Vanilla Dreams

I think that sometimes it takes doing something to really have an appreciation for it.  Take today's food celebration for example - vanilla ice cream.  How many times have you popped by the grocery store to pick up a half gallon to dollop on your apple pie or stopped by a DQ for a delicious soft serve and not thought another thing of it?  It's like vanilla ice cream is just there, no work, no effort, pure bliss.  And vanilla ice cream, to me, is the best because it is so diverse.  You start with vanilla but you can add anything to it to make it your own.  Everyone's happy.

So tonight I decided we needed to really appreciate vanilla ice cream a bit more.  Plus, I saw a fabulous opportunity for a Kid Kitchen/Science lesson combo for the whole family.  Since the small appliance fairy is apparently not just missing but is blatantly ignoring my memo requesting an ice cream maker, my exploring online turned up a method for making ice cream in a bag.  Cream, Half and Half, Sugar, Vanilla, Salt, Ice and A WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN'!  Perfect!

And messy.  But fun none the less!  And after ten minutes of shaking we actually made our own ice cream.  It ended up turning out way better than I expected and it was described as "tasting like a vanilla frosty"  Success!  Further success, a true appreciation as Noah said "That was really good, but a whole lotta work!  My arms are tired from all that shaking."  I asked him if he wanted to do it again and he answered "Can we just buy it from the store next time, Mom?"

In other news, I apparently screwed up as today is also National Hot Dog Day.  The calendar with food holidays that I work off of had said that Hot Dog Day was the 3rd Wednesday of July, which is why we celebrated last Wednesday.  Then I saw multiple posts on facebook today from lots of national corporations saying "Happy National Hot Dog Day!"  A look at another website that lists the food holidays that I sometimes use as a cross reference did actually have hot dogs listed as today.  Well rats!  But we did celebrate it pretty sufficiently last Wednesday, I'd say, so I'm thinking we're covered anyway ;-)

The kids and I also headed to Northville this morning for a concert.  It rained, sending it indoors to Genetti's Hole In the Wall which you might remember from this with Noah and Grant last year.  It was a lot of fun and the kids even got their faces painted.  (A pink fish for my bean and a baseball for my favorite boy.  And yes, he told the girl painting his face that his favorite player is Prince Fielder, and (I kid you not) Did she know that his Dad's name was Cecil?)  I'm really digging the events that Northville puts on and how cute the town is.  We'll see if we end up heading back there next week.

Tequila tomorrow!  And my very first PTA Board meeting!  (Which means I'm not sure if I'll get a post up tomorrow night or not.  The meeting starts at 8 and is slated to last 3-4 hours...)  I might try to get it up early, we'll see.  But anyway, until then...

Kayla getting her face painted

 Noah, too

 Enjoying the concert

 Shake, shake, shake it baby!