Catching Up With The Kelnhofers-44

This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, I’m sharing all of our outdoor fun, the cutest little baby shoes and some amazingly refreshing, perfect-for-summer recipes.

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I wanted to give you an update on the donation matching and say a HUGE thank you! In last week’s Catching Up With The Kelnhofers I mentioned that instead of doing my regular monthly giveaway, I will be making donations.

I will be matching any donations made to the pandemic or injustice related charity organization you support up to a total of $2500 now through July 1, simply reply to this email or message me at phi@sweetphi.com a screenshot of your receipt and I’ll send you a reply message with the matching donation. ⠀

So far, we are over $1000 in donations! Here are just some of the organizations we’ve collectively supported:

• ACLU WI
• Artist Relief
• Blexit Foundation
• ActBlue BLM
• Black Table Arts
• Black Lives Matter Los Angeles
• Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) Action
• Center for Popular Democracy
• Chicago Birthworks
• Hunger Task Force
• Milwaukee Women’s Center
• NC Bail fund
• Restaurant employee relief fund

My favorite Italian leather ballet flats company I rave about all the time (Tieks) is doing a Front Line Heroes campaign where they’re giving $100 off for front line heroes- on top of already having donated over 900,000 masks and more. That’s so inspiring, and made me just purchase another pair. (Read my Tieks review titled – are Tieks worth the price? If you’re curious here – I’ve been wearing them since 2014!)

New on the Blog:

If you’re a regular newsletter reader, you know how often I cook with Ben in the kitchen so I’m especially excited to share one of the posts from this week!

• Best recipes to make with kids in the kitchen – a must-read for anyone at-home with their kids
• Catching up with the Kelnhofers – weekly family update from last week!
• The best side salad – perfect side salad for any meal!

What to Make: Refreshing Recipes

With the weather getting hotter, this week, I’m all about refreshing, cool summer recipes….which all happen to feature cucumbers too!

• Easy cucumber salad
• Cucumber melon spritzer
• Cucumber limeade with chia seeds
• Summer melon salad

What I’ve Been Making:

• Nick requests my chicken salad all the time, I made some and he shared a picture with is family text message thread, lol.

• We make smoothies all the time and have been making a lot of them lately – especially the mango smoothie and green smoothie.

• We made my honey biscuits and tried to put leftover sourdough starter in them; it wasn’t the best use of sourdough starter discard (here are a million things I’ve tried and how I maintain a zero waste sourdough starter). I love the honey biscuits just as they are!

• We also made some chocolate chip cookies – instead of caramel I put in peanut butter and omg, amazing!

Reader Comments:

Readers are making my vanilla scones with orange glaze and I love hearing about it! Below is what one person said:

• “Just finished making these. They are delicious! Very easy to make. Because I had no sour cream on hand I substituted buttermilk, which is what I always use in my scones. Thank you for sharing this recipe!”

Reader ReCreations:

I have been seeing a lot of re-creations across my social channels and it’s been so fun to see! This week, I wanted to showcase a fun breakfast treat, one of my favorite side dishes and a simple, 5-ingredient dessert! Check out the readers that re-created my vanilla scones with orange glaze, balsamic veggies and my blueberry skillet dump cake.

Links from Around the Web:

• I ordered plain cotton/washable masks for us and the kids.
• Loving this To-doodle-do notepad! This is the most beautiful to do list ever.
• I have had this camera bag for years and absolutely love it. If you’re looking for a great, black-owned company to support, I highly recommend Onabags.
• Remember the dalgona coffee craze? Well I found this article about 6 International coffee styles to try at home.

What I’m Reading:

• I am still reading Oona Out of Order – there was a big twist and now I’m super invested in the story line again. I cannot wait to finish this quirky book!

What I’m Watching:

• I need some recommendations here! I haven’t had a lot of down time to watch TV, so I’m not currently watching anything right now.

Personal Stories:

• My sister in law got Ben some butterflies (it’s called a butterfly garden and you grow butterflies and then set them free) and we released them. Ben said ‘bye bye butterflies ‘ and waved.

• We have been enjoying a lot of outside meals – I just scoot the twin’s high chairs outside and bring Ben out and eat (not the greatest pictures because everyone is squinting lol)!

• We’ve also been playing catch a lot – he’s really proud when he catches the ball.

• Whenever we take a walk outside, Ben wants to take a picture with the babies before we leave – happy to oblige.

• Are soft-soled baby shoes the cutest thing or what?

• Ben came in my office to “help” me work which turned into him watching 1 (ok, 3) educational shows and allowing me to work for another hour. I’ll take what I can get!

• Ben got a super cool drawing from his aunt and we all had breakfast together (keep in mind these breakfasts are at 6 am…the kids wake up at 5:30 at the latest).

• Frankie is teething – she is sprouting her upper teeth, 3-4 at a time! I’m constantly sharing this post with friends who are on baby #1 that is teething.

• One of Ben’s favorite things to do is run through the water that I spray out of the hose.

• We are just generally loving all of the outside time!

Did you know?

• You can add star ratings to recipes or leave comments on them. By doing this, it really helps the website rank better; meaning it will show up higher on Google searches, for example. By leaving comments and star ratings you are really helping with engagement and it’s so appreciated!

Popular This Week

• Most visited blog post: a perfect grilling post for bbq chicken seasoning mix
• Most liked Instagram post: this gallery of “school pictures” of the kids!
• Most pinned image: how to make a mimosa bar.
• Most viewed YouTube video: another strong week for one of my favorite dinners – chicken, potatoes and veggies!
• Most purchased item: Cool Nights sleep shirt dress from Soma – I own two of them and featured this in my latest Mom Essentials post.

How is your week going? How are you doing? Just leave a comment below and let me know.