Kids in the Garden - Outdoor Living Spaces

Over 2,000 youth in our county 4H program will be coming together mid-July. As the final weeks of 4H will be just around the corner, my oldest has been working on a plan for her gardening project for the third grade division.

We have been talking about they type of flowers and veggies that we want to grow in our backyard and around the house. Ultimately our goal is to have yard where we have a variety of produce and herbs that blend naturally into our landscape.

This year we began a project of converting the backyard drain spouts to run into rain barrels, where the water is used for our plants. Over the course of the last few years, we have begun to notice the rain water hydrates the plants so much better than the running tap water that comes out of our faucets through the city.  

We came across some gardening ideas/tips that looked very intriguing both on my end as mom, and second helping the girls learn to garden. It was just the "ump" I needed to help share how gardening can be fun at all ages, and bring some excitement to the kids in seeing how you can work to grow produce for your table, have flowers for your kitchen, herbs to help you stay healthy and add flavor to your meals.

Below are a few websites that we enjoyed reading that helped us in creating/planning a garden with the girls. In addition, please join me on our Hi Mamma Pinterest page where we have "pinned" other ideas for families in the garden. Absolutely love it because it is amazing to see what other gardeners have done in their yards/patios to help beautify their outdoor  living space.


The Top 10 Crops for Children
11 Ways to Make Gardening Extra Fun for Kids
Fairy Herb Garden
Why You Should Always Grow a Wild Card : Gardening with Kids
27 Garden Markers
20 Reasons Why it's Great to Get Gardening
Edible Garden – Part 2
Seasonal Produce Posters

Do you and your family garden? If so, we would love to hear from you what you are planning on gardening this year. Do you grow your veggies upward (like cucumbers) on a fence or trellis? One thing we have thought about is growing our lettuce right underneath our cucumbers (kind of like forming a tent of cucumbers) so that the lettuce (underneath the cucumbers) does not get "burned" since it likes cooler weather.

Voting is Open! Join Us in the EtsyMom Team Spring 2013 Color Palette Challenge

Several of our talented EtsyMom team members have joined in on a little team fun and have created new items based off the Berry Brights color palette. I think these colors are just so bright and cheer myself that it just makes me naturally smile when I see them, and of course makes my mouth water when I see the strawberries.

One of these lucky moms will win a prize basket based on the number of votes/likes they receive. So join in on the fun and help them out by "liking" your favorite or favorites on the EtsyMom Facebook page, if you have more than one.

Voting will end at midnight on Saturday May 4.

In addition, if you would like to see other color palette ideas be sure to click on the Berry Brights photograph (to your left) and it will take to you a world of additional color palettes that truly set the mood like "Citrus Color", "Ladybug Brights", etc. It has opened my eyes in terms of mixing colors together.

This summer, my daughter is participating in 4H for the first time, and will be entering a project in the Home Environment program where she is to create an interior design layout for a bedroom. She has enjoyed going to the home supply stores and looking at paint colors and carpet selections. When she saw the various color palette selections a world of ideas began to unfold in terms of mixing colors together for her project. I think it will do the same for you as well.

We would love for you to share with us on Hi Mamma what is your favorite color palette after looking at the selections!

Kids Cooking Club: Banana Bread

One oldie but goodie recipe is banana bread. It seems like you just can not go wrong in what you add to the recipe to give it a little more ump. Of course the ultimate favorite part of the recipe is smashing the bananas, but no matter, this is the ultimate quick bread the girls really enjoy.

In terms of nuts we rotate based upon what we have in the freezer. The girls really enjoy the almonds where my husband likes the walnuts. As you can see below, we have raisins added as an ingredient but in all honesty, sometimes we just double up the nuts and not place raisins in the batter, and add some crushed flax seed into the mixing bowl.

Banana Bread
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup sugar (you can add any of the different sugars that you like, just remember to change the amount based upon the desired sweetness)
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans)
1 cup raisins
1 cup = roughly 3 mashed bananas

Grease you bread pan so that it does not stick to the pan when removing the bread after baking.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, oil and eggs together into the mixing bowl. Add the mashed bananas. Lastly fold into the batter the nuts and raisins (if desired).

Bake at 350 F for 1 hour. After baking let the bread rest for 10 minutes before removing from pan and serving (if you like it warm).