Ice Ice Baby....

This summer has been so much fun for our family, we traveled, gardened, went to camp, taught camp and were lazy and very busy.  We also purchased an old (1973) pop up camper from Craig's list. We fixed it up and took it out and had the best time, we are converts now, and we want to camp as much as we can.

So where does the ice come in? Well being a 1973 camper it has an  old-fashioned   icebox in it. For the ice box to work, you have to get a large block of ice, the  old-fashioned   kind. The ice fits in the top of the icebox and as it melts it drains out the bottom into the ground. If you camp for one night then you have a great big block left when you get home, I threw it in the freezer for another day. This is where the play comes in, what to do with an over sized block of ice?

It was hot after school and the kids needed something to keep them busy. I put the ice outside on some rocks far away from anything valuable. 

I got a few turkey basters (I have no idea why I have more than one) and filled a few cups with warm water. The water got a few drops of food coloring so the kids could see how the warm water affected the ice.

We shot the water in to the ice and made craters and rivers, they had such a blast with it. I did end up running to the kitchen a lot to refill and change out the colors per request.

It was a great experiment for them; we talked about what happened when you shoot the warm water in, as opposed to slow drips. We talked about freezing our own ice with rocks so they could get the treasure out by the force of the water. You could make ice blocks with all kinds of goodies in them, army men, gems, blocks to name a few. It was a great afternoon and I can't wait to do it again.

Who knew camping could lead to such a fun after school activity.

How to Avoid "Sugar and Stress"

School is out and summer is here as far as I am concerned. Today we got the chance to walk downtown and see one of my favorite bands, The English Beat. What the heck is the English Beat doing in Novato anyway??

I discovered them in High School, my older brother was into them and I wanted to be cool too. Now let's get real, the last time I really danced to their music was probably in college and we can all guess how many years ago that was. Now things are different, we have a 5 year old in tow and showing up at the concert with a red wagon and sun screen is the norm.

The thing that doesn't have to be is eating really bad food, and spending 5 dollars on a cup of shaved ice doused with sugar syrup.

I knew my daughter would want a hot dog, to avoid that and keep dollars from flying out of our wallet we opted for a movable dinner. There is a time and place for hot dogs but we have such a variety of foods to choose from in the grocery store why not stock up. You can stock up on healthier versions of the standards like, tofu pups, turkey or chicken dogs, what ever you like that resembles the fair food.

We had a light snack before we left, so I was able to keep our dinner to go on the simple side.

We packed up the wagon with the essentials, sunscreen, blanket for later, water, Margaritas (for us silly, not the kid) and a bag of homemade fair food.I threw together turkey hot dogs wrapped in crustless wheat bread, with a squirt of ketchup. I wrapped them in foil and they stayed nice and warm.
We always pack nuts for a quick energy boost to avoid the low blood sugar tantrum. Too much sugar, too little sugar, how is one to keep track, just have snacks to avoid the whole thing.
We all danced like fools, ate our dinner, watched the sun set and got home without spending a dime and we were just as happy as if we had. We had a ball and I am sure there will be a lot of really sore middle aged people in

Novato in the morning!

Now our daughter knows all about the English Beat and we avoided "Sugar and Stress."