Fancy Nancy and Summer Lovin’

My sister-in-law bought my oldest daughter “Fancy Nancy Tea Parties” for her birthday. My daughter is very practical, as far as six-year-olds go, and EXTREMELY literal, so she usually says things like, “There is nothing ‘fancy’ about her. She just looks crazy.”

But this book, “Fancy Nancy Tea Parties” had her hooked and folding over the pages of the book to mark the things she wanted to do. She apparently has a new appreciation for Nancy. There are all sorts of little activities and crafts in the book to help you have the most “magnificent” gatherings. First on my daughter’s list was to make sun tea and of course, to have a tea party.

Not being a big iced tea drinker, I have never made sun tea before. Yum! So easy, so fun and so good. It is definitely going to be part of our summer life from now on. We used decaf tea. Just Lipton, nothing Fancy. We used 14 bags and let it sit out in the sun all day. The girls kept checking on it and giving me updates on how dark is was getting. Then we added simple syrup (bring equal parts sugar and water to a boil and let cool) and a trick we learned from the book, orange juice. I used about a half a cup of sugar and we added a few glugs of juice. I didn’t measure it – we just kept doing taste tests. It was delicious. Then we made some cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (with cucumbers from our garden) and had ourselves a little tea party at the dining room table.

Speaking of the garden, I just had to take this picture of my kitchen counter. A trip to the Farmer’s Market (blueberries and carrots) and our first big harvest in our garden.

And can we talk about these flowers?

I love summer. What are you growing?

---CraftyMom