Supper Club and Hall of Flame

The Roseland's hosted our 4th Supper Club last night at their home with a beautiful summer theme along with bright food, bright drinks, and time by the pool. It was a fun evening although we were down a couple which was strange. We missed you Butler! The menu consisted of:

Cool Blue Hawaiian - Kristin and Abel

Spice Grapefruit Margarita - Holly and Adam

Cajun Crab Wontons - Holly and Adam

Red Chili Shrimp Salad - Kristin and Abel

I really loved this salad! Here is the finished product.

Cajun Halibut with Praline Sauce along with Dirty Rice - Chad and Jenni

Strawberry Sorbet - Holly and Adam

Abel and I had a really nice time. The kids were with Uncle Justin who brought over an entire bottle of bubble bath so that the kids could make "bubble bath hats".

Enjoying some time by the pool.

Although I could not get in the water due to my lovely toe, I was able to prop it up by the side of the pool and still cool off a bit.

Switching gears, today my children and I took a drive to Phoenix to explore the Hall of`Flame Museum. It was a wonderful little museum which was very affordable and we were there a little under two hours although the kids played for much of that time. 

 There are 4 galleries where you can see old fire engines from the 1800's up to current times. Many are from the United States but there were engines from other countries as well.

 

 There were clothes that the kids could put on and trucks for them to play on and explore.

At the end of the museum is an area for kids. They show a video about fire safety, they have a little house with obvious hazards that you can discuss with your kids, an area devoted to all of the different patches and a place for kids to design their own patch. They even had a pole for the kids to slide down.

 Kind of like the Musical Instrument Museum, this museum made me realize all of the "teaching" that I still need to do with my kids. We do not have a "home exit plan" and we need to put that in place. It was a good learning experience and it opened up all kinds of discussion with both of the kids.

 The main reason I wanted to come to the museum was for Carmen. As many of you know, she wants to be a firefighter. It is the only career she has ever talked about, she gets excited every time she sees a firetruck, and even will go out of her way to approach and talk to firefighters that we see when we are out and about.

After the museum we were practically in Tempe....so....ok we went to Ted's. I only had one hot dog with mustard and onion. Gianni loves the cheese dog (just like me when I was a kid). They were in heaven! Eat your heart out PAPA!

Chill Time

As many of you know I have an injured toe! My mom keeps telling me to put it up and relax. This week we have actually had a fairly relaxing week. Looking at my calendar this week I had nothing! No swim lessons, no places to be, no people to meet. We kicked off our very "open week" with a family movie night. We popped some popcorn, got into pj's and just hung out.

Then one night Holly and Sydney stopped by and we decided to make some Paula Dean inspired brownies. I was watching the food network and Paula Dean made a box of brownies with a twist. She layered half of the batter and then put down "3"....yes "3" entire chocolate bars, which she then covered with the rest of the batter. I could not believe my eyes. Well, these brownies we made are named after Holly because she loves chocolate and peanut butter. Holly said, "hey, I bet that would be good with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!" From that point on we couldn't stop thinking about it. They were great!

 

My kids have very big and strong personalities and so sometimes they fight and it can get to be a little much. This week they are actually having a pretty good week together.They love to be together and hate it when I separate them but the do their fair share of fighting at the same time. One morning I decided to get them out of the house. I took them to the slash park because it was so hot. I wasn't quite ready to swim with my toe but I wanted them to get wet so the splash park seemed like a great solution. They played for 2 hours, we met Abel for lunch, and then Carmen crashed for a nap. They did a great job of playing nicely together.

 

We have been home a lot this week just playing board games and hanging out. Being at home, I started to examine the wall leading up my stairs. As some of you know my mom took pictures of our hands when we were young. Going up my stairs are hand pictures of my grandfather, grandmother, mom, dad, brother, and then my hands. The shots are supposed to represent the person and demonstrate them using their hands doing what they love to do. My kids are not on the wall, and I think mine needs a little updating! Started to take some shots to play around with ideas. Carmen is a "beach baby". She loves the water and the sand. I snapped this one in our backyard.

 As for my hands I have two ideas! I have been loving my kickboxing class and my instructor took me to a boxing gym where I have boxed a few times. Wrapping my hands and hitting the bag as hard as I can is such a good feeling. So one idea would be a picture of my hands wrapped. Some might think it's weird but falling in love with kickboxing was a major role and key to my weight loss so it is important to me. Also, cooking! Maybe I could be holding a spoon and stirring or something. Gianni is a tough one. He loves baseball, golf, and has been very passionate about the drums. I could do any of those. This picture was not his real baseball bat! It was just a plastic one but you get the idea. 

  Here is a video of Gianni reading his sheet music and playing the drums. I don't know how a six year old can work three different drums at the same time. I don't think I could do it, or read the music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDwuH_bv9o0

Well I told many of you that last week Carmen fell asleep at the dinner table. My food must be boring or something (haha). On days where she doesn't nap she experiences the 5 o'clock crash. This was taken last night around 5:45pm. We were eating and the next thing we know we looked over and BOOM...she was out! She starts a full day preschool program in a few weeks. I have a feeling there will be more shots like this in her future! 

 I let her sleep for a few minutes because I knew that we had something special planned for the evening. We purchased the Crayola Glow Chalk. It looked so cool on the package. Don't waste your money....it was a total flop. Not very impressed but the kids had fun!

One more week next week and then I have to go back to work for 4 days for a training. WOW how our summer has gone by so quickly!

Parents Left, Injuries, New Room, and The Lytle Family

Well I know that I haven't posted in a while but I do have many very good excuses for not putting pics up or updating my blog! The first thing is that my parents have left and we are getting back into routine. The kids were exhausted from all of the fun and it took a few days to recover. The weekend that they left we pretty much camped out up there. The kids loved spending the night with Nonna and Papa. We visited a new splash pad by their house in Peoria. Gianni developed his first ear infection since having tubes put in this March! Here we go again....those are my exact thoughts.

While up at their house we also did some golfing. It was like 118 degrees this day and I can't believe we golfed but we did it! Carmen is improving little by little with the help of Papa. 

 While the kids spent the night at Nonna and Papa's house, Abel and I got a chance to have a night out. We saw a movie and had dinner with friends. It was nice to go out but we really did miss the munchkins.

After my parents left we celebrated the 4th of July with the Roselands. We had a little accident with some fireworks and Gianni accidentally got burned on his eye. Luckily he was ok, but we spent the day after the 4th of July at the doctors office getting the eye fixed up and getting more antibiotics for the ear infection which had still not cleared up.

Here are pictures from the 4th of July.

So Gianni's ear and eye are damaged....now onto the next injury! My foot. In an attempt to do something special for my daughter who has been begging for her room to be pink, I decided to move everything out of her room to paint and reorganize as we prepare her for school. The box spring for her bed hit my big toe nail from the front and popped it straight up in the air. After a trip to the ER, 4 shots in my foot, and a lovely bandage, I have been limping around all week and it is pretty disgusting. I am hoping to get back to the gym soon but it is pretty painful and it will probably be a long time before the new nail grows back. We did get her room finished. We painted it pink, put up butterfly and flower decals to match her bedding, hung dark heat resistant curtains because her room gets a lot of sun during the day, and hung a bulletin board so that she can display her work that I know will come home from school.

 Last night we had the Lytle family over along with my two favorite girls: Holly and Sydney. Ummm, I didn't take any pictures. Not sure why or what I was thinking. Brian Lytle and his wife Lauren have worked with Holly and I at Wigwam for many years now. They have a daughter Dana who is just two months older than Carmen and a new baby named Morgan. Gianni was so sweet with the baby. Gianni, Carmen, Sydney, and Dana all played so well together. Holly and I are convinced that even numbers are the key to a successful play date. We had Mexican food and I made a new hot Mexican cheese dip that was awesome along with pomegranate margaritas.

Hot Mexican Cheese Dip Recipe:

Cream together the following ingredients in a mixer

• 1 8oz package of cream cheese
• 1 4oz can of diced green chiles
• about a handful of chopped green onion
• 1/2 cup of chopped roasted red pepper
• 1 cup of shredded monterrey jack cheese
• 1/2 teasp cumin
• 1/2 teasp salt
• 3/4 teas chili powder

Spread this mixture into a greased baking dish

Top with a 1/4 cup of shredded monterrey jack cheese and fresh cilantro

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F

Let set before serving

This morning Abel is golfing and the kids are having a great day so far and have been playing independently since we came back from the park. While they were playing play doh in the kitchen I decided to chop up some fresh herbs from my garden. Some garlic, fresh herbs, olive oil, and good pork will make for a great dinner tonight. Summer is coming to an end soon. I have about two more weeks before I have to report for training. We are going to do our best to enjoy it but I know that I should probably start thinking about preparing for school.