Recipes for Summer: Bubbles

Summer is right around the corner, which means that it is time to start storing up on some of the Cheng family summer staples: ice tea, popsicles, lemonade, and bubbles.  I'm still searching for the perfect green or jasmine iced tea recipe (hopefully, more on this later!), but in the meantime, here is a recipe to kickoff some homemade summer fun.

Bubbles

One of our favorite summer activities is blowing bubbles.  Homemade bubble solution is easy to make and will provide your kids with hours of creative fun.

I store my solution in clean gallon orange juice containers. I also write the recipe on the container with a permanent marker (a trick a friend showed me), so when I make a new batch of solution, I don't need to search for the recipe again.


There are many different recipes for bubble solution, but most of them use three basic ingredients:  dish soap (some swear by Joy or Dawn brands), water, and glycerin.  See http://bubbleblowers.com/homemade.html for a list of different recipes (I used the 'Homemade Bubbles' recipe from Kids Domain Craft Exchange).  


Note:  bubble solution should not be sudsy.  I don't know what happened to my solution (pictured above). Next, store your bubble solution. The longer you store the solution, the better the bubbles (or so they say).   When it's bubble time, get your wands out, and have fun!

 Challenge older children by having them use their fingers as a bubble blower: make an "OK" sign with your thumb and index finger, dip the "O" into the solution, and blow gently to form a bubble.

Another fun challenge:  dip the entire palm of your hand into the bubble solution, and using a plastic straw, blow gently into the solution on your hand.  When a bubble begins to form, pull the straw up toward the top of the bubble and continue to blow air until your bubble grows.


What tools and tricks do you and your kids use to create bubble fun? 

"So, when are you going to China (again)?"

A few weeks ago, I overheard my father-in-law ask my husband (over the phone) when we were going to China next.  I gave my husband a knowing look. We've travelled to China twice since we've been married, once when our daughter was fourteen months old, and then three years later, when our daughter was four and our son was fourteen months.

(2006 trip to China)                                                                          (2010 trip to China; stopover in Japan)

Both trips were exhausting, stressful, and required months of planning, largely because we travelled with babies. Both my husband and I had travelled to China by ourselves a number of times before that, and even those trips were tiring and required lots of planning. Keeping a Cheng baby happy on the 14+ hour flight  required backpacks full of extra diapers, clothes, medications, and toys.

Once we were in China, we then faced new stresses and challenges:  how were we going to get around the city with our kids?  What were the kids going to eat when we met family and their friends at restaurants?  Where were the kid-friendly places in Shanghai and how could we get to them?

By the end of our second trip to China, we had tried and true "tricks" for traveling around the city (avoid rush hour), restaurant dining (ask the host to order soup noodles), and keeping the kids entertained (short trips to parks in the neighborhood). But we also made a pact to never again make this long trip with young kids (i.e. under 2 yrs)--it was just too difficult.

So when are we going to China again?

We aren't--at least for now, but we are sending a family representative next fall--my husband.  He'll be going on a short genealogy trip--to collect stories, photos, and information about his ancestors (more on this later!).  He heard many stories when he was young, but in the last few years, several of his family's key story-holders (grandparents and great grandparents) have passed away.  He feels the urgency to record his family history before the stories are lost or forgotten.  By travelling alone, he'll be able to focus on collecting this info and move quickly around the city.

How do you approach family trips to China? Do you travel together or make the trip alone?

Has family history ever been a focus of one of your trips?

Big Garden Dreams

Today, I unexpectedly pulled this from my garden: a winter carrot.



This carrot--grown from a seed leftover from last summer during our warm, snowless winter--got me dreaming about the great harvest I’ll pull from my garden this summer.

  

I have big dreams:  sugar snap peas, sweet yellow onions, carrots, and bush beans are already in the ground. I’ll add brandywine tomato, yellow squash, burpless cucumber, sweet basil, and buttercrunch lettuce plants later this week to fill the beds. 

My mind is racing with possible dishes these yet-to-be-planted veggies will be made into, simple recipes that highlight their full flavor:  tomatoes and basil—made into Tomato Caprese Salad (my absolute favorite summer staple), cucumbers and lettuce—made into a simple salad with homemade olive oil and vinegar dressing, zucchini—sautéed with olive oil and garlic.  I could go on…

This is how I start out in spring, (over) ambitious and idealistic about my garden.  Then in July, when my garden has turned into a jungle, squash bugs devouring my zucchini plants and mildew squelching my bean harvest, I reassess my goals.  I am thrilled to discover a zucchini untouched by the ravenous squash bugs or five slender beans I can save from my many bean plants.

But for now, the carrot has inspired me to dream big.  Here’s hoping for a good harvest!

What are you growing in your garden this year?