What are you going to do with all those shells?

Design custom mermaids of course! Add a few gems, pearls, pipe cleaners (?) and paint strokes and you'll have a few fine maids of the sea.

M wanted to draw her own mermaid. Then she was so pleased with her first design, she replicated a second one to bring in for her art teacher. Check out the mini corkscrew shell earrings!

B let me design and cut out her first one (the largest version at top), then she took a stab at her own, more diminutive mermaid.

When the creating is complete, your little mermaids or mermen may enjoy a reading of Mermaids on Parade by Melanie Hope Greenberg. It's a story about a young girl in Brooklyn who joins the annual Coney Island parade to mark the beginning of summer. I'm still holding on to the last rays of summer sun before fall takes a stronghold.

Summer Cool Down, Target style

Oh Target, My Target. How I love you so. Especially during summer clearance time. I mean it. Seriously. How can you top a Slip and Slide for $2.49?!? Obviously my girls don't think you can.

(We learned pretty quickly that we had to move said Slip and Slide from a level area to an area with a downward slope. Phew! That saved a lot of energy previously spent dragging them down to the end. My arm muscles were still sore the next day.) 

Then to add applause to admiration (my own saying that's the reverse of 'adding insult to injury'), I also scored a Sunbeam 1 qt. canister ice cream maker for $12.50!

The girls were ready to bring it home and start making ice cream right away. Of course I had to explain to them that the canister had to set up in the freezer for 24 hours.

That gave me time to gather all the ingredients for this recipe:
Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream

(yes, I know it's 'backwards', but that's what my daughters call it)

2 cups 2% milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

3 drops green food coloring (optional)

1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and peppermint extract until the sugar has dissolved. Color to your liking with the green food coloring.

2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. After about 10 minutes into the freezing, add the chocolate chips. After the ice cream has thickened, about 30 minutes later, spoon into a container, and freeze for 2 hours.

It really helps to prechill the ice cream mixture (actually pre-freeze for 20or 30 minutes) before pouring into the canister. Room temperature ingredients are tough to solidify!

And did I mention that the Target ice cream cones were .92 cents?!

~Bliss!~