SUMMER TIME & THE LIVIN'S EASY...

WHEW!!!... Just finished an 8-week life changing logistics whammy!  We are moving & going to be cruising around Costa Rica for awhile, so during the summer I'm saying goodbye to my phone & all the social media stuff and my main goal is enjoying my family & friends & having full on fun!

I'm super stoked about all the promising possibilities that are in our future, I'll miss blogging & will try to post when I can, have a super fun time out there everyone, live the life you are meant to have!!


 Please feel free to check out some of my crafty posts an send me an email.   

SUMMER TIME FITNESS...

Summer time fitness that will keep you fit; kids happy & you having a blast!!

I'll have to admit, I'm not a fitness buff and if your anything like me this was a long winter of being a slug... but summer is one of my all time favorite seasons!! So, I've come up with my top 10 fitness faves that will fool you / me into fitness.

1.  Water park!  Need I say more?  Climbing up all those steps, then swooshing down & climbing up them again & again.  By the end of 2 hours you are tired, legs shaky, sun kissed & kids are talking about when you can go again! It is expensive but fitness has a price and its having a blast at the water park - kid style!

2.  Riding the bike to the yogurt place...I'm not a big yogurt fan but my family is. So I totally get away with a little taste or two.  If it was a chocolate, fudgy cake parlor I would have to ride a little farther.  Before you go why don't you glam up your bike like we did - check out this post on Bike Glam!!

3.  Nature walk - how fun right? looking for bugs & trees all while burning a few calories. Collect a few rocks, then turn them into sparkle rocks & add them to your garden &/or flowerbed. Or find things to make a fairy house & make these to really make your fairy house sparkle. 

4.  Making homemade ice cream - yes I said it  making ice cream fitness, the throw kind here's the easy recipe.

5. Blueberry picking or any kind of berry picking.  Really works those arms - pick, pick nibble, pick, pick nibble nibble.  Plus your getting all those antioxidants too!!  We do this every year, I think I like it more than Nyla but I see her munching right along with me and whew carrying all those berries back to the car is serious business!

6.  Canoeing - loads of fun (haven't done this since,  well... forever ago but I remember being totally exhausted & sore as well as super happy from a really fun day) This is at the top of our list, since we didn't get to last summer.

7.  Beach time!  Nothing will tone those arms more than dragging all that stuff down to the beach & then bringing it back at the end of the day.  Add in a little chasing those kids all over the beach & you will be fit in no time. Do at least 3 times a week.  When you're ready to leave just scoop up the kids :) 

8.  Playground obstacle course.  I saw a father do this years ago & I thought he was a genius! Go to your neighborhood playground and set up the course - meaning do all the things on the playground, time kids to see who did it fastest.  The key is you have to show them first (that's where your fitness part come in :)  When kids are bored with that course simply switch it up a bit. 

9.  Amusement parks!  Nothing beats the excitement of running all over the park riding those rides, then running back to the other side of the park to go on them again!!!

10.  Make homemade Marshmallow Shooters, take to the park & have a blast running away from those crazy kids with the marshmellow shooters :) 

At the end of the summer you will have some super fun memories, I guarantee it!

 No scientific proof here just good ole' kid style summer time fitness fun!

BIKE GLAM...

I remember back in the day riding my bike as fast as I could around the neighborhood.  I swooshed & swerved all over the road! Sometimes hands free, sometimes being towed & sometimes legs out & off the peddles as I zoomed down a hill; hair flying & laughing with my friends as we peddled around our 3-4 block radius was how my days usually went.  
Showing off my bike and hearing the tat, tat, tat of the playing cards that decorated my tires was summer time joy. It was pretty much the best of childhood times -  that freedom on the open road! :)  It was special drop in time before a driver's licence.  I think I was probably just a little older than Nyla is now...

Here I am years later, an adult Wow, how did I become such a cautious cat!  These days, there's no swoosh or zoom in my bike riding day But I can't let kids have all the fun!

I just have to take some kind of claim back and so I gave my bike a little makeover and Nyla did too...

Wanna join us? 

Here's what you do:

Grab a bunch of colorful plastic straws (paper will unravel)

Cut them the length you want 
(I cut 3 per straw but it all depends on your design).  I found that the bendy part of the straw didn't work so good so just cut around that part.

Then cut each one lengthwise


I love how Nyla chose to decorate her tires differently.  Just double check to make sure straws stay away from gears.

After we decorated our tires, I couldn't leave our handlebars all plain; its like a purse without matching shoes, so I got some ribbon (actually its from the hardware store, I think its used for surveying) and gave my handlebars some bows.

I started looking up bicycle tire decorations and found some really fun bicycle decorating ideas from  Bicycle Arts School :)  Now I've really got the fever; who knows what my bike is going to look like next...