's suggestion to use shot glasses (or other containers with interesting shapes) for freezing the juice.

We started from scratch and let Little Bit do some juicin'!

 

Then she did much of the pouring as well. Undoubtedly this was her favorite part...she loves to pour.

Next, I secured the popsicle sticks in place by taping toothpicks on either side of the sticks and then securing them to the glasses.

After just a couple of hours in the freezer (i.e. one toddler nap) they were ready for consumption.

Here you can see the two different shapes we got.

 
"Tasty."

I'll have to agree with her. They were quite tasty! We only used orange juice in our popsicles, but you could easily change it up by adding yogurt or combining different fruit juices.

Have fun and let me know if you try it...I'd love to see what cool shapes others can find!

Window Shopping

Have you ever started out somewhere and then ended up someplace completely different and have no idea how you got there? That is how I found this:

Sadly, I am in love with this lunchbox. Sad for two reasons:

1) My husband says I can't have it.

2) When I imagine buying this lunchbox I envision the teachers and other parents of Little Bit's daycare (she starts in August) "ooohing" and "ahhhing" over such a find...and I never thought I would be that person.

 

I've also been looking at patterns on Etsy. Is this not the sweetest little bunny you've ever seen?

I'm hesitant to buy the pattern because it doesn't have step-by-step pictures and I just don't think I'm ready for that yet.

 

And then there are these shoes, which I found poking around this store after reading about it here.

Now nine months old, I know Bitty Baby is going to be walking soon and I think these adorable shoes would be perfect for her first steps. (And just a note, if you like these check out the link- they're having a sale right now).

 

And lastly, I came across this old schoolhouse desk on Craigslist today. It makes me want to use the word, "darling." What a darling desk! Not a word I'd typically use, but a fitting adjective I think.

But what would I do with it? I have no idea. Maybe I could arrange it in our playroom somewhere and Little Bit could eat her snack there. Or maybe it could just stand alone as an example of beautiful craftsmanship.

 

Most likely I will pass on all of these items, but it's still fun to poke around and see what's out there. What kinds of things do you "window shop" for?

Not Quite the Beach

We had big plans to go to the beach by our house today. Imagine our surprise when we got there and saw a sign that read, "Swimming Area Closed" posted by the Health Department. Yikes! Nothing like a little pollution in the water to spoil your plans.

No biggie...we just moved our party to the clubhouse pool!

Aren't they just adorable. I think they are going to grow up to be best friends and it just warms my heart when they get all lovie with each other. :)

I wish I could have gotten more photos from the pool, but I really wanted to put the camera down and enjoy the cool water.

Look at that form. She's a natural!

After the pool we headed down to the ice cream parlor by the beach, as was originally planned. It's an old-fashioned joint and I just love it.

The ice cream was a perfect end to a fun afternoon. We were barely out of the parking lot before this little girl was sacked out in the backseat.

Success!

My First Doll

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I got a sewing machine for my birthday and in my excitement I promised pictures of my creations. Well, it turns out I was both ambitious and naive.

The first thing I made was an incredibly unimpressive "pin cushion." It's basically a felt pillow with a sloppily stitched heart applique. I was too embarrassed to post a picture of it so I avoided mentioning my new sewing hobby again and hoped you all would forget I ever wrote about it.

Since the pin cushion, I've done a practice run of a headband for Little Bit following these instructions, and I've sewn a valance for the girls' room. Sadly, none of these projects were bloggable. It was very discouraging.

But then, I was inspired by the Wee Wonderfuls "Archie" pattern and decided to give this little guy a go. My godson's first birthday party was coming up and this doll seemed like he'd make a good buddy. Despite MANY imperfections, including one leg sewn on backwards, he actually came out kind of cute.

Photo courtesy of my husband who was able to capture the doll's good side from this funny angle. Thanks Sweetie!

I was sad to see him go, but I think he'll get lots of snuggles in his new home. I'm really looking forward to making a couple more for the girls. In another week or so. :)

Glass Jars

We've been really missing our Unplugged Projects lately, so this week I wanted to make sure we did an activity incorporating the theme: glass.

We've acquired an impressive collection of glass jars over the past few months so I decided to take a few jars of varying sizes and show Little Bit how cool it is that they all make different sounds. I aligned them by tone from lowest to highest and tapped a few of the jars with the spoon to demonstrate. Then I handed the spoon over and let her go at it.

She tapped the sides and the rims for a few minutes,

then thought it would be more fun to make "chocolate milk" by stirring the spoon around in the jar.

Apparently the chocolate milk was very tasty.

So she poured some from jar to jar

and shared with her sister. She's usually very thoughtful like that. :)

Not quite what I had in mind, but I always enjoy watching her play pretend and I'm glad she was able to adapt my little project in a way that she could have fun with. To see more Unplugged Projects using this week's glass theme, visit Unplug Your Kids.

Rainy Season

Here in Florida, Summer brings afternoon thunderstorms that dissipate as quickly as they come. The showers are often a refreshing intermission to the overwhelming heat. Little Bit is developing her own appreciation for our weather.

Here are the words to one of her favorite poems from this book:

Brooms

On stormy days

When the wind is high,

Tall tress are brooms

Sweeping the sky.

They swish their branches

In buckets of rain

And swash and sweep it

Blue again.

-Dorothy Aldis

Links for Michie

For those of you who don't know, Michie (Seeking Imperfection) does a regular Thursday post appropriately titled, "Thursday List" wherein she provides fabulous links to check out. She always has the best finds! This Thursday, being a good blogger short on time, she opened it up to her readers to offer links for her to check out...fun, huh!

So, Michie, and anyone else who is interested, here are some links that are hanging around in my Delicious toolbar:

These first few are all related to turning your old clothes into baby/toddler clothes.

• t-shirt to shorts (found via craft magazine)
• men's shirt to dress
• t-shirt into romper

While you're on Craftster checking out the toddler dress, go ahead and see what these insanely creative people did with their Cozy Coupes.

You can find a great resource for lots of homemade fun here, and I just came across this blog that has lots of toddler activities incorporating garbage recyclables.

Here's a great idea for some garden accessories that actually seems easy enough for me to do.

And finally, a project to help you get rid of any old cereal boxes that are hanging around (or am I the only one that has this problem?).

Enjoy!

Summer is in Full Swing

Seems like most of my posts lately begin with some sort of explanation for why I haven't been posting. This time, rather than make excuses, I'll just post a few pics of what we've been doing around here.

We went to the park with Daddy, which we really need to do more often. Little Bit spent much of the time flashing her Pull-Ups to everyone while hanging on this bar. Hanging is her new favorite thing. She hangs on EVERYTHING: the kitchen table, Bitty Baby's Jumparoo, the handle for the oven door. If she can wrap her hands around it, you can be pretty sure that very soon her knees will be pulled up to her tummy and she'll be dangling in full delight.

She actually doesn't like looking at the camera, so sweet little shots like this are few and far between. Such a shame.

Bitty Baby spent most of her time on the infant swing before deciding to hang out with me. I was sitting on a bench in the shade complaining about the heat. I wasn't dressed for the park because we were supposed to be going to a museum...with air conditioning...but that's a story for another time.

While we sat watching Little Bit play, this way-to-friendly squirrel came by for a visit. I was slightly paranoid that he would jump off of the tree and climb all over me, so I tried shooing him away. At which point he moved back up the tree a few feet and proceeded to tell me where I could go. I swear he was totally cursing me out.

A few days later we were invited to a horse show close to our house to watch my aunt show her baby...horse that is. We all had a great time.

Bitty Baby sat on her first real horse...

and Grandma helped Little Bit show off her latest freezer paper stenciled shirt.

We even got some behind the scenes action before it was my aunt's turn to ride.

I would say that fun was had by all, but these two tweens, my nieces, were pretty bored until they were given a "job" to do.

Ask a kid to take some shots and they suddenly perk right up!