All American

I love 4th of July Weekend.

I am an all American Girl.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Testing 1,2,3 and Catch Up

I know it's been a long time since I've blogged.

Life has been crazy busy and I have had some technical difficulties.

I usually blog from my laptop but I have some kind of virus on the darn thing. The other problem is my camera has been dropped one too many times. I dropped it when we were in Puerto Rico.

So, you may be asking yourself how am I posting this post? Well, I have decided to try and use my iPad. I get a little crazed with using this darn thing.

I took some pictures with the from my garden and now I am testing it as I sit on my deck.

The kids are playing on their swing set.

I have really missed blogging. Even if no one reads it, I simply enjoy it.

The kids have been out of school for two weeks. We have some great things planned. One of the things we are working on this summer is a bucket list.

If you remember, last summer we did merit badges. The kids really enjoy these activities.

My bucket list is getting checked off. I completed my big thing running in a 5k. I am still running. I really enjoy running. I have started increasing my distance. My speed hasn't gotten any faster. But I keep going. Last week we were in Wildwood and I ran the whole boardwalk one end to the other end. I felt great!! I really enjoyed that the ground was flat. No hills like the Poconos.

The kids had their big Graduation at school. It was so great! They had on their caps and gowns and sang. Needless to say I was crying so much. They are going up so much so fast.

Watching them grow up is so incredible.
They are these amazing little people who say and do the funniest things. I am amazed by them everyday.

I wish you all a happy weekend and a Happy Father's Day weekend.

It's after five o'clock and can only mean one thing. COCKTAIL TIME.

Wish me luck with hitting publish.

Tomato Soup

As promised, I am back with the tomato soup recipe.

I found this recipe from none other then the "Pioneer Woman" cookbook.

Image and recipe from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• 6 Tablespoons Melted Butter
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 1 bottle (46 Oz.) Tomato Juice
• 2 cans (14 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon (up To 3 Tablespoons) Chicken Base
• 3 Tablespoons (up To 6 Tablespoons) Sugar
• 1 pinch Salt
• Black Pepper To Taste
• 1 cup Cooking Sherry (I did not add this and it was still AWESOME!!) Next time I will put the sherry in.
• 1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• Chopped Fresh Parsley
• Chopped Fresh Basil

Preparation Instructions

Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Then add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, chicken base, sugar, pinch of salt, black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste.
Adjust other seasonings and serve with yummy, crusty bread on a cold blustery, dreary, depressing, rainy, snowy day. Then close your eyes.
And give thanks for soups like this.

I made this soup two days before. The longer this soup sits the better it tastes.

I tripled this recipe.

Baby Shower

This past weekend, I had the honor of hosting a baby shower for my sister in law.

She is expecting her sweet baby in March.

We are all excited to meet the newest addition to the family.

I worked to together with my mother in law, Jo's mother, sister, and my father in law's girlfriend.

We started planning way back in December.

If you have been a long time follower, you know that I like to have a theme for any party I throw.

Jo's sister suggested a "Little Golden Book" theme. Apparently, these were Jo's favorite books as a child.

For food, Jo's mom suggested that we have soup and salad for the meal. So, we each made our own soup.

The soups we served were: Pea, Potato Leek, Tortellini Spinach, Chicken, and Tomato.

I made the tomato soup. I will share the recipe with you tomorrow. Some of you attended the shower and asked for the recipe!! If you weren't at the shower and like Tomato soup, you need to make this soup because it's out of this world.

I have to admit I forgot to take pictures of the shower. So, today before I took everything down I took some pictures. It's hard throwing a party and dealing with everything and have to stop to take pictures.

I had the resident artist draw some pictures on our chalk boards.

I bought some flowers to put around the house and use as centerpieces.

I made some tissue paper flowers to put around the house too.

I bought a package of these white containers at the Dollar Store.

I found a web-site that had these little pictures of Golden Book pictures. I printed them out and glued them onto the white containers. I put some flowers inside and used these as centerpieces.

I cut these pictures out of an old book and made this pennant.

Found these cute blocks at the Dollar Store.

My window decorations. I will use for Valentine's Day too.

More flowers!!!

I purchased these cute little bear lollipops to give to the little kids in attendance.

I photo copied the covers of the books and made some more pennants to put around the house.

The mantel was decorated with a Welcome Girl sign and more pink flowers.

These flowers remind me of the peonies from my garden.

Ballerina is eagerly awaiting for me to hang these in her room.

More flowers.

Jo got a lot of great presents. It's a good thing that there were two trucks here to take her home.

Now that the baby shower is done its time to decorate for Valentine's Day.

Bright

Last week Martha Stewart had beauty week.

She had many awesome tips to share.

One of the many things I took away (from Bobbi Brown herself) was that bright colors are the thing for right now and Spring.

So, I looked around in my make-up bag and found some nice bright colors to place on my lips.

So what do you think?

Ballerina and Speed Racer stared at me for 3 minutes. Then they started laughing. I started to talk myself out of wearing the bright pink lips out into the real world. Then I decided, what the hell.

I laughed with them and headed out in  the world with my bright lips.

I felt very bright but I didn't care. I noticed that older ladies were looking at me. I know what they were thinking...

  bright colors are back in style time to go to Wal-Mart.

The kids are now asking me all the time to put on my bright lipstick.

I will be wearing this bright lipstick and a nice red lipstick too.

Go ahead walk on the wild side and get a bright color to put on your lips.

Snow Day

Since the beginning of December the kids have been asking for snow. You know when you are five all you want is to play in the snow and go sled riding.

We were so excited to hear that snow was coming our way.

When the kids were in school on Friday I ran my errands and came home to set up a snow day table.

I set up the table with a hot cocoa bar. I figured if we were going to be playing in the snow we would be needing hot cocoa. I also bought some raisin bread for breakfast and some sweet treats to munch on.

I read the kids a book about making minestrone soup.

When we finished reading the book we all headed into the kitchen to make minestrone soup.

Speed Racer opened the cans for me.

Ballerina peeled the carrots for me.

We stayed in our PJ's all day. When it was time to go outside to play we threw on our snow pants and jackets.

Tommy made a sled riding course for the kids in the back yard. We all took turns!!

It was a blast!!!

I love the snow when we are all safe at home!! So if Mother Nature wants to give us snow that is fine as long as it's on the weekends that I don't have anything planned.

How was your snow day?

40 List Update

I thought I would share with you the progress of my 40 list.

Three items have been crossed off (Brooklyn Bridge, Kids Camping, and Picking Blueberries in Maine)

I am currently working on 5 items:

1. Learning to knit. My cousin is teaching me, but we are both busy raising kids so it's a slow process.

2. Cook all the items from a cookbook. I have chosen to cook from "Pioneer Woman Cookbook" I have made 28 out of the 64 recipes in the cookbook.

3. Paint a Landscape picture- I have been working on a picture since the fall and I am not really feeling it, so I think I need to pick another picture.

4. I am reading about Judaism but lets face it, its very slow reading.

5. Run a 5k. I have been training for three weeks now. My first 5k run will be on May 6th. Race for the Cure.

I am currently running 1.5 miles in 24 minutes. I can run for 17 minutes straight. This is huge for me. I am not a runner. I have NEVER been a runner. In high school my gym teacher would yell at me for not running.

Both of my brother's were runners, so I know I must have the running gene somewhere inside.

I have to say that I am impressed with myself for running. I really am enjoying my runs. Every time I run I add another minute. Once I can run for 20 minutes straight I will add another minute.

My training right now is on the treadmill. With the weather and snow on the ground I have taken myself off the streets. LOL!!!

I am making some other plans for my list.

I have decided President's Day weekend would be a good time for me to go down to AC for three/four of my items.

Easter Weekend will be the weekend we head to the Hamptons.

I'm currently looking into a yoga class for me and Ballerina.

I am heading down to South Jersey this weekend and now I am thinking of making a detour through Philly to be like Rocky and run up the Museum stairs.

Are you working on a list?