Sliced bananas, freshly churned soft vanilla bean ice cream, a drizzle of Hershey’s syrup, a swirl of whipped cream, some rainbow sprinkles, coconut {for me}, peanuts {for Jay} and the proverbial maraschino cherry on top.
These would also be fun served in small mason jars!
*****
The slip n slide also came out this afternoon after a brief hiatus…
Last week was filled with necessary errands in the beginning of the week and a couple pool play dates at the end.
Tomorrow this guy starts summer camp thanks to his grandparents and sweet friends…for his birthday in February, we decided in lieu of {more} toys a nice gift would be a 3-day a week summer camp at his preschool. Three of his best buds chipped in and gave him a week as well! It’s a win/win situation ~ a fun 3 hours for him and 3 hours for me! We’re so grateful….thanks again.
This girl is going to gymnastics camp mañana. Same thing…for her b-day, the grandparents generously gave her the same 3 days a week to tumble and jump this summer. Again, it gives me a little time to myself and his preschool and the gym are right near each other so it’s perfect.
It’s a GREAT way to break up the summer.
I’ll say it again ~ thank you Lolo & Lola, Gramma, Popsi, Emma, Landon & Dylan.
This gift is truly the cherry on top of this mama’s banana split!
Last night while I was tucking him in, I told him to get a good night’s sleep so he’d be well rested for his game in the morning…
He said, “I’m going to catch the ball for you, Mama!”
Bless his heart.
He tried and tried to catch the ball {for me} to no avail which resulted in him exiting the field on the verge of tears and come to me and say, “I can’t catch the ball for you!”
Broke my heart.
Of course I assured him that it was an awesome game and that he had a great couple hits.
Gonna miss those cute little munchkins in orange shirts…..
*****
This evening’s dinner was definitely a home run, though.
Coconut Chicken and Curried Quinoa with Cilantro & Pineapple
If you’ve been flopping along with me for awhile now, you’ll know that I love all things coconut so this was a must try.
Absolutely delish.
We’re trying to eat more quinoa and less rice and pasta. I’m always trying to find new mix-ins to doctor it up. Tonight I sauteed some onion and garlic along with some curry powder for a bit before adding in 1 cup rinsed quinoa and 2 cups water. {normally I use chicken stock}. Once the quinoa was done cooking, I stirred in chopped cilantro and about half a small can of crushed pineapple.
I was afraid the quinoa would be too bland without the stock, but it was perfect with the chicken.
{you could certainly make rice and stir in the cilantro and pineapple before serving, too!}
A festive summertime meal for backyard al fresco dining.
Jay wanted meat and potatoes for lunch and dinner yesterday, so that is what Jay got.
We had a little hiccup along the way and discovered his first lunch choice, Irv’s Burgers, is closed on Sundays. So we decided on runner up, Umami Burger in Los Feliz.
Fortunately we were seated immediately and got to ordering…
Tempura Onion Rings with Jalapeño Ranch & Sweet Potato Fries with Roasted Garlic Aioli
Jay had the Manly Burger {of course} ~ beer-cheddar cheese, smoke salt onion strings & bacon lardons
I had the SoCal Burger ~ butter lettuce, slow-roasted tomato, house spread, house-made american cheese & caramelized onions
For dessert we all shared a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff moon pie {OMG!} and a peanut butter chip ice cream sandwich. Gone in a flash!
*****
In between our two meat and potato meals, we visited The Grove where I made a little dent in the niiiice Crate & Barrel gift card Jay won in a raffle at work and he and the kids went to the Apple store and fiddled with the iPod Touches and spotted Stevie Wonder!
{sorry Stevie, this is probably the worst ever picture of you…I mean not YOU, but the picture quality!}
*****
For din din, his choice was chicken fried steak and garlic roasted mashed potatoes with blue cheese. I made Sonoma salad for a little something green!
Thanks, P-Dub for helpin’ me out with this one. I had NO idea how to even begin to make this….
And there you have it…meat n taters with a little speck o green peeking out in the background ~ a MANLY meal!
{for the mashed potatoes I just boiled up three large taters that were peeled and cubed until fork tender. then i melted half a stick of butter and about 3/4 cup milk and added it to the potatoes. i roasted a whole head of garlic [cut about 1/4″ off the top, drizzle with EVOO, salt and pepper, put cut side down on a large piece of foil and wrap the garlic in the foil. roast at 350* for about an hour. the garlic will be soft and spreadable! squeeze out the cloves and add to the potatoes and butter/milk mixture]. use hand mixer to blend until smooth. also added a little blue cheese.}
I was a little nervous about this meal since it’s something I’ve never made and wouldn’t ever order at a restaurant…but it was quite good. The cube steaks were very lean and I used just a little canola oil to pan fry them. The pan gravy turned out very well, too, since gravy is not one of my strengths.
{side note: Pioneer Woman mentions that her favorite way to eat chicken fried steak is between two slices of soft white bread with mayo. In the recipe she mentions Miracle Whip and I had to laugh because, I too, can not stand the stuff! When I was about 6 years old, I vividly remember being at our neighbor’s house and the mom serving me some kind of sandwich with M.W. ….. I must have said I {didn’t care for} it because I recall her saying, “Oh, no honey, it’s not Miracle Whip!” UM, YES IT WAS! Remember that commercial where the guy goes to the store in the middle of the night because he ran out of it? Yeh. NO thanks! I’m not a picky eater at all, but if you really DON’T want me to come over for lunch, just serve sammies with [the whip] AND alfalfa sprouts. Blech!}
*****
I am addicted to making these gift caddies! This was the one for our hero…..
{a couple Seattle’s Best iced mochas, Peanut Toffee Buzz CLIF Bar [with caffeine!], Carmex 3-pack and some shower gel}
{a nice big Hefeweizen and an orange to float in it}
*****
It was the perfect day even though {we} forgot the camera, Irv’s was closed and it took 15 minutes to park at The Grove.
Holden had his last day of {instruction} yesterday and sang sweetly in the end-of-the-year performance last night.
Just like that.
His first year of preschool is over.
Poof!
We went from this:
To this:
All that in 10 months which translates to about 5 weeks these days. A good way to judge the passing of time when you have kids is by the school year and let me tell you, the school years go by WAY TOO FLIPPIN’ fast.
It’s Summer! Weren’t we just picking apples, carving pumpkins, stuffing stockings and frolicking in the snow?
I do LOVE me some October 1st through December 25th more than anything, but this is ridiculous. I may adore the last quarter of the year, but I cherish the days of my {little} ones even more.
They must slow down.
Here’s to a S-L-O-W, relaxing, snail’s pace of a summer.
Our little tapper/ballerina performed in her third recital yesterday.
Each time she becomes more confident & more graceful.
As I was spraying up stray hairs, resecurring bobby pins and retouching lip liner & sparkly gloss, she kept saying, “C’mon, I need to go backstage!”
{sorry for the teeny tiny picture…I snagged it off Facebook [thanks, Julianne!] and can’t get it sized any bigger, but you get an idea of how darling she looked}
She’s so proud of her trophies. The first one broke 4 hours after she got it, was repaired and is now broken again. The second one crashed and burned last week, but so far this one is still standing. We’ll get the other two patched up and display all three {high} up away from little 4-year old boy hands.
She may be proud of her plastic trophies, but we’re even more proud of the tiny dancer she’s become.
Here’s to many more toe taps, shuffle steps, jazz hands, grand jetés, pliés, chassés, pas de bourrées and hopefully trophies that stay in one piece.
Yesterday afternoon I set out to make a little last-day-of-school snack for the office staff, principal, yard duty and teacher.
I wanted to make saltine toffee, but create a {summery} version using white chocolate instead and adding some dolphin shaped sprinkles and aqua blue sanding sugar. I also had visions of marbling blue and green into the white chocolate…..easier said than done!
The first batch was a total fail. I went off memory {not good!} and didn’t set the oven hot enough. When I poured the white chocolate chips onto the toffee immediately out of the oven, they didn’t melt. I returned the pan to the oven hoping that they’d melt faster and allowing me to spread easily with a knife. Not so.
I then referred to the recipe I used over the holidays and set the oven to the correct setting this time! I also slowly melted the next bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave on 50% power ~ starting with 1 minute, stirring, another minute, then stir again until blended. Once the second batch came out I poured on the melted chocolate and let it sit a couple minutes before spreading with a knife. Much. Better.
In the meantime, I reserved a bit of the white chocolate chips in a small bowl, melted those and added just a couple drops of blue and green color gel and mixed that up. After I spread the white chocolate smooth, I dropped little dots of the blue and green and then ran a knife through it for the {marbled} look. Didn’t quite turn out how I’d hoped, but wasn’t terrible. I then dusted it with some dolphin sprinkles and sanding sugar and put it into the fridge to cool and set up.
Then broke into pieces…
…and decided it wasn’t too awful to package up and share!
I put about a dozen or so pieces of toffee into a sandwich sized ziploc and then stuck that into some little blue lunch bags that I picked up at Dollar Tree {10 for a buck}.
I used leftover green ribbon and some old, unused birthday invitations to attach a little handwritten note,
“Happy Summer! ~ White Chocolate Saltine Toffee ~ From the Aspiras Family”
I must admit that I like the toffee better using either milk or semi-sweet chocolate, but I thought the white chocolate was much more summery. Plus you can add more color using the white and tailor to all sorts of holidays.
Here is our almost-first-grader holding a goodie for Mrs. P, the principal:
…and here they are delivering it to her office…
And here is E with Mrs. R, who makes sure all the little ones are safe before school and out on the play ground:
*****
Room 9 had the cutest, sweetest group of Kinders…
We certainly hope to have some fun summer play dates.
This little polka dotted goofball has exactly 4 more school hours until she becomes a first grader.
Here she is on her first day of kindergarten…
10 months has never gone by so fast.
I am so thrilled with her progress thus far and looking forward to what the next school year holds.
This afternoon as I was {attempting} some fun treats for the office staff and yard duty, I had her sit down and write a thank you note to her teacher, Mrs. H. She went and picked out a special blank card and wrote the following:
“I love you. I loved all the things that you did! You are wudfl {wonderful}! Love Elliott
{the [Love Elliott] was in bubble letters}
She drew a picture of Mrs. H {blond hair} and her {black hair} with a big red heart between the two of them and a smiley sunshine in a blue sky. The two of them standing on some lime green grass.
On the front of the envelope she wrote, not “To Mrs. H”, but instead:
“I will mis you in first grade!”
I died.
I {big red heart} that she is leaving Kinder with these words on her teacher’s thank you note.
