Here are a few ways to have some summertime fun when you’re stuck inside:

Have an indoor picnic: Spread a blanket on the den floor and share your favorite summertime treats like watermelon and lemonade!

Make your own popsicles: All you need is an ice cube tray and toothpicks!  Pour your favorite kind of juice into the ice cube tray.  Cover the tray with cellophane wrap.  Stick a toothpick through the wrap and into each cube.  Place in the freezer overnight.  Voila!  The next morning you’ll have a very yummy treat waiting for you!

Go camping indoors:  Pitch a tent in the living room (use a blanket held up with a line of string if you don’t have one) and let the kids pretend that they’re on a camping trip.  Pull out the sleeping bags and even tell a few ghost stories!

Build a fort: Take apart the sofa and use cushions, blankets and pillows to assemble a secret fort that will rival any tree house!

Check out JumpStart Get Moving: Family Fitness: If you have a Wii™, playing a videogame like Get Moving will help keep kids up and active, even when they’re stuck indoors!

Do you know of any other activities that are great for spending summer days inside?  Let us know here!

Wii is a trademark of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo.

Stop by MainStreet to slide, skate and swim your way through a giant Fourth of July picnic!

Take a ride on the cola slide!

Roller skate a few laps around a yummy hamburger!

Swim through some gooey green Jell-O!

You might even catch a glimpse of some creepy crawly friends who escaped from Uncle Milton®’s Amazing ScienceLand!

Make friends with an ant!

See the sights on the back of a bumble bee!

If you haven’t told us already, how will you be celebrating the holiday?

One of the most fun concepts to teach young children is that of the stoplight. Red, yellow, and green lights not only drive home basic colors but also the important, associated meanings of stop, caution, and go. What better way to teach children about this traffic safety instrument than through easy, tasty treats? We’re thrilled to introduce the Traffic Stoplight Treat, an easy, little dessert that kids can make themselves!

Traffic Stoplight Treat

What You’ll Need:

• Graham crackers
• Peanut butter (Allergic? Consider using a light layer of regular butter, which goes well with the graham cracker.)
• Butter knife
• M&M’S Chocolate Candies

Instructions:

1. Take a large graham cracker and break it into its perforated quarters.
2. Spread peanut butter on one side of one of the quarters.
3. Place a green, a yellow, and a red M&M down the cracker in a row, spaced like a traffic light.

Taste buds say go.

We suggest using regular M&M’S, but we only had Peanut M&M’S at the office, which are pictured in our example.  We made do all the same.    Enjoy!

Green Light on Sitting Down to Make These with the Kids

Forget what Miss Manners once said and start encouraging your kids to talk while they eat (after they swallow, of course)!  Dinnertime is the perfect time to hear about their day, their opinions, and what’s going on in their little heads.  Get past the one word answers and make your kids give you a mouthful of conversation.  While getting to know your kids on a deeper level, you’ll also be giving them practice at thinking quickly, forming arguments and opinions, and expressing their thoughts.

Simple conversation starters will get the ball rolling and before you know it, your kids will be bringing a lot more to the table than hungry bellies.  Try some of these conversation starters or make up your own:

• What was the __________ (choose one: funniest . . . most surprising . . . most predictable . . . dullest) thing that happened to you today?
• If you were writing a newspaper article about your day, what would be the headline?
• Teach us one thing that you learned today that you think we don’t know yet.
• If you had one hour alone with the President of the U.S., what would you want to discuss or talk about?
• Which cartoon character would you most like to have as a next door neighbor?  Why?
• If you won the lottery (or won $100) what is the first thing you would buy?
• Imagine you had an identical twin; name three things that would be really great about having an identical twin and three things that would be “not so great.”
• Which fairy tale character would you most like to take a vacation with?  Why?
• If you were a plant and could be planted anywhere in the world, what kind of plant would you be?  Where would you like to be planted and grow?
• If you could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
• If the sky suddenly started to rain candy, what candy would you want it to rain?
• If you were to take a time machine 50 years into the future, what do you think life will be like?  What will you do with your free time?  How do you think people will communicate or prepare food?
• What kind of car would you say you are most like?  If you could be any car, which one would you choose?
• If you could invite any famous person to your birthday party, who would it be?  Why?
• If you could create a national chain of restaurants designed for kids, what would you call it?  What kinds of food would you serve?  What would the theme of the restaurant be?
• If you had to choose one modern convenience, appliance, or technology that you just couldn’t live without, what would it be?
• What was the best birthday party you remember having?  Tell what you remember about it.
• Where will you be, and what do you think you will be doing in 10 -15 years?
• If you had a choice, would you rather live in the city or the country?  Why?
• If you could be a TV producer, what would be the name of your new show?  Who would you get to star in it?  What would your show be about?
• In the movie about your life, what actor would play you? Your best friend? Your family members?

Another way to get the table talk going is to play a little game.  President Obama plays a game with his family called “Roses and Thorns.”  Everyone takes a turn describing a good thing that happened that day (rose) and a low moment or tough problem they had to deal with (thorn) during the day.  Whatever the approach, set your dinner table with conversation to strengthen relationships and make memories to last a lifetime.

Tell Your Buddies to Set the Table!

Peanut Butter Snow Balls

What You Need:

• Regular-sized jar of peanut butter
• Honey
• Dry milk
• Coconut shavings

Instructions:

1. Put all of the peanut butter into a bowl.
2. Mix in two or three tablespoons of honey.
3. Pour 1/4 cup of dry milk into the mixture.
4. Stir until the mixture resembles play dough. If the mixture is too moist, add a bit more of the dry milk.
5. Take out the dough and roll it into balls.
6. Lastly, roll the balls in the coconut shavings.

Marshmallow Snowman

What You Need:

• Marshmallows
• Tic Tacs (orange and other colors)
• Melted chocolate
• Pretzels
• Various candy to decorate
• Small, clean paintbrush

Instructions:

1. Take two of the marshmallows and “glue” them together using the melted chocolate. Then take a 3rd marshmallow and “glue” it on top of the other two using chocolate, as well. It should look like a tall stack of marshmallows.
2. Take two short pretzel sticks and insert them into the middle marshmallow to act as the snowman’s arms.
3. Using three Tic Tacs, poke them into the snowman’s body in a vertical line to act as his buttons.
4. Using your paintbrush, paint on eyes and a mouth for the snowman with the melted chocolate.
5. With the orange Tic Tac, press it into the top marshmallow for his carrot nose.
6. Using the rest of your candy, decorate your snowman however you want!

Orange Cream Snowflake Dream Smoothie

What You Need:

• 1 can of mandarin oranges
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup ice
• Blender

Instructions:

1. Drain mandarin oranges. Place the oranges in a plastic bag and freeze them for a few hours.
2. Pour all the ingredients into a blender.
3. Blend till the mixture is of a smoothie consistency. Enjoy your Orange Cream Snowflake Dream Smoothie!

Really Like These Recipes?  Share Them with a Friend

SnO-J-flakes

Materials:

• Two Styrofoam or plastic cups
• Water
• Orange Juice
• Freezer
• Spoon

Directions:

1. Fill one of the cups with water, the other with orange juice.
2. Put them in the freezer, let them freeze thoroughly over a few hours.
3. Once they’ve frozen, take a look.  The water is frozen ice, and the OJ is frozen, but it has a sticky sort of unfrozen syrup on top.


See the syrup hanging around the cup's rim?

4. Let both sit for 5 minutes.
5. Take the spoon and try scraping off some of the ice and then some of the juice; taste the juice scrapings you can get off.



6. Continue to scrape at the frozen juice and water every so often.  You’ll begin to notice a difference.

Weren’t the juice scrapings good?

As you continued scraping and the cups began to warm, you probably noticed that the juice came apart easier, separating into small, flat crystals.

Tasty.

Why is this?

Dissolving substances like sugar in water lowers water’s freezing point so that it must be colder to freeze. As the juice gets colder, some of the water in it begins to freeze.

The amount of dissolved sugar stays constant, but there is less and less water as it is taken up in the growing ice crystals.  The juice sugar ends up trapped between them.  The sugar acts as separations in the frozen water, and lets the ice crystals come loose easily, when you scrape at them.

With the pure water that you froze, the crystals were unified, making one solid block of ice with no separations created by other substances among the crystals.  When the frozen water cup warmed up, the exposed surface melts, but the rest stays solid. It does not come apart like the OJ did.

You’ve probably noticed a similar syrupy coating on your popsicles.  The same concept applies here!  Hope you enjoyed your ice scrapings!

Like this simple experiment?  Share it with friends.

Make Your Own Butter

All you need is:

• ½ pint of heavy cream
• 1 clean pint jar or other similarly-sized container with a tight cover or lid, preferably plastic
• 1 clean marble

Directions:

1. Take your jar and place the marble inside
2. Pour the cream into the jar and screw the cover on tightly.


Three Materials and You're in Business

3. Have the children shake the jar. A figure-eight motion seems to work best, but let your kids go wild (not so much, if the jar is glass). If you have a plastic container with a tight lid, you can even roll it back and forth.
4. Listen for the marble bouncing up and down.
5. After the marble cannot be heard anymore, you’ll know the cream is thickening.  Keep shaking, and you will soon start to see the glob of butter form.


The Marble Will Go Silent as It Is Enveloped by the Butter

6. Once a good amount of butter is created, drain out the buttermilk. You can throw it away, save it, or drink it!
7. Wash the remaining lump of butter by running cold water into the jar and draining it. This will remove any trapped buttermilk.
8. Find and remove the marble
9. Place the butter into a container of your choice to store or use.

The End Result: a Delicious Scoop of Butter

What is this science magic that has just unfolded before your eyes?

Heavy cream is what is called an “emulsion”.  An emulsion exists when tiny droplets of one type of liquid are floating around in another type of liquid that does not like to mix with the first. In the case of heavy cream, tiny globules of fat are suspended in mostly water. By shaking the heavy cream in the jar, you are forcing the fat globules to slam into one another. If they hit each other with enough force, they will simply stick together, the fat collection becoming bigger and bigger with each extra globule.  After enough shaking, the fat globules form a chunk of butter.

To bring this experiment even further, have your children try different types of cream, such as light cream or whipping cream; each of which has different fat content. They can compare the shaking time needed, the amount of butter created, and the butter’s taste at the end.

This experiment is definitely a workout and will require a good amount of shaking, so, if you have a child that is smaller or has a short attention span, think of using two smaller containers (and a marble in each one) to speed up the process.

Tell Your Friends to Shake It Up

Popcorn Witch Hand

What you will need:

• 1 box of clear disposable plastic gloves
• Large tub of caramel popcorn or kettle corn
• 1 bag of candy corn
• Purple, black, and green ribbon

1. Take a plastic glove and drop one candy corn in each of the fingers to represent scary witch nails!
2. Fill the rest of the bag with popcorn. Make sure to pack the plastic glove tight so the candy corn nails don’t move out of place!
3. Pinch the opening of the glove shut and tie it with the purple, black, and green ribbon.

Tasty, would you believe it?

Spooky Lollipops

What you will need:

• 1 bag of tootsie pop
• 1 box of white tissue
• Small googley eyes
• Sharpie pen
• Orange and black ribbon

1. Take 2 sheets of tissue and lay them on top of each other so all corners are showing.
   

   Create a Double Diamond.

2. Take the tootsie pop and place it downward in the middle of the tissue. Gather the tissue around the head of the lollipop.
3. Now that the lollipop is covered, tie the orange and black ribbon around the base of the pop.
   

   Gather up the tissue around the head and tie it off.

4. Stick 2 googley eyes on the lollipop and make a little mouth, as shown at the beginning of this activity.

Voila!

Share these newfound treats with your fellow party-hosts!

This sweet bread is a definite favorite of mine
And don’t worry, it’s not just a recipe for Christmas time,
This bread isn’t like the cookies that are shaped like  men
But isn’t it fun to change it up every now and then?
Gingerbread is sweet and spicy all in one
I promise there won’t be a bite left when all is done.

What you need:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten

What to do:

Put flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Stir until the different spices are well blended.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, mile, molasses, butter, and egg. You can stir by hand or use an electric mixer on a very low setting.
Pour the flour into the large bowl in small increments, stirring until the wet and dry ingredients are combined.
Pour into a greased baking pan ( 9-in ). Bake at 350 degrees for 24 minutes. To make sure the bread is fully cooked, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. The cake is done if the toothpick comes out clean.

H is for Hummus

This healthy dip is great on every type of snack
Just add hummus to carrots or pita and the flavor will never lack.
And did I mention how much fun it is to make?
You just put all your ingredients in a blender- no need to bake!
It can be spicy or mild, salty or plain, you just can’t lose
The decision is up to you, which spices will you choose?

What you need:
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained of most of the water
1 tbsp Tahini oil or 2 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 crushed clove fresh garlic
3 tbsp lemon pepper
1 tsp salt
Optional ingredients:
Spinach
1 cup diced tomatoes

I cup olives

What to do:
Combine the garbanzo beans, tahini, garlic, lemon pepper, and salt in a blender or food processor. Blend until it becomes a smooth, almost creamy consistency. Now you can choose to spice up your hummus however you see fit. Some yummy suggestions are spinach, tomatoes, or olives. The best part is that you can taste test your way through the process, until you get exactly the right combination of spices and flavors to make one yummy dip.

I is for Ice Cream Sandwiches

To make this sandwich, grab a slice of bread, some turkey, and cheese
Wait! Scratch that! I think I would prefer some ice cream please!
Instead of cheese, let’s put ice cream, and swap that bread for a cookie
That’s right, you know what to do – you’re a rhyming chef, not some rookie.
It might not be the healthiest thing you’ve ever eaten
But that sweet tooth’s craving will surely be beaten.
 

What you need:

Cookies
Ice Cream
(not a bad combination, right?)

What to do:

 There are two ways to go about this recipe. You can either make your own favorite cookies or you can purchase them. If you choose to make your own, let the cookies completely cool before assembling your sandwiches. Take one of your cookies and place a generous scoop of ice cream on it. Use a second cookie to flatten the ice cream between the two cookies. Take a flat knife or a spatula to smooth the edges of the ice cream along the cookies and remove excess ice cream. Place on a plate in the freezer to let the ice cream set.

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How To Play:

Have your children and their friends sit around a table so everyone can see and hear each other. Pick one child to go first and have them pick out an animal cracker from the box. Make sure no one else sees what they pick! Then, have the child take a look at what animal they have and then quickly put it in their mouth and eat it. Once the child eats the animal cracker they have magically transformed into that animal! Have them act just like the animal, making all the necessary sound effects and movements. Everyone else at the table must guess what animal the child has become. Whoever guesses correctly first is the next cracker eater. The child who guesses correctly most often during the game is the animal cracker charades champion!

You can make this yummy game a little bit more educational by telling fun facts about each animal after it is correctly guessed. For example:

• Lions only eat every three to four days.
• Camels have two layers of thick eyelashes to protect them from the dust.
• Rhinos roll in the mud so they do not get sunburned.
• Giraffes can survive up to two weeks without water.
• Elephant trucks continue to grow throughout their entire lifetime.

What is your favorite fun animal fact?

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