A Quick Wedding Weekender

We have been CRAZY busy preparing for Halloween that I need to blog about Ry and Amy's wedding before it gets away from me. Whew! It was a whirlwind trip, filled with friends, family and loads of fun.
Aside from a couple episodes we'd like to forget, the kids were fantastic travelers.

The girls snatched Daddy's phone.


And Tommy was living it large with his trains, OJ, woobie and iPad with photo booth.  His love of trains was taken to a whole new level when he learned how to take photos of them.


I also made some very ghetto homemade videos of his trains on the tracks at home and he loved watching those and hearing our voices playing with them.


When we got to OH, Tommy showed Nana his photos.  No one rocks a snuggie better than Nana.


He even shared the iPad with GJ.


And she gave him a train shirt, which he had to put on immediately.


The girls got dressed up for the rehearsal.


The dinner was delicious and the company even better.  Bride and Groom:


Brooke and Nana


Bumpa and Brandon


Uncle Kit and Elle

He's single and is a whiz with kids ladies...


GJ and Rob


Dave and Brooke


Aunt Juli and Kathy


Irish twins Bumpa and Uncle Mike


The next day flew by, it was perfect, the weather was beautiful and the kids cooperated!

Brooke's friend Teresa was the Swiss army knife of the entire day, we could have NEVER done it without her.








Tommy got Emily the train for performing his duties flawlessly.


You might have to do a double-take on this one...we very rarely look this pulled together.




After the ceremony we took a trolley to the reception.


Lots of toasting and laughing




I just love weddings, I love the ceremony and homily, it was probably the first service I've been able to pay attention to in a LONG time.  The reception was gorgeous, complete with a candy table, three flavors of wedding cake and excellent cuisine.  I didn't take any pictures sadly, the inner-party-girl was unleashed and when that happens I'm on a one-way train to party-town.

To see more photos from the wedding click here.

October Randoms and Banana Muffins {recipe}

If it was "red" day at your preschool, what would YOU wear? Here's what Elle picked out:


Elle and I have been enjoying our afternoons together, I can't believe this is the last year we'll be able to eat lunch and watch cooking shows together during the week.  She makes sure she takes care of her babies in the afternoon too, while wearing her heels of course.

She has set up her "office" in the playroom.

You always need de-tangler, an empty paper towel roll, an Elmo camera, prince charming, and a scrub brush if you plan on getting it done in the office.

We "harvested" figs off of the concrete wall by our driveway, who knew a creeping fig vine would actually produce real figs?


I think we picked them too early, they haven't ripened to their peak sandiness yet.  I'm not a fig fan, their texture makes me gag.  Elle had endless amounts of entertainment playing with these on one of her pretend cooking shows poolside.

We went for a drive the other night and saw a rainbow, it was awesome.


The Tom-inator said rainbow for the first time and he was SO proud.

"WAY-BOOOOW!"

Elle and I put together a gallery wall, we tried using a trick we saw on pinterest.  After we got the arrangement just right, we marked each "hook" on the paper.  Then you are supposed to put the paper up on the wall and easily hang all of the pictures without all of the trial and error.

That's not exactly how it played out.  Let's just say the paper ended up a victim of one of my mommy tantrums and was crumpled up on the floor and I had to revert to the old trial and error ways.  I liked my new arrangement anyway, so HA pinterest!  I'll try to upload a pic for you to see on the next post.

Every now and then I bury my controlling side, and I allow the girls to help bake some treats.  This recipe is adapted from a few different recipes off of food network.

Banana Muffins {recipe}
1 cup sugar
2 egg
1 stick of butter
4 ripe bananas
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda


1.  Cream sugar and butter in the bowl of a mixer.

2. Add eggs 1 at a time.


3. Mash 3 of your bananas in a separate bowl.


4. Or you can let one of your kids do it for you.


5.  Add milk and cinnamon to banana mixture.


6.  Or you can let a little diva do it for you.


7.  Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in yet another bowl.


8.  Add banana mixture to the egg mixture, blend well.


9.  Add flour mixture, and mix just until combined.


10.  It'll still be a little bit chunky.


11.  Fold in one diced banana.  At this point you can add whatever floats your boat: nuts (if you like them),  chocolate chips, whatev...



12.  Bake @325F in muffin tins for 25-29 minutes.  You are going to L-O-V-E the diced banana, I promise!

Labor Day Weekend and mini Sweet Pepper Appetizer {recipe}

Tommy is settling into preschool nicely.  Here he is wearing his "Friday" shirt:

It has Thomas, James, Henry and Gordon on it.  I'm contemplating cutting it and making 4 different train shirts.

Because the t-shirt, a zillion trains and videos aren't enough, Tommy has even added a train spin brush to his collection of train paraphernalia.

Someone has their mother right where he wants her...

Bumpa and Kathy came down to Anna Maria Island for Labor Day and we stayed with them for a bit.  The first day we hung out at the pool. The girls played chicken, but found playing Bumpa-monster was way more fun.


I love this shot.


More Bumpa-monster.

Kathy and I enjoyed drinking wine and witnessing the fun thought it would be nice to let the guys play with the kids rather than jumping in with them.

The next day we hit the beach.  Tommy was not fond of the sand on his feet at first.


But he got over it.


Elle found a "magnificent feather".


Khera had fun collecting seashells.


Then what started as a walk along the beach...


Tommy thought, "Hmmm, I wonder what that water and sand feels like..."


He got his feet wet...


And his hiney...


Now up to his chest...


And then he was all in!


This might be the first day Tommy will remember being at the beach and loving it.


Heading home I wondered, how is this boy still awake?  Khera is definitely sawing logs here.


Don't worry, for long car trips where we foresee sleeping we usually break out the big dogs (car seats, that is).


OH, and I almost forgot:

mini Sweet Pepper Appetizer {recipe}
alouette (Garlic & Herbs)
mini Sweet peppers
fresh basil

1. Cut peppers in half, lengthwise and remove the seeds.
2. Spread cheese inside the peppers.
3. Top with julienned basil.
4. Enjoy!

*note: You can substitute the cheese with whatever you like, softened goat cheese, or any other spreadable cheese.

Super easy, super delicious, and easily packable.  Take some to your next potluck, book club, or dinner party!