Happy Friday

June 27, 2014

Sorry for the radio silence over here. I’ve been busy splitting my time between summer fun with the family and work. It’s all about the balance right?

Some random things for a Friday.

We are trying to check things off our bucket list and have been pretty successful but we still have quite a few left.

We finally have a Trader Joe’s!! The store opened today. I can’t believe it has taken so long for us to get one. I am very excited and might even go this weekend to be part of what I’m sure will be a very busy opening!

I am trying to think of some fun recipes for July 4th! I have a pasta salad in mind that I might just try.

The kids are having such a great time so far this summer. Here is basically a photo dump of what we’ve been up to.

Some beachin’.

Some poolin’.

Some grillin’.

~~Tons of~~ Some restaurant eatin’.

Some ice cream makin’.

And lots of family funnin’.

Hope you are having a great summer too!

Blame it on the Beach

April 11, 2014

Living in Florida, we are able to get to the beach a lot. I know when my sister and I were little our parents would take us quite a bit. We would sometimes rent a house and stay for a week. Ahh, those were the days.

I remember snacks always being super-important when we headed to the beach. Must be the salt and sea air that would make us extra hungry. My sister and I were big snackers when we were young. We loved chips and crackers (Funyuns-yelp), candy- anything quick and easy. Snacks + beach = awesome.

For some reason one particular trip to the beach sticks in my memory. It was the summer before I was going to start high school. We were staying at a hotel-type place on Daytona Beach. It was busy and I remember having to wake up super-early to go put towels on chairs to hold our place once we were ready to head down. The days would consist of this, wake up, eat breakfast, head down to the pool. Swim until it was lunchtime, head up to the room to eat, go back down and play at the beach until the sun started to set. On this trip my mom made brownies to take with us. One day after swimming all morning, I was particularly hungry, (considering I probably ate a cinnamon roll or something equally as sugary and non-filling for breakfast). I was so famished I remember grabbing a brownie, shoveling it into my mouth and chasing it with a handful of salt and vinegar potato chips. Hope you are still with me. I did say salt and vinegar potato chips. I have no idea how this combination came about, but knowing my sweet/savory fondness it really doesn’t surprise me all that much. Can I tell you my mind was blown. The combination of fudgy chocolate with the super-salty-sour-crunchy chip was so good. You are probably thinking I wrote this on April 1 and forgot to publish, but I am completely serious. So good.

It is so funny how food can bring back such intense memories. I am hoping I ate something other than that for lunch (probably a sandwich of sorts) but I don’t remember. All I remember is that crazy-stoner-type-food-combination that was so delicious.

That brings me to what happened this week. I don’t know if I was feeling nostalgic or maybe just hungry (when will Paleo get easier?) but I needed the chocolate/salty-sour combo STAT. I should have saved one of my Dark Chocolate Brown Butter Brownies for emergencies but who am I kidding? Those puppies were gone in two days. I didn’t have the foresight or patience to make/keep brownies so I melted some dark chocolate in a bowl and dipped flipping salt and vinegar potato chips in it. Dead.

I have seen lots of chocolate covered potato chips out there so the combination isn’t so crazy (I’ll just keep telling myself that), but I didn’t see many where salt and vinegar chips were the vessel. It is definitely the way to go. This combination is really good. You get the sweet-bitterness from the chocolate and the salty-vinegary crunch from the chip. I used kettle cooked but you could use any type (as long as they are salt and vinegar flavored).

Our beach snacks these days are more fruit/cracker less chip/brownie but let me tell you, if I came home from a day at the beach and had a bag of these babies, I would surely devour the whole thing.

Don’t be afraid. Try new weird things! You’ll realize maybe they aren’t that weird after all and they might even turn out to be delicious!

Do you have any crazy food combinations that ended up being tasty? Tell me!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Another Weekend Here and Gone

April 7, 2014

In what seems to be the new norm, our weekend was full of food and fun. Here are some highlights.

We headed to the beach after Tee Ball on Saturday. Perfect day for it. The water is still way too cold for me but it certainly didn’t stop the kids from jumping in. When we were done with sun and sand, we grabbed a bite to eat.

These nachos definitely hit the spot.

My husband ordered this Pizza Burger. It was no joke. Had mushrooms, pepperoni, cheese, black olives and tomato sauce. Perfect pizza-burger love child.

Sunday I took the kids for an early lunch before heading to a friend’s birthday party. I had egg salad on an everything bagel and it was delicious. Potato salad on the side.

Bounce House fun

Since we were near my parents house, after the party we stopped by for a visit. I love going to my Mom and Dad’s. The kids love it too. We had so much fun and ate well of course.

Burgers.

Cookies too 🙂

Needless to say we were tired and full come Sunday night but it was so worth it. Another great weekend.

Too bad today started with a dead battery in one vehicle. Happy Monday to us. Hoping the rest of the week is smooth sailing!

Hope your weekend was great too!

Busy Weekend

March 3, 2014

Hard to believe it is already Monday again. This weekend was jam-packed for us. We decided to take advantage of the weather and spent almost the entire weekend outside. Here are a few highlights.

Saturday morning started with a trip to the bakery. We have tried going to this bakery before but we always seem to think of it on Sunday’s when it is closed. So Saturday we woke up early and I took the kids to check it out. This will definitely not be the last time we go here. They have so many different things to choose from. We got two cinnamon rolls, one maple bacon cinnamon roll and a berry cream galette. Everything was awesome especially the maple bacon cinnamon roll. Make sure you get there a little early because I think they sell out of them pretty quickly. I certainly know why!

After that we had the first daytime Tee Ball game of the season. There are so many players this season that we actually have two games a week. One during the week in the evening and then another on Saturday. We are definitely going to be at these fields a lot over the next couple months.

The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. Little Man had two really good hits. The Princess and I cheered them on.

Goldfish break

After the game we headed to the coast again. It was really windy but the kids had fun again walking on the pier and playing in the sand.

I know this is out of focus but I couldn’t resist. They are so crazy.

Beach Toes

Sunday was all about the Florida Strawberry Festival. We got up somewhat early and made the drive which took a little over an hour. It was really busy and really hot. The kids had such a fun time though. We decided to get our Strawberry Shortcake first as the lines tend to get really long once the day wears on. So delicious. The rest of the afternoon was spent riding rides, eating Amish donuts, corn dogs and more lemonade than I’ve had in a year. It was a really great time, although I’m hoping next year we can sneak over during the week when it isn’t as crowded.

“I want to go on the America-Round”

“Mommy, I see you in my glasses”

So as you can see we had a busy weekend of family fun. Now back to work and a healthy meal/exercise plan to make up for all the shenanigans this weekend.

How was your weekend?

Anyone ever been to the Florida Strawberry Festival? What was your favorite part?

Sunday Funday

February 10, 2014

I love days that turn into fun adventures that aren’t planned. We had an exceptionally fun Sunday. Normally Sundays consist of cleaning, laundry, meal planning, kids staying in their pajamas too long, laundry, me staying in my pajamas too long, grocery shopping and did I mention laundry? When we woke up to a beautiful day on Sunday (after a gross, gray, rainy day Saturday) we were itching for some outdoor fun. So we ditched the dreaded laundry and headed to the coast.

I love where we live. We can hop in the vehicle and be breathing salt air in 45 minutes (40 if you ask my husband). So a quick car trip (just enough time for a much needed nap for the kiddos) and we were there. We watched the boats from the deck while we waited for our table at the restaurant. It was breezy, but so beautiful. Just being near the water makes me happy.

Out the window

We ate lunch (which I didn’t take pictures of because it was really dark in the restaurant). We wanted to eat outside but the kids were famished and the first-come-first-served diners outside were enjoying the day too and no one seemed in any hurry to get up. A nice man at the table next to ours came over and asked if he could take our picture. This was really nice, because I never ask anyone to take our picture although I always want more family pictures of us! He was a sweet man who had 20+ grandchildren! Maybe seeing our two crazies make him miss his 🙂

After lunch we headed to the beach! We let the kids run around and step in the water. Eventually Adeline soaked her dress in the waves and we had to run to the store to buy her a shirt. I had only packed her a change of pants (the joys of potty training).

How tall is he? Ugh, time flies.

I mean she can’t like her cheek to be pinched like that. Brothers!

Making sure he isn’t too far away

Then we headed to the pier to watch the fishermen. No one seemed to be catching any fish except for this guy. He was a pro. He would dive down and catch a fish every time! We watched him catch at least 5.

Stalking his prey

Harper wanted a turn with the camera.

Love them.

After a great day we headed home and I was lucky enough to get another nap out of these two on the drive. Here’s to awesome unplanned fun family days. Now back to reality and laundry.