Sunhats & Sun Protection

With summer in full swing, many of us are spending lots of time outside in the sun.  While getting enough vitamin D is important, it is imperative to make sure you and your family stay protected from those strong summer UV rays.  For babies and young children, pediatricians usually recommend that you use sunblock over sunscreen.  While you might think they are the same thing, don't be fooled.  Sunblock is made of minerals that deflect sun from the skin, while sunscreen is made of chemicals that absorb UV rays before they hit the skin. 

Sunblock is a must when spending time outdoors, but sometimes it isn't enough.   It can be easy to forget to reapply, so wearing clothing and hats that help protect from the sun are great additions.  At Our Green House, this is our favorite sun hat because it shields the face as well as the neck and part of the back.  Light colors for sun hats are good because they help keep your little one cool and don't attract the sun like dark colors!

Make sure you stay safe in the sun and protect your little ones with lots of sunblock and the right summer hat :)

Picnic at the Beach

One of our favorite summer activities with the family is definitely going on picnics!  If you live near the ocean, a lunch or dinner picnic on the beach is such a great way to spend the weekend, but even if you don't live near the water you can take a delicious picnic to a local park!  When it comes to preparing the meal, we like to keep things simple and make food that is easy to eat and travel with.  Today we are sharing 3 of our go-to picnic items and we hope you love them as much as we do!

In the summer, we love eating salads for lunch and dinner because there are so many great fresh vegetables available.  Make individual salads by using recyclable containers.  You can make a yummy layered cob salad, a chopped salad, or pretty much any type of salad you want!  Bring one container of dressing and let everyone put dressing on their own salad at the picnic :)

 

 No picnic would be complete without fresh fruit!  Cut fruit into bite size pieces and then put it on skewers.  These fruit skewers are great because they don't require a plate or fork, and the kids love them!

 

And who can forget about dessert! One of our favorite summer desserts is a big batch of lemon bars.  Nothing says summer like yummy citrus lemon bars, and this recipes is hands down the best :)

Ingredients

For the Crust:
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on bars
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks), at cool room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces
For the Filling:
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, from 2 large lemons
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 3 to 4 large lemons
• 1/3 cup milk
• Pinch of salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)

Instructions

1. Place an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9X13-inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper and lightly grease the foil/parchment.
2. Stir together the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt (this can be done in a food processor or in a large bowl by hand). Add the pieces of butter and cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender, two knives or your fingers (taking care not to melt the butter too much - you might try freezing the butter and grating it into the dry ingredients on the large holes of a box grater) or process in the food processor for 8 to 10 seconds and then as needed until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press into an even layer on the bottom and about 1/2-inch up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
3. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and flour in a medium bowl and then stir in the lemon zest, juice and milk to combine.
4. Pour the filling onto the warm crust (it's important that the crust is still warm!) and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for about 18-20 minutes until the filling feels slightly firm to the touch. Cool the bars to room temperature, sprinkle with additional powdered sugar and cut into bars.

 Happy Picnicking!

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Recycled from the Beach

Going to the beach with your family is such a fun and memorable trip.  Whether you live down the street from the beach, or only visit every once in a while, it is always nice to take a little piece of the beach back home with you.  Today we wanted to share a few ways to bring add a little bit of the beach to your home by using recycled beach finds!

Turn all of those shells you collected at the beach into beautiful ornaments!  You can use glitter and paint to make lots of ornaments for your own tree, or to give to friends.

Using driftwood to jazz up picture frames is so fun because each frame will be completely unique!

Kids (and adults too) love keeping an eye out for seaglass when at the beach.  When you get home add all of your collected seaglass to an old mason jar or wine bottle.  The different colors of seaglass look so pretty together and it make such a great conversation piece.

 

Last but not least, how adorable are these seashell koalas!?   Gathers all different size seashells, and when you and the kids get home you can sort through them by size and make a whole family of seashell koalas to remember your beach trip by.

 How do you like to recycle your beach finds?

Summertime Beach Activities!

Now that summer is in full swing, it is time for lots of outdoor activities including going to the beach!  For those who are lucky to live near a beach or visit one this summer, there are lots of great beach activities that you and your family can do together.  Best of all, these activities can be done with the whole family and lots of them are free of don't cost a lot of money.

Kids love collecting seashells at the beach, but often when you get home they just end up cluttering up a drawer.  Put them to use by making a seashell mobile!  Simple drill small holes in the shells you have collected, and hand them from a piece of driftwood.

Beach bowling is a fun activity, especially at low tide.  Simply create different size holes in the sand, and have everyone line up the same distance from the holes.  Then have everyone take turns rolling tennis balls into the holes and award points based on the size of the hole the balls roll in to.

Flying kites is a great beach activity because there is often a good breeze by the water.  Kites can be fairly inexpensive and you can even make your own!  Flying kites is also great on beach days when it is too chilly to swim in the water.

 

Making sand castles is one of the most iconic and fun activities to do at the beach.  All you need to build great sand castles are some buckets, or even household items such as cups and bowls.   Get the whole family involved and create a whole sand castle village!

 

There are so many fun activities to do at the beach, what are your favorite?