Summer is in the air

Today I was in the mood to cook. This is probably because I feel like summer vacation is HERE! It is so close I can taste it. All summer long I cook and experiment, and with my mom leaving today and the last long stretch of school in front of me I felt the need to get in touch with my "summer self".

I made this all up and threw in what I had on hand so I can't give you a recipe : (

1. Ground Turkey "PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps" - I made this with ground turkey, green onion, red pepper, water chestnuts, jalapeno, soy sauce, lots of garlic, hoisin sauce. Plan to have this for dinner tomorrow night in lettuce wraps!

2. Tex-Mex Chile - I made this with ground turkey, onions, green pepper, garlic, kidney beans, white beans, jalapeno, green onion, crushed tomato, chicken broth, and chopped cilantro

3. Lemon Potatoes on the Grill - just lemon, herbs, and Mrs. Dash.

My mom was here for 10 days and it was absolutely wonderful. The weather was warm and so was the water. The kids have been running around non stop since they arrived. The week has consisted of swimming, Easter eggs, shopping, baseball , dance lessons, and Abel being out of town for a week. Both Saturday's consisted of loading up the car at 8am and not returning until 8pm. Off to Gianni's baseball game, taking Carmen to dance class, then up to Nonna's and Papa's house for lunch, swimming, and then appetizers, a meal, and games outside. Throw Easter in and has been a whirlwind 10 days with the grandparents. Lots of fun!

No picture of Carmen swimming because we are in the water with her. On Saturday, April 23rd...the fishy came off and she is officially swimming. Now...I say swimming...because she is swimming on her own and not just sinking but she is not great about coming up for air. She doesn't want the fishy anymore so it takes two of us to monitor her. I AM SO PROUD OF HER! She has no fear. I knew she would swim earlier than Gianni. My guess is by the end of summer she will be swimming around just as well as Gianni.

Tonight was just the 4 of us and the wind was perfect to TRY and fly a kite. We did our best but it might have been too windy. Weeks like this with Nonna and Papa make me feel like I am on vacation....which is probably what brought the cooking on today. I know it isn't just me though. Tonight as I was tucking Gianni into bed he said to me, "mommy...I wish it was summer vacation already. Is it getting close?" He feels it too. It is in the air. 5 more weeks of school!