Summer Days

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here.  70's and sunny.  It was even a little too chilly to have the windows open this morning, imagine that!  We have been busy as bees with all our strawberries, cherries and a few black raspberries.  Yesterday I made 23 jars of freezer jam, various sizes.  I made some cherry raspberry, and just plain ole' strawberry.  I also made 2 strawberry pies, which we finished off at breakfast.  Who say's you can't have pie for breakfast!!??

Unfortunately, last night when editing my photos, I accidentally deleted all  my strawberry pickin', jam making photos :(

Our Summer always starts off celebrating our oldest child's birthday.  It's a great time of year for a teenage birthday celebration! 

Yes, that's right, we are now parents of a teenager!  We started her birthday celebration Friday night with a friend, at the local state park.  We had a picnic and did some fishing. 

We have at least one "picnic" a day. (That is until the humidity kicks in and the bugs come out). Our grill is getting a lot of use, and our deck has become an outdoor kitchen.

 One fun thing I'm trying out this summer, is some fun new recipes!  My kids are always hungry for a snack in the afternoon and I've discovered homemade push up's!  My kids love them and they are very refreshing on those really hot days.  It is so much more economical for me to make them myself then to buy a box from the store, which never goes very far with five kids, and sometimes mom!!

So far we have tried chocolate pudding push up's, orange, and just today I experimented with strawberry lemonade!  I found all my recipes on pinterest, but like most things I tweak them a bit to fit my style.  I'm looking forward to trying out a few more flavors this summer!

 

Here, I have some strawberry lemonade push up's:

2 quarts of lemonade

2 cups of  frozen strawberries

2 cups of ice

Blend together the strawberries and ice in a blender, then add to the lemonade.  Pour into dixie cups.  I place all the full dixie cups in a baking pan, (to prevent them from tipping over), and place them in the freezer for about 1-2 hours.  Pull them out of the freezer and insert Popsicle sticks.  Place back into freezer until frozen solid.  It only takes a few hours total.  So simple, fun and delicious!  Needless to say, I have stocked up on dixie cups and Popsicle sticks.  I've also added paper plates to that list, a I don't feel like being stuck in the kitchen all summer with the dishes.  So for now, paper has taken the place of my corelleware. 

Isn't that what Summer is all about?  Picnic's, grilling out,

lemonade, fishing, and time spent with family outdoors!

♥  Shannon