I Scream, You Scream

There are a ton of gift basket companies out there, and I have to be honest with you.  If you spend a dime with them, you are NUTS!  Putting a basket together is not a difficult task, and with the popularity of Pinterest, the choice of themes is endless.

A co-worker mentioned the other day that she wanted to send a special thank you to someone that helped her out.  I jumped at the chance to lend a hand, because I enjoy putting these type of packages together.

I love ice cream any time of the year, but there is nothing like enjoying a ice cream cone in the summer.  I love when the ice cream truck comes down our street.  I think I run out the door faster than the Monkey does.  With that in mind, I put together this Ice Cream Party Basket – it includes sundae dishes, milk shake glasses, various ice cream toppings, festive napkins, an ice cream scooper, and straws.

Not including the time I spent buying the material (which I did during my weekly grocery shopping), and the time I spent putting it together (max of 10 minutes), I spent $42 on this basket.  Something homemade add a little bit more to the gift, don't you think?  Don't be afraid to something like this on your own.  The types of baskets you can do is endless: B-B-Q, crafts, baking, you name it!

You can find all these toppings at your local grocery store

The cups were $1.99 and the glasses were $2.49.  Way cheap, right?!

Fits like a glove

The finished product

Until next time....

My New Favorite Summer Time Drink

There is nothing worse than going back to work (or to school) after spending five wonderful days aboard one of the beautiful Disney Cruise Line ships.  My family and I just returned from sailing on the Dream, and believe me, it was a dream.  We have been very fortunate and blessed to sail before with Disney, and each trip only gets better and better.

It's not wise to leave your drink tray on our table

The Monkey and a duck

Watching the waves roll by

Each day on the ship brings beautiful weather, family fun, and the much anticipated Drink of the Day.  I fell in love with one drink in particular, and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I drank a lot of these….I just won’t define what “a lot” actually is.

Photo found on Pinterest

On the ship, the drink is called a BBC, which I found out is Baily’s Banana Colada.  It is the best drink to sip on while sitting at the pool (or in your garage, which is what I did last night!). 

Bailey’s Banana Colada

5 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream

16 oz. Pina Colada Mix

1 fresh ripe banana (peeled, of course)

1 ½ scoop of crushed ice

Put crushed ice in the blender.

Add the Irish Cream, Pina Colada Mix, and banana.

Blend for 30 seconds or until smooth.

Pour into a glass (or a coconut if you have it!), and enjoy!

This is definitely going to be my drink of summer!

Until next time....

Puff Mobile Challenge 2013

Ladies and Gentleman….Welcome to the 2013 Puff Mobile Classic!  Girls….start your engines.

This is a fun activity that you can do with kids, and with adults.  Gather up the following supplies: four (4) lifesavers, three (3) drinking straws, two (2) paper clips, a piece of paper, and a strip of masking tape.  Provide these instructions: Using these materials, construct a vehicle that is powered only by air.  You don’t have to use all of the items provided, but you can’t use anything other than what was given.

You will be amazed at how similar, yet different, the vehicles will be.

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You can line all the vehicles up, and have a large race.  Or you can do head-to-head heats.  We did both at our Girl Scout meeting.

Ready!  Set!  Blow!

Until next time....

Sticky Fingers

What happens when you give a group of girls a bag of marshmallows and a box of spaghetti?  Well, besides a lot of giggles and sticky fingers, you get some creative towers.

We did this activity a few weeks ago (I just neglected to share it with you!).  Believe it or not, I did not find this off of Pinterest (SHOCKING, right?).  This was something we did at my place of work years ago, and it is still talked about.

Here is what you need: one bag of marshmallows per team, one box of spaghetti per team, and willing participants.  You can make the teams as large or as small as you want.  I had eight girls at the meeting, which made things easy for me, as I split the girls up into groups of four.  I gave them 20 minutes to work together to build a tower as tall as they could without having it fall over.  I also had to tell them not to eat their materials!  It only took them a matter of minutes to figure out that they could use the marshmallows as the “building cement”. 

I take that back….it took a matter of seconds for one scout to say: “Wouldn’t it be best if we drew up some blueprints before we start building this?”.

They worked quietly and quickly together on their buildings.  Some girls took on the role of the supervisors (like my Monkey) and others were happy to be the worker bees.

In the end, one team did a little better job than the other, as the one tower fell apart at the last minute.  But it didn't matter.  All that mattered was that they worked together, and had fun while doing it.

The last man standing

I think I will revisit this idea towards the end of the year, and provide both large and small marshmallows, and perhaps only provide a certain number of pasta strands.  They have the experience under their belt already, so I'm sure they could handle the task.

Until next time......