My oldest and youngest daughters love fruit! My middle daughter, not so much. Well, she likes apples, but that’s it. But since it’s peach season, we bought a bunch of peaches to see if we could get my middle daughter to like another fruit. While she did try a peach, she didn’t like it. Shocker. Since she likes anything mixed with sugar we decided to make an easy peach cobbler recipe with all of our peaches. But whether she likes what we cook or not, she always enjoys cooking.

And you know what? She liked it! Well, “a little” to use her words. The rest of us loved it!

Here’s What You Need to Make this Easy Peach Cobbler Recipe:

For the Peach Part:

• 8 peaches (peeled, pitted and sliced)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

For the Cobbler Part:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons butter cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup boiling water

The Final Topping:

• 3 Tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Okay, it looks like a long list of ingredients. But it’s really just a lot of the same stuff in different measurements.

Here’s How to Make this Easy Peach Cobbler Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients listed above under “The Peach Part” and mix it evenly so it coats the peaches.

3. Pour the peach mixture into a 2 quart baking dish and bake for 10 minutes.

4. While the peaches are in the oven, combine all the ingredients listed above under “The Cobbler Part.”

5. Then combine the two ingredients listed above under “The Final Topping.”

6. Remove the peaches from the oven and drop spoonfuls of “The Cobble Part” over the peaches.

7. Then sprinkle “The Final Topping” over the entire dish of peaches.

8. Put the peaches back in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until the topping is golden.

We added vanilla ice cream to our peach cobbler to make it extra delicious! I’m kickin’ myself for not taking photos of our finished peach cobbler! Can you tell we were anxious to eat it?

If you too have a child that only likes apples, try this apple crisp recipe or easy recipe for homemade applesauce.

My daughters love scrapbooking! So at the beginning of the summer, I went out and bought a bunch of scrapbooking materials for my last Camp Mommy activity. I decided to save the scrapbook materials until the end of the summer because I had an idea. I thought it would be fun to scrapbook all of our summer travel memories.

If you’re not into scrapbooking, but like the idea of preserving summer travel memories, you can also have your kids glue photos onto construction paper to make a summer vacation collage. If you’re not into scrapbooking, but would like to start, here are a few basic items I recommend you get.

Basic Scrapbook Supplies:

• Scrapbook
• Scrapbook paper
• Markers
• Stickers
• Scissors
• Tape or glue

Of course, there are tons more scrapbook supplies out there, but you really don’t need them for this scrapbook idea. All you need are these basic scrapbook supplies, photos from your summer travels and some creativity!

If you’re looking to do an online scrapbook, you may be interested in this free digital scrapbook kit.

No matter how you preserve your summer travel memories, it will be a wonderful keepsake!

I decided to break out of my mold and do a craft with molds! Not the kind that grow in moisture or even the ones we eat as cheese, but the ones you make with Plaster of Paris. I have to admit that I was a little reluctant to use a craft material that warns about submerging body parts, but I’m so glad I tried something new because this Plaster of Paris art turned out so well!

Here’s What You Need to Make Plaster of Paris Molds:

• Plaster of Paris
• Mixing bowl
• Spoon
• Water
• Newspaper or plastic tablecloth
• Plastic lids
• Decorative objects (marbles, plastic gems, shells, rocks, etc.)

Here’s How to Make Plaster of Paris Molds:

1. Cover your work area with newspaper or a plastic tablecloth.

2. Mix 2 parts Plaster of Paris to 1 part water.

3. Pour mixture immediately into plastic lids.

4. Create design in Plaster of Paris with decorative objects.

5. Allow Plaster of Paris to dry completely (a couple hours) before removing the art from the molds.

This craft for kids is quick, easy and great for playdates or afternoons at home!

We love ice cream! We take it so seriously that we have a family expression, “Never joke about ice cream.” That’s why we were excited when the girls got the opportunity to make homemade ice cream on our recent trip to Vermont. We were just a wee bit more excited when we got to tour the Ben and Jerry’s factory, but this activity was still a lot fun and very yummy!

I’ve always wanted to make homemade ice cream, but have never invested in an ice cream maker. If you too haven’t taken that plunge, here’s a simple way to make ice cream without an ice cream maker.

Here’s What You Need to Make Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Here’s How to Make Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

1. Put the sugar, vanilla and milk into the small plastic bag and seal it.

2. Fill the plastic storage container half full of ice and add the salt to make the ice colder.

3. Place the small plastic bag inside the storage container and seal the container.

4. Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 15 minutes.

5. Then enjoy your homemade vanilla ice cream! If you’re looking for some homemade cookies to go with that homemade vanilla ice cream, try these chocolate chip cookies made from solar panels!

My girls and I love chocolate chip cookies! And while I often bake them from scratch (though I use break and bake cookies equally as often ; ) ) I usually bake chocolate chip cookies in the cooler months so I don’t have to turn the oven on during the day. But today we decided to take advantage of the hot sun . . . and used it to bake our chocolate chip cookies.

You’re probably thinking . . . Huh?

Well, we used a science experiment on solar power that involved homemade solar panels and a pizza box.

Double, huh?

Let me explain.

Here’s What You Need to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies with Solar Panels

• Pizza box
• Plastic wrap
• Aluminum foil
• Black construction paper
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Tape
• Scissors
• Chocolate Chip cookie dough (definitely a time for break and bake!)

Here’s How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies with Solar Panels

1. Trace a 5″ x 5″ square in the center of the top of the pizza box.

2. Cut along the bottom and two sides of the square, leaving the top edge of the square still attached to the pizza box.

3. Wrap the 5″ x 5″ flap with aluminum foil and tape it so it stays open.

4. Lift the pizza top open and tape clear plastic wrap so it covers the 5″ x 5″ opening.

5. Place a piece of black construction paper on the bottom of the pizza box.

6. Place the cookie dough in the center of the black paper so the cookies are visible through the top of the pizza box.

7. Put the pizza box with the chocolate chip cookie dough in the sun. Make sure the shadow of the homemade solar panel is directly behind the box. This ensures the cookies are getting direct sunlight. However, since the sun is continually moving, the pizza box must be moved every two hours to keep up! After about 4-6 hours, the solar panel chocolate chip cookies should be done.

In honor of the Olympics, my girls participated in the Bug Olympics at the library this week. They had so much fun that I thought the Olympic events they did would be great for playdates or for birthday party games. So let the games begin!

Olympic Birthday Party Games

Flying Flea Standing Long Jump

For this Olympic party game, all you need is masking tape and a marker. Use masking tape to create a starting line and label it as such. Then create a parallel line with masking tape two feet from the starting line and label it Flying Flea. Finally, create a third line with masking tape two feet from the one labeled Flying Flea and label it Super Flea.

Then have each kid playing this game stand, one at a time, at the starting line and jump as far they can. Those kids that jump past the first line are Flying Fleas and those that jump past the second line are Super Fleas! If you’re interested in having a winner for this Olympic party game, mark where each kid landed with a piece of masking tape with their name on it.

Grasshopper High Jump

For this party game, each kid needs a small picture of a grasshopper with their name on one side and a piece of double sided tape on the other. Then each kid takes turns jumping as high as they can and pressing their grasshopper against a wall or side of the house. The kid with the highest grasshopper wins!

Mosquito Relay

For this Olympic birthday party game, you need two turkey basters, red food coloring, two pitchers of water and a plastic cup for each person playing. First, add red food coloring to each pitcher of water. Yup, you guessed it. This represents the blood mosquitoes love! Set up a starting line with a table and the two pitchers of water on it. Then set up a table the kids have to run to with cups lined up for each team (again, one cup for each team member). This Olympic relay starts with one kid from each team dipping the turkey baster into the pitcher of red water and then running to the opposite end and filling up one of the cups. Needless to say, it works better if the kids run with the end of the turkey baster up in the air. The team who fills up all their cups first wins.

Spider Walk Race

The spider walk race is much like a crab walk race. What’s a crab walk you ask? When kids “walk” with their hands and feet while their backs are parallel to the ground. Like with any race, you’ll need a starting line and a finish line.

If you’re interested in more Olympic Birthday Party Games, check these out:

Birthday Party Games: Olympic Theme - Part One

Birthday Party Games: Olympic Theme - Part Two

Birthday Party Games: Olympic Theme - Part Three

If you’re interested in more Olympic theme ideas, there’s this Olympic rings craft and American Flag cake recipe!