In 1984 President Reagan declared July "National Ice Cream Month" and the third Sunday of the month "National Ice Cream Day". Grab a bowl or a cone and a scoop (or 2 ... or 3 ...) of your favorite flavor ice cream and enjoy! #NationalIceCreamDay

Share these fun facts with your favorite ice cream lover:

• 90% of the U.S. population eats ice cream (I'm guessing the remaining 10% just don't have freezers).
• Americans eat more than 23 pounds of ice cream every year — we're the top ice cream consuming nation in the world.
• The majority of U.S. ice cream and frozen dessert businesses are family-owned and have been around more than 50 years.
• The world's biggest ice cream sundae, made on July 24, 1988, took four hours to create and weighed nearly 54,917 pounds!
• Immigrants at Ellis Island were served vanilla ice cream as part of their "Welcome to America!" meal.
• The first ice cream truck hit the streets in 1920.
• The five most popular flavors in the U.S., according to sales, are vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan, strawberry, and Neapolitan (in that order).
• According to Twitter, however, the most-tweeted flavors are chocolate, vanilla, cookie dough, strawberry, and chocolate chip (in that order).
• Chocolate syrup is the favorite topping.
• The major ingredient in ice cream is ... AIR! Then why so many calories?!
• 85% of the vanilla beans used for ice cream are harvested in Madagascar.

Make Your Own Ice Cream

A fun and simple way to make ice cream at home involves only five ingredients and zip lock bags.

I did this as an activity for my daughter's birthday once and each child got to make their own. It was a hit.

Ingredients

1 c. half-and-half

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 c. ice 

1/3 c. kosher salt

Gallon size zip lock

Sandwich size zip lock

Instructions

In the small zip lock bag combine half-in-half, sugar, and vanilla, press out extra air and close bag.

In the large bag, combine the ice and salt. Keeping the bag closed, place the small bag inside the larger bag. Make sure the ice completely surrounds the smaller bag. Shake the bag vigorously for 7-10 minutes, until the cream has hardened.

Remove the small inner bag and pour the ice cream in a dish and top with your favorite toppings. Or simply cut the corner of the bag and squeeze directly into your mouth!

While your enjoying your deliciously cream treat, download and print this free, Ice Cream coloring page. 

Find more Family Fun in Our Event Calendar.

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