cute food: a "popsicle" sandwich

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This was a really fun sandwich to make for the kids that resembles one of their favourite summer-time treats - popsicles!! Get the details on how I made it at Canadian Family.

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Reminder: bento week coming up soon!!

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I've got a fantastic five days of bento goodness coming up next week - August 1st to 5th (Wednesday to Sunday). It's going to be an awesome week filled with a new post for each of the 5 days. There will be informative posts with topics covering my favourite supplies, what a beginner needs and how I pack my lunch bags, there will be free (totally awesome if I do say so myself!!) printables and a fantastic giveaway planned. I've got a lot of info to jam into those 5 days so make sure you come back so you don't miss any of it!

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summer must have: zoku quick pop maker

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Let me start this post off by saying I am in no way being compensated by Zoku for this post. I just LOVE this popsicle maker that much. If there ever was a product that just screamed my name, this would be it. My fabulous sister recognized that and bought me this popsicle maker for Christmas. Wow is all I have to say. I bought myself the optional character kit because I love making everything cute. You have to freeze the base for at least 24 hours in your freezer and after that you can make wonderful, adorable popsicles in around 7 minutes. That's right, fresh homemade popsicles made and frozen in seven minutes!!! You can make up to 3 batches of 3 popsicles before needing to freeze the base again, each subsequent batch might take a few minutes longer to freeze. If you just keep the base in your freezer, it will be ready any time you desire. You can make popsicles with fresh cut fruit, fresh fruit juices, chocolate milk, chocolate chips, etc. The possibilities really are endless. And then there's the character kit I bought which enables me to make adorable designs with fresh cut apple slices. I just love the owl!! Have a look at it:

Here is the zoku box. Inside the box is the magic zoku quick pop maker!!



This is the optional character kit I bought which is totally awesome! I've made so many cute character pops with this kit. Definitely worth every single penny.



First you have to freeze the base in your freezer for at least 24 hours. Then take it out and let your quick pop making begin!



I used fresh cut fruit for the first batch of pops I made. To do this, I turned the quick pop maker on it's side and attached some fresh fruit to the sides. It sticks to the sides immediately.



If you have the character kit, you can cut adorable designs out of fresh apples with the included cookie cutters. Then you arrange your design on the handy placement tool and stick it to the side of the quick pop maker. It's really so easy.



Then turn the quick pop maker back upright and put the sticks in. Then you want to pour your juices in. There are lots of great tutorials out there to get layers. Basically you want to pour a little of one juice in first, and let it freeze a few minutes. Then pour another juice on top and let it freeze. Repeat until you've reached your desired effect.



When your pops are fully frozen, you attach the release tool to the sticks, give it a turn, and your popsicle pops right out. It's so handy!



Here are a few pics of some of the popsicles I have made. And let me tell you, they are all fresh and delicious.

The owl is my hands down favourite. I used apple slices for the owl, and fresh berry and orange juice.



This next one is a cute little monster made with apple slices and mixed berry juice.



Next we have an adorable little girl made with fresh apple slices, mango juice and pink lemonade.



This next pop is a fruit pop made with sliced strawberries, mango juice and berry juice.



The next pop is made with mango juice and kiwi slices.



This pop was made with orange slices and lemonade.



And now some chocolate ones. This one was made with sliced bananas and chocolate milk. The chocolate milk ones take a little longer to freeze than the juices because it's thicker.



And this one is made with chocolate chips, chocolate milk and vanilla yogurt.



Don't these all look delicious?!?! And so quick and easy too. I don't know what I did before I had this.

I have the 3 pop quick pop maker. They also make quick pop makers that make 2 or even 1 pop. They have some awesome accessories too. This makes a perfect gift for someone you love and even even better gift for yourself.

Here are some of the quick pop makers and accessory kits on Amazon - you certainly don't need all the accessory kits to make the quick pops. I have a couple though and I love them:



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cute food: an adorable fruit and veg caterpillar

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I made this adorable fruit and veggie caterpillar this week for Canadian Family. Come get the details on how I made it here.

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cute cupcake: dragonfly

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Here is another fun and easy summer cupcake. I used a few easy to find candies and made this adorable dragonfly cupcake. And while we're on the subject of dragonflies - is it just me or are they getting bigger?? I saw one outside the other day and it was so big it scared me, lol. Either I just don't remember how big they really are, or they are becoming mutant creatures around here! Anyway back to the cupcake - I frosted a prepared cupcake and made the dragonfly using a chocolate finger cookie and 4 jordan almonds. I used black licorice lace for the antennae and dotted on some black gel icing with a toothpick for the eyes. Easy peasy.



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carnival 2012

Pin It Today was our annual carnival day. This will be our third year in a row that we've gone. The rain held off and it ended up being a gorgeous afternoon of summer fun. This year the kids got their face painted (which is HUGE progress for Cam) and Kirsten rode on lots of carnival rides. Cam is a really shy guy and we were so proud of him getting his face painted like Spiderman today. He was still pretty unsure of the carnival rides and was happier watching Kirsten ride them than going on himself. Maybe next year. My girl sure did have a good time though. Here's a few pics of our day:



My little man being a super brave guy and getting a spiderman face! He was so proud of his spiderman face. Kirsten was a beautiful butterfly again this year - same as last year but different colours!







If there ever was a little girl who just loved life, Kirsten is her. I love the joy on her face. Makes me smile.





My girl and I took a ride on the ferris wheel together. We went up SOOOO high and I was so proud of her. Here's my girl on top of the world!





I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer! We sure are having lots of fun around here!

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water marbles

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I've seen these awesome little water marbles, or water beads, all over blog-land lately and I honestly wondered what all the hype was about. They are really cheap to buy, so I figured I would get some to give them a try. What's the harm if I waste a few dollars, right? Well, let me tell you right now - THESE ARE AWESOME!!! Seriously. The original purpose of these water marbles are for floral vase fillers, but people have started to give them to their kids to play with, and they are seriously the neatest thing. You pour some into a bowl of water and your kids can watch them grow from teeny tiny little balls, into marble sized balls in just hours. Then they can play with them. They do all kinds of neat stuff - they bounce, you can squish them, you can roll them, and you can marvel in all the wonderful colours they have. The kids LOVED this. And that's not an exaggeration. Best few dollars I've spent on a kids activity in a long time. We did this activity 2 weeks ago, and I've since stored them in an air-tight jar. They haven't shrunk and are ready to be played with at any time. When you're done playing with them, simply spread them out on a towel or paper towel, and they will shrink back down to original size (teeny tiny balls) so they can be reused over and over again. If they start to shrink after awhile, just add more water to "revive" them. If you're not going to play with them for an extended period, I would dry them out till next time. I haven't experienced it myself, but you wouldn't want them to grow mouldy on you. You are definitely going to want to pick some of these up. You won't be disappointed.

DISCLAIMER - parents should of course supervise little ones while playing with these - expecially those little ones who put things in their mouths. They may be non-toxic, but they are still not safe for consumption!!

Here are some random pics of the "marbles" and some pics of the kids playing with them.

This is how they start out:



You get a lot in the packages. I've only used a fraction of the beads so far and the kids of had more than enough to play with. These things are going to last forever!



This is how small they start off. Pour some beads of various colours in a large bowl and add water. Slowly over the course of the day, you can watch them grow like magic. My kids loved this part.









This was after a couple hours. They are kind of lumpy and have a really cool texture as they are growing.









And finished. This was after about 8 hours. They are full marble size and ready to play with. Drain the excess water out of the bowl at this point.







After you've drained off the excess water, you can store them in airtight containers until you're ready to play.

Here's some pics of the kids:



I think this face pretty much sums it up!











Here's a link on Amazon where you can buy them:



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