Miscellaneous Madness: Summer Bucket List Update #2

It's August?! August! July just completely flew by and before mom knew it, we were out of camp and looking at 6 weeks until the start of school. As it dawned on mom, her face read, as Kane says, "completely past panic!" Fortunately, we have A LOT left on our summer bucket list and we better get busy. We are taking this week off blogging to do just that, but will leave you with another update of our bucket list progress (you can see our first update here). Not too shabby considering we were in camp all month.

Have a great week!

14 - 17.  found 4 new geocaches (that's 5 out of 15) -- finally found two caches on our hidden street mural search, one in NYC, and one on a new hike in Virginia.

18. made ice cream in a baggie -- recipe posted here! delish.

19. hunted for shapes in clouds -- we had a blast using our new cloud identification windows and hunting for all sorts of shapes.

20. attended baseball game -- we made it all the way through the 7th inning at a recent Nat's game and got to see a grand slam!

21. - 22. found 2 new parks (that's 3 of 3!) -- on our recent trip to NYC, we discovered two new parks fabulous: (1) we hit up West Thames Playground and made fast friends with a bunch of city kids with New York attitudes that fit our personalities perfectly; and (2) splashed, jumped and roamed our way along The High Line.

23. discovered 1 new hike (out of anticipated 3) -- geocaching and, unfortunately, ticks were in store for us on our hike in Cosca Regional Park. still a beautiful walk in the woods and we'll post on it soon!

24. made homemade shave ice -- we posted our yummy homemade syrup and shave ice recipe here -- perfect to cool off!

25. toured our city on a double-decker bus -- check out our ride around the city in our recent post.

26. made dog treats -- the batch of frozen doggie treats we made for Vegas are still stocked in our freezer and helping him chill out! find our recipe here.

27. went thrift store shopping -- we went in search of tinkering treasure at a local Value Village. we found some, but haven't had time to tinker yet ... stay tuned!

28. did some bumper bowling -- we had a total blast bowling at Lucky Strike in Chinatown a few weeks ago. turns out that Cam is a sweet bowler (especially considering that she insists on doing it all herself).

Grub It Up: "Homemade" Shave Ice

After our recent trip to NYC, where we cooled down on the High Line with delicious lemon mint and strawberry basil shave ice from People's Pops, mom decided to go with making homemade ice instead of snow cones as we planned on our bucket list. And, let's be honest, any snow cones we make would be the equivalent of shave ice anyhow.

So she talked to us about flavors, bringing up the ones we tasted in New York. We both responded pretty clearly: those weren't sweet and we wanted to bring the sugar. Mom didn't. But she also wanted us to enjoy them. So she shelved the sophisticated flavors and went with a recipe for "homemade" syrup she spotted online. No herb-infused simple syrup here -- this recipes relies on an old summer staple of Koolaid. But since she was giving us the chemicals, mom at least tried to keep a light hand with the sugar.

First, make yourself some shaved ice or ice chips (we got a shave ice machine on sick sale at Target, but you can use your blender to make ice chips, too). For the syrup, you'll need:

- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- one packet Koolaid drink mix (we used Target brand, so store brands are fine, too).

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil (can boil in a microwave). Remove it carefully and add sugar. Whisk until dissolved. Then add 1 packet of drink mix and whisk until dissolved. Allow to cool fully. Serve over shave ice and store leftover syrup in refrigerator.

We made both cherry/lime and grape syrup and because you only need a tiny (1 tablespoon'ish) amount of syrup per shave ice serving, we have had these almost every night for a week and still have a ton leftover. Really, this makes a GIANT batch of syrup, so maybe half it unless it's for a large group of people.