Watch Star Wars: We tried watching Return of the Jedi and the original but neither could usurp A.'s love of My Little Pony (or even hold her attention for very long, not even Ewoks). Maybe one day! She still loves playing with her "life savers" left over from May the Fourth, though.


Food truck feast: We wrote about our visit to The Hub here. Yum!

Play putt-putt: We hit up Jungle Golf at the Oceanfront a few weekends ago and it was miserably hot, humid, and crowded but A. had a blast so we're calling it a success.

New splash park: We were the ONLY people at the Portsmouth City splash park one hot weekend day which was hard to believe, because it's awesome and free! IMPORTANT NOTE: there is no shade and nowhere to sit while the kids play. Bring your umbrellas and lawn chairs!

Donate to the food bank: The Foodbank of Southeastern VA is experiencing a real shortage of donations right now so this was a timely one. Read more here.

To see our not-bummer-summer list in full, click here. What have you and your little ones been up to on summer vacay?

Road trip

James's family visited in June and we went on a road trip to the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Half our group went kayaking to Smith Island and half drove into Cape Charles for lunch and shopping.



Beach Day

We met up with friends and spent the day at Yorktown beach -- heaven! It might have even surpassed East Beach as my fave beach for kids: there's restrooms and restaurants nearby, and the river water is shallow and warm and gentle enough for the smallest baby (just watch out for the occasional jellyfish)



Homemade ice cream

We shared our mint-chocolate-chip coconut cream recipe last week. So yum.



Nature journal

This has been a fun way to spice up our daily walks and bike rides. While A. and I are out, we keep our eyes peeled for interesting animals and plants; when we get home she draws them and practices her writing while I look up fun facts about them on my phone. Did you know some ants can live for 30 years? Or that a dragonfly's larval stage can last up to two years?



Swimming lessons 

A. took swimming lessons at the local YMCA. Not only were they super cheap ($35 for 10 hours of lessons, for members), but she learned a lot and had a lot of fun.



Paint pottery

We headed down to Color Me Mine, in Ghent, on a rainy day last week. Can't wait to pick up our completed pieces, follow us on Instagram to see how they turned out (and for more summertime adventures).



Find our full not-bummer-summer list here and be sure to let us know what you are up to around #HRVA (and beyond) this summer! We're always up for new ideas.

Anouk and I have been making a lot of progress on our not-bummer-summer list over the past couple of weeks (stay tuned for an official update). One of our favorite projects so far has been making this recipe for homemade coconut ice cream! Not only is it dairy-free (good for me and my allergy), it's no churn and requires no cooking, which makes it definitely the easiest DIY ice cream recipe we've come across. You just combine all the ingredients and pop it in the freezer, you're done!

We made our ice cream mint chocolate chip flavored, because we're mint chocolate chip ice cream
fiends.

Ingredients:

• 1 can coconut cream (like this kind from Trader Joe's) 
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 3 tablespoons soy (or almond) milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips 

Combine the coconut cream, sugar, milk, and extracts in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the chocolate chips and stir. Pour into a loaf pan or square baking pan and freeze for two hours, or until solid. Note: this recipe freezes kind of hard, so you might want to remove from the freezer and thaw for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Yum!