A Morning With Some Friends

Yesterday morning we met with some friends to stroll the boardwalk and hang out.  4 moms, 3 babies, and 5 toddlers - quite a feat!  But everyone had lots of fun.

Simone, Aiden, Tristan and Zach

Getting them all to smile for the camera at the same time is an impossible task!

Little Miss Austyn

Finn finally gets to walk with the big kids for a bit

Cutie Pie Kiera

Tackle soccer

Rolling down the hill!

The only one missing from the pics is Isabelle.  We'll get you next time baby girl!

Great time with friends!


Things I Love

It's the little things, you know?

Like sometimes I will watch F as he wanders around the house.  I get down to the floor and call his name.  He looks over at me and his whole face lights up, then he bolts over as fast as his little legs will go and flies into my arms for a hug.  He has always done this, from the moment he could toddle around.  And he still does it.  I love it.  Love love love it.  It's one of my favorite things in the whole entire world.

Something from T as well.  At bedtime now he much prefers Daddy puts him to bed.  We go up together, but when it comes time to sing songs he usually tells me "Just go, Mommy".  I could take offense to this, but I don't.  I know he just wants to spend some special time with Daddy.  Also, what sweetens the deal is the super wonderful hug and a kiss I get from him before going, followed by "I love you Mommy, sweet dreams".

Ahhhhhh.

(And a totally non-kid related thing that I love - writing a blog post and then clicking the spell check, and nothing comes up as mis-spelled.  I've always had a damn good knack for spelling!)

Birthday, What Birthday?

It's September.  The 7th to be exact (and a very Happy 29th Birthday to my love, Tyler!  Enjoy this last year of your 20's my dear).  Which means the unthinkable is coming up in a few weeks.

I am turning 30.

Why does this bother me so?  Sigh, there is something about leaving your 20's behind and sliding that hideous '3' in front.  I wonder if 40 feels this weird.  I doubt it.  At 30 I'm just not quite ready to let go of the '2'....  I liked my 20's, they were where it was at.

SO, what is going on for this momentous birthday?  Well, last year I half-joked to Tyler that there had better be a HUGE surprise party for me.  Will that happen?  Not likely.  I love the guy, but I don't think he's much of a party planner.  Recently he had let me know that he would be going away on a fishing weekend the weekend of my birthday, making me realize he really hadn't thought about it at all.  I called him out on it and he assured me that there were big plans.  He just hadn't thought about which weekend to do it on.  I'm not 100% sure I believed him but I am trying to have some faith that he has put a little thought into it.

My new friends here have been asking me what I wanted to do for my BIG 30th and have set the ball rolling for a fun girl's night out.  I'm floored really.  I don't think ever I've had a friend really plan something for any of my birthdays.  Usually I had to plan my own birthdays and invite them, instead of the other way around.  But my friend C has insisted that this is a big one, and we must do something.  I'm so grateful to have met these ladies.  Not sure exactly what we are going to do yet, but it sounds like it has something to do with bars, alcohol, music, and dancing.  We just have to make sure we all take a nap that day so we make it past 11pm!

Ok, I am trying to feel less down and more excited about the prospect of turning 30.  I'm going to embrace my 30's and everything they have to offer.  Afterall, as much as my 20's rocked, right now is the best time of my life and I can only assume it will get better from here on in.  Older, maybe.  Wiser, most definitely!  Still cute and capable of having fun?  I hope so!

End of the Week Chicken Soup

Lately what we have started doing is making a crock pot chicken soup on Fridays.  We often pick up a whole chicken that we can make several meals out of, and so we save the leftovers for the soup.  Saturdays is when we go to the Farmer's Market and grocery store to pick up more food for the week, so making a soup on Friday helps us clear out whatever is left in the fridge that might not last much longer.  It helps ensure we are not wasting food while making a super yummy and healthy meal (or two!) at the same time.

This week's soup ingredients:

leftovers from two chickens, including bones

carrots, potatoes, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, peas, green beans, spinach, bean sprouts

seasonings (dried herbs, onion powder, bay leaves, salt and pepper)

organic chicken broth and water

wild rice

I threw the chicken, veggies and seasonings in the pot the night before.  At lunchtime today I added the broth and water and turned it on high.  An hour before dinnertime I removed the chicken and took the meat off, then added it back into the pot.  Cooked and added the rice.  Super easy, super yummy.

Our soup needed something to go with it, so I raided the fridge once again for stuff and came up with a fresh summery salad consisting of tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, green peppers, and yellow beans, tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette.

Quickly whipped up some homemade whole wheat biscuits, and voila!

There were 11 different veggies in this meal.  (well, 12 if you let me count green and yellow beans as two!).  This is such a great way to use up veggies that are looking a little wilty.  Another thing we like to do with these veggies at the end of the week is to use them to make our own vegetable broth.  Just another way to make sure we're not wasting anything.

The very definition of comfort food I think.  I hope my boys grow up thinking "Mom's cooking is the best!"

California Spring Salad

Thursday night's dinner was inspired by the salad of the same name from Milestone's.  I used to work there and it was probably one of my favorite dishes.  So I decided to try and recreate something similar for chicken salad night.

Ingredients

sliced chicken breast
organic field greens and herbs
organic strawberries, sliced
red onions, thinly sliced
maple glazed pecans (easy to make, just toss in maple syrup and a bit of melted butter and toast in the oven)
honey balsamic vinaigrette
goat cheese

Toss all the ingredients with the vinaigrette and top with goat cheese.  So easy, and so yummy!!

How is it THAT time already?

SERIOUSLY???

My baby is starting school!  Ok, technically today was just orientation.  But it certainly felt like the first day of school.  Last night I put together a change of clothes to bring with us, and labelled all his stuff.

Check out these super cute labels with our name on them that I got from Mabel's Labels. 

It's all so unreal.  I can't believe that he will be starting school soon.  Here he is ready to go in his new (and slightly too big but still super cute!) rain jacket.

The orientation was really great.  T got a chance to meet his teachers again, and have a look around the classroom.  He was very curious and inquisitive right away, wanting to check everything out.  They showed him where his coat hanger with his name on it was and how to hang up his coat.  Then they gave him a tour of all the facilities.  F and I waited in the hall so that we wouldn't distract them.  He got to look at all the different learning materials, and the teachers got to see what kinds of things interested him.

His start day is in exactly two weeks.  So we're going to have to cram in all sorts of fun stuff before then because I know I will miss him when he's gone!

But he of course, is going to love going to school.

Newborn Tristan Pictures

I just remembered that I meant to add some pics of my Big Guy when he was just a wee little man. 

Precious!