DIY 4th of July Handprint Flag Shirt Tutorial

I've been wanting to do this DIY Flag Shirt since Cam was a baby. Now that we have ALL our babies, I thought maybe it was finally time. Haha. I've included some affiliate links in this post so you can make your own shirts too!

These we're so so easy! The hardest part was finding a pack of white tee shirts that would easily fit my 2T 3T 4T wearing bunch. And I found these that worked perfectly in size XS!

Since we were using this craft fabric paint I didn't even prewash the shirts.

I used some leftover painters tape to tape off a few stripes per shirt (I taped less stripes on Air's onesie since it was obviously much smaller). I also stuck a piece of paper inside each shirt in case the paint bleed through (It did. Don't skip this step.)

Then I gave the kids a foam brush and the painted the white part of the shirt that was taped off. Everyone had a different method. Brush strokes and dabbling seemed to work the best. We we're going for fun and not for perfect. So I just let them go at it. (You may want to also place a piece of tape vertically at the ends of the stripes if you are in a going-for-perfect mood).

Then we took some star stickers and put them on our top left corner. (Ours came from a practice workbook but these are similar)

I painted each kid's hand with blue fabric paint and quickly put their handprint over top the star stickers. Fabric paint dried quickly. So work fast on this step.

Next we freaked out and washed everyone's hands before they touched anything easily pulled off the star stickers and tape to reveal white stars and stripes!

And that was it! It was so quick and fun and I can't wait to get a picture of the whole gang in their shirts (Fingers crossed. That will probably be more difficult than actually making the shirts!) We even made a onesie for baby Air!

Happy Independence Day!

Dollar Tree Easter Basket Haul

We are on the road this Easter and the Easter bunny was one smart cookie. He visited our hotel and packed baskets full of activities we could all play with when we were stuck inside (while Cor had some work to do.)

Dollar Tree "Dough" comes in packs of 8. That's EIGHT colors for $1. So each kid got 2 tossed in their basket. And if you're like us, play doh is a disposable toy. We attempt to save it for a second play, but usually it gets smushed all together anyway. So I'd rather have a few small colors anyway. Usually I keep a pack of 8 colors hidden somewhere and pull out one for a restless kid.

Princess books came in a pack of TWO so each girl got one tossed in her basket.

There's something about ring pops that make my kids go Cray. And they came in a 4 pack. And I (obviously) like things that come in 4s.

Each Big Kid got a Easter paint set. Each came with 2 pictures to paint. And we also will use the paint for the next fun thing...

Build your own race car. For ONE DOLLAR! The boys could not WAIT to rip into these things and they were so so simple. Each pack came with all the wooden pieces pre cut and a small tube of wood glue. My almost 4 year old and 5 year old were obsessed! The Easter Bunny should have bought a few more (they come in different sets too!)

Ay got a pack of shape Flash cards to help her with Speech Therapy. Because words are hard, yo.

Socks!!! If your house is like mine, your mini van eats socks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't know what it is, but there's something my kids love about throwing socks around the van like confetti. And each pack came with three pairs of socks. Good thinking, Bunny!

Number/Letter DRY ERASE practice books! Say whaaaat?? Cam needs to practice writing his name and when I... I mean... The Easter Bunny... saw these books, she hopped on it (see what I did there?). The boys can practice writing their letters and numbers and wipe them clean and start again. I also grabbed a pack of 4 dry erase pens at the Dollar Tree too.

Each kid also got some Jelly Bean candy (but they were well and gone by the time I got to take pictures of their stuff). And Bunny ears... That were on their heads all day long. And Ay got a little purse. What I'm really saying here is that I failed at getting a fantastic photo of all the sweet things they got. My bad.

There was a few more items not from the Dollar Tree that rounded out their baskets. Each kid got a new outfit. The Big Kids got a Skylander (thanks 5 Below for an awesome 3 pack for $5!). Baby Air even had the Trolls movie tucked in her basket! Lucky Lady!

Over all, we had a fantastic Easter, despite traveling for 13 hours, and now we have some fun things to do in our hotel. Win Win.

Happy-ish July

4th of July Status PreKids: I love living at the beach! Fireworks in every direction!

4th of July Status PostKids: It's way pass bedtime. You kept one kid from falling asleep and woke up another. Go away, fireworks. You're done now. You're time is up. See you again at New Year's.

Weekly Meal Plan - Thanksgiving Edition

We will be out of town visiting family for Thanksgiving, so we are using some meals we have left over from last week until we go out of town (here's looking at you Mediterranean Soup and Stuffed Peppers). Mr also has a big race this weekend, so we added a Carbo Load Meal of pasta to the plan that we will actually be having tonight.

For Thanksgiving, we will be sure to take our own Tofurkey even though Mr's father graciously volunteered to try to find us one. We just know where to look, so we'll grab one while doing our shopping. We're also going to contribute Glazed Carrots and a Pear Tart to the meal. Both of these are new, but seem relatively simple enough and don't require too much oven time. The Tart can be made in advanced and then baked after the main dish is finished cooking.

Thanksgiving has ALWAYS been my favorite holiday - but Pregnant Thanksgiving is the BEST! I'm so excited to spend the holiday with our families back home.

Day	Dinner
M	Mediterranean Stew (Veg CrockPot) w bread
T	Pasta with Tomato Sauce with Salad
W	Stuff Peppers w Rice
R	THANKSGIVING - Tofurkey, Pear Tart , Glazed Carrots w Pecans.
F	Out of Town
S	Out of Town
S	*New Recipe Night*

M

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 eggplant, chopped

1 15oz can artichoke, drained and chopped

1/2/ cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

2 15oz cans diced tomatoes (we use low sodium)

4 cups (usually a whole box) Vegetable Broth (again, we use low sodium)

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

French Bread

T
Box of Pasta
Pasta Sauce
Bread
Salad:
1 bag lettuce
Tomato
Cucumber
Croutons
Dressing

W
2 Green Peppers
1 Can Diced tomatoes
1 Can Black Beans
Quinoa
Soy Chorizo
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Rice

R
Tofurkey Loaf

Pear Tart Recipe

Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 T. sugar
8 T. butter (Vegan - Sub Coconut Oil)
1 egg yolk (Vegan - Sub 1/8c Banana)
2 T. cold water, or more if needed

Filling
3 pears
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
3/4 cup sugar

Glazed Carrots Recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil

6 cups diagonally sliced (1/4 in.) peeled carrots (bag baby carrots)

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups toasted pecan halves