A is for Apricot Gleaning

We went to the Church Orchard and picked apricots last week. It was SO HOT. The orchard is in Hurricane and it must have been 110 degrees outside. We were all sweating and cooked by the time we were done but it was so much fun to get free apricots! Since then, I have been bottling as many as I can for baby food and for this amazing cake recipe that has penuche frosting! Today I made apricot leather. I'm going to do a post about it because it is really so easy and cheap to make. I never knew! And if you are like me, and don't have a fruit dryer, no worries! You can put it in your car for a day in the sun!

G is for Green Show!

Cedar City hosts the Shakespearean Festival every summer and one of the fun things to go see is the Green Show. It's a free show that they do every day except Sunday where you sit on the grass and Minstrels entertain with music and stories and dancing. It is really a lot of fun. Another fun part is the treats they have there. My favorite treats from the Greenshow are tarts and Humbugs. Humbugs are little hard candies that taste like a mixture of peppermint and butter. They are so yummy. When I was 14, my sister and I worked at a restaurant that had a bakery in it and we made the tarts. I still have the very top secret recipe!
We went to the Green Show with my cousin Brandi and her daughter Kenzie Lynn. Have you ever seen such a pretty little girl? Mckinley started dancing and at first Kenzie wasn't so sure, but after a little coaxing from Mckinley, they wanted to dance to all of the music. Such beautiful girls!

A fabulous fun summer treat!

Do you have popsicle molds? Try making these" better for you" popsicles that are really so easy. You will need:

Popsicle molds (or Dixie Cups and Popsicle sticks)
3 or 4 different kinds of fruit juice (I used Pink Lemonade, Grape Juice and Mango Nectar)
1 cup of thick greek yogurt( add 2 Tablespoons sugar and 1 tsp vanilla for a sweeter tasting yogurt.)
Scotch tape

All that you do is fill the popsicle molds with a small amount of fruit juice. Then freeze for one hour in between layers. Insert the Popsicle sticks after a couple of layers. You can keep the popsicle sticks straight by running a piece of scotch tape across the top of the mold. You can see that mine came out crooked and so next time I will just use wooden popsicle sticks. They will stay good in the freezer for 1 week. Enjoy!

C is for Car Wash

C was supposed to be for Camp fire, but it has been so hot these days that we needed a way to cool off one day so we decided to wash the little kid cars. It turned into just playing in the water and spraying things and even Dolce wanted to get wet.

My July book of the Month

I have been wanting to post a monthly book pick. I'm hoping to incorporate some variety. For July, I have wanted some summery reading, and I was realizing that I have never read a western. So, with that in mind, I went to the library. I'm told that no one writes western like Louis L'amour, and after just a few pages, I would certainly have to agree. This was adventure at it's best. Really, the stuff that started America. Cowboy hat's, gunfights, shoot outs, train robbery, and stampedes.
If you are looking for an exciting western thrill Pick up:

The Man From Skibbereen by Louis L'amour

Look what I made!

Be proud of me. I did something I never thought I would do. I made a swimming suit. There is a free pattern at Burdastyle for making a retro swimsuit. And after telling myself how cute it was and thinking, " I want to make one," for a few months now, I decided to give myself a deadline and make it for one of my July projects. It was pretty hard for me. I didn't know what I was doing most of the time, but all things considered, I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. What do you think?

V is for VEYO!

For a fun summer "staycation" we decided to go to Veyo resort which is this great resort by St. George. Everything is so retro and good ole days-ish. We had so much fun. Mckinley even made friends with a little girl who taught her how to dunk all the way under in the pool, and she was so proud of herself. Dolce had fun swimming too! Right next to the swimming pool is a little hamburger stand where you can order hamburgers and eat your food right by the pool. I wonder where that old wives tale about not eating for at least an hour before you swim comes from. I guess they don't know much about that in VEYO.

L is for Lemonadestand

Mckinley has been seeing a lot of our neighbor kids having lemonade stands. Whenever we pass one, we always stop for a cup. Always. It's David's lifetime goal to never pass up a kids lemonade stand. So this time Mckinley got to have her own stand. She had so much fun pouring the lemonade and giving it to her "customers." Her delicious pink lemonade was free, but she made a lot of tips! I was glad that we opened the stand later in the afternoon because she waited outside for the rest of the day. When it was starting to get dark outside, I made her come in the house. She was so sad and said, "but Mom, what about my customers?"
Patty Cakes!
Isn't Sharon cute in her fabulous skirt!

D is for Discovery Park!

We went to Discovery park to eat dinner and to let the girls play. This is definitely Mckinley's favorite park to play at. There is really so much to see and do. We got some pretty cute pictures too. Isn't summer so much fun?
I bet you can't guess who was pushing her.

Dolce wasn't so sure about the swings. She snuggled her feet up at first and was so scared to swing. After a minute or two, she pushed her legs through, but you can see by her face that she still wasn't quite sold on the whole idea.



Dinosaur Digging at Discovery Park!

Such a cute Girl!!!

My little girls