August 26th, 2010

The afternoon was spent in the garden harvesting and the girls playing.

I planted these cucumber seeds in June, thought they looked fun and we got our first one! 

A huge grasshopper the girls tormented for the afternoon trying to catch it and put it in a box filled with grass “for it to eat.” 

I had to go to Lauren’s school for curriculum night, so we ate early and I made Cooking Light’s Gnocchi with Shrimp, Asparagus, and Pesto.  It was good and I was able to use some of the basil my dad gave me from his garden.  My basil didn’t fare well this year.  I would recommend the dish, easy to put together and quite tasty!

August 24th, 2010

So I started potty training Sydney on Monday and it didn’t go too well.  Tuesday I implemented  a reward and it worked out pretty well.  At 1:30 pm right before naptime Sydney did what she needed to do to be able to go to Target and pick out a toy, so we loaded up in the car and headed to The Tar-jey. 

Sydney picked out a Disney Rapunzel Barbie and Lauren got to pick out a small toy too (wasn’t going to fight that battle), so she picked a small Rapunzel doll too.  That night we had Ryan and Kevin over for pizza night. 

When I was pregnant with Sydney, Trent and I went to NYC during late summer and went to Mario Batali’s restaurant Otto and fell in love with a pizza we had and I’ve been trying to re-create it.  It was a crispy dough with melted Buffalo Mozzarella cheese, prosciutto, and arugula.  So, so good!  I can’t get it quite right because the cheese is so watery it makes the crust not as crispy as it was at the restaurant.  That Mario has some trick up his orange crocs. 

I made another pizza with a Bolognese sauce and mozzarella, little more kid friendly.  I didn’t want to be that mom that announced pizza night and then served a pizza with a salad on top of it.  I also made a spinach salad with egg and bacon.

So it was a quite eventful day that started with all things potty and ended with all things pizza.  Interesting combination.

August 21st, 2010

It was all a whirlwind I should have seen coming.  Kirk and Sally came into town for the weekend.  They got to St. Louis on Friday afternoon and we had a great evening.  I made Panini's, salad, and french fries for dinner and we all had a fun evening of hanging out at the house.  The next morning I wanted to show Kirk a little corner garden I had next to our composters that I wanted to redo.  I wanted ideas on a nicer boarder than the old wire white fence I had.  I also wanted to pull up all the plants and redo it.  I did the garden the spring we moved into the house and didn’t realize it should have been a shade garden, so the plants weren’t too happy and the weeds happily took over.  A nice simple afternoon project outside is what I had in mind.  Then I asked the fatal words, “Kirk, what would you do?” 

  This is what he did (with much help from Trent and a little from me).  The garden was on the left corner, we are talking maybe 15 square feet.  Now it’s about 270 square feet and it’s pretty amazing.  It all happened so quickly I didn’t think to take a before picture.  I’m still mad at myself about that.  But I can’t wait to finish the drainage system and plant stuff!

We (meaning Trent) have to bury the drainage pipe for the rain off the roof.  Then dirt, then raking, then planting!

The girls kept finding caterpillars and were immersed into everything caterpillar for the afternoon.

I am really excited about the new garden and very thankful I have an energetic and all knowing father in law who likes to make our home and yard pretty and a mother in law who enjoys spending time with the girls while Kirk’s vision is becoming reality. 

Kirk and Sally left on Monday early afternoon and I spend the rest of the afternoon raking, admiring, and mentally planning the garden….then the back pains from the weekend’s antics started, but it was beyond worth it.

 

August 17th, 2010

School has started and life became a little crazy, mostly good crazy, but crazy nonetheless.  On Tuesday, August 17th Lauren started Kindergarten and rode a school bus for the first time.  I think the whole school bus factor is pretty fancy considering I never got to ride one except the marginal ones on field trips.  In grade school, high school, and college my school bus was my shoe leather (and I can’t wait to tell this to the girls when they start asking for a car, I’m totally going to be that parent with the back in the day stories of whoa). Sydney also started her preschool career in the Pony Room.  I was by far more nervous and anxious than the girls.  They were downright excited.

First day of school is successfully done!

August 16th, 2010

I have been dreading this day for over 2 months.  The last day before school started.  It has been a fantastic and frustrating summer.  It is the summer of loving having a vegetable garden, the summer of the disturbing BP oil spill, the summer of the girls becoming obsessed with the Ryan Seacrest show on the radio and all the top 40 songs, the summer Mel Gibson’s phone conversation skills went public, the summer Lauren learned to swim and Sydney discovered her love for the pool, the summer I got into following celebs on Twitter, the summer Sally went to the Mayo clinic, the summer we took Lauren to see Wicked at the Fox and she became slightly obsessed, the summer Elson went blind, and the summer I wanted to freeze in time because I was having so much fun with the girls right at the age they are now.  This summer the girls and I squandered much time playing in the garden and swimming at the pool and it felt great.  So the last day of our lazy days of summer we did just that.

  

We discovered a huge zucchini in the garden.  We had no idea it was there growing! It was our first zucchini, so we were excited.

We went to the pool and it just happened Lauren’s friend Madeline, her mom, and sister that is Sydney’s age were there too.  We all hung out together at the pool for the afternoon.  We even stayed later than normal, not getting home until 3, but it was worth it.

For dinner I made a mushroom risotto, but used an Italian grain called Farro instead of Arborio rice.  I also made a salad with a red pepper from our garden. So it was a great ending to my favorite time of the year.

August 14th, 2010

Family Movie night!

I made Trent and the girls popcorn and we rented Toy Story, none of us had seen it yet.  It was time.

My plan was to make dinner while Trent and the girls watched the movie, but I got sucked in and we ordered Chinese food.  It was quite a relaxing night indeed! 

August 13th, 2010

Cooking Light’s Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Their picture, not mine.  Mine looked no where this picturesque. But it did taste pretty good and I was able to use the 3 yellow squash I picked out of the garden.  After dinner was the girl’s summer dance recital.  I wish I knew how to post videos on the blog, but our video camera isn’t a digital one, it uses little tapes and I feel it would be alot of unnecessary learning to figure that out.  But I do know how to post pictures of my little ballerinas!

August 12th, 2010

Yellow eggplant!  I roasted them and make them into a baba ganoush, basically a hummus type spread out of eggplant.  I put it on some italian bread.  I then made some Israeli Cous Cous and tossed it with roasted zucchini, chives, toasted walnuts, and topped with some feta cheese.

Lauren had her open house night at 5 pm where she met her teacher, discovered where her cubby and desk were in the classroom, dropped off her school supplies, and an ice cream social and then the girls had to be at dance class at 6:30 at the Y followed by their bedtime showers there.  So the girls and I ate beforehand and headed out for our night of festivities.  By the end of the evening I was one tuckered mom ready for the couch and Bravo shows.

August 8th, 2010

Steimel and Amy are in St. Louis for the week and he organized a little get together at Imo’s in Webster, where Steimel and I used to work back in the day….waaaaaaay back in the day.

It had been a long time since I ordered a pitcher of beer, but it was alot like riding a bicycle.

August 7th, 2010

It was the much anticipated Top Chef party at Julie and Ben’s.  There were 12 of us ready for the fun.  First round was a 5 ingredient only challenge and the second round was Mexican.  Each round had 30 minutes (and a little wiggle room).  Ben and Kevin were the victorious team round 1 with a rice and goat cheese dish topped with grilled onions, tomatoes, and peppers.  Ryan and Dan were the round 2 winners with a chorizo quesadilla.  Jackie and I were a team in round one and we made a chicken and gouda pizza topped with peaches.  I know, it sounds random, but it kinda sorta worked.  We picked last for our ingredients and had to go with plan C.  It was a really fun night with lots of great food.  Here’s some pictures of the people and the food they made.

   Waiting for Margaret and Dan to arrive, so opened some wine!

Round 1 begins!

Cesare cooking it up Round 2 style

Trent manning the grill for his team.

Trent and Maggie’s chicken burritos.

Margaret and Cesare’s food art. 

Love Top Chef night!

August 6th, 2010

So the girls and I wanted to harvest some tomatoes from our garden and give them to our neighbors.  As I reached my hand into one of the bushes I freaked out and did a crazy girlie scream complete with a random freak out dance.

There guarding my tomatoes is a crazy mean looking spider.  I really hate spiders (and I wanted to use a word besides “really", one that begins with an f).  So for a day and a half the girls and I would go back out to the garden to see if it was still there.  Sydney called the spider “spiderman".”  I was glad to see it was still there because I didn’t want the idea it moved somewhere else and I didn’t know where it was residing.  Trent hates spiders too, but decided to take matters in his own hands.

 

Literally.  Sigh of relief that sucker is gone to visit his spider elders in spider heaven.  Brownie points for Trent big time!

After the murder, we ate Cooking Light’s Spinach, Green Onion, and Smoked Gouda Quiche.  I love an excuse to eat pie for dinner.