Belated birthday celebrations at the ball game!

For their birthdays this year, I got Brian & my dad tickets to a Pirates game this past weekend (and Jake got to tag along, too!).  Thanks to my awesome neighbor, they received a MAJOR ticket upgrade into a luxury box!  Livin' large at PNC Park!  The seats were amazing and they had a great time, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Jake & Pappy, walking the bridge to the stadium

awesome, right??

love that smile.

And then, to make things even a bit better, the pirate parrot came to their section and this happened:

The game continued, and more fun was had....

some footage of Jake cheering on the pirates and practicing his own baseball skills in the suite (while watching the big screen---how will this kid ever go back to regular seats??)




And last, but not least, the game ended with the kids getting to run the bases (running starts around the 40-second mark of the video):

Sweet moves, man.

Master Moves Mickey provides a lot of entertainment in our house!

Disney Countdowns for the kiddos

 As you know, I've been enjoying planning all things related to our trip to Disney World.  I've found a few cute countdown ideas to start doing with the kids, and figured I'd share on here.  All countdowns found on (where else?) pinterest.

This free printable ,courtesy of the Designs by Nicolina blog:

Individual countdown cards found here.

Another calendar idea from the Capturing the Magic blog:

And this adorable (but let's be honest, probably more work than I'm willing to do) countdown paper chain from the Grey Luster Girl blog:

Does your family do any fun countdowns to get excited about holidays or vacations? Share them in the comments!

Book Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Description from amazon.com: Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

My review: I couldn't put this book down, the writing was witty, funny, and fast-paced.  It's written in the form of various pieces of communication, all strung together to tell the story (emails, faxes, interviews, etc...)  I've read books written in that form before that have irritated me, but I enjoyed that format of this particular book.  

Recipe: Simply Lasagna

 I can't take any credit for it, since it's from the Kraft foods site, but I wanted to share since I've been making it for years and it's so delicious!  You can get quite a few servings out of it (we easily get 2 dinners) and freezes well. 

image courtesy of kraft.com

Simply Lasagna

1 lb.  ground beef***

2-1/2 cups  Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided

1container  (15 oz.) Part Skim Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup  Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided

1/4 cup  chopped fresh parsley

1 egg, beaten

1 jar  (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce

1 cup  water

12 lasagna noodles (oven ready), uncooked

 

***The past few times I've made this, I substituted spinach for the ground beef and it was just as good, if not better! Use 1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach for the browned ground beef. Thaw spinach; squeeze out excess liquid. Prepare as directed, covering each ricotta layer with 1/3 of the spinach.

• HEAT oven to 350°F.

• BROWN meat in large skillet on medium-high heat. Meanwhile, mix 1-1/4 cups mozzarella, ricotta, 1/4 cup Parmesan, parsley and egg until blended.

• DRAIN meat; return to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Add 1 cup water to empty sauce jar; cover with lid and shake well. Add to meat mixture; stir until blended. Spread 1 cup meat sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish; top with layers of 3 lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup meat sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining noodles, meat sauce and cheeses. Cover with foil sprayed with cooking spray.

• BAKE 1 hour or until heated through, removing foil after 45 min. Let stand 15 min. before cutting to serve. 

The Road to Kindergarten: Part 2

When we last left off, I was feeling a teensy bit better about this whole kindergarten thing, having gone through parents orientation AND Jake's orientation.  Jake seemed to be feeling better, too; prior to that, he was nervous, and had a million questions (who will I sit with at lunch?  how will I find my desk?  What if I can't find my way around the school?  When will I get to go to gym class?)

The big day rolled around, and we all felt confident and ready.  Jake was looking devastatingly handsome (if I do say so myself) in his outfit that I painstakingly selected.  He had his backpack ready and stocked with supplies (in a surprising turn of events, he didn't want a new backpack and kept his superhero one that he had carried to preschool) and his lunch was packed in his awesome new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lunchbox.  (WHEN WILL I EVER BE ABLE TO STOP PACKING LUNCHES?!?) Everything seemed to be going well, we were right on schedule....time to take the mandatory back to school pictures!!  *cue the hysterical crying here*

Yep, he went from calm, cool, and collected to hysterical, just like that.  I don't know if the reality sunk in for him or what, but whatever it was, he was not a happy camper.  He was sobbing that he didn't want to go, he would miss me, he wanted to go back to preschool, he missed his friends....ugh!  as if this morning wasn't hard enough for me as it was, I was barely holding it together before he started crying.  Somehow, I managed to keep from crying myself and telling him I'd just homeschool him.  What ended up saving the day was a water bottle, of all things.  I had bought him a new Superman water bottle to take in his lunch box and had forgotten to show it to him; I remembered this, told him I had a surprise and busted it out for him.  Sobs turned to sniffles within seconds....crisis averted.  Picture time!!!

That adorable first day of kindergarten sign can be found here.  (thank you, pinterest!)



We got through the trauma of getting Jake's meltdown only to face another meltdown: Liam!!  As I suspected, Liam had a terrible time with his brother's departure.  Liam is completely obsessed with Jake, and at daycare they would often tell me how excited Liam would be to spot Jake during the day, or how much they loved it if they were doing a whole-center activity and got to play together.  I knew it wasn't going to be easy on the little guy, yet somehow, it was worse than I expected.  He was literally sobbing, "No Jakey!  Don't leave me!  Don't go!"  There I was at the bus stop, trying to hold it all together for the sake of everyone, telling my first baby goodbye and trying to keep my second baby from having a nervous breakdown over the whole thing.

Brian then took Liam into daycare; I had the day off and a million errands to run, but I gave myself a time-out at home first.  I cried, looked at some pictures of Jake when he was a baby (that didn't help matters, just for the record), then tried to not fall down the rabbit hole. Letting your kids go is  one of those things as a mother where you start to feel like you're Alice falling down the rabbit hole.  Today it's kindergarten, next it's middle school, then high school, what if he gets a concussion playing sports?,  then they're going to prom and OMG what if his date isn't nice?,  and then college, then they're getting married, and so on and so forth.  Everyone does this right?  Right?

But he was ready for kindergarten.  And he'll be ready for all of that other stuff, too.  But I'm trying to not worry about that right now.  Right now, he is in kindergarten, and he still misses me when he leaves.  Right now, he's in kindergarten and he was the most excited kid in the world when I surprised him with a trip to the ice cream shop after picking him up on his first day.

He's in kindergarten, and he still brings home things like this to me:

He's in kindergarten, and we're so proud of the little boy he's becoming.

The Road to Kindergarten: Part 1

I was in the kitchen, doing my usual morning routine: sip of coffee....get out vitamins for kids...sip of coffee...who needs a glass of milk?....sip of coffee.....get Gracie her breakfast....look at the time and realize that I need to chug the remainder of the coffee....as I'm putting my mug in the sink, I happened to glance at the calendar...time to flip it over!  August.  It was here.  Brian came up the stairs having finished ironing his work clothes, and I said "well...it's August.  The official Month of Kindergarten.  Countdown is ON!" Brian made a cheers-ing motion with his coffee, in salute to the fact that we would be slicing our daycare bill in half with Jake's departure.

And just like that, we flew through August...back to school shopping for supplies (this made me happier than I care to admit), figuring out first day of school outfits and orientation outfits, and what does one wear to a parents orientation??  All of this preparation, and then the week rolled around.

I'm not sure who was more anxious, me or Jake.  We were both excited for sure...he was anxious about making friends, finding someone to eat with at lunch, whether or not he would like his teacher.  I was anxious about all of those things for him PLUS anxiety over the unknown.  For me, that's always the worst part of anything new....I hate not knowing what I'm getting in to.  This goes for big things, like the first day of school or a new presentation that I have to do for work....and trivial things, like if I go to a different Target than I'm used to and I don't know where anything is.  Honestly, I think it should be a corporate rule of some sort that any big box store has to have the exact same layout no matter the location.  I'm onto something there, right? Right??

Totally off track, sorry.  So I had a lot of anxiety; going to parents orientation calmed down a lot of that for me, and it helped that I felt like I won the lottery in terms of the teacher he got.  No joke, when they announced who was in her class, I saw a few parents do the little silent fist pump to themselves in victory!  When the woman next to me saw which teacher we had, she tapped me on the shoulder with a desperate look in her eye and asked if we could trade folders so that her kid could have Jake's teacher, that she had been hoping all summer that's who she'd be assigned to.  Needless to say, I walked out of orientation feeling like I won the big prize of the night.

Jake had his orientation a few days later; unfortunately, I had a work event that I needed to be there for, so Brian was on his own.  Jake loved his teacher, and made a few new friends.  And I think that just seeing the way everything worked, the layout of the school, etc...really helped his anxiety about the new adventure, too.  (Like mother, like son!)

Working on the classroom scavenger hunt

They have little lockers: you just died from the level of cuteness, right??

After the classroom fun, they got to go test out the school bus!!

He looks so small in comparison to the giant bus!

Definitely a successful orientation! 

The road to kindergarten...to be continued....

Book Review Round-Up!

Behind on my blogging, behind on my book reviews...I'm just a mess!! 

Best books I've read recently that I adored and would highly recommend:

The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Books I've read recently that have just been meh:

Seating Arrangements, by Maggie Shipstead

The Engagements, by Courtney Sullivan
*A quick note about this one, I wanted to like it.  I wanted to love it, because I LOVED her first book, Commencement.  I enjoyed her second book, Maine, though not as much as the first book.  I thought maybe the third time would be a charm with this new one, but it wasn't the case.  Not a bad book at all; very well-written and interesting characters, but it just didn't grab me like Commencement did.

The good news is, I haven't read any recently that I would categorize as terrible, or ones that I've had to stop reading because they're just that bad.  so yay to that! 

Right now, I'm reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette? and I have a feeling it will make my highly recommended list!! 

Recipe: Creamy Marinara Chicken Pasta

Creamy Marinara Chicken Pasta

Original recipe and image found here.

2-3 chicken breasts, sauteed & shredded

1 bag of baby spinach

1 24oz. jar Marinara

1 cup heavy whipping cream (*I didn't have cream, so I just used a jar of alfredo sauce instead)

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Olive Oil

•  Cook pasta according to package.  

• Meanwhile, saute chicken in olive oil & season with salt & pepper.  I cut my chicken into chunks so it would cook through faster.
• Shred chicken after it's cooked
•  Return chicken to the pan and add spinach, marinara, cream, parmesan, and red pepper.  Cook on medium high and mix well.   
• Cook spinach until wilted.
•  Drain pasta, return to pot, and toss in chicken & sauce mix.

This was deeeee-li-cious.  Now, I will say that it was SPICY.  Not sure if it was the crushed red pepper flakes, or the pepper that I put on the chicken when sauteeing, but it was pretty spicy....and I don't mind spice! To put it into perspective for you, Liam wouldn't eat it (and he's not picky), and Brian was humming the "Survivor" theme song while eating and downing glass after glass of water. Oops.  My suggestion would be cutting back on both of those ingredients.  But otherwise, I highly recommend it! 

Let's Luau!!

This was our 7th Annual Luau, and it was another success! I shouldn't even post this for fear of jinxing, but we have yet to have a rainy day for the luau.  There have been a few times that it has rained in the morning, or even sprinkled or clouded over just before the party, but the party itself has always been clear.  This year was nice because it wasn't sweltering hot or humid, as it's been in the past.  It was a nice change. 

As always, some decor and food pictures!!

We were lucky this year that Aunt Amy was able to join us from Colorado!!

We then tried to get some family pictures before the madness of the party ensued, we didn't get too many.   One of these years, I'm going to hire a photographer! :)  I never get as many pictures as I'd like once people start arriving.

How obsessed are you with this hat?  Because I'm pretty obsessed.

Until next year, party-goers!

Here I am!!

You've missed me terribly, yes?  Dry your tears, I'm back! 

My last post was on August 8th; prior to that, I wrote a post about how I was being a blog slacker due to the fact that it was summer, and the fact that I had recently become Scandal-obsessed.  I'm pleased to announce that the madness of August is past us....we had another successful luau party (I promise a post with pics soon), did some other fun summer stuff during the last official month of summer, and got Jake started at kindergarten.  YES, kindergarten.  A post to follow about that, I promise. 

In the time since I last posted, I finished up watching Scandal (2 seasons of back-to-back episode binge watching = a girl who is VERY excited for season 3 to start at the beginning of October), read a few books, fed my family a lot of things that would not be considered a real meal (though I received the award for "coolest mom ever" the day that I slapped some fruit and cupcakes on the table and called it dinner).....which has led me to realize that I need to get my act together and get back into the habit of meal planning/prep on the weekends (or that I just need to hit the lottery and find myself a personal assistant, chauffeur, and cook, which would solve a lot of my problems) but I digress.....and I've sent my first baby off to school on the big cheese wagon and he's survived the first few days.  And so have I.  Barely at times, but we're all still here.  Much more to come on that later.

Just wanted to get a post out there to assure everyone that we are alive and well....and looking forward to fall, for sure.  Cheers with your PSL!!!!!!!!!