ice-cream!

I can’t believe it’s already the end of July. I spent February and March anticipating May and June, and as usual they flew by leaving in their wake our first preschool graduate, first soccer season, two third birthdays, and a few other less glamorous firsts that involved time outs on stairs.  I still can’t wrap my head around the phenomenon that happens when you have kids.  The minutes – they can sometimes last for painfully long periods of time – but the moments – my god do they fly by.

When I get home from work, I have a mental list of the things that *must*  be done. Making the most of the precious few minutes with our family each evening: Change. Make sure girls have gone potty. Make dinner. Exercise or activity to make me feel like a semi-good mom. Baths. Stories. Lay out everything for tomorrow. Epic bedtime routine. Clean up. Work.  Sometimes the weight of all the things I should be doing comes down around my ears and I literally fall asleep while I’m playing with them.  Today was one of those days. Awake and playing, and then about 10 minutes later… awake again. Awesome. The best part was seeing that Cam had passed out beside me on the floor and we both had cushions put on top of us and tiny toys tucked in beside us … we were at the peak of our parenting skills in that moment.

I always feel like it’s fun to involve the kids in making dinner to make the most of those precious little minutes, or involving them in something even more exciting, like making dessert… That way they know what to look forward to if they eat their dinner!  One of the many favorites in our household is icecream, and it’s a great one to make together because everyone can have a job in the process.

We have a great little ice-cream maker by Cuisinart – you just keep the bucket in the freezer and pull it out when you want to make ice-cream.  Put in all your ingredients and then turn it on for 25 minutes and it magically makes icecream…and completely ignore the fact that you just used cream and full fat milk, and sugar, and m&ms in the process of making your ‘pure’ homemade delicious icecream…  So yummy on a hot evening! We found these awesome thermos containers by Zak that keep the ice-cream frozen – even on a picnic for a few hours.

mmm- okay – gotta go back for some chocolate – have a great night!

xo