July is National Ice Cream Month and with the average American eating twenty quarts of ice cream per year, we know you will definitely be celebrating! And why not? It a tradition that runs deep in our country. President from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson enjoyed ice cream and we can thank President Ronald Reagan for officially starting National Ice Cream month in 1984. The majority of U.S. ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturers have been in business for more than fifty years with many still family-owned businesses.
We don’t need any convincing when it comes to indulging, we love all things ice cream which is why we’ve handpicked our favorites. Whether it’s fashions inspired by our favorite frozen treat, to the latest in ice cream makers at home, to toys, stickers, crafts and more, we’re showcasing what you need when it comes to ice cream.
First off, whether it is National Ice Cream Month or just a hot summer day, we love taking our family to get ice cream. It can be fun going to your favorite local ice cream shop or checking out new ones. Cauldron Ice Cream is a unique family experience. You can watch your ice cream made before your very eyes as they mix liquid nitrogen with a creamy base, ensuring the freshest ice cream you can get. Cauldron Ice Cream was started out of a garage in Orange County, California back in 2014. Its very first location was in South Coast Metro on the outskirts of the sprawling Costa Mesa food hub. Since then, Cauldron has expanded to over 10 locations. They make homemade, all natural ice cream in small batches.
The next best thing to eating ice cream, is playing with ice cream! We cannot stop playing with the Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Counter. We’re talking a sturdy, wooden, 28-piece pretend play dessert dream. Not only does it come with wooden scoops of different-flavored ice cream, it comes with toppings, cones, cup, scooper, tongs, and a wooden spoon. But where added learning comes in is with the reusable menu card and the play money. This way we get in the creativity and conversation of play, along with practicing math skills like counting and how to pay.
Melissa & Doug have so many other cool treat toys too! Ranging from the Snacks & Sweets Food Cart to Frozen Treats sets, Sweets and Treats Stickers, Sweet Keepsake Crafts and even a sand Ice Cream Kit. What we love about the brand is that Melissa and Doug are real people! They’ve been together more than 30 years and raised a family of six kids!
Now that we’ve mastered playing ice cream shop, let’s learn how to make ice cream at home! In the 1840s, Nancy Johnson, from Philadelphia, received the first U.S. patent for a small-scale hand-cranked ice cream freezer. I’m happy to report we’ve come a long way in the past 170+ years when it comes to churning our own ice cream.
We love the Cuisinart Cool Creations Ice Cream Maker because at the touch of one button, you can create two quarts of ice cream in just 20 minutes! Plus the control panel has multiple speeds in three settings so you can make ice cream, gelato or sorbet. It has convenient digital LCD time programming, and auto shutoff. The unique paddle provides for faster processing time and it includes a recipe book. It was so easy I made a batch of vanilla on National Ice Cream Day with my four-year-old son. Then we decided to take it up a notch and make dipped ice cream cookie sandwiches! We baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies, got out the sprinkles and the mini chocolate chips and in no time we have a fancy frozen treat. Yum!
Plus in the summer, we love fresh juice, especially with seasonal fruits like watermelon, mango and guava. A fun tip is to add your homemade ice cream and turn your drink into a float! Or you can keep it on the healthier side and use the Cuisinart Compact Juice Extractor to turn your veggies into fresh juice for the whole family without sacrificing counter space. And if your little ones are picky and don’t like pulp, it also has a mesh filter that separates out up to 40oz of pulp before requiring emptying. It’s powerful, quiet and holds up to sixteen ounces of juice.
If we can’t eat ice cream for every meal, why not at least show our love for ice cream through fashion! We can’t get enough of Pippa and Julie. The Sydney Ice Cream Tutu dress has the most gorgeous details in the sequined ice cream cone. It is sleeveless and the tutu is light making it a great option for summer fun or add a pair of leggings and a jacket and you can wear it for the fall too. The Faith ice cream dress has the cutest all over ice cream print. It also is sleeveless and made of a light cotton for those hot summer days.
Whether you live near a beach like we do, step out your sliding doors to your backyard pool, or turn the sprinklers on to keep cool, most of summer occurs in the water under the sun. In fact, 50% of total lifetime sunlight exposure occurs during childhood. This is why we love MOTT50 swimwear. They are the leader in fashionable sun protective apparel with each garment certified with 50 UPF. It’s cuter than sunscreen including this delicious Ice Cream Dreams print. Plus we love that it comes in styles for the whole family — mom and dad, daughter, son — yep from baby to adult, everyone can look cool and be protected.
Who says ice cream fashion is just for kids? We love Mommy and Me and Family Matching outfits and Wildflowers Clothing Co. has some great outfits for the entire family. We always get comments and messages about not having enough Mommy and Me outfits for boys so we were so excited to find these outfits from Wildflowers. The boys button up shirts and shorts coordinate with our dress and top. For the girls we picked ice cream and sundae dresses. Wildflowers has so many great prints and styles that you can mix and match and still coordinate as a family or siblings. We love all of the vibrant prints.
And what better way to complete your ice cream look than with a pair of shoes from Baubles and Soles? They have the cutest shoes for girls. Their shoes have a twist lock which enables you to interchange baubles. From ice cream cones to hearts and pom poms, you can change the look of your shoe without having to buy several pairs. They come in a variety of colors and then you can pick out the baubles to match your outfit. We love that the mom who founded it designed it with her daughter in mind. She wanted to create a shoe that she could wear from the playground to a party. We can’t wait to check out all the different baubles.
We were given items by Cauldron, Cuisinart, Melissa and Doug, Mott50, Pippa and Julie, Wildflowers Clothing Co. , and Baubles and Soles. All of our thoughts and opinions are our own.
