Summer Activities- At the Beach

Since summer is almost over, most families are going to try to squeeze in one last beach outing. Here are some of me and my sisters favorite things to do!

Sandcastles! With lots of people to help this classic activity can be twice as fun... and twice as big!

The Cartwheel game! In this game you start at a certain point and do cartwheels down to the water, and see how many you can do before your head dunks under!!

The rock-find game! This game can only be played at certain beaches, ones with rocks that can fit in you hand, but won't get moved to much by the waves. Everyone gets a rock, and than you throw it into the water. Than you run into the water and have ten waves to find your rock, if you don't you get a new rock.. and a strike. After you get three strikes you can still play, but can't win. The last person to get three strikes wins. { You can play with strikes or not, there are a bunch of ways we have played, get inventive.}

The Algae-monster game! In ths game you do not want to get touched by the water, or the Algae monster will get you. Everyone starts a good distance from the water. You run to the very edge of the water and mark how far you went with a rock. Everytime the waves go out, try to move farther in. But if you get touched by the water, you have been captured bt the Algae monster, you are frozen untill someone tags you. [ You can also just play for fun and not use a rock.]

Finding Crabs! This is another activity that only works at certain beaches, ones with plenty of rocks and tide pools. We did this on vacation and named them all! We even found a huge one and named it Gargantuan. Another favorite was Petunia, a medium-sized crab found the same time as Gargatuan.

Summer Activities- Baking Cookies

The beginning of summer is over and though everyone is still thinking summer is the best invention ever, there are some rainy days (I think there has been more than enough of those this summer) were people need things to do.

How about you bake cookies?

This isn't most parents favorite thing for you to do, it tends to make a mess.

But it is fun!! You just need to clean up after. :(

Me, Alyssa, and Emma baked cookies for fourth of july! It was a blast!! We did make a mess, but we cleaned it up before my mom saw it. We made a double batch so Alyssa could take some home. We ended up making the cookies HUGE! But they were still just as good, and my mom let us have one cookie, and one cookie was about the size of three. You should bake some cookies (and than some to me as a friendly gift.)

Mmm... Cookie Dough!!

We made a mess!!! They still turned out good!

We made chocolate chip cookies and frosted them! Here is the recipe we used.

Original Nestle Toll House Mini Morsel Cookies

2 1\4 cups all purpose flour 3\4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking soda 3\4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs 2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup (two sticks) butter, softened (We ran out and used Crisco, but you should still use butter. Its a lot healthier.)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional, we didn't use them.)

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl untill creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes of untill golden brown. Cool onto baking sheets for two minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

We had to change the recipe a little bit. The cookies were so good we needed to put them in for about 20 minutes. And we used crisco. But we recomend you follow to recipe.