Red, white and blue

Happy July 4th week! I have always loved this week and celebrating America. Over at our house, we are already decorated with our red, white and blue. We also had the opportunity to see some fireworks over the weekend to kick off the celebratory week.  I hope you are geared up for a fun weekend of festivities.  Now more than ever, we need to pray for our country and celebrate our freedoms and the ones who sacrificed so much to make those freedoms possible! 

Last year's simple July 4th dessert. Just add blue and red sprinkles to ice cream sandwiches.

"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." Harry S. Truman

Happy July 4th! 

put a ring on it

 If you like it then you should've put a ring on it:) Put a gold ring on it that is. 

 While at the beach two weeks ago, Graham picked up lots of seashells along with several oyster shells. I have seen oyster shells painted gold before and thought they looked so pretty so I decided to take his and put a gold ring around the edge of them. I really like how it makes them stand out. I think they add a nice, classy coastal feel around the house for the summer months. 

Runner, Votives

Hopefully you can escape somewhere this summer. If your getaway is the beach, bring some shells home and find ways to use them to decorate your home. 

camp counselor mode

All parents have now switched from teacher into camp counselor mode since kids are out of school, but still need something to do at home. Before the school work really picked up in quarantine, I found several fun, free printables for my kids to work on while I was trying to work . These may be a fun free activity for your kids on those rainy summer days that will pop up here and there. 

During quarantine, so many great artists made painting tutorials. I have seen several folks participate in this one. I have not done this yet with my kids, but plan to this summer. 

We all watched The Call of The Wild movie in March and loved it so my kids really enjoyed these Call of The Wild activities. 

Here is another great resource for kids free printables. 

I, probably like you, am concerned that my kids did not learn all that they needed to learn at the end of the year.  I found this article to be very helpful and plan to incorporate some of these concepts with my kids this summer. I also ordered this book for Graham and this book for Georgia just to help prevent the summer slide. I will only have them do one or two worksheets each day. I really think outdoor play is important and I like the idea of my kids taking on more chores and helping around the house this summer. 

I would love to hear of any ideas that you may have to help keep kids busy this summer while at home. 

steak cobb salad

I have always been a big fan of cobb salads. Several nights ago, I was looking thru my Williams Sonoma catalog and saw this recipe for a steak cobb salad. We tried it out last week and it was delicious. I am apparently on a radish kick. We added radishes and green onions to ours. I will definitely be adding the cobb salad and some of these other steak salad recipes to our summer meal lineup.

You cannot see it, but I have blue cheese crumbs on my salad too.