Summer break is nearly here! 
     While my children are all grown with children of their own, I am going to have a few of my grandchildren with me again this summer!  Time to brush off my "keeping kids entertained and learning" skills!
    No one wants their kids to become zombies, attached to their screens all summer allowing their brains to become mush.  It is time to get planning some fun, educational and exciting  activities that will keep the kids engaged, growing and best of all keep the adults happy as well! We're here to help you Kick-Off a Great Summer! 
      

     Have you ever watched the Food Network Show called Chopped?  It is really fun to watch and when the contestants pull out the weird ingredients that that have to cook with, we like to try to figure out what we would make with them.  The joke around here is that I always figure out how to turn the ingredients into a pie! 

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      This Saturday is National Chocolate Chip Day AND National Sliders Day!  This recipe seems to fit the bill for both of those things!  Hope you enjoy it! 

    When you have grandchildren around like my husband I do this summer, you'll discover that it is important to have Popsicles and other cool treats on hand for the middle of a hot day stuck at home.  Those treats always seem to cheer everyone right up!  One day, I happened to find some chocolate cookie ice cream sandwiches on sale at the grocery store and they quickly became a favorite around here.  My grandkids and I decided to try to make a batch of our own!  They came out really good and delicious and making them together added to our fun! 
     We made our basic cookie recipe, but left out the butter and substituted all shortening because we didn't want the cookies to spread too thin. When they are made with shortening, they tend to stay a little thicker and hold their shape better.  We were also careful to use a cookie scoop filled just right so that our cookies would be uniform for the sandwiches.  My granddaughter became quite adept at it. 

    The kids couldn't decide if they wanted chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ice cream filling, so we bought Neapolitan and made everyone happy!  There are so many flavors to choose from!  I just kept it simple this time.  Personally, I would have chosen mint chocolate chip! 
       After the cookies were baked, we matched them up with each other for the sandwiches.  Next, I tore off the cardboard from the ice cream and sliced it into layers.  My grandson used a cookie cutter that was the same diameter as the cookies themselves to cut out circles of ice cream.  My granddaughter scooped them up with a little brownie server and placed them into the cookie sandwich.  I wrapped them up with plastic wrap and put them into the freezer.  We had quite the assembly line going! 

    We put the scraps of ice cream in a bowl and refroze them!  I have a special surprise using them coming on a post in the near future! 
      The cookie sandwiches froze up nicely! 

     As you can see, I wasn't too careful about the depth that I sliced the ice cream, so some of the sandwiches are thicker that others.  But, no one has complained yet! 
      Another nice thing about making these treats in advance, they are easy to pass out with no mess!  I hope you try this special summer treat! 

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Hello and I hope everyone had a great Mother's day! Today I want to start off with a little story.
My parents have been doing a lot of work on their house, and a few weeks back Emily and I were visiting when my dad was putting in a new smoke alarm. Emily was intrigued by what it was, but when my dad pushed the test button to show her how it worked it startled her. A bit later she was talking to me about it and told me she was glad that OUR house didn't need that alarm! When I told her we did actually have a smoke alarm in our house she became so upset and afraid, she thought the alarm itself meant our house WOULD burn down, and that terrified her.

The idea of your house burning down is, of course, terrifying, but I realized that we had never discussed any type of plan of what we'd do in case there was a fire, and what Emily should do to keep herself safe.

So I got onto Amazon and found these two books to give us a starting place to help Emily feel more prepared if ever she is in a place where there is a fire.

First, we got this Plan and Prepare book about what to do if there is a fire and read it together. This book is perfectly geared towards small children with images and music to accompany the lessons it's teaching about fire safety. The book talks about making a plan with your family of how you'll get out of the house f there is a fire, where you'll meet, crawling to get low under smoke, and not opening hot doors.

If you can use music to teach these principles to your kids they'll remember them better, and the idea of a fire in your house will seem less scary because they'll know what to do to get out and be safe.

This Stop, Drop, and Roll book is the perfect book to teach about personal fire safety. Every adult probably remembers being taught "stop, drop, and roll" as a kid in school, and now it's time to teach it to our kids. Again, this books can help your kids not be paralyzed by fear when it comes to fire danger, but instead feel equipped about what to do in case there is a fire nearby, or if they, for some reason, find themselves on fire. The pictures clearly depict how you do each step, and again this fire safety book includes music to help solidify this fire safety protocol in you kid's minds.

These two fire safety books were a great intro to talk to my three year old about what to do if there was ever a fire in our home. It can be easy to forget to talk about these things with your kids. Once we were able to be clear on what to do I was able to reassure her that our home will PROBABLY never catch fire. We don't need to live ours lives in fear. However, if there ever is a fire, if we know what to do, we will be okay.

​What other tips do you have for how to teach your kids about fire safety?

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