festive summer popsicles for the fourth of july
I still can’t believe that my blog is now just over a year old. Last year at this time, we were getting ready to go up the coast from LA to Santa Barbara for the Fourth of July, one of our favorite places on earth. This year, we were supposed to be going to visit family in Colorado, but long story short, it just wasn’t in the cards. So we were just going to stay here in Arizona, until I was like, wait, I’m pregnant, it’s f*ing hot, and we won’t be traveling again for the rest of the year after this baby comes. So I convinced my husband it was a good idea to pack the kids in the car and drive ‘home’ to California for the weekend.
Total side note and nothing to do with popsicles, but when I was at the incredible School of Styling a couple of weeks ago [more on the fun I had there coming in a future blog post], we had a speed ‘dating’ breakout session where one of the questions was ‘where do you consider home?’ This one was super easy for me to answer and it definitely touched on the emotions of our move and transition over the last year or so. Home to me is Los Angeles. I actually grew up in Colorado, went to college here in Arizona and moved to LA with my husband (then boyfriend) right after we finished school. But I have always been a city girl at heart. The small town I grew up in always felt stifling to me and I relished in the anonymity of big city life. Sure, there are down sides to it. Mainly, traffic. But so, so many benefits that to me outweighed that one major drawback. My ‘date’ during this breakout asked me if I considered LA home because it was where I did the most of my growing up and I think she may be on to something there. But let me stop myself there before I get too deep and just say, we are going home for the weekend!
Now back to popsicles! Did I mention it’s hot here?? Plus I have that whole internal pregnancy furnace thing going on right now, so I will do just about anything to catch some relief. Including (don’t judge) lingering in the Costco walk-in coolers just a little longer than normal, despite my kids’ lips turning blue. As an alternative, I thought it would be fun to try making our own popsicles at home, to avoid the artificial ingredients and loads of sugar in manufactured brands. I kept seeing all of these beautiful popsicle images popping up in my Pinterest feed, but then I would click through to them and they would be boozy popsicles (totally not against that, by the way, I just currently can’t partake so it’s not much fun for me) or they would have added sugar or yogurt (my kiddos are dairy free and get plenty of sugar every day). So I decided to play around with some of my own combinations and this one was a fan fave. Super-duper easy-peasy and also clean, both health-wise and kiddo mess-wise! Win – win – win.
Start with popsicle molds of your choice. They are pretty easy to find this time of year. I picked these up at Crate & Barrel in their exclusive red color, but I also found them in green for a little less here on Amazon
Slice some fresh strawberries and grab some whole, rinsed fresh blueberries and fill up the molds with them, about 3/4 way to the top, alternating berry type for color distribution.
Add coconut water pretty much all the way to the top. Even though they will grow when freezing, this mold has room at the top for that very purpose. Coconut water naturally has a good amount of sugar in it, so no need to add any other type of sugar to the mix!
Freeze for a few hours or overnight.
And that’s it! The easiest, festive, kid-friendly summer popsicles you ever did see. Perfect for cooling off this Fourth of July weekend.
I swear despite their concerned looks, they really did love them! // on baby A: bow by free babes // romper by ox eyed baiby // sandals by mini moxie.
