Moore Minutes: June 2011

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

3 Super Easy Patriotic Ideas

Today's post is a peek a boo of our preparations for the 4th. I'm sharing 3 super easy ideas that take less than 5 minutes to prepare.

ONE

Watermelon Stars on a Stick

Thank you to the most insanely creative Bakers Royale website for this inspiration. She added apples and blueberries to her stars and I was madly in love with her creation! Mine are simply slices of watermelon cut from cookie cutters and twirled onto a playful straw.

Mmm Mmm good...

TWO

Healthy Firecracker Energy Mix

I filled clear tubes with

RED, WHITE, and BLUE.

and sealed them with a star sticker.

The bottom layer is dried cherries,

the middle layer is yogurt covered raisins,

and the top layer is dried blueberries.

Firecracker tubes for easy snacking...

THREE

Abstract American Flag

Ice Cream

I found this idea on bhg.com and knew I had to make these because they were simply beautiful. I especially liked creating abstract art from the classic flag.

Soften your ice cream and spread raspberry sorbet on the bottom of a bread pan. Layer with softened vanilla ice cream and freeze until firm. Cut into slices and add fresh berries.

the blueberry *stars*

That's a wrap on 3 easy snacks to add to your holiday weekend.

My boys are ready to celebrate our great country in their red and blue shirts. They spent an afternoon making those {VERY} popular bleach pen T shirts, drawing their own stars and writing their names.

I'm a fan of this great big country and celebrating the 4th of July is a privilege. I'll repeat what I've shared before because it's so true:

I'm proud to be an American....

I adore our:
boldness
ambition to chase dreams
enthusiasm
humor
charity and compassion
decisiveness
ability to make things happen
intense love

and...how brightly Americans color this world!

We took a recent vacation to Park City, Utah,
and along the way we saw
this incredible white barn with its giant flag.

For your 4th, I hope you get some hot sunshine to sleep lazily in, a dark night to run in, loud color to watch in the sky, ice cold ice cream from a cone, and lots of water to play in.

Go,

eat some Apple Pie

and celebrate the USA.

This post is linked to: Under the Table & Dreamin, It's a Blog Party, Think Pink Sundays LambAround, DIY Showoff, DIY Living, Seasonal Sundays, It's so Very Cheri, Strut Your Stuff at Saturday Mornings, Met Monday, Making the World Cuter, Motivate Me Mondays, Market Yourself Mondays, A2Z Tips & Tutorials, Lettered Cottage How To, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy, Tuesdays at the Table, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, Tip Junkie, Get Your Craft On, We're Organized Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Swing into Spring, Works for Me Wednesday, Show and Tell, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Blog Hop Thursday, Transformation Thursday, Tablescape Thursday, Show off Your Stuff, Strut Your Stuff, Friday Favorites, VIP Party Show and Share Day, Foodie Friday, Frugal Friday, I'm Lovin It, Tickled Pink, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, Weekend Wrap Up

Friday, June 24, 2011

Boom Boom Pow your 4th of July with these CLASSIC ideas

4th of July 2010, this photo makes me SMILE!

From the Archives...
I'm sharing some 4th of July ideas from our holiday last year. Red, White, and Blue Patriotism is classic, so these ideas still work this year.

Simply click on the links below

to find more details on each idea.

Ready...Go.

Add a bit of country lovin to your family dinner table easily

with a vintage pail and fresh flowers.

Red, White, and Blue table setting with napkins wrapped in flag print.

Set up a cheerful table for the kids to celebrate at.

I used patriotic papergoods for the kid's table.

Provide an exciting place setting for EACH child. Kids love to feel extra special and to see their names on treasures prepared especially for them. Each pail held mini flags to wave, candy, fireworks, marshmallow nametag sticks, and their eating utensils.

Frosted sugar cookies aren't only for December.

Sprinkle on some red and blue for July.

A simple activity to do with your kids:

paper pinwheels finished off with a button!

Make a welcome sign to your summer gathering

using chalk ink (that stuff is SO awesome!).

Ice cream is mandatory in July, right? Make your ice cream cones pretty by dipping in chocolate and rolling in festive sprinkles.

You can also use paper printables to add some fun to the cones.

An ice cream sundae bar adds a lot of color and excitement

to your patriotic party.

Use cookie cutters to create festive sandwiches.

Little flags in your buffet line...

for your All American dinner menu.

Use summer berries to make mini parfaits.

That's all for now. For those of you who have already seen these, I will be sharing new ideas for this upcoming 4th of July {soon}.

Enjoy your entertaining preparations!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

THE SUMMER LIST with: MOORE Family Library and Summer Surpise Cups

Summer is freedom and fun...that's a given. I'm one of those "anticipation lovers". It excites me to feed anticipation to those I love. Every summer I plan classic summer activities for my boys. And each year, they are presented with that anticipation in a variety of ways. LAST YEAR, I shared with you our Bucket of Summer Fun and Gratitude. This year is different. Along with a list of summer wishes we'd like to do, I try to teach the boys something meaningful each year. Last year, we focused on having grateful hearts and on providing acts of service to others instead of just sitting back and getting spoiled 24/7. Feel free to read about those little life lessons we worked on LAST summer in my Bucket of Summer Gratitude post.

This summer we are focusing on READING. I created a MOORE Family Library with Summer Surprise Cups!

The boys got pretty motivated over the concept

of creating a Moore Family Library

and SO they put together their own library
with no prompting from this Mama:

For our family library, we are using these retro library cards to record and log books and hours. I found these on the etsy store Knot&Bow. This store is EXCITING! I found so many little trendy and classy treasures that give the perfect finishing touch to our simple escapades in life. I will be sharing more from Knot&Bow in a future post.

My Mom told me that books were better than chocolate, fashion, and diamonds...(what?!) I don't *completely* agree with her, BUT she does have a point. I was taught to love books and to value the gift of reading. Her passion for books and reading encircled my life and I am blessed to carry that passion with me now. I have always tried to pass the joy of reading onto my boys, teaching them what treasured tools books are! We have never had tv with cable in our home, but instead have encouraged reading. I've mentioned several times in previous posts how I place books throughout our home sweet home as decor. Books need to be in convenient and enticing places. In our home, they rest on end tables, under desk lamps, sit in stacks beside couches, and are gathered in baskets by beds. If you've followed my blog for long, I'm sure you've noticed many books in our photos.

I've explained to the boys that once they feel the thrill of reading, it will take them to places they've never thought to go and will pour knowledge at a rapid pace into their minds. I explained that their imaginations will thrive when they read, and those dreams will fuel their passion for living a full life.

Ohhh, the places we'll go when we read a book...

Books have greatly influenced my life. Glancing at my booklists of non fiction/self help books through the years is like seeing a condensed timeline of my past and what I was experiencing at those times.

Because of my strong love of books, this year's Summer Activity List has reading incentives incorporated with our lil family Library...

The process: We have retro library cards hanging on a twine garland.

The boys "check out" a book each evening

and record their reading time on the cards.

Each time the boys read for 60 minutes, they get to open a Summer Surprise Cup. These cups are super cool and spell out: Dig The Sun. ;)

I am major crushing on these ABC cups!

The ideas on how to use these are endless, right?

Each cup has summer-y paper in it and discloses the surprise.

The anticipation lies in wondering

what surprise is waiting in the summer cups...

Fun variety of whimsical paper ...

in every single cup...

more...

Some of the surprises are:
Make homemade popsicles

slip n slide day

family game night

bike ride on river trail with picnic

building sand castles at the lake

etc, etc.

Each surprise is a celebration of Simple Living in the Summertime.

 We are ready for a fabulous summer 

full of REAL summer fun 

and also some 

IMGAINARY fun in our book world too. 

{wink} 

In closing,

bite-size dreamy pillow cloud cookies

for my 3 little tummies.

What's on THE LIST?
I know many people make lists of summer fun activities and I'm always soaking up new ideas...please share what's on your list this year!