let's go! GRAND summer fun, week one! let's create, move, play & eat!

Our Grand Lives
Jun 5
7 min read

Updated: 20 hours ago

Thursday, June 5, 2025

It’s JUNE!

What a delightful, fun and summery month you are!

Here in Minnesota, it’s a month filled with beauty

from flowering gardens, longer days and warmth and sunshine!

We welcome it all!!!

And, of course, for many it marks the beginning of summer fun!

Here at Our Grand Lives we are ready to embrace it all

and, during the coming weeks,

we’ve got lots of summer goodness to share with you all!

As we’ve mentioned before, we know that many of our readers offer care for their grandchildren regularly. We also know, that with the arrival of summer, many GRANDS are called on more frequently to provide needed childcare for these special Littles! Likewise, many parents and caregivers are at home wondering.... HOW DO WE FILL ALL THE LONG SUMMER HOURS AHEAD?

We’ve got you covered!

Beginning today, we’re sharing a new post each Thursday…

In each post, we’ll provide 3-4 simple and engaging activities,

to try with your Littles during the summer months ahead!

With few materials needed and quick set-up, weekly topics might include the following:

It’s time to kick-off our GRAND Summer Fun!

Are you ready for Week One of Let’s Go?

This week we’ve got 4 ideas for you…

LET'S CREATE! Father’s Day Crafts!

LET'S MOVE! - Spray Bottle Fun!

LET'S PLAY! Puffy Stickers!

LET'S EAT! - Air Fryer Chicken Wings!

LET’S GO!

Last month we shared our ideas for Mother’s Day Treasures,

the projects we did with our Littles in 2024 to celebrate their special moms!

Each year, we’ve also had fun creating Father’s Day crafts with our Littles!

We've shared a few of our projects on Instagram,

but this is our first time sharing here!

Look at these cute gifts Laurie has made with her Little’s footprint(s)!

One that’s perfect for any golfer in your life

And another that your littlest Little can make with a precious footprint!

Simply fill in the details to complete a race car and background

and add a photo of your sweet Little!

How about these simple ideas from last year?

Laura’s nuts and bolts frame!

We scrambled to put something together with a newborn in the house

and this project worked perfectly...

A photo of our newborn Little P and big sis, Little D,

framed by colored popsicle sticks and nuts nuts and bolts that we glued on!

We added a few small magnets to the back

and a saying on the front in permanent marker.

Our Littles’ daddy and grandpas had a sweet gift to decorate

their office or workbench!

And Laurie’s fun idea from 2024 below!

Little D found two fun rocks that we glued to paper.

Then we added googly eyes, and hair and features with a permanent marker, too,

as well as our Littles’ names underneath!

We put the project in a matted frame with no glass!

SO CUTE!

Whenever we head outside for summer fun with Littles,

we often pack a spray bottle or two!!

They come in handy and can be used in numerous ways!

It’s super easy to have spray bottles filled and ready,

so when our Littles are looking for something to do,

we can simply invite them to spray away!

Before we begin…

SPRAY AWAY TREASURE HUNT!

Send your Littles in search of a variety of things… the biggest rock they can find, a little bug, something orange or, of course, the prettiest flowers they can find. Tell them to spray away as each item is found!

TARGET TIME!

Create a chalk target for older Littles and they will have fun spraying away! You can also write letters and/or numbers with chalk on the driveway (and sight words for kindergarten Littles) and invite them to find a specific letter, number or word and spray away!

DUCK RACES!

For family fun, we filled a large plastic bin with water (an underbed one works great!). We put it on top of a table. Each person had a spray bottle and a plastic duck. The goal was to be the first person to get their duck from one side of the bin to the other, using only the spray bottle to move the duck!

If you don’t have plastic ducks,

you can always make little sailboats from aluminum foil, toothpicks and paper!

SPRAY BOTTLE FREEZE TAG!

Finally - this is a great way to get moving and cool off at the same time! It’s one of our favorite summer activities!

The rules are simple… one player is “it” and he/she chases the other players trying to spray them with the water! Players must freeze if tagged with the water. Frozen players can only be unfrozen when someone else sprays them!

TODDLER TIME! Your youngest Littles will love this one as you play Peek-a-Boo and spray away! Aim for their toes, fingers or belly button or spray yourself and watch all your Littles giggle!

Perhaps you are looking for some quiet or cool-down activities to do

during the heat of those hot summer days!

Laurie has an idea for you!

Littles of all ages love stickers, right? And for most of them, you can give them a sheet of stickers and a piece of paper and they are able to entertain themselves for a bit.

However, If you have young toddlers who love to play with stickers, they can often become frustrated with the task of pull them off the sheet and then putting them on paper. Have you ever tried the “puffy” stickers?

They are easy to pull off the backing because they have a little texture and lift to them, and they stick to glass windows and doors and come right off!

Here’s a pack that Laura has ordered

for an upcoming visit with her Littles!

Laura regularly makes this dish for her gluten sensitive hubby,

thanks to a friend who shared the recipe with her!

We know our Littles will love it, too!

In fact, older Littles can help you make dinner or lunch…

It’s that easy!

INGREDIENTS

(This recipe serves 2-3 people)

• 1 pound chicken wings (flats & drums only)

• avocado or olive oil

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 2 teaspoons paprika

• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

• ½ teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon black pepper

• cooking spray (we use avocado oil or olive oil spray)

DIRECTIONS

1. Pat the wings dry with a paper towel and put them in a large ziploc bag. Add a small bit of olive oil to the bag. Use your fingers (on the outside of the bag) to spread the oil over the chicken wings.

2. Mix the baking powder, paprika, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the mixture over the chicken wings in the bag. Use your fingers (again, outside the bag) to cover the chicken wings with the seasoning mix.

3. Preheat the air fryer to 400F degrees. Then spray the basket lightly with cooking spray, especially if not using a liner in the basket. (We use these for easy clean up!) Place the chicken pieces in a single layer in the basket (or liner and then the basket).

4. Once the air fryer has preheated, cook the wings for 10 minutes. Then flip the wings and cook for another 7-10 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.

5. Remove the chicken wings and serve!

NOTE: We have a smaller air fryer so we often make two batches of wings when serving more than just hubby and I. To keep the first batch warm, I wrap them in aluminum foil and put them in a 300F degree oven until I’m ready to serve them!.