Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles and big news!

For my birthday, well I guess really for Aria's birthday, but in my mind it was for my birthday, my parents gave her me a Hamilton Beach Fast Pop Maker.  Have you guys seen these or used a similar brand?  It is so flippin sweet! (pun unintended, but I'm keeping it).

I didn't exactly like the recipes that were in the booklet so I made up my own since I had a ton of lemons and a ton of strawberries on hand and wanted to use them.  Please excuse the iPhone pictures, I have been crazy busy cleaning getting the house ready for showings!  That's right!  The big news:  The house is officially up for SALE!!!  Let the offers commence!  (Well, at least in my head they are all vying for the house, even if that isn't true in real life).

Anyway, here is the recipe I made up.

Strawberry Lemonade Popsicle Starter

1.5 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (I know I could have used something else here, but I was in a rush and knew I had it on hand)
1 package fresh strawberries, washed and tops cut off
plus some extra cold water

In a saucepan heat the water and sugar and cook until dissolved all the way.  Once the mixture is dissolved, let the pan cool.  After it has cooled, add in the lemon juice.

While the sugar water is cooking, put the strawberries in a processor (I used Aria's baby bullet) and puree them up.

Add both solutions together in a pitcher and add cold water until the pitcher is full (not exact science for this one, the more water you add, the less tart it will be later though).

Let it chill in the fridge.  This works out because the pop maker needs to freeze for 24 hours before making the pops.

juicing an endless sea of lemons

we just made two...at first

waiting 9-11 minutes

Brad releasing the pops from the mold

action shot

Ta Da!  Delicious homemade popsicle!

So as far as the pops go, you just add the juice to the pop maker and let it sit for 9-11 minutes, use the gizmo to pop the popsicle out and voila, strawberry lemonade popsicle!

Brad liked them a lot and asked for some different flavors.  He thought it was a bit too tart, but I liked them the way they were.  The batch will most likely make a ton of popsicles since we have made 4 and it hasn't really made a dent in it.  I will most likely add some more water to the mixture so that Aria doesn't have a pucker face the whole time when we make some for her tomorrow.

One really cool feature with this one is that you can immediately freeze another batch, which of course we had to  try out.  They turned out as delicious as the first!

There are a ton of other maker gizmos out there and are actually quite affordable, especially when they are gifts!  Thanks Mommy and Daddy!

Playing Catch-Up

This week has been more busy than normal already, so that is why there hasn't been a new post in a while.  Here is a quick list of what was going on:

1. We have been packing and organizing the house like crazy trying to get it ready for the realtor to come and assess.

2. Which fills in this point - I am a Tetris Master - the storage unit is PACKED.

3.  I've been making elements or decorations for Aria's party every night for the past few weeks.

4. I was super sick today, hubster even stayed home from work to take care of Aria. Blergz.

5. Did I mention we have been cleaning like mad?

6.  Picking out paint for rooms in a house that hopefully won't be yours for much longer and trying to anticipate what other people want is really, really hard.  Right now our rooms are light blue, this weird green color, teal and the little one's room is light green with a light purple stripe.  Not exactly traditional colors - I blame my Mom - our house was referred to as the "rainbow house" growing up.

7.  I've been busy planning my next craft projects and gathering supplies!

8.  I've been packing for my birthday weekend!  I'm going scrapbooking with my friend at some huge scrapbooking thing.  I am beyond excited!  (getting your supplies together is tough work)

9.  I've been cleaning and packing! 

so there you have it, pictures of all the awesomeness above will be coming soon!  In the meantime, maybe I'll try to go to sleep before 4am...

Pack it up!

I think I may be the only person who loves packing.  Well, I should rephrase that to I love organizing everything into it's place and packing lends itself well to putting things in their place - all the while, being able to clean areas that were jam packed with stuff and haven't been cleaned in three years!  Plus you get to decide if you really want something.  Does this contribute to your life?  Will it?  Is it just going to sit in a box for 40 years until your grandkids find it and go "why did she keep that?"?

We had a very successful Moving Sale a few weeks back after packing up here and there.  We had so much we had to just go ahead and have it even though we have more for another sale already.  The only thing I hate about packing, is lugging boxes.  Actually, there is another thing this time.  Before, we would move from one apartment to another, but this time we will be moving from our first house to someplace yet to be determined, hopefully a townhouse.  It will be sad leaving here, but will be relieving to leave behind the responsibilities of home ownership.

That being said, here is a picture of what our living room looks like now.  These are just boxes from the downstairs room, and not everything from down there either.  I think we are going to need to get a big storage unit...