Blog Archives

Friday Faves #57: Kids and Rainy Days

3/23/2018

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support.

Living in the desert, we cherish every rainy day! We have been happy to get some rain lately in our area. Alicia lives in the Bay Area in California, so she often gets a lot of rain. The trouble with rainy days, when you have children, is figuring out how to keep them entertained during the storm and through the muddy times afterwards. Today's Friday Faves is featuring our favorite ways to have fun with kids during rainy days.

I can't believe that this summer downpour happened 6 years ago! 3 of my grandkids had so much fun playing in that rain.

Because Alicia faces more rainy days than we do here in Phoenix, she likes to find ways to still allow her son to play outside without always being soaked to the skin, (like the kids were above) and also to play outside after the rain stops without getting muddy! She has found a rain suit for him to wear that she absolutely loves.

She loves this Tuffo Unisex Muddy Buddy Coverall that makes puddle jumping all kinds of fun! It has a generous fit so you can put it over the child's normal clothing and it comes with a handy little bag to store it in. In this suit, Adriancito can go out right after a rainstorm and stay perfectly dry. He can even go down the slide and the little puddle at the bottom doesn't phase him.

It also comes in camo, pInk, red and yellow. It is very waterproof and has 4.5 stars on Amazon!
And, don't forget the rain boots! LIttle Adrian has a cute pair on as you can see in the picture. There are a ton of them available on Amazon! Here are some of our favorites, just click on the pictures to order them:

I almost wish that these were more useful in Phoenix! I love them. Since some of my grandchildren are moving to Wyoming, so these might be good gifts for them! I can see them being very useful there.
And, I'm sure that Lindsey can hardly wait until her baby Emily is old enough for a pair, even though she lives in Phoenix, because they are so adorable and Lindsey loves to go out in the rain when it is coming down. Bonus-kids can learn to put them on all by themselves!

Madalynn suggests that after being outside and getting wet and possibly chilled, the best thing to do on a rainy day is to snuggle up in a blanket and watch a movie with a cup of Hot Cocoa Bomb! I asked her what movie she would suggest and she decided that the Harry Potter Series would be perfect. I think all 4 of us would agree with that! It makes me want to do that right now!

Whenever I think of what to do on a rainy day, I think of reading! When my children were young, we used to watch Reading Rainbow and there was one of the first episodes that was about rainy days. I always think of the book that was read on that show, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.

It is a beautiful, rhythmic story with awesome artwork. And guess what! All of the episodes of Reading Rainbow, season 1 are available on Amazon Prime for free! I am so excited to show these to my grandchildren!

Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

I also love to listen to storms with my grandchildren and talk about what is happening. My husband always likes to go out on the covered patio with the kids and watch the lightening storms. Then, he opens all of the windows in the house and lets in the fresh, rain smelling air! Lindsey says that she loves to do the same thing.

Here are a few other activities that are fun for rainy days:

Bake Cookies! My DIL says that is when she likes to bake. Eating those cookies while watching a movie or reading a book sounds awesome to me! We have a lot of different recipes on the blog. Click here for the cookie category.
Break out the Legos! Not that you need a rain storm to do this, but I found this great idea on Dollar Store Mom to make a Lego marble run. It looks like so much fun.
Build a fort with blankets and the furniture! This used to keep my kids happy for hours!
Do a jigsaw puzzle together. The Dollar Tree is a great resource for puzzles to fit all age levels.
Teach your kids a skill like sewing or crocheting, painting or playing the piano, or any other talent you may have to pass on.
Play board games! Our family loves them. We have recommended some of our favorites here, here and here.

April showers should be on their way soon! I hope that you will be enjoying them like we will!
What do you like to do with your kids on rainy days?

0 Comments

Renny's Recipes: Easy and Delicious Deviled Eggs

3/22/2018

1 Comment

This post contains affiliate links. We will be compensated for any purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are our own. Thanks for your support.

I asked my mom if I could be the one to share the Deviled Eggs recipe with you to help you get ready for your Easter dinner and she said yes. Growing up, every time we had a family gathering that included a meal, my aunt Karen brought the deviled eggs. It sort of became mandatory for her to do so because everyone wanted them. They were (and are!) always so delicious, and you'd want to make sure you got to them first before they ran out. So, thanks to my aunt Karen I've grown up loving deviled eggs, and I really wanted to share this recipe with you.

HOW TO HARD BOIL AN EGG

First things first, you really need to know how to hard boil eggs. If you do it right they'll be easy to peel. Did you know that fresher eggs are harder to peel? As eggs get older the egg white shrinks. Well, since you don't want to use old eggs, here is how to hard boil them.

1. Place the eggs in water with baking soda.

2. Put on the stove on high heat and bring to a boil.

3. Boil the eggs for one minute (use a timer).

4. Cover the eggs, turn the heat off and let the eggs sit covered on the hot burner for another 10 minutes. (Time it again.)

5. After ten minutes put the eggs in ice cold water and leave for five minutes.

If you follow those steps your shells will peel beautifully and easily and you'll have lovely deviled eggs.

Having a beautiful little helper improves the deviled egg making experience. If no beautiful little helpers are available you can still make your deviled eggs without them.

Now normally I'd probably use a hand blender to mix all the ingredients together because it gets them really smooth. However, this time around my little helper had worn herself out making deviled eggs, so I just had to use a fork. Either method works just fine. I also used a ziplock bag and a piping tip to fill the eggs to give them that pretty design. You can use a piping bag and tip, or just scoop with a spoon.

Finally, my aunt Karen puts bacon bits in her deviled eggs. I didn't have any bacon bits when I made this batch, but I still included them in the recipe because... bacon bits are good.

You don't have to take a nap in the middle of making deviled eggs, but you always can if you want to.

Super Easy Deviled Eggs

1 Comment

Ecuadorian Arroz con Menestra y Carne & Plantain Cake

3/21/2018

1 Comment

Hello dear readers. Today we have a guest post from Alicia's husband, Adrian.

Bonus Recipe!! This is Adrian Maruri. The Ecuadorian food recipe month was a crazy one and we are already on the Irish month which so far has been quite tasty. My wife couldn’t post weekly about the meals in the Ecuadorian month as she likes to, so I volunteered to post the last recipe plus a very special bonus dessert: Plantain Cake! (which has got to be the most Ecuadorian desert) As always, desert is the last course so we’ll start with the last meal of the Ecuador series, the delicious “Arroz Con Menestra y Carne” (steak, rice, and lentils).

Arroz Con Menestra y Carne

The recipe I used can be found in the great Laylita’s website where she has a wide range of Ecuadorian recipes so I’ll copy the recipe here and only comment on the things I did differently or in addition to it and any comments I may have.

Arroz con Menestra y Carne

As you can see in the picture, instead of serving this meal with sliced avocados, I like to make Guacamole to dip the fried plantain slices in. The side fried plantain for this meal is usually green and preferably so in my opinion. As a traditional occurrence when making lentil menestra, you’ll always end up with leftovers which is best to keep in the freezer and will be great later when you’re in a pinch since the lentils are great on their own, better with rice, and best with an added sunny-side up egg on top.

Plantain Cake

Now what you came for… The Plantain Cake! There’s probably not a more Ecuadorian dessert out there, at least not a proper one (some people call a fruit salad a desert which is fine but I think cake wins the “dessertiness” contest) Now, full disclosure, you don’t really use green plantains in this recipe as depicted in the thumbnail, they must be very ripe. I should add, I have never made or had this before until now so I can’t confirm whether this is the best or the worst recipe for this cake, but I really enjoyed it. I also know that the have different versions of this cake in Colombia and Venezuela but how different or in what way, I don’t know. So without further ado, here it is:

Plantain Cake

For reference, here is a link to the recipe site, although be warned, it is all in Spanish: https://cookpad.com/es/recetas/116152-torta-de-maduro-ecuatoriana

I was so curious when I saw cheese as part of the ingredients but I have to say it added a nice contrast to the sweetness of the cake which in part makes sense because in Ecuador we eat plantain with cheese all the time, green or ripe, but a cake with cheese was new to me. The consistency was a bit more like a plantain flan than a cake, which doesn’t take from its deliciousness, I was just left wondering if a different recipe would get me vastly different results… who knows. Hope you enjoy these recipes!