The Examined Life

Welcome to the Scrap that Baby's Sweet Summertime blog hop!!

Thank you so much for hopping along on our first ever blog hop!

If you didnt come from Kelly's blog or you popped upon this blog and didn't realize we were blog hopping you need to go to Scrap That Baby and start the HOP! You will need to comment on ALL of the blogs to be eligible for the grand prizes listed on the main site! Plus, so many of our awesome designers are giving away a prize on their blogs as well. You will not want to miss out. There are MANY MANY chances to win!

Our theme for this blog hop is SWEET SUMMERTIME!! The members of our design team will all be sharing fantastic summer projects, stories, tips or ideas for keeping cool and having fun in the summer with a baby along.

Here are a few of my ideas:

- I'm starting with a layout of my boy on his first Independence Day! For many, the 4th of July is a true icon of summer. Every year my best friend and I make plans together and last year we were both pregnant and blissfully envisioning our perfect family, double baby celebration. Well, babies sure do have minds of their own! Owen had a ball until about five minutes before the fireworks when he had a total meltdown. We packed up and by the time we hit the parking lot he was completely calm again and we paused to see the fireworks, which he thought were pretty fascinating. Despite the evening not going according to plan I still got some awesome photos of my little guy in his adorable (and so fitting) Little Firecracker onesie:

- Next up: kitchen stuff! Anyone who knows me knows that I love to be in the kitchen... and that I HATE the heat and that means I'm in a real pickle in the summertime! When it is hot out I just can't take the heat and I get out of the kitchen. What's a cook to do? A lot of crock pot cooking and grilling.

One of my favorite ways to grill is using foil packets. This idea is borrowed from campers, boaters, and RVers everywhere. Try salmon, dill, butter and some lemon slices in a double wrapped foil packet. YUM! Or the classic potatoes, carrots, onions, butter, salt and pepper. Those little crispy bits that stick to the foil are fought over in this house!

- What to drink on these dog days of summer? How about a little Blueberry Lemonade Spritzer! I came up with this after I had juice leftover from making Owen's pureed blueberries.

1. Cook fresh blueberries over medium heat until they burst.
2. Strain juice from the berries (save berries for jam, babyfood (!), or other recipes).
3. Fill a pitcher with homemade or store bought lemonade and add the blueberry juice... it will be a beautiful color!
4. When you are ready to serve: pour until the glass is about 2/3 of the way full and top with any clear sparkling beverage such as 7-Up or fizzy water.
5. Garnish with lemon slices and a few whole blueberries.

Bonus! Add some citrus flavored vodka, champagne, or prosecco for an awesome adult cocktail!


- Finally, ANY season is a good one for a giveaway, right?! To win this Maya Road trio of fun chipboard, felt buttons, and ribbons all you have to do is be/become a follower of my blog and leave your blog hop comment! Wednesday I will choose from the followers who played along.

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Our blog hop runs from today, August 18th until August 22nd. Invite your friends to play for extra entries. You must comment on all the blogs for a chance at the main prize!

The Scrap that Baby blog will be drawing for prizes on Wednesday August 25th! .

The next stop on the blog hop is Heather!