This memorial day we went to a cookout at our neighbors' house. Since our backyard would be kind of on display from their house, we had to spend a little bit of time this weekend cleaning it up. The backyard is basically my husband’s territory, taken up mostly by our detached garage, shed and whatever ridiculous number of vehicles the man is working on at the time. Add to that the fact that it’s being slowly overrun by training-wheeled vehicles that belong to our kids (because Spencer’s precious garage = man cave = tricycles are not welcome here) and you basically have the least attractive part of our property. Being a two person job, that didn’t leave me with a lot of time to make something remarkable to bring to the cookout. Until I thought of these:
Memorial Day Stuffed Strawberries
These were so good, I noticed a bunch of the kids reaching for them before the desserts! A good half of them were eaten before we even made it next door. They looked super festive, AND they only took about 15 minutes to throw together. Here’s how I did it:
Grab:
A pack of strawberries
A pack of blueberries
(For filling)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
Some cool whip (more or less depending on how heavy/light you want your filling to be)
Slice the tops and a little bit of the bottoms off of each strawberry so that they’ll stand flat on a platter. Hallow out the insides of the strawberries (I used a small knife and a potato peeler, which was really easy).
Beat all of filling ingredients together, adding desired amount of cool whip/whipped cream to reach a consistency you like. Spoon mixture into a Ziplock bag and snip off a corner to make a pastry bag. Fill each strawberry. Shower filled strawberries to your hearts content with red, white and blue sprinkles and top with a blueberry. Done!
We also brought a little Pinterest idea to life with a cute DIY project for the front yard this weekend: a tree swing!
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love this thing. It took maybe an hour to throw together, practically including the trip to the hardware store for wood and rope. And it ended up being the talk of the party toward the end of the night when all of the kids gravitated toward it after the sprinklers were shut off at the neighbor’s and they roamed out front. It’s more for decoration than for swinging (or I would have went with some less attractive nylon rope and a rubber seat) but we made sure to reinforce it enough so that it’d be safe (fisherman’s knots around the branch with steel clamps underneath) for when neighborhood kids inevitably test it’s endurance. It was definitely put to the test last night too, when we literally found a group of like 10 to 12 kids forming a line around the tree to take turns on it. So far, so good!
For something so cheap and easy to do, we both agree it’s the coolest addition to the house we’ve ever made.
That’s it for now, I have a long weekend to finish up… Happy Memorial Day! Go
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2 comments:
Yes, a swing hanging from a tree makes the neighborhood a mighty cool spot. We put up a swing a few years ago when we started looking after toddlers and by golly, the entire area takes a turn on it some evenings when the sun is setting and it's just lovely out there.
My maternal grandparents lived in a the small resort town of Port Herman Beach, MD. There was a huge old oak tree with a home made swing for me. A second was added when my little sister was old enough to climb up in one! Best memories!
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