Our weekend!

This weekend was fun, fun, fun!  Since it was a holiday weekend I wanted us to relax and have a good time. 
Friday night after school Brock had his last 8th grade baseball game :(  Graig was at home cleaning up our yard from the storm so Ava and I went to watch.It was a good game and they won!  Their team went 9-0 this season!

Saturday Ava and I and some other friends went to yard sales fro 7:30-2:30pm!  We had such a good time and I got some great things that I'll show later in the week. 

Sunday we went to a Memorial Day party at a co-workers house.  I didn't bring my camera but I wish I did it was a great party!  Our co-worker Karen has the perfect house and yard for an outside party and Ava LOVED swimming!  Sunday evening I took Brock and Ava to a festival and they rode rides for 3 hours straight!  I wanted it to be a family night so I told them they couldn't invite friends.  We ate our weight in cotton candy, kettle corn and taffy. (all of my favorite fair foods!)

They went on this slide about 5 times. 

Doesn't Brock look thrilled!

Today we went to a lake and spent the afternoon in the sun!  It was fun but the water was SO cold!  Brock and I only got in up to our knees but Ava was brave and had a great time in the chilly water!  Brock took his friend George and they were most excited about the snack bar at the lake-ha ha!

I love this picture!  He's finally smiling!

Brock and George

Tonight we got Brook's Chicken and ate dinner as a family. I ate WAY too much!  Brock also played wiffleball and Ava had dance practice.  I cleaned up the house and got  stuff ready for our work and school week. Wednesday night we have High School Orientation Night for Brock.  I can't believe he is going to be in high school in the fall!

Bad Storms

Last night at a little before 10pm we had a REALLY bad thunderstorm.  Graig had just fallen asleep and I was upstairs looking at the weather map on my phone, I knew from the weather map on my phone that the storm was coming toward our town.  All of a sudden the wind started blowing really hard and I told Graig that we needed to go downstairs. There was a lot of thunder, lightening and, of course, rain but the absolute worst part of the storm was the wind.  We had 3 big trees that were blown over. 
This one near our driveway we saw last night.  I loved this tree :( 

When we woke up this morning we  saw that we had two large trees down in our backyard.  These trees were HUGE, I can't believe they were blown over in the storm.  They damaged the fences but I am SO thankful they didn't hit our house or our neighbor's house.

I am also thankful this big tree (I call her Big Bertha) didn't blow down!

A utility pole down the street from us blew over and caught on fire.We watched the fire trucks, police cars and electric company trucks who came to put out the fire.    We lost power all night.  I am SO thankful it's back on this morning. The road is blocked off where the pole is down. 

  
This morning Graig found our neighbor's shutter in our yard and the big plastic lid to the bin that Brock's paper route papers are put in was found in our neighbor's yard.

Today we are calling our insurance company and Graig and his brother are going to start cleaning up our yard.  I'm going to Brock's last middle school baseball game I can't believe his season is already over!

My summer favorites!

Summer is my absolute favorite time of year! I LOVE hot weather, cookouts, swimming and just being outside in the sunshine.  Today I'm going to talk about all of my favorite summer things!  Even though Brock and Ava have school until the end of June I feel like summer started last Saturday when the College I work for had it's graduation.  With the students gone I feel like I have more time to relax and work on projects that I don't have time to do during the school year.

These are my 10 summer favorites listed in no particular order

1.  Orange Julius/Peanut Buster Parfait-we pass by the Dairy Queen every.single.day. and Brock and Ava ALWAYS want to stop.  I try to limit it to once a week-ha ha! My favorite things to get are an Orange Julius or a Peanut Buster Parfait.  This year I am proud to say that I've only had one Peanut Buster Parfait so far!  They are SO good but SO fattening. My friend Sabrina from Poppies and Pinwheels craved them when she was pregnant so being a good friend I would always get them with her!  We ate way too many PBP's that year! My Dad would  buy my sister Shelby and I an Orange Julius every time we would go to the mall so when I get one they make me think of him :)

2. Essie Chinchilly nail polish-I LOVE this color!  I got a pedi last week and brought my own bottle of chinchilly nail polish for my feet.  My friend (and nail polish expert) Allison got me hooked on this color.  I think this will be my go to nail polish all summer.  I always get compliments when I wear it and now Essie is sold at our Wal-Mart! 

3. Tomatoes-I love summer tomatoes!  I planted two kinds of summer tomatoes in our garden and my sweet neighbor bought me a patio tomato plant so hopefully we will have a lot of tomatoes around our house this summer.  I love making BLT's and brushetta and Ava loves eating them straight off the vine like an apple!

4.  Organization-I love when things are organized so I am trying to spend 15 minutes each day organizing all of our closets, cabinets, and basement.  I recently found this organizing blog and I am SO jealous of how she has everything in her house organized.  She is such an inspiration, I want my house to be that organized!  Sabrina had a thirty one gifts party last night and they have amazing organizational accessories.  I bought this tote (with a monogram in the mod polkadot design) last night and I can't wait to get it!

5.  Flowers-I love planting summer flowers!  I started buying our flowers last weekend.  I have a few flowerbeds, pots and flower boxes so I try to do one area at a time so I don't get overwhelmed.  My favorite flowers are zinnias.  I already bought two big pots of them. 

6.  Fireworks- We have a baseball camp right by our house and every Thursday night in the summer they have fireworks.  We always go to the golf course behind our house and watch the fireworks with our friends and neighbors.  It's a fun summer tradition for us!

7.  Baseball-As usual we are going to be going to a lot of baseball games this summer.  Brock is playing and Graig is coaching so Ava and I will be watching a lot of baseball!  I can't believe he is going to be a FRESHMAN next year! 

8.  Moisturizer-Every day I use Oil of Olay SPF 30 on my face.  I have very dry skin and this helps.  I hope the SPF prevents wrinkles-ha ha!

9.  Ainsley-I can't wait to visit my precious niece Ainsley this summer!  She lives too far away from us.  Thankfully I get to see pictures of her every day on my sister's blog.  She is getting SO big and she is the spitting image of my sister! 

10.  Yard Sales-I LOVE going to yard sales every Saturday morning with Allison and Sabrina!  We always find the best stuff and have a great time!  I always look for small furniture to paint, milk glass, old jars and picture frames.  We usually get breakfast or lunch  and then get together again later on Saturday afternoon to fix up and paint the stuff that we found earlier in the day at the sales!

 

Whew that was a looong list!  If you are still reading-thank you!  As you can see I love summer and I am so happy that it's starting!  What are your favorite things about summer?

Tuesday, Tuesday!

This afternoon I got a text from my friend Sabrina.  She said "I want to start a blog will you help me?" I was SO excited!  I have been trying her to start a blog for years.  She is so creative and is always coming up with cute  ideas for projects and crafts.  Her blog is called Poppies and Pinwheels.  Here is the link.  Last night she came over along  with Allison and we worked on her blog.

Here is Sabrina hard at work on her new blog.

Ava hung out with Eliza.  Ava LOVES playing with Eliza!

We also did a quick craft project for me...this is still a work in progress. Sunday Allison and I went to our favorite junk store and we bought these cake tins.  Allison saw this idea on the Crafting Chicks blog.  I also saw this in the Pottery Barn catalog.  It's a tiered stand.  We just glued it together last night.  I need to figure out what I'm going to put in it!

Today I'm at home with Ava she isn't feeling well. I think it might be allergies.  Poor thing she is STILL sleeping!   This afternoon Brock has a baseball game and I am hoping to get out of the house to get some flowers!  Have a good Tuesday.

Best main dish ever!

Today Kelly's Korner is hosting Main Dishes on Show Us Your Life.

 I am dying for new recipes!  I feel like we eat the same things over and over every week.  This recipe is Graig's absolute favorite dinner and Brock and Ava like it too so in the winter I try to make it every week. Graig and Brock are VERY picky eaters.  They only eat about 6 different things each so I'm glad they like this recipe.  I got it from the a Taste of Home cookbook.    It's called Crescent Chicken Casserole. 

(picture from Taste of Home)

Crescent Chicken Casserole

2-3 cooked chicken breasts ( I usually cook mine the night before)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup milk

1 can corn

1 can green beans

1 can cream of potato soup

salt and pepper to taste

1 tube of crescent rolls

Mix the above ingredients all together and cook for 20 minutes in a 13x9 pan, roll out crescent rolls  and place on top of the casserole bake another 10 minutes or so until the rolls are golden brown. 

This recipe is very versatile.  You can add different vegetables if your family doesn't like corn and green beans.  You can also used frozen vegetables if you buy those.    A different cream soup is OK too (the original recipe called for mushroom soup but no one but me likes that soup in our family).

I serve this with a salad. It's a great, quick weeknight meal. Sometimes if I am in a real hurry I make this the night before so I can just pop it in the oven when I get home from work. Try this your family you will love it!

Ta Da!

Tonight I have been busy, busy, busy trying to get stuff done around the house.  I planted  a little garden (and by little I mean teeny tiny) I only have about 6 or 7 little plants.  Ava helped me with the planting.  We planted 2 kinds of tomatos, strawberries, jalepeno pepper, a giant cabbage (that Ava got at school), basil  and  peas.  I think it will be fun to watch our garden grow this summer! 

Ava has some art (along with every other kid in our town) at an art show in our town's medical building.  Tonight was the gallery opening so we went to see her art.  Here is a pictucture of her drawing. I am going to get this framed, I think this will look so cute hung up in her room when the art show is over. 

A few weeks ago I went to a junk, antique store with my friends Sara and Allison.  We really should take pictures the next time we go because this store has everything-old doors, tools, windows, antiques, dishes, glasses, baskets, etc, etc, etc.  I always find something great every time we go.  I hit the jackpot when we went last time because I found a push cart bar!    I have ALWAYS wanted a bar in my house.  I have no idea why because  Graig and I don't hardly ever drink.  Janice, my MIL, has had some sort of bar in her house ever since I have known her and I have always loved her different bars so I think maybe that's why I like them so much. 

This one only cost me $8.25.  I took it home and spray painted it and  put it in our sun room.  I love the way it turned out!

I got these bottles at the same store.  They were only $1 each!

 The little bucket I got at the Dollar General and I got the little bowl at Anthropologie. 

The bottom shelf holds all of our glass ware. 

Now I need to plan a party so I can use our new bar! 

Ava and I facetimed this little cutie and my sister Shelby tonight.  I love that we are able to talk that way!

Ainsley is the spitting image of my sister.  I can't wait to see her this summer!

I need to get to bed I am meeting my friend Sabrina at 6am for another Couch to 5 K run!

New York City

This weekend we took a quick trip to NYC!  We decided to go because G started a new job in January and part of his job is coordinating all the summer camps on campus and B will be playing baseball all summer. G got tickets to the Yankee vs. RedSox game on Saturday night so we left Saturday morning and came home on Sunday afternoon.  I forgot my camera so all of these pictures are from my iPhone.  Special thanks to Grandma Jan for staying at our house and watching our dogs so we could go :) 

Saturday afternoon B, A and I went to the Bronx zoo!  It was quite a hike from our hotel in NJ but it was worth the trip!  The animals were amazing!
This picture is SO funny.  Brock  and Ava are SO different.  Ava gets excited over everything (just like me!) and B is much more reserved.  This is right before we went in to the zoo.

The zoo is HUGE we were only there a couple of hours so we decided to go on the monorail to see the African Animals and we also saw the gorilla exhibit.  We were SO close to the gorillas!

Here is a picture of us on the monorail.

After we left the zoo we went to Yankee stadium so Graig  and Brock  could go to the game. 

Here is a picture of them before the game.  Again Brock looks thrilled.  He keeps his excitement on the inside.  I know he was really happy to be going to the game!

Ava and I got on the subway and headed back down to Manhattan.  Our first stop was Anthropologie.  This was a complete surprise and it was close to American Girl (which was suppose to be our first stop).  I could have spent all day in that store but I only had about 30 minutes so I hurriedly looked around and found 3 little gifts for my friends-Sabrina, Allison and Sara. 

We went to American Girl and Ava got her doll's hair done.  Thankfully we got there a little before 8 and the store closed at 9.  It was so quiet in the store we almost had the whole place to ourselves which was nice. 

Isn't this a cute picture.  I love how they strap the dolls in and put a cape on them-ha ha!

Here is a picture with Ava and Kanai the Girl of the Year. I loved this little photo booth they had set up!

After we left American Girl we headed down to Times Square on our way there we stopped by the Today Show Set.  I LOVE the Today show and I plan my morning routine around watching it.  I take a shower before the show starts, watch it starting a 7 and then I  start getting ready during the commercial break at 7:20.  A few years ago I had to go to NYC for work so I went to the Today Show and stood outside with a few of my co-workers.    We were on TV with a banner from our College.  Al Roker came over and talked to us! 

After that we walked to Toys R Us so Ava and I could ride the Ferris Wheel.  We got on the Firetruck car and a really nice couple from Indiana was with us in our car and they took our picture.  After Toys R Us we visited a few more stores in Times Square before we meet G and B at Port Authority to go back to our hotel.  They left the Yankee game in the 8th inning because the Yankees were losing really bad :(

Sunday I didn't take any pictures but we got up swam, got ready and did a little shopping before heading home. 
 I hope you all had a good Monday!