Drink of the Month: July: Rosemary Lemonade Gin & Tonic

A while ago, Cor and I started to make a cocktail of the month. This way, we would buy one type of booze and use it all up and wouldn't have a bunch of extra stuff sitting around the house. It also made us pick a fun new cocktail of the month each month so we were trying something new. (Getting all the supplies with a recipe card and cute glass makes a super fun gift too!)

This month I was looking up ways to use some of the Rosemary we have growing on our property and I found a Rosemary Lemonade drink that we altered a bit. We even made our own syrup. Which was new to us. But totally easier than expected.

Here's what you do.

To Make the Rosemary Syrup:
Boil 1/2 Cup Water
Add 1/2 Cup of Sugar
Add 1/4 Cup of Chopped Rosemary (This is where we keep walking outside to grab more sprigs off our giant rosemary plant to get to a quarter of a cup).

Bring it to a boil until the sugar is all dissolved. Then take the pan off the heat and let it sit for about 45mins to an hour. Then pour the mixture through a fine meshed strainer or a nut milk bag and collect the syrup in a Mason Jar.

To Make the Drink:
Fill a 16oz Mason Jar with ice (We like these ones)
Add 2oz of Gin (We used Tanqueray Imported London Dry Gin and if you're classy like us, you'll use a baby bottle to  measure you ounce... Parents of the Year)
Add 1oz of Rosemary Syrup (give yourself a pat on the back because you made it yourself like a badass)
Cut a lemon in half - squeeze the juice of half a lemon into your glass
Fill the rest of the glass with club soda

Toss in a sprig of Rosemary and a slice of that squeezed lemon and take a picture. Cuz it's pretty, ain't it.

Boom.
Cheers.

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!

DIY Simple Cajun Seasoning Mix

You know those times when you're making a recipe and you're totally in a groove...

And then it happens.

You reach an item on the ingredient list.
and Oh Crap.

You're out.

It's usually something small but totally important to the integrity of the recipe and then you go on a google search hunt for substitutes for that item.

And that's how you go this post. We (uhh... Cor) was making our favorite Gumbo recipe and we we're out of Cajun seasoning. So here you go. Catastrophe averted. You're welcome.

Super Simple Cajun Seasoning Mix.

2 1/2 Tablespoons of Salt
1 Tablespoon of Dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon of Paprika
1 Tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper (Red Pepper) (adjust based on your spicy preference)
1 Tablespoon of Black Pepper

Stir that mess up. Toss the appropriate amount into your soup/gumbo/recipe.

Enjoy!

Mini Letter Crafts A B C D

We've been (attempting) to do a handprint and a cut out craft each week going along with the ABCs. I'm creating FREE Preschool Printable PDFs of our cut out crafts so you can play along.

Each page has 4 letters and I'll post as we go.

If you want the sheet with ABCD, just follow the PDF link below for the downloadable file.
(A is for Alligator. B is for Bee. C is for Cat. D is for Dots)

Here's some affiliate links to the supplies we use for our preschool crafts.

Elmer's Disappearing Purple Washable Glue Sticks (because who doesn't love washable).
Home Printer (this is the newer (and cheaper!) version of my Cannon MP560 that I LOOOVE!)
Ink Cartridges. (Because I promise you they're as good as the $30 for ONE you've been buying at the store).

Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE ABCD PRINTABLE HERE.

Father's Day 2017

Hey you. I see you being a good Dad and stuff.

I see you when you pick up a kid to walk her to the park.

I see you when you walk with a kid into a store (hoping for the best).

I see you when you pick up a kid with a broken arm and take him to the ER.

I see you when you carry a kid (or 4) up a flight of stairs to bed.

I see you when you pick up a kid and drag him out of an amusement park.

I see you doing up-up.

One day you pick up a kid up, and put a kid down for the last time.

So here's a year of walking with them. And taking their hands. And keeping them safe.

Happy Father's Day, Cor.

And I may have taken a picture of your butt every week for a year. So. Deal with it.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Weekly Meal Plan

We have a lot of Father's Day Activities going on this weekend, so we didn't meal plan for those day. But we've got a few of our summer favorites on the meal plan this week.

 

Full disclosure - Cor made the plan this week. And he did awesome.  

 

Day	Dinner
M	Cheesy Buffalo Cauliflower ‘Wings’ with a simple salad
T	Chickpea Salad
W	Pasta & Sauce with Salad
R	Summer veggie pasta
F	Orzo Salad
S	N/A
S	New Night!

 

Produce Dairy Packaged Goods Spices/Sauces Bread

 

M

• 1 small head cauliflower
• ¼ to ½ cup hot sauce (we use siricha or buffalo sauce & omit for kid ‘nuggets’)
• ½ cup sharp shredded cheddar cheese
• ½ cup flour (whole wheat flour works fine, so does white flour)
• ½ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

 

T

2 Cans of Chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 Red Bell Pepper, diced

1 Tomato, diced

2 Celery Stalks, diced

1 Dill Pickle, diced

1/2 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Onion Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Teaspoon of Paprika

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Tablespoon of Mustard

Pitas

 

W

Bag of Salad
Cucumber
Tomato
Croutons
Dressing
Bag of Pasta
Sauce

Bread

 

R

 

12 oz. bow tie pasta $1.39

2 medium roma tomatoes $0.61

1 medium summer squash $0.39

1 medium zucchini $0.39

1 medium broccoli crown $1.27

½ medium red onion $0.57

⅔ (15 oz.) jar roasted red peppers $1.34

½ bunch parsley $0.49

VINAIGRETTE (Or store bought vinaigrette)

F
4 cups water
1 1/2 cups orzo
1 cup garbanzo beans, rinsed (canned or pre-cooked from scratch)
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil and mint leaves, chopped
1/2-3/4 cups red wine vinaigrette
salt and pepper to taste

New Room Makeover - SYKE!

So we've been averaging about a room makeover a week, but not this week. Life just got in the way. And not the good kind of life.

We went to Ikea and had a super fun trip there and dropped some cash. It was Cor's first trip to the land of wonder and amazement. And we took our kids (which probably wasn't the best idea), but we filmed the crazy. You can see it here.

Then we went out on our ELEVEN YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY and dropped some cash down on a brand new king sized mattress. Because we've cuddled long enough and we're ready for space (space that will inevitably be filled with a stray child ending up in our bed.) Fun sidebar, Cam fell off a bed at the store and bleed everywhere... Ever have a bleeding kid in an all-white mattress store. It's super fun stuff. Then our mattress got delivered and was all sorts of lumpy. The delivery guy said it should "settle" but it hasn't... Hmmm.

And we ordered a new king bed from Wayfair for our "steel" anniversary. I like our bed; however, we were NOT impressed with Wayfair. You can find a video of our review here.

Then, after we got home from mattress shopping (and handing over all that cash money), we came home to find out that our WATER was out! Noooooo!

Long story short, it was our well pump. Apparently it's older than dirt. Literally. The well was full of dirt. So that's cool. We were out of water for a good four days and finally had someone come and fix it (and he was here until 1am fixing it.)

It. Was. Mayhem. Don't worry. I filmed that for you too and you can watch it here.

So, sorry-not-sorry for not having a room done this week.
We did buy the paint. That's gotta count for something, right?

Hooray for adulting.