DIY kids

My youngest daughter Lucy is not the only one who likes origami in this house. My eldest daughter's favorite is this origami balloon. She made a bunch or regular sized ones and then ventured to make a huge one with a piece of large paper. Here are some photos of her blowing it up before we headed to the pool:)

click here for how to do this origami balloon

FAMILY and DIY

My youngest daughter Lucy is obsessed with Origami. We probably have about 100 Origami cranes. Plus 20-50 other types of Origami in our home. 

We purchased this "laptop pillow" from IKEA and it has been PERFECT for her to do her origami on. 

After only 2 or 3 days of purchasing some origami paper and her using other paper around our house we a huge accumulation of origami and we had to do something with it! I want to have Lucy send some to friends. But first we did a little GEORGE THE TROOPER scene and then.....

Can you see George down there?!

 we made a little art installation in our family room:)

My eldest daughter Elly likes to do Origami as well. She has these balloons that she likes to make. Will share that in a post to come. She made the Panda and boat in the scene below. 

Maybe you can have fun with some origami with your kids and share what you do with us!

INSTAGRAM and VSCOCAM

About an hour outside of Chicago is Six Flags Great America. The girls have reached that fun age where we can enjoy an amusement park with them! It was one of their requests for activities to do during their summer vacation. You can get $20 off each ticket by bringing in a can of any COKE product! Here are a few photo's I took with my IPhone while we were there. I posted a couple of them on my INSTAGRAM  and edited most of the photos below with VSCOCAM which is an app for the Iphone that I highly recommend. 

The girls and I got quite excited about the prizes at this booth:)

The carnival games were great at Six Flags. 

The girls were able to win a few prizes easily because you only have to have 2 players to play a few of the race games.

Papa won this hat for the girls with his amazing baseball throwing skills. There was an adorable Panda one, Elephant and Tiger. Elly and Lucy chose the Tiger hat in honor of Yawni Tiger. They are so sweet:)

Milk Shake and Funnel Cake.

 

I really love photos of the Swings. I feel like it is a huge piece of art.

 

We stayed ALL DAY LONG. My feet were so achy and we were so tired. You know that wonderful awful feeling at the end of a long day at an amusement park where the walk to the car seems never ending. The lights at night do make the rides a bit more magical.

 

On the ride home Lucy fell asleep in the back of the car in a pile of stuffed animals.

It was a good day. 

DIY Homemade Popsicles

I have found a ton of yummy recipes for homemade popsicles on Pinterest. We had to try some and there are a few more we want to try! We made some with yogurt and berries the other day and they were super yummy. I didn't get photos of those, but we put greek yogurt, creamed honey, a bit of vanilla, strawberries and blueberries. Some of the recipes we have tried turned out great and some not so much. You can manipulate them pretty easy and it is fun to try different ingredients. Instead of grabbing a chocolate bar, cookie or other naughty sweet it is so nice to have a yummy, healthy, cool treat when you have that sweet craving!

Below is strawberry, lime, greek yogurt, cream and raw sugar. I really liked them! Elly my 10 year old said the lime was a bit much.

Before we started, we put the popsicle molds in the freezer to chill while we got the ingredients ready.

After cutting and prepping we put all the ingredients in the blender. Then poured it in the molds! After 2 to 3 hours we took the molds out of the freezer and ran warm water over the mold of each popsicle we wanted to eat. The rest can go back in the freezer for later.

Here are some I made for myself. Cucumber, mint, lime, watermelon, raw sugar and sparkling water!

I put a touch of salt in. They tasted a bit like a mojito:)

While Elly and I were making popsicles, Lucy and Asoka were taking a nap:)

Here is Elly enjoying a pineapple and vanilla yogurt popsicle!

Below are a few that we made:)

Each has the ingredients I listed below plus a bit of raw sugar, vanilla or creamed honey.

from left to right:

Yogurt, Cream, Strawberry, Blueberry

Yogurt and Blueberry

Watermelon, Cucumber, Mint, Lime and Sparkling Water

Vanilla Yogurt, Pineapple

A few recipes to try!

 Nutella Cool Whip       Honey Yogurt Berry     Berry Lime Coconut Yogurt