School will be out and summer will be here before we know it, and to many of us, that means plenty of fun in the great outdoors. As a family, we love to hike, camp, and mountain bike. It’s fun, great exercise, and even educational, but as with anything there are a few precautions that families should take to make sure they have a rewarding time on the trail or at the campsite this summer. Here are a few of our tips for fun and safe summer outings:

Make sure everyone stays on the trail.

Running off through the brush may sound like fun, but there are good reasons to stick to the trail. Not only do you risk affecting sensitive plants and wildlife, but you’ll risk having them affect you, too. Ticks lie in wait in the tall grass and bushes waiting for a larger animal to latch onto, and with Lyme disease prevalent across the United States these days, you definitely don’t want to play host to one of these tiny but terrible parasites.

Also found off trail are hazardous plants like poison oak and poison ivy. Contact with the oils from the leaves of these plants causes a rash and severe itching. There’s no real cure—you have to just let it run its course, so get ready for two weeks of itching and being uncomfortable if you happen to touch one of them.

Pack plenty of water.

It sounds like common sense, but it’s surprising how many people head out onto the trail without enough water. Becoming dehydrated is easier than you think, especially in the warm summer weather, so make sure everyone drinks plenty of fluids. Sports drinks are OK, too, but plain old water is healthier and less expensive.

Protect everyone from the sun.

In addition to having plenty of water on hand, make sure to take measures to protect your family from exposure to the sun. While most sunscreens are effective in preventing sunburn, they don’t actually protect you from other effects of sun exposure. For children hats are a must, and even shirts with long sleeves are a good idea to keep the sun off. While baseball caps are common, they’re not all that effective, so try to choose a hat with a brim that protects the ears and back of the neck as well as the face.

Don’t let kids run off ahead.

When you’re on a hike, make sure everyone sticks together. Don’t let kids run off ahead, especially if you live in an area that’s home to mountain lions, other large mammals such as coyotes, and poisonous snakes. Chances are you’ll never see one of these creatures in the wild, but better safe than sorry.

Got your own tips for family safety while hiking and camping? Share them with us by leaving a comment.

Mother’s Day is coming up, so here’s a whimsical, beautiful, and easy-to-create heart brooch made from decorative buttons and painted gold. My son made one of these for me when he was in kindergarten, and I was amazed at how creative and sophisticated it looked. We even entered it in the kids’ jewelry design competition at the county fair where it won first place! Whenever I wear this brooch, I get compliments on it, and I’m sure most moms would love one of these for a Mother’s Day gift.

To make this craft, you’ll need:

• Assorted decorative buttons and charms
• White glue, like Elmer’s
• Heavy card stock, letter size.
• Gold spray paint
• Bar pins
• Kid-safe scissors
• Heart template (download it here)
• Newspaper

Print out the heart template onto a sheet of card stock and carefully cut out the heart with a pair of scissors. Spread a good amount of glue over the heart. You need to put enough glue on the paper so that the buttons stay put.

Now choose some buttons and arrange them however you like onto the heart. When you’re satisfied with your design, set aside and let it dry. Try to keep little fingers away from it until it’s completely dry and all the buttons stay put.

Take your creation outside or into a well-ventilated room, place it on the newspaper and paint it with the gold spray paint, making sure to get paint into all the nooks and crannies around the buttons so everything is covered. Again, let your brooch dry thoroughly before handling.

When the paint is dry, turn your brooch over and glue a bar pin to the back. As before, make sure you use a healthy amount of glue so the pin stays in place. Let it dry once more and you’re done!

Now you have a beautiful piece of jewelry that any mother would be thrilled to receive on Mother’s Day, or on her birthday or Christmas, too, for that matter.

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms and moms-to-be out there!

This spring, why not consider coloring your Easter eggs with natural dyes? With some common household vegetables and spices, you can create your own natural egg dyes that are non-toxic and free from chemical colorings.

We tried several of the commonly used natural dyes. Some definitely work better than others. They all take a lot longer to take effect than standard food coloring based dyes, so kids will have to exercise some patience. The colors are also more subdued, but they really have a beauty all their own. You also have to be careful handling the eggs, as the natural dyes are more easily scraped or rubbed off the shells, especially if they haven’t fully dried.

We created dyes that gave us the three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. Combining these three colors allows us to create any other color of the color wheel.

Of these three natural dyes, we found yellow and blue to be most successful. Yellow dye is made from the spice turmeric (often used in Indian cuisine), and blue from the leaves of purple cabbage. We made red dye from beets, but it was somewhat less effective. You’ll find numerous recipes for making these dyes on the web, but the ones here are the ones we found worked the best.

For each mixture below, combine the ingredients, bring to a boil, and then simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes. Strain into a bowl (not necessary with the yellow dye) and let cool, then you’re ready to dye your hard-boiled eggs.

To make yellow dye, combine two tablespoons of ground turmeric, ¼ cup of white vinegar, two cups of water, and a tablespoon of salt in a small saucepan. Let your eggs sit in the dye for 15–30 minutes, and they’ll turn a brilliant earthy gold.

For blue dye, coarsely chop half a small head of purple cabbage. Combine cabbage, ¼ cup white vinegar, 1 tablespoon salt, and 4 cups of water in a large pot. You’ll need to keep your eggs in this dye for a minimum of 30 minutes. Leave them in for several hours or even overnight for a deeper color. Eggs dyed in this mixture are a lovely robin’s-egg blue.

For red, grate two or three fresh beets and combine in a saucepan with ¼ cup vinegar, 3 cups water, and 1 tablespoon salt. This dye will make eggs turn pink to deep red, depending on dying time—30 minutes to a few hours to overnight. Unfortunately, the beet-dyed eggs only maintained their brilliant color for about a day, turning a dull red-brown after a while.

We also found that over-dying turmeric yellow eggs in the purple cabbage dye resulted in beautiful spring green eggs. When you’re all done, you can rub the eggs with a little vegetable oil, which helps brighten the color and give them some shine.

If you’re up for it, this project is definitely worth a try, and naturally dyed eggs are worthy additions to your Easter basket this year.

While we all know you’re supposed to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, sometimes it’s hard to do, especially for busy families who may not eat all the vegetables and fruits they should at mealtimes. In our house, one way we often get our five servings is with fruit shakes or smoothies. Everyone in the family loves them—from kids to grownups—and they’re quick to make with a few staples that you keep on hand. We drink these fruit shakes for breakfast when we’re in a hurry, for after-school snacks, and even for dessert.

Since we drink these fruit shakes so often, I make sure to always have a variety of frozen fruit in the freezer. Blueberries, strawberries, mango, pineapple, mixed berries—they’re all delicious when blended up in a fruit shake. Another benefit of the frozen fruit is that they help make your fruit shake extra thick and cold without having to add ice and dilute the mixture.

We’ll supplement our frozen fruit supply with fresh fruit like bananas (I almost always add bananas to thicken the shake and add sweetness) and whatever’s in season. Right now it’s the beginning of spring, which is strawberry season, so I try to use organic strawberries whenever I can. Other ingredients I also usually add include orange juice and low-fat yogurt.

To make a fruit shake, simply fill your blender jar with a combination of frozen and fresh fruit, then top it up with yogurt and orange juice, and blend until smooth. Serve in tall glasses with straws, or fill up your travel mug and sip on it as you commute to work.

I usually use about half fruit to half liquid (usually orange juice and yogurt). Of course you can vary the proportions, depending on how thick you like the finished product.

While fruit is the usual focus of my fruit shakes, I sometimes put other healthy ingredients in them as well. Chopped walnuts add a nutty flavor, thick texture, and important omega-3s, and wheat germ adds vitamin E, minerals, and fiber.

Some fruit shake flavor combinations that we particularly like include:

• Tropical Twist: Frozen pineapple, mango chunks or pulp, fresh banana, orange juice, and vanilla yogurt
• Spring Strawberry: Fresh strawberries, strawberry yogurt, banana, and orange juice
• Very Blueberry: Frozen blueberries, vanilla yogurt, banana, and orange juice

While I still know how to ride a bike, I’m getting to the point where I have to teach my kids to do so, and it’s a little harder than I thought it would be. While they say you don’t forget how to ride, you don’t always remember how you learned. My son picked up the whole two-wheeler thing right away, but it’s turning out to be a bit more of a challenge with my six-year-old daughter.

I still have distinct memories of learning to ride my own bike way back when I was her age. My bike, as was the style in the mid ’70s, was a bottle-green Schwinn Stingray, with the traditional banana seat and tall handlebars replaced by my dad with much cooler BMX-style components.

I remember practicing with my uncle at the park across the street. He held onto the back of the saddle to steady me as I pedaled along. I took a quick glance over my shoulder only to see him standing about 100 feet behind me—I’d been riding by myself! Of course I promptly crashed into a heap on the grass, but I got the hang of it after that.

We bought my daughter a new bike for her birthday, and we’ve been practicing when the weather permits. She relied on training wheels on her last bike, and I’ve been told by people who know that they’re really not very good for actually learning to ride a bike. That’s why you see those cool little wooden scooter bikes all over the place; apparently they’re much better for teaching children to balance on a bike. After they figure out how to balance, they can deal with the whole pedaling issue.

The new bike doesn’t have training wheels, and my daughter insists on learning to ride without them. This is great, except for the fact that I have to hunch over and hold onto the seat to keep her from falling over as she learns. When I taught my son to ride, it seemed like we did a few minutes of this bike-holding and then he just took off on his own. But all kids learn differently, so we’re just going to have to take a little longer this time, even if it kills my back.

We’ve been practicing on the grass by the school, and while it seems like a good idea from a safety standpoint, the grass is actually more difficult to ride on due to the unevenness of the surface. We tried this for a while, but eventually headed up to the blacktop to try again there.

The smoother surface was actually better, although my little cyclist was a bit more nervous about falling. Most of the time I had to hang on, but at one point I let go and jogged along just behind her—success! It was only for a few yards, but it was progress. This spring we’ll work on it some more and she’ll be riding on her own in no time. And she won’t forget how to do it, either.

Cake pops, those little balls of cake on a stick, are everywhere these days, and for good reason—they’re moist, delicious, cute, and fun to eat, and they’re easy and fun to make, too. Why not roll up a batch for your next party, play date, or special occasion?

When it comes down to it, cake pops are just balls of cake, mixed with frosting to keep them moist and hold everything together. You can make them with leftover cake or bake a cake specifically to make into cake pops.

To make these, you’ll need:

• One cake (from a 9 x 13” rectangular cake pan—we used chocolate, but your favorite flavor will do)
• 8 ounces (½ pound) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon milk (or more)
• Lollipop or small popsicle sticks (available at craft stores)
• 2 12-ounce bags white, dark, or milk chocolate chips
• Sprinkles, colored sugar, and other decorations

This recipe ends up making between 18 and 24 cake pops, depending on the size.

Let cake cool if it’s freshly baked, then break it up into a large mixing bowl and call the kids. Let them crumble the cake into fine crumbs.

Meanwhile, make a batch of cream cheese frosting by whipping together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and milk (add more milk if the frosting is too thick). You can use ready-made frosting, instead, if you like.

Mix the frosting into the crumbled cake with a wooden spoon and then mix with your fingers until all the frosting is incorporated. At this point, you can refrigerate the cake pop mixture for an hour or so until it firms up. Line two baking sheets with waxed paper and set aside.

With your hands, roll the cake mixture into small balls about an inch-and-a-half in diameter; place the balls on the waxed paper and keep making cake balls until you’ve used up all the mixture.

Place a lollipop stick in each ball, then put them in the freezer for at least 30 minutes so they harden a bit.

While the cake pops are in the freezer, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler. You’ll probably need about two 12-ounce bags of chocolate chips for a batch of cake pops.

Making the cake balls is pretty simple, but this next part involves a little technique—and of course a hot burner—so it should be done by a grownup. Dip each pop into the melted chocolate and coat thoroughly. It may take a couple tries to get it down where you’re not putting too much on, but your kids will probably help you eat any of the test pops that don’t turn out.

While the chocolate is still soft, roll cake pops in sprinkles or colored sugar to decorate. You can also decorate them with colored icing after they cool. Place cake pops back on the waxed paper and let chocolate cool and harden at room temperature. You can tie ribbons around the sticks for a festive appearance.

These cake pops are rich, moist, and the perfect treat for a special occasion. Enjoy!

On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone tries to wear a bit o’ the green. Last year, we discovered that my daughter didn’t own a single piece of green clothing, so we opened up the crafts bin and created two St. Patrick’s Day crafts that are easy, fun, and above all, green.

The first project we made was St. Patrick’s Day beaded friendship bracelets. These are simple to make and inexpensive, and make the perfect gifts to hand out to your friends on March 17. To make them, you’ll need an assortment of plastic beads, preferably in two shades of green, and green pipe cleaners. You can find these supplies at almost any craft store.

To assemble, string the beads along a strand of pipe cleaner, alternating dark and light green beads. This is a really good tactile activity for little ones.

The length of the pipe cleaner and number of beads necessary will depend on the diameter of the child’s wrist. Leave about an inch of pipe cleaner showing at each end, then twist them together to complete the bracelet. A grownup should snip the ends of the twisted pipe cleaner with a pair of scissors.

My daughter was so proud of her bracelet that she wore it to bed that night and for days afterward. You can also vary this project for other holidays and special occasions. Try red, white, and blue beads for the Fourth of July, for instance, red and pink beads on Valentine’s Day, or orange and black on Halloween.

Another easy St. Patrick’s Day project we made were shamrock necklaces. To make them, you’ll need heavy construction paper (in green, of course), kid-safe scissors, one of the leftover green pipe cleaners from the bracelet project, a hole punch, clear tape or glue, and crayons, markers, paint, or glitter to decorate your necklace.

First, cut out pieces of green construction paper into 1-by-4 inch strips. You’ll need about 20 for each necklace, which you should be able to get out of one letter-sized sheet of construction paper.

Make a paper chain by taping or gluing each strip into a circle.  Now take another piece of construction paper and cut out a large shamrock (get the template here, on which I’ve included several different sizes of shamrock).

Decorate the shamrock with markers, crayons, glitter, or paints. When it’s dry, punch a hole in the top and attach it to the paper chain with a green pipe cleaner.

When you’ve finished with both of your projects, you can proudly display your green at home or at school. Have fun creating these fun projects with your kids.

In a busy family, it’s often easy to fall into the trap of buying convenient and inexpensive but often less-than-healthy processed foods for snacks and lunchbox treats. If you dig a little further into your refrigerator or pantry, you’ll probably find that you have almost everything you need to make some healthy and delicious snacks that the kids will love, and you’ll feel good about letting them eat them, too. The kids love to pitch in in the kitchen and help make all these things, too.

My kids sometimes seem obsessed with sweets—but what kid isn’t? I often bring the sweet craving under control with healthy treats like these easy-to-make oatmeal muffins. They’re low in fat, high in fiber, and lightly sweet, and kids love to get these in their lunchbox or after school; they make a great play date tea party snack, too.

Ingredients for Oatmeal Muffins (makes 1 dozen regular size muffins or approximately 20 mini muffins)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ½ cup raisins
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Stir in oats and raisins.
4. Add oil, egg, and milk, then stir until moistened.
5. Spoon the batter into greased or papered muffin tins.
6. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Another fun, tasty, and healthy idea that doesn’t even involve cooking is to make fresh fruit kebabs. Take bamboo skewers and snip off the sharp ends, then thread different pieces of fruit onto them: strawberries, pineapple chunks, melon pieces, banana slices—whatever you can think of or have on hand.

We often serve these with a small bowl of vanilla yogurt as a dipping sauce for the fruit. It’s delicious and sweet and the kids don’t even realize it’s good for them, too.

Back when I first had kids, a group of friends and I got into scrapbooking with our baby photos. While scrapbooking is fun, it’s a lot of work, too, and I never really got around to finishing all of the books that I started.

Eventually I got into digital scrapbooking instead, which was a lot easier, but still a bit time-consuming. It’s always fun to get your photos and memories delivered in a professionally printed book, though.

Now that my kids are older, I’ve found a great use for all those leftover scrapbooking supplies: vacation memory books. These books are a lot of fun for the whole family to create, and, because they’re done on a smaller scale than most scrapbooks, we actually finish them!

The kids have a great time assembling these little photo books full of their vacation memories. They get to re-live the fun times they had on vacation, and then they love to show them off in school or to their grandparents and friends.

Since most of the scrapbooking supplies I have on hand are archival and acid-free, these photo books will last a long time. After the kids are done showing them off, we put them away so they can pull them out and look at them later on in life. Maybe they can even show them to their own children someday!

All our photos these days are taken with a digital camera, so we select our favorites on the computer and then send them out to the local photo store for printing. And since we can print as many copies as we like, we don’t worry about cutting  them up or putting stickers on them in the name of creativity.

Once we get our photos home we make a second cut, choosing only those that tell the story that we’re trying to tell in each of the memory books. Then we mount them on paper with archival double-stick tape and assemble the pages.

The kids then can embellish the finished pages with stickers and drawings and make them really unique. Finally, punch two holes in the top of each page and bind them together with some decorative ribbon. You’re only limited by your imagination.

Give this a try after your next family trip.

My daughter’s birthday falls on the day after Christmas, and you can probably imagine how difficult it is celebrating amid all the holiday chaos. We decided early on that we’d certainly make a big deal—with gifts and cake and all that—on her actual December birthday, but we actually hold a birthday party for her with all her friends later or March or April to avoid the holiday craziness. Ideally, it’s great to have a birthday in the summer, but we can’t push the party off that far.

As it turns out, we have a lot of family birthdays in January and February, so her party always gets scheduled later in the year. We’ve had a few of her birthday parties planned at the house, but you’re never sure how the weather will be in the spring. Last year, it rained heavily on the day of the party, so I had to make sure that I had enough indoor-appropriate activities for the girls to do.

Here are some fun and inexpensive ideas for indoor birthday party themes that we’ve either done or experienced. Of course you can do these outside, too—they’re perfect for any time of year!

Tea Party

Encourage everyone to wear their most fancy dress at this party for girls. Serve herb or fruit-based tea, juice, cookies, and little tea sandwiches with kid-friendly filling like strawberry jam and cream cheese, or peanut butter (or other nut and seed butters if you’re concerned about allergies. Try sunflower seed butter—it’s good.) Serve mini cupcakes instead of a big birthday cake.

You can decorate a tea party table with a nice tablecloth, flowers, and elegant paper napkins and plates for easy cleanup. Of course dolls, teddy bears, and other stuffed animals are welcome, too. Traditional party games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Hot Potato can round out the fun.

Paper Airplane Party

Aviation-themed decorations and activities make this a fun party for everyone. Have plenty of paper on hand for guests to make their own paper airplane creations. The classic paper airplane shape is fine, but you can find patterns and instructions for all kinds of different planes on the Web or at the library.

Make markers, crayons, and stickers available for everyone to personalize their aviation creations. When everyone’s done, it’s time to fly the planes. Race them and try different stunts and tricks.

Ice Cream Social

Who doesn’t like ice cream? My daughter attended a party like this last fall for one of her kindergarten friends. Offer up several different kinds of ice cream and toppings like hot fudge, fruit, whipped cream, crushed Oreos, and maraschino cherries. Serve the ice cream to your guests and pass around the toppings in little bowls. The birthday boy or girl gets a sundae with a candle in it. Delicious and fun!

I hope these ideas inspire you to hold your own fun birthday party, whether it’s indoors or out.