Summer is nearly over (fall actually hasn't begun yet; I believe the autumnal equinox is Sept. 23), along with the end of the watermelon season. What better way to say goodbye to this yummy summer treat than with our own personal farewell to summer/watermelon party.
We (my daughter Hayden and I) were inspired by Amber Shea of Almost Vegan, who blogged about her love letter to watermelon and participation in a watermelon eating contest. She just had to get her fill of it before it's gone (she got second place in that contest; not too shabby).Personally, I prefer to take my time and make my watermelon last. Therefore, we picked up a huge one to share, which I really took my time to slice into a ton of rectangular building blocks.
What did we do with those blocks? Build, of course.
This wouldn't be the first time we've built something out of our food. For example, you may recall the raw gingerbread house I posted a few years ago. I wish I had planned it out better, but I still had fun making it.The same is true for today's marble tower, based on the ones I used to make with my mom. She had a box of little red bricks and wedges that, when arranged correctly, created a tower with a spiral chute down the center for rolling marbles down.
The watermelon blocks brought back memories of those marble towers, so we made one today. Here are some photos of the work in progress:
First, you've got to build a foundation.
Then, build it up, adding wedge pieces along the way to create the slide inside. Don't forget to stack the walls around it (and rotate the corner wedges in the slide to create the spiral).
Keep on building ...
... until you reach your desired height.And, here's our video to show you how it works with grape "marbles." If you make one, let us know.
We had so many bricks leftover, that we thought about playing Jenga with them. The best part is eating the watermelon blocks when you've successfully removed them.Jacob also made this cute little watermelon man, and some more of the melon bricks ended up in smoothies, like the one on Kimberly Snyder's blog. Just watermelon and almond milk. Pinkalicious!
Hope you are enjoying the last watermelons of the season, too :-)
