I mentioned last week that I was thinking about making a summer passport. And would you look at that: I did! It was super easy and I’m going to tell you how to do it.

diy summer passport

materials:

• a small moleskine plain journal with a kraft paper cover. They are called Cahiers and are sold in sets of three (for 7 bucks).
• crayons, markers, pencils, whatever
• a list of activities (see below)
• stickers, or a date stamper

directions:

1. Make your cover. We went with the basic, Summer Passport 2013. You could get a little more exciting, like THIS IS GOING TO BE THE JONES’ BEST SUMMER EVAR!

2. Write something fun to do on every right hand page. This ends up being about 30 activities, which I think is doable for summer. It also leaves the left page open for writing about when you did that activity (optional, obviously).

3. Draw a box under the activity. This is where you will put the stickers (or stamp the date) when you do that activity. If you plan to do something often, make sure to draw a big box. My daughter seems to think we will be going to the pool a lot this summer. :)

4. Go do something! Here’s a list of 40 things to get you started:

list of summer activities

1. run through the sprinkler
2. blow bubbles (last year, we made super big bubbles!)
3. eat watermelon (in star form maybe?)
4. make a giant fort
5. make grape sculptures
6. eat corn on the cob (and make your own awesome holders!)
7. buy a treat from the ice cream truck
8. go to the farmer’s market
9. sign up for your library’s summer reading program
10. play in the rain
11. write a letter to Grandma
12. make your own gummy treats
13. wash the car
14. find a new park in your town
15. go swimming!
16. make paper airplanes
17. learn cats cradle
18. paint with chalk paint
19. build a fairy house
20. feed the ducks
21. get your face painted
22. watch fireworks
23. play sidewalk simon
24. catch fireflies
25. play badmiton
26. sail boats down a tin foil river
27. water balloon fight!
28. be a super spy–make invisible ink
29. make ice cream or popsicles
30. make your own stickers
31. exploding paint bombs!
32. go to a local fair
33. have a magic potion lab
34. make saltwater taffy
35. have a lemonade stand (or a tattoo stand!)
36. camp in the backyard
37. go fishing
38. go bowling
39. see a concert in the park
40. pick strawberries

What are you doing this summer? Add your ideas in the comments!

This shorts sew-a-long came right at the perfect time. My children were pretty much shortless before Carla asked me to be a part of this amazing event. Now I’ve got a few made and more cut out. Carla and Rachel have even lined up some awesome prizes from Jo-Ann, Pretty Prudent/Pellon®, and Hawthorne Threads this year and all you have to do is sew some (much needed) shorts!

Here are my shorts I made for my daughter, and on the line to boot! The pattern I used comes from the Japanese book, Happy Homemade vol. 5

The actual pattern for both pairs of shorts is the same, only one is longer and one is shorter with added cuffs.

They are both of the super skinny variety. The pattern is nicely tailored with a simple elastic waist, two rounded pockets in the front, and two typical jean pockets in the back.

I call these her Fruit Stripe shorts. If I was a more organized mom, I would have put a pack of fruit stripe gum in the tiny pocket!

The fabric is by HGTV I think? It is an outdoor fabric I got at Joann’s and I knew it would become fruit stripe shorts the moment I saw it.

What I didn’t think about was matching all those fruit stripes: four patch pockets and separate cuffs. After much sweat and swearing, they [almost] match! Woo Hoo!

The second pair is made from a striped fabric too (I never learn). I scored a yard of this railroad striped denim at the thrift store. I’m usually not a fan of the jean short, but I think these work.

I made these shorts for my daughter last year (paired them with wellies then too!). They got a lot of wear and no wonder–they are comfortable and durable. She is a rough and tumble gal and needs shorts that can keep up.

Those are my shorts on the line! Check out all these amazing sewers to see more:

I took this picture last year right before the kids got home. They were so excited to bust through the finish line! Woo Hoo! Summertime!

We also made a GIANT list of all the fun things we wanted to do that summer. I’m happy to say we checked off almost every one (I don’t think there were any pony rides, but hey! they’re expensive).

This summer, I’m inspired by this post about getting summer right.  Having a schedule–albeit a loosey goosey summer one–is key to keeping my sanity in the summer. I really like the idea of having a set amount of time everyday dedicated to a specific task: say 20 minutes reading, 20 minutes writing, 30 minutes chores, 20 minutes working toward their summer goal.

My idea is to make a summer passport–inspired by the restaurant passport above (hmm, that link seems to be broken, but you get the idea). We’ll make some little books together and write down all the tasks we want/need to accomplish all summer in them. Then I’m going to go out and purchase one of those handy dandy date stampers–you know, the ones the librarians used to stamp your book?  And I’ll stamp their passport when they finish the tasks.

Does this sound too complicated? Last year our summer was filled with fun stuff and my kids’ definitely learned some things too. But this summer I want them to see how a little time each day adds up to awesome things.  Oh my, I think KCW has taken over my brain!

I said I would and look! I actually did: I made summer pajamas from a bunch of thrifted tees.

And the kids actually like them! There is no Iron Man or Perry the Platypus or Elmo or whatever character they’re into this minute in sight. I’m not against the odd licensed character, but I cannot deal with the weird, plastic, pajama fabric they are printed on. When they’re new the fabric feels like slimy alien skin, and after a few washes it turns into pill-y, old, molted alien skin.

Obviously I have some issues with kids’ pajamas. Not these suckers though! They are all 100% handmade from 100% second hand clothes.

Here are all the sewing details:

fabric: thrifted tees pictured here

pattern: For the shorts I used the sleeping johns pattern from Growing Up Sew Liberated. I made the sleeping johns a few years ago and they still fit my daughter. So the fit is obviously pretty generous. My 7 year old daughter is wearing a size 5T, my 6 year old son is wearing a 4T, and my 3 year old son is wearing a 3T

The shirts are made with Rae’s Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. The only time I actually followed the pattern was for the gray shirt in the middle. For the other two shirts I used the pattern more as a guide. The tank top is far from perfect, but it works for pjs.

sewing: The shorts went super fast and were not a problem at all. The shirts were a bit more fiddle-y, because I chose super soft, super thin material. My sewing machine prefers to eat material like that rather than sew it. Arg!

The plan was to have two pairs of pjs for each kid, but only the youngest got two (the second pair is pictured above). For that gray striped top, I used Kristen’s Flashback Tee –> Tank Top tutorial and blatantly copied her style while I was at it. There are two more pairs of pjs in the works. Both are half done, but I think I hit a pajama making wall. Maybe I’ll climb over it this weekend :)

My children eat oatmeal all winter long. They never tired of it. I don’t get it. Come summer I can’t even stand to make it any more, though I’m sure they would eat it. I need something cool and quick for hot summer mornings. Last year I discovered this recipe for chocolate granola and it is delicious. Really it’s not like granola at all, it’s more like cereal–real, out-of-the-box cereal, something that rarely shows up in this house.  But a jar of Hippie Cocoa Pebbles is now a staple in my cupboard.

The first step is extra hippie: soak the nuts overnight. Hippie Cocoa Pebbles are nut based–they contain no grains, no oats, no gluten at all. Super great! but nuts contain a lot of phytic acid, which is an anti-nutrient (I laughed the first time I heard that word too). Soaking minimizes the damage phytic acid can do. You can obviously read more about this on the internets if you are interested, but for now just know that soaking the nuts makes this cereal taste better and be better for you.

After the nuts have soaked overnight, you rinse them, dry them, and pulverize them in the food processor. I make quite a big batch, so the nuts fill my food processor up to the top. This involves a bit of stopping and stirring in between chopping, so they don’t inadvertently become nut butter!  You want them to be about the consistency of grape nuts–on the coarser side of finely chopped I’d say.

Then you make a delicious mixture of butter and cocoa and maple syrup. I freely admit that I hide from my children in the kitchen and lick the spoon clean.

About the cocoa powder: buy the best stuff you can find. Really. This recipe uses a lot (1/2 cup) and it is the dominant flavor, so break out the good stuff. I am in love with Penzey’s high fat cocoa powder. It smells like chocolate, rich dark chocolate. Cocoa powder should smell like chocolate, right? Sadly, most smell like ash (I’m looking at you Hershey’s).

Then you take that lovely buttery, chocolatey syrup you just made and mix it with the nuts. If you make a smaller batch you can get away with mixing in the food processor, but for a large batch it works out better in a bowl. This is where I usually forget to add the coconut, so if you don’t care for coconut feel free to forget it. Toasted coconut  (if you have some leftover) would be absolutely lovely.

All of it goes into a warm oven and as it bakes it fills your whole house with the most amazing chocolatey aroma. The temperature of the oven is so low in fact (200 F) that if you have a dehydrator now’s the time to dust it off. I think it would even qualify as raw then. This cereal does indeed come with a lot of buzz words: Gluten free! Grain free! Low sugar! No refined sugar! Paleo!  But there’s only one word it comes with that really matters: Delicious!

hippie cocoa pebbles

adapted from Gourmand in the Kitchen’s chocolate granola

ingredients

• 3 cups almonds
• 2 cups pecans (you can easily substitute walnuts, macadamias, or skinless hazelnuts, but if you use cashews only soak them for 2-3 hours)
• 3/4 cup butter (coconut oil is a good substitute if you can’t do dairy)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup dried, unsweetened coconut (optional)

directions

1. Soak the nuts in filtered water overnight. Drain and rinse them well. Dry on a clean kitchen towel.
2. Chop in a food processor until they are the size of little pebbles (cocoa pebbles!)
3. Melt butter and maple syrup over low heat.
4. Add cocoa powder and mix well.
5. Pour the buttery mixture and the nuts into a big bowl and mix thoroughly
6. Add the coconut and mix.
7. Spread the cereal on two sheet pans lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake in a 200 degree F oven for 2 1/2-3 hours, stirring now and then.
9. Cool and store in airtight containers.
10. Hippie Cocoa Pebbles keep two weeks at room temperature, longer in the freezer.

This recipe makes 5-6 cup cereal. Enjoy!