Sunday, September 27, 2009

Menu Plan Monday: September 28-October 4


Monday: Beef & veggie soup from my mother-in-law for Will. I have book club!

Tuesday: dinner out after Claire's soccer practice

Wednesday: leftover Mexi-Meatball soup, cornbread

Thursday: Calico Corn & Bacon Pie, salad, hot biscuits

Friday: Chicken crispitas, Spanish rice, black beans & corn

Saturday (breakfast): Mini Maple Pancake Muffins (from Bakerella ... you must check out her site for yummy baking goodness)

Saturday (lunch): Enchilada soup, baked tortilla strips. No cooking for me on Sat. night -- off to a Sunday School class cookout/bonfire.

Sunday (lunch): Glazed tilapia (from the lovely Costco freezer), wild rice, sauteed asparagus

Sunday (dinner): Leftover buffet

Other treats I want to try this week: Buttermilk wheat bread and Apple Cake

I just noticed we are eating a lot of soup this week. It has finally cooled off here so I am officially declaring it soup season! We eat a lot of soup in the fall/winter months, and fortunately, my hubby likes soup.

Check out other menu plans here.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Farm Day and some other stuff

A big shout out to Alabama this weekend in their first SEC game of the season. We hope they roast the HOGS! ROLL TIDE!

Actually, I put this picture on her for my mom. She made this dress for Claire and this is the first time she has worn it. I think it is very cute. My mom will testify that those elephants were a booger to smock.


The next two pictures are some gifts for my BFF from high school's little girl. I am helping host her baby shower this weekend. I was going to wait until after the shower to post these pics, but I'm pretty sure she won't see these since she has been on strict bed rest and doesn't have internet access at home. She can't even sit up in bed. She just has to lay there and watch TV. I am sure she cannot wait for Emma Bryce to arrive!

These are plain white onesies from Wal-Mart that I appliqued to match the pink and brown pants.
Here are some burp cloths too. Miss Emma will be spitting up in style! The shower colors are pink and brown and we are going to use all of these things to decorate. (We are going to hang them from a clothesline with clothes pins and hang the line on the fireplace mantle.)
Last but not least ... today was "farm day" at school for Claire. We don't have a lot of "farm" clothing, so we added a bandana and my grandmother's gardening hat to an otherwise non-farm outfit. Works for me!





This is Cow Girl (the stick horse). Claire made Cow Girl at school today. She took her for a little ride around the driveway when we got home. Don't you love her hot pink name?
Now we're just being silly ... playing peek-a-boo behind Cow Girl's head.
Can you guess what Claire is going to be for Halloween? That's right ... a cow girl. I bought her costume at Wal-Mart last week and now I'm on a quest to find some pink cowboy boots. Cow Girl the horse will make a nice prop.

Summer Vacation: Hilton Head Island, SC

Okay ... so after we left Savannah, we headed over to Hilton Head Island. That is when the rain started and the temperature dropped. It pretty much rained the entire time we were there.

I'm just glad the resort had a gym and we had lots of DVDs to watch. Let's just say that I won't be watching Annie again anytime soon if I can help it.

Here is the view from our room. We always stay at the Disney Resort on the bay. We have a lovely view of the marsh! It is actually pretty fun to see how the tide changes throughout the day. In afternoon, when the tide is high, the entire grassy area is covered.

A view from the other direction.

When it's too cold and wet to hit the swimming pool, you can always "swim" in the whirlpool tub. The kids didn't seem to mind one bit.

The second day we were there, it was a sunny 58 degrees. That was the high. So we headed to an indoor play area. Apparently, the whole rest of the town had the same idea. It was pretty crowded, but the kids had fun and it was better than sitting in the room and watching another movie.

Day 3: we finally made it into the pool! Yeah! The pool was heated, which made swimming fun, but getting out, not so fun. Especially when the temps were in the low 60's. Again, the kids didn't seem to mind, blue lips and all!


Headed to dinner. This is the bay where our resort was located.

We stopped by the beach one night on the way to dinner. Look how choppy the water was. It was so windy, the sand was stinging our faces.

David's first trip to the beach ... see how windy it was!

Claire was less than thrilled about being there.

David like walking in the sand.
Day 4: we headed to Harbor Town for a little shopping, eating and playtime. The famous lighthouse. Yes, that is blue sky that you see. The sun did peek its head out a little on this day. Just a teaser though.


We found a playground too.
We did a little shopping at ate lunch at one of my favorite places in Hilton Head ... the Salty Dog Cafe.

And then we hit the pool. We love waterslides. Here comes Daddy ...

Claire

& Mommy. Now normally, I only put good pictures of myself on the blog, but this picture really cracks me up. And, I wanted to document that I did in fact go down the water slide (and get in the water) despite the cool weather.

Hanging out on the back porch.

Remember this same shot from earlier in the week? We have a nice little river flowing back there now.

Headed to Atlanta to see my cousins and then headed home. Yes, it was very sunny the morning that we left. Of course, that didn't last for long ...

Despite the rain, Will managed to play golf a couple of times and we ate some really good seafood. Sadly, this little hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant find from our trip in 2004 is no longer open (or we couldn't remember where it was). We had a good trip and we definitely want to go back.

To end this trip on a good note was not to be. After driving for about 6 hours to meet my cousins at their lake house north of Atlanta, when we were about 10 minutes away, my cousin's wife called and said that two of their children had head lice. Yikes! Needless to say, we made an executive decision to continue on home. We had to cut our trip a couple of days short, but it was nice to get back home where it was warm and dry with a couple of days to recover from our trip before heading back to the daily grind.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Summer Vacations: Savannah, GA

Okay ... I've done a horrible job posting about the many fun trips we have taken this summer. I think it is because I take so many pictures on the trip, then I come home and have to catch up on laundry, work, etc. and it get too overwhelmed to actually go through the pictures and write a post.

I think I've figured out how to make it manageable though. I think. I am going to just pick 8-12 pictures and do a separate post about each trip. Just hit the highlights. We went to five really fun places this summer so I hope to get caught up over the next week.

Bear with me.

Our first stop was in Savannah, Georgia back in May (this was part of our trip to Hilton Head Island, SC ... which will be covered in my next post). This trip only lasted about 1-1/2 days so it should be easy to write about, right? We'll see what I can remember.

When we arrived in Savannah at 11:30 am (after leaving our house at 2:15 am) we decided to walk around the entire historic district ... seriously, from one end to the other.

I think this is some government building.


Lunch outside at a restaurant on River Walk.




On our walking tour. We were pooped and took a long nap when we finally made it back to the room.


Savannah has lots of beautiful scenery.


Savannah Candy Co. ... Claire's own little version of heaven. She did a little shopping while we were there.

We managed to tear Claire away from the candy store long enough to eat dinner at this really cool pizza place called Da Vinci's in the City Market. I think I read about it in Southern Living. It was good, but not very kid friendly. The service was SLOW and they didn't have any high chairs. David ate dinner in the stroller.

On the second day of our trip, we went on a carriage tour of the city ... during David's naptime. I think you know where this is going. He cried/fussed pretty much the entire. Fortunately, it was only us and another older couple on the carriage.


Paula Deen's restaurant. All I really wanted to do in Savannah was go on the carriage tour (check) and eat at Paula Deen's restaurant (not check). Alas, it was not meant to be. It really sucks that they don't take reservations!

We saw lots of old, pretty houses on the carriage tour.



Look at this house covered in ivy.


David's face pretty much sums up his feelings about the carriage ride.

Savannah was just okay. Maybe I would have liked it better if (a) I wasn't exhausted from getting up in the middle of the night to drive there and (b) I didn't have two toddlers with me. Savannah is definitely a walking city and I don't mean stroller walking. But still, even if I didn't have the kids with me, I just didn't think there was a whole lot to do here.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Menu Plan Monday: September 21-27


Review from last week: the Mozzarella & Basil Panini was my favorite and the Baked Pizza Roll & Sauce was Will's favorite. We both LOVED the Cheesy Tortellini Casserole too. All three will definitely be put in my regular dinner rotation.

We have a few carry-over items from last week. Here is this week's menu.

Monday: Mexi-Meatball Stew, cornbread muffins

Tuesday: Eat out somewhere cheap after Claire's soccer practice

Wednesday: Chicken Quesadillas, spanish rice, black beans

Thursday: Swiss Chicken, rice, steamed broccoli

Friday: out-of-town

Saturday: Baby shower, birthday party and football game (for Will) = no cooking for me!

Sunday (lunch): Chili, fritos

Sunday (dinner): leftover buffet

Check out other menu plans here.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Roll Tide!

Will snapped these pictures of the kids this morning. I love this elephant fabric ... it is perfect for Alabama football.


Claire is less than thrilled about having her picture taken.


Now she is a little happier ... Will must have bribed her with something.


Now they are both really excited. And why shouldn't they be ... Bama is 3-0 this season!








David's outfit is the Johnny romper from Children's corner. {I made it for a friend's little boy and she loaned it back to me after her son outgrew it.}

Claire's outfit is my good old standby ... the Caroline dress. Love it!