Life, Gluten Free

5 Water Games to Play Outside with Kids

 

We brought out our melissa & doug caterpillar sprinkler this weekend to enjoy the sunshine. This morning, Sophie decided we should head out and play in the sprinkler again. It's in the 80s today, so I decided that sounded like a pretty good idea too!

While we were playing, we created some fun games.

1. Water Chalk

This is an easy take on DIY chalk paint. Simply place different colored chalk sticks in the path of your sprinkler. Once the chalk sticks get wet in the sprinkler, you can use the wet chalk sticks and "paint" with them on the side walk. You can compare and talk about how the texture of dry vs wet chalk is very different. A lot of fun!

2. Chalk Shoe Prints

Once our chalk sticks were wet, we used them to color the bottom of our shoes (Sophie had keen's on, I had crocs.. her keens worked a lot better because they have a nice texture, my crocs are way worn out). It left little shoe prints all along the side walk in a nice pink color. It's the little things :)

3. Chalk Race (Sophie deemed this her favorite game)

Once you get to the end of your chalk stick, toss it on the wet sidewalk and squish it with your bare feet. We took one pink and one blue to make two teams. Team pink and Team blue. Squish your feet nicely into the chalk and then race down the sidewalk. You'll leave colored foot prints along the way!

4. Max Liquidator : a "water gun"

Sophie and her dad picked out one of these Max Liquidators at our local toy shoppe and for some reason, I went along with it. I like that it's a "water gun" but it's not shaped like a gun. And it's a lot of fun, but mostly when you are the one soaking everyone else. Suddenly, it becomes less fun when you're the one getting soaked. Go figure.

We also like to use it to clean chalk from the side walk. And it does cool off the feet nicely. We use a bucket from the sprinkler to fill it up with water.

5. Water the plants as fast as you can

This isn't really a game, but we wanted to conserve some of the water that we were wasting while the sprinkler was on so we put buckets under the sprinkler to catch some of the water. We watered our flowers and herbs and felt a bit more earth friendly.

Do you have any favorite outdoor games to play? comment & let us know!

Mango Guacamole

Some of my favorite foods include avocado, mango, banana, homemade french fries, coconut macaroons, mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach. 

Maybe not all together at the same time, of course. But then again.. why not? Sounds good to me.

But back to the mango guacamole. Who wants some? 

I didn't put tomatoes in the guacamole, because my daughter and my husband are both not eating tomatoes. I put some in a smaller bowl for me, but honestly you don't need the tomato. It's just as good without it.

I also didn't have any cilantro, since I didn't plan ahead for this recipe. Too bad. I love cilantro! If you have some, add a tablespoon of freshly chopped cilantro and you'll be happy.

Ingredients:

5 avocados

1 cup mango, peeled & diced

1/4 cup onion, diced

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Mash the avocadoes in a bowl. I use a potato masher, but you can also use a fork or spoon.

Add diced onion, diced mango, lemon juice, and a dash of sea salt.

Mix well and serve!

Sophie likes to eat it with plantain chips, cucumber sticks and carrot sticks. I'm also partial to it along side a plate of fried beet & potato hash (cooked in coconut oil).

Coconut Lime Popsicles

Spring is here and with it, warmer days! I've been wanting to make something with lime and every time I go to our natural grocers, I see limes and I want to buy them.

And at random times, I have the coconut song stuck in my head by Harry Nilsson.

Doesn't this happen to anyone else?

Put the lime in the coconut and drink 'em both together,
Put the lime in the coconut, and you'll feel better

Thanks to both Harry Nilsson and my urge to buy limes, I came up with this quick popsicle recipe that Sophie has really been enjoying.

Coconut Lime Popsicles

 Makes 6

free of: dairy, soy, gluten, eggs, tree-nuts

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup organic coconut flakes

1 can organic coconut milk (full fat, 13.66 ounces)

7 tablespoons fresh squeezed organic lime juice (about 5 limes)

1/2 cup organic maple syrup

Directions:

Add coconut flakes to high-powered blender and blend briefly until the flakes are very fine shreds (almost a powdery consistency).

Add coconut milk, maple syrup and lime juice.

Blend just enough to mix the ingredients.

Add to popsicle molds, and freeze for 4-6 hours or until frozen completely.

* You can buy finely shredded coconut in place of the coconut flakes, but that's what I had on hand this time. Larger flakes would be good in the popsicle too, but would add a different texture.

Funny Fruity Easter Bunny

This is our good friend, the funny fruity easter bunny. He took me about ten minutes to configure, and probably about five minutes or less for Sophie to devour. 

Ears: pear & banana

Eyes: banana & raisins

Nose/Whiskers: banana with dried mango cut into whisker shapes

Mouth/Teeth: raisins & carrots

I hope you all have a very Happy Easter! I'll be back next week to share a fun popsicle recipe that I created to celebrate the warm sunny Spring days we've been having (minus the 3 inches of snow we got on Tuesday. But that's just totally normal for here. Carry on.)