Wordless Wednesday: Snow Peas

A few words: This picture is from June when we still had snow peas on the vine. Sweet P LOVED picking them and was pretty sad when the Farmer cut them down when they turned yellow and died.

Rice Fireworks

Yes, I do realize that 4th of July was a month ago, but I've been a bit behind on the blogging (if you hadn't noticed). But I'm making up for it now!

We made these fun little creations while Blair was visiting and what fun we had! I think they turned out pretty neat and even though it was pretty messy (aren't all toddler activities messy?), it was a great sensory activity for Sweet P.

The Craft: Rice Fireworks

What you need:
Colored rice
Construction paper
White glue
Paint

I painted one of Sweet P's hands red and the other blue and stamped them 4 times a piece to create the background of the firework (older kids can paint their own hand). Then, I drew one line of a glue at a time and had her sprinkle the rice on top. This worked well, but doing all the glue at once would work as well. We used separate colors, but realized later that the mixed rice looked so much cooler!

Sweet P's is on the bottom, Blair's is on the top and the middle firework was made by Gammie and Blair with leftover rice.

I found several tutorials for colored rice, but found that simply adding food coloring worked best. I added water to the blue and it took too long to dry (we ended up putting it outside where it baked dry in about 2 seconds). I just added food coloring and mixed until the rice was coated for the red.

How to make colored rice:
1/4 cup white rice
3 to 4 drops of food coloring

Mix well until rice is coated. Let dry for several minutes.

Cool Eats: Yogurt Dip

This dip is fabulous and so great for a HOT day (we've had plenty in Iowa...fun fact: it was the hottest July in Iowa since 1955). I ate it with this yummy Rosemary Lavash chip/crackers from Costco that I, of course, couldn't find again. Wah. I could go on and on about those chips, but alas, this post is about yogurt dip. I'll just look at the pic of the chips and remember them fondly.

And if you're wondering about that sweet little flower, it's a Mexican sunflower from our garden.

The Recipe: Yogurt Dip

What you need:
1/2 c plain yogurt
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp cumin

Combine ingredients in a small bowl and chill (or eat immediately). Serve with chips, crackers or fresh veggies. So good.

This dip is also great on falafel or other wraps.