This summer one of my favorite outings has been to watch “The Okee Dokee Brothers” at the Centennial Lakes Pavilion in Edina.  We joined some of our BFF’s there with picnic in hand.  We ate, danced, clapped and sang our way through lunch.  The adults burned some calories with belly laughs as we looked on at our preschoolers dancing their little hearts out.  Centennial Lakes offers children’s concerts on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at noon.  Click HERE for a schedule of upcoming concerts.  Staring Lake Park in Eden Prairie has an Amphitheater that also offers children’s concerts on Tuesday’s at 10:30am.  Click HERE for a schedule of upcoming concerts and events.  Huber Park in Shakopee also occasionally offers children’s concerts in the evenings.  Click HERE for a schedule of tthose events (tonight the Okee Dokee Brothers are there at 7pm).  I am sure there are concerts offered in your areas, as well.  These are just the ones I found close to the our city!

My friend Jen was asking me for some fun drink recipes as she is hosting party this month… I was looking through some old recipes and this was one I found that I remember being pretty fond of…  I am not sure where I got the original recipe, sorry!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups 1/2-inch Cubes Watermelon ( I just balled them)
• 12  Mint Leaves
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 6 Tablespoons  Lime Juice
• 6 ounces, Light Rum

To Make:

Place watermelon cubes in a blender. Blend until smooth.

In a small pitcher, combine fresh mint leaves, sugar, and fresh lime juice. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, muddle the ingredients together, but not until the leaves fall apart. Pour rum and the watermelon puree into the pitcher and stir gently.  YUMMY…  I am going to have to make these “rum free” so I too can enjoy a fun summer beverage!

OH and I also heard a recipe on the radio where you blend watermelon cubes with lemonade for a fresh spin on lemonade…  I have not tried this, but I think it sounds awesome!

This morning we continued the tradition of attending the Edina 4th of July Parade… I thought it would be cute if the boys made hats to wear this weekend to all of the many “patriotic” events we are attending…  We also made them for our little friends and believe me the four of them got almost more attention than the parade.  I don’t think it was because of the hats, but rather their cute little selves…

Directions:

You will need red, white or blue construction paper, stickers, markers, tape or staples.  For each hat I used a sheet of 12×18.  I cut a 2 inch strip off length wise of each of the papers to use as an “extender” to fit around their heads.  I then cut one inch strips of “grass” down each of the papers until I had about 2 inches to go (for the headband)…  I then added the extender and let the kids do the rest…  I had some glittery letter stickers that I let them stick on for their names and then I flipped the paper over and let them put the star stickers on the other side (only so that when the grassy strips fell down you could see the stars…  For some reason wording this description is a lot harder than it actually was.  You can probably tell exactly what I did by looking at the pictures!  I did make the littlest peanut a “Frilly” hat by cutting zig zag strips instead of straight… Once the kids are wearing them you can fold the strips down so they dangle a little.  It was windy today so ours were kind of blowing in the wind, which was pretty cute too!  Have fun and happy 4th!