Saturday Snippet {Update, Summer fun + Giant Bubble Recipe}

Have you ever made giant bubbles? Today I’m sharing the recipe plus what we’ve been up to and a few other fun ideas for summer.

Hello, my friends!

How’s your summer going?

I wanted to pop in today with a little update of what’s been going on around here. Plus I’ve got a few fun ideas for summer to share.

A Wild Health Rollercoaster

The last few months our family has had some crazy health stuff going on. None of us have had COVID-19 (and we are thankful for that). But both of our boys have been tested for it as part of protocol with their symptoms (cough + fever) when they had pneumonia.

Our older son had a more serious case and it took several trips to the doctor and two different antibiotics to get it under control.

The younger boy seemed to bounce back quickly once he got on the antibiotic, but we still had to jump through all the COVID-19 testing protocol to get him the medical help he needed.

And then a few weeks ago our daughter was playing and jumped off an unstable exercise ball and landed the wrong way on her arm. More trips to the doctor for that and x-rays. We learned her arm was broken. They put on a splint, then we went back for a cast. That cast fell off while she was sleeping (we’re not sure how). Then just yesterday we went in for another cast.

Between the 3 kiddos I calculated that we’ve had 7 trips to the doctor and 3 trips to the hospital outpatient lab/x-ray center in the last two months.

We will have at least one more trip in the next couple of weeks to get the cast off but I’m hoping after that we are done.

Can we please be done?

Thoughts on COVID-19

The last few months have been unlike any I’ve ever experienced before. What an interesting time. And it’s not just the crazy health part.

The last Saturday Snippet I posted (which was actually on a Tuesday almost 2 months ago), we had just began the restrictions from COVID-19. No church. School and work from home. Limited grocery store and ingredient availability. Non essential businesses closed. There was a lot of fear of the unknown all around us.

Today I’m happy to check in from a bit more stable place. We’re definitely not back to normal. But kids are out of school now (we survived, yay!). And the weather is warming up. Some of those nonessential businesses have started back up. And church will start back soon.

We’ve branched out a bit with the social part too. Entered more stores. Visited more people. Ate at a few restaurants. Kids are hanging out with their friends a bit more.

Life is not normal, but is normalizing as we’ve become adjusted to it. And I’m grateful.

What about you? Has life started to normalize?

What we’ve been up to (between doctor visits)

The Great Outdoors

One silver lining in the last few months has been the extra time we’ve had to spend in the outdoors.

We’ve done quite a bit of hiking and exploring in the mountains near our house.

It’s amazing the things we’ve been able to discover close by that we’ve never had the chance to explore before.

We’ve explored 4 or 5 caves, a marshland, and tons of wildlife: all different kinds of birds, bighorn sheep, deer & elk, and a beaver house. It’s so amazing what is living in our backyard.

We also took a much needed getaway up to my brother’s cabin in Island Park, Idaho a few weeks ago.

My brother describes it like walking into an episode of the nature channel. And he is right. It’s amazing.

We rode his kyak out on the lake.

We saw a golden fox and all different kind of birds – pelicans, bald eagles, ducks, geese, and even trumpeter swans

The weather was so interesting. It would go from stormy to sunny in just a matter of minutes. Or the other way around.

What a gorgeous place. We did a lot of this and it was a wonderful break from the daily grind.

New Pets

We’ve adopted several new pets in the last few weeks.

Currently we have 4 turkeys. We bought them as babies and my son is raising them. He named them “Breakfast”, “Lunch”, “Dinner”, “Dessert” so that probably tells you what he has in mind for them. But right now they are way too cute for that.

A few weeks ago we went to a store to buy a new chainsaw blade for my husband and came out with cute little bunnies.

They are adorable and the kids have loved playing with them and setting up a little place for them.

Garden Update

Getting the garden planted has kept us busy.

We planted a few early tomatoes in these cool walls of water to try to get a head start on the growing season this year and they seemed to work well.

Then this week we started a yard project in the backyard to put our garden drip line on a timed watering system.

So currently our backyard has a trench running through it while that gets all hooked up again.

Can’t wait to get some fresh garden produce here in a few months. And I’m really excited to have the timer so I don’t have to remember to turn off the water (which has happened several times).

Ideas for Summer Fun {+ Giant Bubbles}

It’s been super hot around here the last few days and summer is definitely here.

I wanted to share a few fun ideas for summer in case you’re like me and looking for some fun things for kids to do.

We love this playdough. My daughter can play for hours with it. So much fun.

We love homemade ice cream. Ice cream and summer just belong together. This snow ice cream is super fun because the kids mix it themselves. And no you don’t need to go order some snow, haha. Crushed ice works just as well.

We love giant bubbles. I’m sharing the recipe below. You can make as little or as much as you want. 1/2 batch fits great in a small container or make 5 or 10 gallons to put in a kid swimming pool. Stick a kid in the middle and use a hula hoop to make a bubble around them. So much fun.

By the way she has this swimming suit that I bought on amazon (aff. link). LOVE. So cute and fun for playing outside or at the beach.

My daughter loves to use this bubble maker she got for her birthday last year. Its a simpler model of this fancy bubble gun I found on amazon (aff. link). So much fun.

You can try other brands of dish detergent in these bubbles, but we’ve had best success with the Dawn brand.

The only odd ingredient in this recipe is glycerin. I buy mine on amazon (aff. link), but you can also find it in the pharmacy.

If you don’t have glycerin on hand you can use corn syrup and you can still make some pretty good bubbles. Just keep in mind that the giant ones won’t hold together quite as well. 

What about you? What projects are you working on? Do you have any fun ideas to share?

Happy Summer, my friends!

Recipe Source: from my Mom 🙂

All images and text ©The Cook’s Treat

Disclaimer: post contains affiliate links for items on Amazon.