friday cute shot

we all scream for ice cream

Ever since we visited friends in North Carolina several years ago and went to this place, I've had a vague idea in my head about hosting weekly ice cream socials all summer long. Shaggy got me two awesome books I wanted for this purpose last year, but I never quite got past the initial hurdle of getting started. This year I am not letting summer slip by.

I needed a deadline to motivate me, so for the inaugural trial run, I invited a limited number of people that already like me a lot and so wouldn't mind a slightly less-than-spectacular kickoff. My plan was/is to make ice cream and paletas (Mexican-style popsicles), to be both kid and adult friendly, to try some weird and possibly complicated flavors, and to use whatever is fresh and ripe that week.

For the first social, there were two flavors to choose from: strawberry paletas and basil ice cream. The strawberries were from our trip to Sauvie Island a couple of weeks ago and the basil came from our front yard garden.

I was also planning to make a third option, honey lavender ice cream, but I didn't plan quite ahead enough to pull that one off. But that's the beauty of a revolving party, there's always next week and the week after to pull off what you missed.

The basil was a hit with everyone except for Lucy, who put a bite in her mouth then promptly opened her mouth and let the bite drop right back into the bowl. Yum! Of course, I ate her rejected ice cream and she opted for Tillamook French vanilla from the freezer.

So, with a successful trial run under our belts, we jumped into the real thing this week. On the menu:

• chocolate peanut butter ice cream
• blue cheese and honey ice cream
• hops ice cream
• strawberry popsicles
• roasted banana popsicles

The takers for the hops ice cream and the blue cheese ice cream were split along gender lines (men and women, respectively), and the chocolate was, not surprisingly, the all-around favorite. Lucy, once again, opted for some chunk-and-weird-flavor-free Tillamook vanilla ice cream.

We decked out the deck in quasi-Moroccan style (i.e., a tarp suspended overhead and big pillows on the ground) and borrowed a wading pool from our neighbors; at some point in the evening there were naked toddlers running all around and life was good.

this ended in tears

Inspired by this, I set up some mirrors and foam paint for Lucy last week after her nap. The paintbrushes were MIA so she used her fingers, and once her hands were all painted it was only a few short movements to get her belly, her chest, her back, and eventually her hair into the game too.

There was jumping and giggling and music-less dancing as she squished and swirled the puffed-up paint. I had blue and white so she could paint the clouds, but wouldn't you know we chose a Portland day without any? Clear blue sky as far as we could see, not that she was deterred.

After she was thoroughly painted we got out the hose and she made several trips through until she was just dripping blue, then she went back to paint herself again.

Toward the end of te afternoon our five-year-old neighbor came over, and though she didn't want to get messy herself she was more than happy to help Lucy out with the body painting. That escalated to chasing and throwing sponges, and all was fun and squeal-worthy until Lucy got a paint-filled sponge in the eye. Even then she was happy enough, until we had to spray water on her face to get the paint off.

Oh the tears!

But the next morning when she woke up she wanted to do it again.

tt

heard on the street

"Language is going to be your second language, I can tell."

-Laura, a friend of our neighbors, on Oscar's expressive face

friday cute shot