Using the tutorial here at art projects for kids we had fun doing a little bit of art in the back yard this afternoon.

I love it when it's nice enough to be outside!

Pretty much since it's summer, I make sure we do math, reading, and art. The rest of our learning is informal. We'll be more diligent in the other subjects in the fall.

She's so serious. I've had a hard time convincing her that art has no right or wrong. Almost every art project has tears of frustration because she can't get it "right". We're working on that. 

 

In the end she's always excited about what she's created, and we got to be outside in the sun!

Yay for summer school!

 This is the new picture going in to all of our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. I wanted a picture that included Robin since we really do this together. Today we packed 10 more, bringing our total up to 30 for the year...20 more to go! I'm told that the children really enjoy having a picture of the people who pack their gifts.

Since I had the camera out, took a picture of Ms Robin and Rebekah because they were looking cute.

I tried to get a more "real" smile out of Rebekah by having her say a boy's name, you can see that worked out well for me...

 at least Robin is adorable :)

Vegan Chocolate Pudding

One of my favorite things to do lately, is find healthy ways to make our old comfort foods. I had a friend ask me to find a way to meet her need for chocolate pudding without unhealthy artificial sweeteners and other bad for you stuff.

I've seen a few recipes floating around the net, so I can't take full credit for this one, but I tweaked it to use what I had on hand, so here is what you need:

1 ripe banana (preferably riper than the one pictured here!)
1 ripe avocado
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond but it really doesn't matter)
1/4 Cup cocoa powder
2 tsp lemon or lime juice
3 TBLS agave nectar

Directions: Peel the banana and avocado, cut them into chunks and put them into your food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and process the living daylights out of it until it's smooth.

Pour into individual cups and chill for an hour.

It's VERY tasty and unless you told people, they'd never guess what is in it!
Try it before you knock it :)

Happy Independence Day!

Nope, it's not a war zone. It's fireworks Ocean Shores style...up and down the beach as far as you can see...and this is just the warm up, notice it's not even completely dark yet. This goes on until midnight! We have ruined Rebekah for fireworks displays for her entire life.