Frugal Family Fun: Defrosting the Freezer and a Snowball Fight in July

So one of the things I wanted to get done this summer is defrosting the freezer. We hadn't defrosted the freezer completely since we got it a year and a half ago and it really needed to be done. This doesn't really seem like a fun family activity until my brilliant husband thought we shouldn't waste the sink full of soft chunks of ice (we hate to throw anything away) and that we should let the boys have a snowball fight with it. What great free fun we had.

So we all put on hats and gloves and headed outside into the light rain. We had a great snowball fight here in Kunming in the middle of July, where it rarely ever snows even in the winter. However, it does give new meaning to their saying here, "It's winter when it rains."

How to keep cool at 29 weeks pregnant

No idea why the neighbors recently put a toilet in the bushes.
I don't think anyone has used it yet thankfully.

Got to go fast!

Family Fridays: Our 5th Anniversary, Fun with Kids, Nate's Birthday, and Finishing Classes

This has been a very full and exciting week for us. Saturday was our 5th wedding anniversary. We had a low key, but wonderful day celebrating at home. I think the boys had fun too and are glad we got married, even if right now they only recognize that it brought they special food, chocolate, and a wedding video to watch on our anniversary. :)

On Sunday we went to a traditional open air market on the edge of town. The boys enjoyed the "petting farm," otherwise known as other people's future dinner. There are very few foreigners who go to this part of town so the sellers were quite happy to let the boys look and touch their animals and take their pictures. There is also a moon bounce thing that the boys had fun on and we stopped for ice cream bars on the way back. The boys had a ton of fun and actually did a lot of walking themselves this time, so they slept really, really, well that night.

Wednesday was Nate's birthday and we had a great family day. A water balloon tug of war and a strawberry- chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake were two of the highlights.

Nate finished up his third semester of Mandarin classes today. So tomorrow officially starts our summer vacation. We are starting to plan out our summer fun and summer to do lists now and looking forward to a little more relaxed schedule for a few weeks.

Family Fridays: Fourth of July Fun

We did lots of fun things this Fourth of July.

We made crayon resist fireworks
and painted over them with watercolors.

We played with red, white, and blue water balloons.

Pop!

After everyone got baths
we played with regular balloons.

We made cookie fireworks.

We did some patriotic themed educational activities.

We made fireworks in a jar.

Which didn't go according to the directions,
because of gel food coloring I think.

But we added glitter and
let the boys shake up the jars.

And they loved it and played with
them the whole time I was making dinner.

We ate LOTS of Traditional American Food.

And we had patriotic peach pie.

I think we tried to squeeze enough fun for all of July into one day, and we all slept in until 10am the next morning. :)

Fun for July Ideas

In case your still looking for fun things to do for 4th of July, or anytime this month, here are a few things that we've done in the past.

This American Flag Cake is always a classic. Everyone oohs and ahhs when I've taken it to a gathering, but if you use store bought mixes it comes together in no time, and homemade cake and toppings don't take that much longer.


These Cookie Fireworks were a hit last year with the boys. The idea would work well with any sugar cookie recipe too.




But we'll probably be having something like this All American Apple Pie again, since strawberries and blueberries aren't in season here. I'm thinking maybe I'll do peach filling this year though.

We'll also be revisiting some of the learning activities from the America Unit Study we did last year to reintroduce some basic facts to our boys.






And we'll definitely be having some of this Easy Fresh Squeezed Lemonade with our hamburgers tomorrow. :)

Family Fridays: Father's Day and Fourth Birthday

Aaron and his "pizza baby"

This past week has been a busy week of celebrating for us. We started celebrating on Saturday night by going out for Father's Day early, because the Western restaurants we like on this side of town are closed on Sunday. We went to the Chicago Coffee pizza buffet. I always forget to take pictures while we're there because we start talking to friends, but we had a lot of good pizza. The boys ate so much this time that Aaron declared he grew a pizza baby in his tummy.

Sunday we talked to some family back home, ate a lot of special food here, and the boys had fun reading and playing with daddy. Aaron and I made lemon meringue pie together for Nate. I was pretty happy that it turned out really well, since we only have a crank mixer and meringue is tricky at high altitude. I'll have to post the recipe soon.

Then Thursday was Aaron's Fourth Birthday and we celebrated Andrew half birthday (he's now 2 1/2 years old) at the same time. We were getting ready for the birthday on Wednesday and with all of the ice cream and cake being made, the presents being wrapped, and other stuff going on the boys were way to excited to think about sleeping until really late, when they both crashed on the couch.

On Thursday the boys woke up to balloons all over their room and in the dining room with cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then they got to talk to both sets of grandparents on Skype and hunt for and open the birthday presents from them. They were so excited. Aaron was thrilled about all of his presents even exclaiming over his new shoes and shorts.

We had a Chinese friend come over for lunch and the boys had fun playing with her. It was kind of funny because immediately she remarked about the quality of the balloons we had. We told her that our parents, who do think it's funny to send us things like salt and balloons, were gracious enough to include a ton of balloons in birthday boxes for the boys, so we're set for balloons for quite a while.

She left a little after lunch. Nate also left after lunch to go to his Mandarin class. The boys spent the afternoon using their new things from the grandparents. They played with their new trains, colored in new coloring books, read new books, and even went swimming in the bathtub so they could both play with their new bath toys at the same time.

Afterward Aaron picked out the biggest clothes he could find to wear, which ironically was a 5T Thomas long-sleeve Thomas shirt that was a Christmas gift from my parents, that he has been refusing to wear for months. The reason was only that it is not exactly like his old one. But now "he is 4 and bigger and needs bigger clothes" and loves it. Good thing they got a large size, as it will be good for next winter.

After Nate came back we went to KFC for ice cream and playing. Then around behind Walmart to ride the silly rides and play the silly wack-a-Mickey game. This was a small part of their present from Great-Grandma.

Back at home we had macaroni and cheese for dinner, which is a huge treat here in China. Then the boys opened their presents from us. We gave them blankets and games, and I made Aaron a stuffed Tux the Linux penguin. Super Tux Kart is one of the boys favorite games and Nate downloaded and compiled the source code for the new version so the boys could play parts of it for their birthday, before it is even released. They thought it was pretty cool to be able to play even part the new version of the game as they have been awaiting its release. Then they colored Tux and Mozilla pictures. After that we had cake and ice cream. Aaron asked for a Tux racing cake that I think actually turned out pretty cute, and Andrew wanted a Blob Salad cake. They have interesting Open Source taste in computer games.

Throughout the day, anytime he was calm enough to sit down, Aaron was reading the new books he received for his birthday. He basically read through all of his new books on his birthday, including an almost 200 page collection of Curious George.

And the boys, and their parents, slept very soundly that night.