I don’t know how your summer is going, but ours has been crazy-fun, but largely unproductive. We’re not getting super far on our summer bucket list, but we ARE enjoying all the fun days of playing in the sun, VBS, swimming, boating, and visiting a ton of parks.
With the days getting longer and temperatures rising, the impending summer season means music festivals and leisurely nights spent outdoors. Today I’m sharing 5 ways to beat the heat with a perfectly chill summer picnic.
A signature drink is a fun and refreshing addition to your summer soiree! We recently had a BBQ and served these three drinks that were a big hit!
Wicked Watermelon Margaritas (4 servings) source: Bedsider.org
Mix the following ingredients in the blender and serve with a wedge of watermelon or slice of lime!
Moscato Strawberry Lemonade
Mix the following ingredients in a large pitcher and garnish glasses with lemon slices.
Popsicle Moscato
This one is super complicated: pour three parts pink moscato and one part Simply Lemonade into a cup and place an unwrapped popsicle in the glass. Drink once the popsicle has melted!
These are my three favorite tried and true summer cocktails. Do you have a signature drink? Tell me about it in the comments below!
I recently tried to convince my husband to paint an entire wall of our dining area with black chalkboard paint. He didn’t quite have the same vision I had, so he asked me to hang a chalkboard until we could come to an agreement.
I agreed. After all, I’ve had a giant frame in storage that’s been waiting to be used for years. I bought it at a garage sale for around $10 which was a steal…but how do you fill such a large frame without spending a fortune? The chalkboard was the perfect solution.
If I hadn’t already had the frame, what I really would have wanted is a rustic wood frame. However, since this was likely temporary, I wanted to make this as easy and inexpensive as possible.
The problem: the frame was gold. Really gold. I debated on what to paint it. Silver? Weathered white? Blue? I haven’t committed to a color scheme in our new home yet, so I went with a safe, muted silver. I spray painted it with Krylon Brushed Metallic paint. I had planned to rub wax or wood stain to bring out the details, but I didn’t love that effect on the test areas so I just left it silver for now.
For the actual chalkboard, we bought a piece of thin plywood and I sanded it with a hand sander until it was really smooth. After cleaning it with a lint-free cloth, I painted four thin coats of Rust-Oleum Chalk Paint in black, using a foam roller. I sanded lightly between layers when necessary and removed all the dust with a lint-free cloth. When the paint was completely dry, I rubbed entire board with a large piece of sidewalk chalk to cure it, and then rubbed it with a lint-free cloth to erase it.
You can wipe it clean with a damp cloth for a clean crisp look, or with a dry cloth, which I prefer, for a true, messy chalkboard look.
So far, our family loves this addition to our home. We post fun quotes and verses, and the children love to use it for creating their own art, as well.
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I was so excited for Eve’s first birthday and I knew exactly what the theme would be – Pink Lemonade, for my sweet and sour little girl 🙂
Well, then there was an out of state family wedding the weekend of her birthday which meant significantly toning down the birthday plans. Which was hard for me, because I just love a good themed party. Side note: do you know what else is hard? Accidentally deleting all the photos in my camera from said party, and then racing to take just a couple to prove my baby had a party. Ugh!
So to plan the un-party, I started with the basics. One of the things I’ve done for all of my kids is purchase just a few birthday items that we bring out every year, including a pendant banner, centerpieces with photos of them over the years, and a “My special day” seat cover.
We also use this seat cover for all special occasions, from birthdays to the first day of school and other milestones. It’s a tradition that has become very meaningful to us – when the kids come downstairs in the morning and see their seat cover, they know we’re celebrating them that day.
Next, I added some cute polka-dot napkins, cups and cute paper straws from Target. I served a basic lemonade some frozen strawberries. Yum!
I made these adorable cupcakes. I’d scoured the interwebs for the best pink lemonade recipe and landed on this one. Unfortunately, they were just a bit too tart for us! No problemo – that just left more room for the homemade ice cream we made (and Mmmm does our family love homemade ice cream!).
So there you have it – a very simple, sweet Pink Lemonade birthday. Check out my Pink Lemonade Pinterest board for more ideas for our next Pink Lemonade birthday. Enjoy!
