Small Style

I am so excited to link up with Morgan at Mama Loves Papa for Small Style! I've missed it the last couple of months, but I managed to get some pictures of a few of the kids' outfits this week.

I am loving one-piece outfits for Liam this summer.  I think he looks plain adorable in them.  I love his little legs!  Both of these rompers are from Carters.  His sandals are from Target.

Magdalena has been dressing very casually lately.  She is very insistent that her clothes are loose and comfortable. 

Her T-shirt and plaid shorts are from Old Navy, and her skirt was a gift.

Wordless Wednesday

Curry Cheese Toasts

I have been eating these curry cheese toasts all my life.  My dad ate them all his life, too.  They are a family favorite and my mom almost refused to let me share this recipe. They are seriously addicting and I have never had anything that really tastes similar. We celebrated my dad's 62nd birthday last weekend, and these toasts were one of the "vintage recipes" I made for him. 

You'll need a loaf of sliced, sweet french bread.  I cut the slices in half this time, but we often serve them in bite size portions, more like sandwich bread cut in quarters.  We also sometimes use those tiny mini-loaves of bread and that makes the toasts a little more festive.

You also need:

Grated cheddar cheese (about 2 cups)

1 can diced black olives

1 bunch chopped green onions

About 1 cup of mayonaise (I used 1/2 cup of light mayo and 1/2 cup of light sour cream this time and it was great!)

Curry powder to taste (I used about 2 tablespoons)

Stir everything together until it makes a very thick paste.

It might not look like it, but it's even good cold. Yum!

Toast one side of the bread under the broiler for a few minutes, until golden brown.

Turn over the toast, spread the mixture fairly thickly over the bread (see the picture above) and then toast  under the broiler.  Make sure to really keep an eye on it, broilers can burn things quickly!

Let them cool off for a few minutes (you'll thank me for this!) and then enjoy.

Wouldn't these be great for a retro cocktail party?  I think they would be the perfect appetizer to a 50's style party, especially on mini slices of bread.  They're also perfect for weekend afternoons, when everyone needs a snack! 

Do you think you might try them?

My Water Baby

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend, we sure did! It was my dad's birthday, so we had a dinner for him last night.  I cooked some of his favorite dishes that his mom used to make him in the, and I'm going to share the pictures and recipes with you during the upcoming week.  They would perfect for a 50's or 60's themed cocktail party!  Check back tomorrow for a recipe for one of our family favorites- Curry Cheese Toast!

But, for today, here's some pictures from this weekend of my water baby in action.  Magdalena has always loved the water, and been totally fearless. She can now swim with her face underwater, for almost the length of the pool.   Most of the time she wears this swimsuit/life jacket thing that she absolutely loves.  She does awesome in it and swims for hours.  At the end, we take it off and she practices swimming on her own.

 She's been plugging her nose lately when she jumps in.  I'm pretty sure she saw it in a book or in a cartoon!

Splash!

She loves to get thrown in the air by her daddy!

Liam usually prefers hanging out with someone else poolside.  He does get in sometimes, but he is very cautious about the water.  I love seeing how unique and different my kids are!

Snapshot Saturday- A Boy And His Bee

 

Liam is in love.  He is a very exclusive relationship with his Pillowpet, whom we call "Busy Bee". (Ever seen Best in Show?  'Cause that's where we got the name!)  He sleeps with Busy Bee, plays with Busy Bee and always dives on top of him with a squeal of delight. He even has a mini Bee Pillowpet now, which you can barely see in his other hand.  So, now he tries to carry two bees everywhere.

I love these pictures I snapped of him with his best friend.  He even had a bee pacifier that day. Perfect!

I am linking up with Kim at Yellow Songbird for Snapshot Saturday.

Friday Favorites- Our Favorite Meal

Remember, like months ago, when I started doing "Friday Favorites"?  I loved it, even though I only did a few posts.  Well, I'm bringing it back, starting today! 

Like most parents, I feel like I am always in the kitchen. Between cooking, clean up and washing up, I spend hours every day feeding my family.  So, about once a week, I make it easy on myself and we make homemade pizza.  It's super easy, pretty inexpensive and everyone loves it.  I would definitely say that Homemade Pizza is our favorite meal.

I start off with lots of different veggies.  Last night, we had mushrooms, olives, chopped onions, orange and yellow peppers, zuchinni, pineapple, asparagus, fresh tomatoes and spinach. 

We also used mozzarella, pre-made pizza sauce, wheat dough from trader Joe's, pepperoni and Canadian bacon.

Magdalena likes to make her pizza in special shapes- her and Liam's are triangles and mine is a moon.  I used to work at a pizza place, and we always put the spinach under the cheese.  It keeps it moist and basically becomes part of the sauce- try it!

Mark being silly with his creation. He made an extra large crust, which he then stuffed with sauce and cheese, and folded over.

I'm pretty sure every kid loves making their own pizza!

Here's another pizza trick I learned- for veggie or gourmet pizzas, creamy salad dressing work great.  All those white sauces that you get from restaurants- basically ranch dressing.  Trust me.  We used a creamy Caesar on our veggie pizza.

Tons of veggies on this one!  It was delicious!

After about 15 minutes of cooking, we had tons of delicious pizza to share with other family members that we were spending the evening with.

Here's our finished products:

What is your family's favorite meal?

I love Summer BBQ's!

 
Do you love how easy BBQing is?  For Father's Day, we had Tri-Tip, grilled asparagus, fresh fruit salad, baked beans, salad and garlic bread.  It was de-licious!  I think I'm going to BBQ again this weekend!

Enloe Hospital Family Picnic

My mother-in-law is a charge nurse at the local hospital.  Every year, they put on a family picnic for all the employees and their families.  We have gone before, but it was awesome to bring both of the kids this time.  We went last Friday, and we had a blast.  There was a bouncy house, games, a clown making balloon animals, face painters, snow cones, popcorn, a huge BBQ, Bingo, a playground...just tons of stuff! It was pirate themed and the kids loved it.  We will definitely be going next year!

Surviving My High School Reunion



Mid-Robot with my Hubby



Well, I survived!  The reunion was hectic and crazy and definitely a blast from the past.  I had a great time hanging out with my friends and I loved seeing some of my good friends that I haven't seen for a while.  I had helped plan the reunion, but in the end, I didn't do too much.  There was some really weird tension between me and the girl running the reunion, which led to a bit of drama. And I am drama free at this point in my life, so I was really over it. It was SO HIGH SCHOOL!  Sigh.

I really didn't talk to too many people, to be honest.  I hung out with like five different people, and said hi to a lot.  But, basically everyone hung out with the people they are still friends with.  There was definitely an overwhelming amount of people from the same group or clique in high school. I think the high ticket price made it impossible for a lot of people to attend, unfortunately.  Even most of my friends from high school that live locally chose not to come.

I'll be honest.  I drank a lot.  I was nervous and felt out of place.  I didn't eat more than a few bites.  I was running around trying to clean up and worrying about getting everything shut down and put away after the party.  I felt bad that someone was upset with me (apparently I hurt her feeling when I couldn't be as involved as I said I would be. She didn't even include me or my dear friend when publicly acknowledging who helped out. It was an obvious snub that left a lot of people confused.  I was annoyed but too embarrassed to say anything about it, my friend was hurt for me, talked to her about it, and then she talked to me.)  I feel bad about letting her down and not being able to keep my commitment, but I still helped throughout the last year.  Anyway, moving on. 

The after party at a club (The Bear for you locals) was the real fun for me. After I finished cleaning up. I walked outside and one of my guy friends from high school was waiting with a taxi van.  "Get it the van!  Get in the van!" he yelled at us.  So, we got in the van with our good friends and after that, the craziness began.  Our friend, who I call Elvis, let us in an epic night.  He stopped at the bank, took out an insane (and I mean insane) amount of cash, and then led us to the club. Two of my friends who weren't at the reunion joined us then, and they got caught up in the whirlwind of excitement. Elvis bought shots, drinks, and insisted everyone had an awesome time. The dance party seriously began when we walked through the door. It was crazy.

Me and my bestie, Allie.  We met on the school bus when we were 13!

Everyone from the reunion was there, and we took over the entire dance floor. We danced for the next two hours, until we were once again ordered, "Get in the van!" Five people came with us to our house for the after-after party and we finally said goodbye to everyone around four in the morning.  We had two people crash at our house, including Elvis.  He woke us up at nine AM, by turning on our bedroom light and tickling our feet.  He wanted to keep going by everyone going to breakfast, but I had to convince him that no, we don't do this often and yes, we wanted to sleep more.

I drank about a gallon of water and ten Gatorades yesterday.  I had a hangover, but I was mostly just exhausted.  I lost FIVE pounds on Saturday, from the activity, being too nervous to eat, dancing for hours, and the God-awful stress.



Some of my best friends are in this picture!  If you look closely, can see I am rocking it out in the middle of the dance circle.  LOL



Overall, it was awesome.  I loved being with my friends from high school, and letting loose for just one night.  I let myself be taken on a crazy adventure, and I'm happy I could just stop worrying.  I wish that more of my friends attended, because I somehow still felt out of place. No, I will never again volunteer to help with something like this, but I will definitely attend the next one.

Here is an honest portrait of someone halfway through an epic night with their high school class. Don't laugh too hard, okay? My hair started off down but I was dripping with sweat and had it put it up.

Picture credit (except for the above sweaty picture) goes to my friend Brenda Hallett.  She did an awesome job documenting the night!

The Night Before My Ten Year High School Reunion

Today I spent my time much like I did ten years ago before a big high school dance.  My mom took me out to lunch and then bought me a dress, shoes and accessories. It was a belated birthday present and we had an awesome afternoon. But, this time, ten years have passed and I am braving my high school reunion tomorrow night.

I was part of the planning committee for the reunion, but I am still nervous.  I am excited to hang out with some people that I still consider very close friends, and I am nervous to see people that I haven't spoken with in ten whole years.

Mark and I graduated from the same class in high school, so we will both know people.  I love that even though we didn't know each other in high school, we ended up meeting three years after we graduated.  I am so happy that we don't have to drag each other to separate reunions.

I'm spending the afternoon before the reunion getting ready and hanging out with one of my best friends, Alli.  I anticipate pedicures, movies, gossip and at least one strawberry margarita.  It's definitely a great recipe for settling my nerves!

On Sunday, I'll let you know how it went! I expect it to go great, and I have a smokin' new outfit to give me a dose of courage!  Wish me luck!

Parent's Choice Infant Formula Savings

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of PBM Products for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

As a full-time college student, I understand all too well how expensive college can be.  As a mom, I understand the need to start a savings plan for my own children to be able to pursue their educational goals.  Sometimes, that money is hard to come by, and as of right now, my kids have no college savings plan. Honestly, it's hard enough to pay for my own education right now.  Do you have a college savings plan for your child?

If, like me, the answer is no, here is a Sweepstakes that you NEED to enter! 

How amazing would it be to win a $10,000 college scholarship for your child? The folks at Parent's Choice Infant Formula have launched a Sweepstakes that will provide one lucky winner with just that; a $10,000 college scholarship in the form of a college Savings 529 Plan.  Umm, a chance to win $10,000 for college just for filling out a simple form?  Sounds like it's my kind of sweepstakes!

More information, rules, and an entry form is available at Parent’s Choice Infant Formula Savings Sweepstakes. 

The Parent's Choice Infant Formula Sweepstakes was launched June 15th , and will run through 11:59 p. m. on August 1, 2011.

Parent's Choice Infant formula is Walmart's private brand formula and is available exclusively at Walmart locations nationwide and online at http://www.walmart.com

Liam At 18 Months

Liam is 18 months old today! I'm kind of in shock that a year and a half has gone by since I gave birth to this amazing, adorable boy.  He is loving summer and all the playing outside and in the water.  He doesn't like actually getting in the pool (unlike his sister who had no fear and was a complete water baby from day one) but he loves playing with water.  He's the kind of guy that would rather spend an hour watering the plants around the pool instead of actually getting in.

Dear Liam,

You are such a gift to me and our family.  You have my heart in a way that I never imagined possible.  I am so proud of you.  You are absolutely adorable and you makes admirers wherever we go.  You are sweet and loving and so uniquely you!

You run all day long, and I have never seen you watch TV for more than 30 seconds at a time.  You are always on the move!  You are great at eating with your fork or spoon and you love food!  Yesterday you ate two lunches and two dinners, and you will eat almost anything.  Despite your constant eating, you are a slim guy!  We call you our pocket baby because you are still wearing size 12 month clothes in a lot of cases.  You are tall, but 18 month clothes literally fall off of you sometimes.

You are a great brother!  You love your sister so much, and you always want to be with her.  You and Maggie are starting to play together and it warms my heart.  You love being with your Grandmas and your aunts and uncles and cousins. 

Right now, you are obsessed with "Busy Bee" and your blanket.  But, especially Busy Bee.  (Busy Bee is his Pillow Pet shaped liked a bee that he has slept with for the last year).  You take Busy Bee everywhere and hug and kiss it all day long.  You laugh out loud and dive on top of it every time you see it, even if it's the 20th time you've seen Busy Bee that day.

You are a character and you love entertaining people and being silly.  You have expressions that I have never seen another baby do, and you love making people laugh.  You rarely ever cry or have tantrums.  You are most happy with your family, on an adventure somewhere in town.  You are so easy going, funny and loving.

You're just really starting to talk (after you said "Christmas Tree" all the time as your first word way back in December, you entered an almost six month long phase of non talking).  You repeat anything back that we ask you to say, but you have your handful of words that you use on a daily basis.

Loving you and being your mommy is such an easy, natural thing for me.  You reward me with snuggles and giggles and you laugh all the time.  I am so blessed by your presence and your influence on my life.  You helped to heal my hurting heart and to show me that even in the darkest hour, there is hope for something better than you could ever imagine.

Liam, I love you. These past 18 months, as we have become a family of four, has been the biggest adventure of my life.  I can't wait to see what new adventures await us. 

Lawnmower Rides

 I used to love riding on the riding lawnmower with my Dad. I have such detailed memories from those times.  It was noisy, and smelled like dust.  It was also hot in the 100 degree summer weather, and you would start instantly sweating. My dad would always pluck his protective headphones on my head, and they were always too big.  He would let me drive, and like my own daughter, I would always ask to go faster.

  When I got older (but really not old at all), I started mowing the lawn myself.  It was the one chore I didn't mind.  I can just imagine Maggie in 10 years being the same way.  The kids loved their first ride, even though it was short. I forgot how LOUD lawnmowers are...must get ear protection next time!

Great Suggestion!

Old Navy Friends

Maggie loves the Mannequin display at Old Navy.  She always gives them hugs and loves to pet the Old Navy dog.  I love how kids find a little magic in every place, it makes life so much more exciting!

Baby Squirrel

My mom went to my sister's house last weekend to watch my nephew while my sister and her husband enjoyed a day and night in San Francisco.  That meant that we had to house sit for her and take care of her many animals.  She is quite the animal rescuer (anyone have the Diego theme song stuck in their head?!) and is raising a wild Magpie that fell out of the nest. That Magpie is about to be released after about 6 weeks of care. She also has dogs, a cat, birds, chickens, goats, an African Grey parrot...and now a squirrel.

She found a tiny baby squirrel underneath a huge pine tree she has in her yard.  Lying next to it was one of its siblings that didn't survive the long fall.  It was about a week younger than these pictures show, and it still hasn't opened its eyes.  She feeds it puppy formula with a tiny bottle every two hours.  So, when she was gone, that meant we fed it every two hours.  Good thing I love squirrels!

It's so tiny and gets gold easily, so I didn't want to take too many pictures.  Mark fell in love with this baby squirrel and I would catch him swaying back and forth with it in his arms, like a human baby.  Just another reason I love him so much!

Trust me, the squirrel has a head, despite appearances.