Happy National Ice Cream Day!

I can't believe I wasn't fully aware of the existence of such a day until just now. Apparently, in 1984, President Reagan declared July National Ice Cream month and the 3rd Sunday in July National Ice Cream Day! Republican or Democrat, there's no arguing with the brilliance of this idea!
My first thought about celebrating this fabulous occasion was to head to Handel's the use my buy-one-get-one coupon, but then just a moment later, I had a flash of mommy craftiness. I remembered having read a recipe somewhere about making your own ice cream! In ziplock baggies, no less. Fun and easy. Just our style.

By the way, this is my second bout of so-called craftiness this month! A personal best! I'm not one to often do "special' projects with the kids, but I have moments every now and then. And the other week, I decided we'd go on a nature walk and make nature collages with our findings. You can see the photo evidence here. Note that Q's collage is all done in rows, and Keira's is totally random. If that isn't a good insight into their personalities, I don't know what is. And the fact that I nearly went bonkers after letting K use a glue stick for 10 minutes is a fair insight into my personality...hence the reason we don't break out the craft supplies all too often. But anyway. Back to the ice cream.

After a lame dinner of leftovers, we got ready to make our ice cream dessert. The leftovers were really part of my master plan - after such a meal, the ice cream was bound to be a hit, no matter how it turned out, right?

There are really only 3 ingredients for this ice-cream-in-a-bag: half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla. Only 2 ingredients for our chocolate ice cream variation: chocolate milk and sugar.

You put it all into a quart ziplock bag. Put that quart bag into a gallon ziplock, which is filled with ice cubes and salt.
Then shake. Shake. And shake. For 5 minutes, according to the recipe. We shook it for almost 10 minutes the second time around, and it got a bit firmer. Either way, it was yummy.

The kids enjoyed the shaking. Well, for the first minute or so anyway. The bags get really really cold, so we put towels around them to make it easier on the kids. And us, too.
And of course, they enjoyed the eating. Keira kept singing "Happy Birthday to me!" And when I got to thinking about it, I realized that she pretty much only gets ice cream at birthday parties. Poor child....first a craft-less mom and now a mom who deprives her of ice cream! Sheesh.

Anyway, it was a fun project - fun to do and fun to eat.

So hip-hip-hooray for National Ice Cream Day! One of Reagan's greatest ideas. I'm not sure Obama or McCain could top this. Unless of course they declare a Free McDonald's French Fries and Diet Coke Day.