'Cause This Is How We Roll Here In Orygun

We love summer time! Have I mentioned that before? Not just because the sun is shining and we get to play outside (although that's pretty awesome!) We love it because we get to stay home all summer and play! I love it!

So on one of our camping trips this summer we stumbled upon a group of high school kids who were laughing and whooping it up on a homemade slip 'n slide. My kids and I all looked at each other and said "we have to do that" right about at the same time. So we came home and bought the "ingredients". Pretty simple right? A tarp and some dish soap.

Sure we could just go buy a slip 'n slide from the store. But they cost about $15 or $20 and we end up tearing it after about 3 uses and have to throw it away. This was much cheaper. The tarp was $7 and I bought the dish soap at the Dollar Store.

The kids all got wet (which became a big water fight).

And I squirted on some dish soap.

Then they went to town!

I love this picture of my daughter. She is amazingly brave and had no problem being the first one to try it out.

After her slip (or is it slide???) was a success my son gave it a try. He got out his sled thing that we bought when it was super snowy. I think this was a hit.

Every once in awhile we sprayed the tarp and added a little more dish soap to make sure it was really slippery. When I wasn't looking my daughter grabbed the dish soap and added some. I'm not sure if some really captures it, though.

We were a tad bit soapy.

But no one seemed to mind. It was hysterical watching them slip and slide and laugh their heads off. My poor neighbors. I'm not sure what they think after this and my homemade sprinkler.

We even took this bad boy camping with us last time. It was HOT over in Vernonia and the kids needed to cool down. The tarp was easy to pack and I had dish soap with us. I just filled up buckets from the water thing (see how versed I am with camping jargon) and carried them to the tarp. Easy as can be and hours of fun!

One of our friends showed my kids how to blow huge bubbles with just her hands. (See, being all covered in soap isn't all bad.)

I link up to the parties on my sidebar.

Racing to the Dinner Table

In keeping with our fun food theme we made these cute sloppy Joe cars. What do you think?
(You didn't miss our other fun food posts, did you? Octodogs and Shells, Aliens for dinner and our Squiddlers.)

These were simple to make and will be a big hit with the kids.

You will need:
* Hamburger or ground turkey
* 1 can sloppy joe sauce
* hoaggy rolls (or you can use unsliced hot dog buns)
* zucchini or cucumber
* cherry tomatoes
* pretzel twists

We made sloppy joe filling. Super easy! I browned a pound of ground turkey (because I like to fool myself into thinking we're healthy around here) and then added a can of sloppy joe sauce. Easy peasy! But you can always make it from scratch. =o)

Then I hollowed out some of the roll. Super easy. I just cut out a rectangle and pulled out the bread.

Then fill 'er up with sloppy joe stuff.

Don't forget to add a stearing wheel!

Then add on some wheels and headlights with toothpicks and you are set!

I link up to the linky parties in my sidebar.

I am also linking up to

Wordless Wednesday

Really???

Dough Boys - OH MY!!!

Yep, you heard me right - Dough Boys. Have you heard of them? Up until a couple of weeks ago I hadn't. And boy was I missing out (and I didn't even know it!) I always thought camping = s'mores (which, by the way, I have made all summer long!) But nope, not anymore. Now camping = dough boys! Although I want to call them Little Balls of Pure Awesomeness Filled With Even More Awesomeness. But that title is a little long. But I'll get on with it =o)


A couple of weeks ago I was camping at our favorite spot to camp, LL Stub Stewart State Park in Vernonia. (Check out the post here.) The nice folks camping next to us were making these. I had no idea what they were and to be quite honest, they looked kind of strange from afar. But I had to go check it out. I mean seriously... campire, cooking, chocolate (I could smell it miles away.) So they filled me in. Immediately I called my brother and asked if he could make me some sticks (since we had another camping trip planned only two weeks after this one.)


When I got home I got a little antsy so I asked my wonderful neighbor friends to make me some too. (Well, I actually asked if they had a drill and Kevin offered to make them for me. How sweet was that?!?!)


So he got to work...

I don't think they were too difficult to make. You get the idea right?

Here's another picture of the stick. It's just a skinnier dowel inserted into a larger dowel.

And then we wrapped that bad boy up with Pillsbury buscuit dough.

And then we roasted...

and roasted...

and roasted...

You have to be patient with this. They need to cook for about 10-15 minutes and not get all burnt on the outside and still be doughy on the inside. Patience, patience, patience!

But this is what they look like when they are finished cooking.

This is what I brought to fill them with: white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, Hersheys milk chocolate bars, M&Ms, mini marshmallows and crushed up Heath bars. YUM!!!
Put whatever you like inside and let it sit a minute. The filling melts all together and you end up with a yummy, gooey pocket of deliciousness!

My kids LOVED them!!!

The buscuit dough was pretty darn delicious but I wanted to try it with cresent dough. It was definitely different. Cresent dough is more buttery so you have to really pinch the seams together so it doesn't separate and plop into the fire. (Does it sound like I learned the hard way with this one???)

What do you think?

I filled mine with milk chocolate and crushed up Heath bar. And it was DELICIOUS!!!

Next time we go camping I'm going to bring the buscuit dough and marinara sauce and mozarella cheese. Doesn't that sound good?

And a HUGE thank you to my awesome brother, John, for making us 4 of these sticks and to Kevin for making us 2 of them. We are so set for our next camping trip! This might be all we eat the entire time! =o)

I link up to the parties on my sidebar. Go check them out and see all the great creations!

REAL Rootbeer Float Popsicles

This may not look like much but let me tell you... it is delicious! My kids and I love root beer floats and have seen a lot of homemade popsicles out there that claim to be rootbeer floats, but they are imposters. Thanks to Almost Unschoolers for this amazing find because here is a real rootbeer float popsicle. Simple, cheap and delicious. That is one of my favorite combinations!

Here's what you'll need:

* Root Beer

* Vanilla Ice Cream

* Plastic cups (or paper)

* Aluminum Foil

* Sticks


Pour the rootbeer into the cups filling them about half way.

Add small scoops of ice cream. Add as much or as little as you want - you're the boss here.

Wait a couple of minutes for the fizz to go down and then cover with aluminum foil.

Make a small slit in the middle of the aluminum foil and add the stick. Make sure to push it down through the ice cream and to the bottom of the cup.

And freeze!

Here's what you end up with.

Looks pretty amazing doesn't it?

I think my crew was pleased.

I link up to these parties ---------------->

Chocolate Chip S'more Cookies

I'm kind of on a s'more kick this summer. There's a ton of different recipes going around blogland and they all pretty much look delicious to me. So I'm slowly working my way through them to find the ultimate s'more goodies. (Don't forget to check out my S'more Stuffed Brownies. They are going to be hard to beat!)

I saw this recipe over on Picky Palate and knew it was one I had to try. She makes the best cookies! And in a muffin top pan??? Who knew?!?! I've had a muffin top pan for years. I bought this baby back when muffin tops were super "in". I didn't necessarily make muffin tops in it. I made cupcake tops in it. Seriously! It makes the perfect cupcake to frosting ratio EVER!!! And that's super important in my book. Can't have a huge cupcake without the proper amount of frosting, right??? But I digress. So here's a muffin top pan if you haven't seen one.

She makes tons of cookies in this pan and now I know why. I'm hooked! It makes the perfect gigantic cookie!

I used the recipe off of the chocolate chip bag for my chocolate chip cookies. I think Toll House rocks when it comes to basic chocolate chip cookies. But I cut the chocolate chips in half (only adding half the bag.) And I used milk chocolate chips.

What you will need:
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 large eggs
6 oz. milk chocolate chips

miniature marshmallows
Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar (amount depends on how much you want to add)
Graham Crackers

Combine: flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Beat: butter, sugars and vanilla. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Gradually add in dry ingredients. Stir in milk chocolate chips.

Then I scooped it into the muffin top pan. I used my medium scoop from Pampered Chef. (I love their products!)

But wait. Here comes the good part! I put mini marhsmallows, broken pieces of graham crackers and pieces of Hershey Milk Chocolate bar on the top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 13 minutes and when you take them out of the oven they look like this!

Don't these look delicious? Well, they were. They are on the top of my s'more summer freak out fest!

I link up to these parties -------->

I'm also linking up to