fading green thumb

Yikes...so our thriving garden is suffering slightly. After thriving and providing us fresh veggies for several weeks, the green beans are now being eaten by bugs and the peas look to be dying. Also, I'm pretty sure we're incapable of growing bell peppers. We keep getting excited about tiny little peppers emerging from blossoms only to have them fall off the plant 2-3 days later. Then to top it all of, we found this nasty guy had eaten 1/3 of a tomato plant over night the other night...

Ugh. I'm not giving up, but I do have to say that my spirit is slightly broken. At least our zucchini and summer squash seem to be fruitful, but I did once hear that those veggies are idiot-proof...

no pageants in our near future...

Not until she perfects her make-up application, at least...

Oh, little girl...how you test me...

more time at the pool

Just wanted to share a few more pool pics from the past couple of weeks. I swear I won't post them EVERY time we go, but thought the fact that the kids and I appeared in a photo AT THE SAME TIME merited a post. Special thanks to our neighbor, Erin, who snapped these pics of us last week when she, Liz and teeny-tiny-water-baby Savanna joined us at the pool.

And since I know how hard it can be for a mama to actually appear in a photo with her baby, I grabbed one of Erin and Savanna on the occasion of Savanna's first outing to the pool!

At break time:

Sam going UNDER WATER! (That's the very top of his heading sticking out in the middle):
Grace swimming with teach:

Good times. This mama is thoroughly enjoying summer 2010 thus far...even if it has been as hot as the frickin' sun around here!

banana bread

We've been on a banana bread kick lately...I think because our bananas are ripening so quickly in this HEAT! This is another recipe I got from my friend, David, and thought I'd pass along...

INGREDIENTS*
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter or margarine (room temperature)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups very ripe bananas mashed up
2/3 cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add bananas and stir. Slowly combine with dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Line a 9 x 5 non-stick bread pan with parchment paper. Use enough parchment paper so that it hangs over the outside of the bread pan. This makes it really easy to remove the loaf and saves you from having to grease the pan. Fill pan with batter and bake for 50 minutes.

*I think this recipe would also be fabulous with some chopped walnuts added in, but sadly, due to nut allergies in this house, I've never tried it that way.

Enjoy! I also made some zucchini bread today and plan on making a ton more in the near future since the garden has several tiny zucchinis visible now. Watch for a post with that recipe in a few weeks. It was my great-aunt's recipe and is soooo good!

Relay for Life 2010

Team Sherwin-Williams did awesome this year raising over $10,000 for Relay for Life! The campaign wrapped for the year with the walk at the middle school in Richmond. We took the kids to show our support and participate in the fun activities for an excellent cause.

I did a couple of paintings for the silent auction for that night that I'm hoping added a little to the final total!

Before I left with the kids to meet Kris at the walk, I tried to explain to the kids what cancer was and why we wanted to raise money for Relay for Life. I tried to put it in kid terms that they would understand saying that cancer is a disease that makes people very very sick and we want to raise money so that scientists will be able to continue trying to find new medicines that will help the sick people. They had a few questions which I answered and we left to drive down to Richmond.

When we got there, we met Kris in the parking lot and Grace grabbed his hand and said, "Hurry up, Daddy! The disease is about to start!"

Oops...guess something was lost in translation there. We stopped and tried to explain it a little further. Then, as we were crossing the track to go to the Sherwin-Williams tent, Kris warned Sam to not kick over the luminaries that were lining the track. To which Sam responded, "yes, because they are full of diseases."

That's when Kris turned to me and said, "What the hell did you tell them?!"

So, I guess I failed at getting the meaning of the event across to the kids this year. I'll try again next year with them when they are a little older.

The meaning is certainly not lost with the two of us, though, as we walked in remembrance of so many family members and friends who have lost their battle and in honor of so many others who are battling now.

Like I said...fun event for a great cause. If you have a team in your area, please get involved!

life aquatic 2010

Sam and Grace wrapped up their 2-week swimming lesson session last Friday. They both did great this year! In the past, they've been pretty timid when it comes to the water, but Sam jumped right in at the very first lesson this time. And Grace slowly gained enough confidence over the two weeks that she was able to graduate to Level 2 for the next session! We expect them to both be stalled at Level 2 for awhile until they gain all the necessary skills to move up, but I'm pretty happy with how much they are developing their swimming abilities and their general confidence in the water.

And I'm loving that they don't fight me when I require them to practice what they've learned in the big pool before I let them loose in the kiddie area. We're getting there! We've had a perfect summer for pool visits so far...looking forward to many more before school starts back up.

a new version of an old classic...

Apparently, the song has moved west...and Susanna has officially changed her name. :)

Thankful Thursday

I'm taking a queue from Chrissi this week and mentioning a couple things I am VERY thankful for this week:

1. I'm so thankful that old friends, Jill and Mike (and little Lauren!) decided to stop and stay at our house this past Saturday as they were passing through the area on the way to MI. Having a chance to catch up was awesome. Seeing the footage of the tornadoes that touched down in lower MI and northern OH that night and realizing that they weren't driving right through the middle of that chaos because they decided to stop was even better.

2. I'm very thankful this week that DTE Energy and the threatening-to-strike union workers came to a tentative contract agreement. This released my dad from being stuck on DTE property for the next several weeks so that we can actually see him when we head to MI for a family visit in a few weeks.

Good week. :)

Gotta say...

...I'm diggin' the new sunglasses.

new additions!

I think I'm viewing our third nest of the season as a Divine test for Sam. Thankfully, he passed.

Several weeks ago, one mama robin built a nest up underneath the deck a few feet down from an old nest that had been up there abandoned for over a year. Sam, not fully understanding what that meant, felt that he would be doing us a favor by knocking that nest down since he had seen daddy knock down the beginnings of a nest once on the front porch right by the door. He didn't realize that since this new nest was fully finished, that there was a good chance that it contained eggs. After a sad cleanup and a tough explanation of what smashed eggs meant for the mama bird, Sam was a little down...and so was I.

On to nest number 2: the abandoned nest. Seriously, we hadn't seen a feathered soul near that thing in well over a year until I thought I saw one fly out of that area one morning. I neglected to mention it to the kids. So, while out playing about a week after the first smashing incident, Sam decided to check it out and pull it down with a sandbox toy while Katie was here. I arrived home from work just in time to hear Sam, hysterical on the back patio, trying to explain to Katie that he had no idea that there were eggs in there. Neither had the rest of us. I cried that day for the second mama and for my heart-broken baby boy.

At that point, Sam vowed to never touch a nest again. And I secretly thought that he probably wouldn't have the option again in our yard, because I was sure the robins were spreading the word around the neighborhood about the kid who destroys nests and smashes eggs. We also said that the new family rule was that no one was allowed to touch a nest (even the beginnings of a nest on the front porch right by the front door).

Fast forward another week. As I'm letting Molly out in the morning, a bird flies out from the rafters above our heads. I am amazed when I look up to see another nest in the same spot where the assumed abandoned nest had been. I quickly pointed it out to Sam and let him know that this was his chance to let the mama have her babies. And he did it! We have waited patiently and noticed these three adorable little additions poking their heads out of the nest the other day:

So, Sam redeemed himself. Now, we need to work on getting the dog to stop chasing Mama Bird while she is trying to feed these little cuties!

pretty girl

our first harvest!!

On Saturday, we harvested 16 pea pods and 13 green beans! We each had a taste, then Sam finished them off...something tells me that boy is going to be snacking really well this summer while he's playing in the yard. :)

remembered and loved

Today I'm remembering and celebrating the 30 years I was lucky enough to have with Diane. It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since we said goodbye. Well, kind of said goodbye. I mean...I'm pretty sure after that piece of Venetian glass she brought back from Italy for me years ago smashed to pieces earlier this year while Katie was dusting the dining room, I heard her voice quietly saying, "Hellooo-o...just making sure you're not forgetting about me." Then later, "Crap. Tell your nanny I'm sorry."

I still miss her tons, but now with a smile instead of a tear.

trying to see the light!

I recently painted our master bedroom and am finally starting to actually make it feel like part of our home and not just a white box where Kris and I go to sleep at night. We are making plans for a built-in shelving system in there and I have plans to clean up some of my furniture collection accumulating in the garage to place in there. And I've been trying to decide on lamps for our bedside tables. I'm pretty torn because, with our master bedroom, I really want to try and find a happy marriage between masculine and feminine as well as vintage and modern. I'm hoping Ashlie and Mandy can help me out on next week's Sister Sister feature with some suggestions. Right now, some of my favorites include:

Available at Crate & Barrel, here.

Available at Crate & Barrel, here.

Available at Crate & Barrel, here.

Available at Pottery Barn, here.

Available at Pottery Barn, here.

Let me know what you think!

Linking this post to:

Sister Sister Sunday

Little Miss Birthday

Well, the Birthday Diva finally wrapped up the weeks of celebrating turning 4 with her friend birthday party at Amerisports Gymnastics. And many of her school friends were thrilled to be reunited since they've already been on summer break for three weeks.

A good time was had by all. Now we're looking at a difficult few days (weeks) of convincing Grace that it is, in fact, NOT her birthday anymore. :)

local gem

On Wednesday of last week, we went for a stroll with Erin and baby Savanna at the Arboretum on the UK campus. It has beautiful gardens showcasing a large variety of flowers and plants along the small paths and also has a 2-mile paved path surrounding the grounds. They are currently working on a Children's Garden project that looks impressive on the signage so I'm sure it will be a must-see when it's finished. The only gripe I have about the whole place is that the bathrooms are only open until 4 p.m. forcing my daughter to make the decision between using a port-a-potty or "holding it" until we got home. She picked holding it "because that potty is gross". That's my girl. :)

guac!

So I'm almost a week late linking up to the Sister Sister post at Kuzak's Closet this week, but I won't let that stop me from sharing this recipe.

It has become one of my absolute favorites and we whip it up pretty much every time we have guests. Now that we are gardening fools, we are even making use of our own cilantro and soon will be able to use our own onions and tomatoes without having to head to the store.

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INGREDIENTS:
3 avocados
1 lime (juice)
1 plum tomato
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbs chopped white onion
1 tbs finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp (sea) salt

DIRECTIONS:
Pit, peel and mash the avocados in a bowl until they are chunky. Add the lime juice and salt. Chop the remaining ingredients one at a time and add. I prefer the garlic, onion and cilantro to be finely chopped. Dice the tomato and stir all ingredients together. Cover and put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

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I swiped this recipe from my friend, David, who occasionally decides to blog his favorite recipes...and he has some good ones! Check out his blog here. His banana bread is also a fan favorite in our house.

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