Some girls are daddy’s little princess.

Other girls heave a sigh of disgust when dad tries to talk to them.

Me and my dad. We’re buds. We’ve always been buds.

When I was a little kid, he wasn’t just dad, or daddy, but always my daddy.

When is my daddy coming home? I’d ask my mom.

Why the need for the possessive pronoun? I couldn’t tell you.

But he’s my daddy.

Both of my parents worked, and I spent days with babysitter, or my aunt when she was around, or my grandma occasionally.

But my dad would sometimes work nights so that he could off a whole day home with me.

Me and my daddy.

We’d play board games and run around the yard.

And dad would let me dress myself, much to the dismay of mom who came home once to me wearing a dress, inside out, and yes it had been inside out all day, and yes dad had taken me out like that.

The best part about days home with dad though was Verona Park.

Dad taught me how to hang upside down on the monkey bars and how to swing super high.

But most importantly, my daddy would buy me a rocket pop.

And then he’d tell me not to tell mom, and he’d buy me a second rocket pop.

And as soon as mom came home I’d say “Mom, guess what? My daddy got me 2 rocket pops!” And then dad would be in trouble.

But not really.

We were talking about rocket pops while I was home and then mom went out to the store and came home with this.

Yup. Rocket pop molds!

Now, I wasn’t about to attempt to make the iconic red, white and blue striped, cherry, lemon and blue-raspberry flavored rocket-shaped pop. At least not on my first go at ice pops.

So instead, I came up with this. A cool and refreshing, mojito-like pop without the rum.

I always liked the lemon part of the pop the best. But when I went to the store, green, tart, tangy limes were on sale.

I’m a fan of citrus, so I decided to roll with it and try mint-lime ice pops- the same citrus burst as the rocket pop and all the flavors of a summery mojito without the rum (I hate rum. Vodka tonic any day.)

For the pops you will need

• the juice of 4 limes
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup sugar (I wanted more tart than sweet)
• mint leaves

Add all of the ingredients to a pot. I crumbled the mint leaves in my hand a bit to release the oils.

Turn the flame to medium and stir the ingredients, cooking until the sugar dissolves. Remove the mint leaves.

Pour the mixture into molds and pop in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.

If you don’t have molds, you can use ice cube trays or, kick it old school and use paper cups like we did in kindergarten.

Unmold and enjoy!