the last of them

There are many more for me to share with this family, but the last of them are on here now! Each day I liked and appreciated new photos as I edited them, so I am glad it was a couple day process.

We went to the local farm today for corn on the cob. Got that. Also got tomatoes (cherry and enormous), peaches and new potatoes. The corn was like eating candy, so delicious. I only boiled the potatoes and added butter, salt and pepper. Yummy too. But with my two spare ears of corn I decided to dig out this recipe:
ok, foo. Google is not letting me cut and paste the recipe so I will briefly describe it, and add it later.
Tomato Corn Salsa.
It calls for grilled corn but I just used the two I had boiled. A bit of evoo, white wine vinegar and my totally cheating spices from Trader Joe's: garlic and basil. (It called for fresh spices but these worked excellently) I am so glad I remembered I had those on hand. I am having a slight love affair recently from my TJ's goodness. I saw there is a cookbook and clearly, I need it. (Again, I was going to cut and paste a book photo, yet Google is just beating me up tonight.)

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a sweetie for sure!

This poor guy was looking in every direction as fast as he could with all of us trying to catch his attention, but I grabbed a few of him looking just perfect!

** someone called to say they could not see any pic here. I uploaded another but now I see two! How many do you see???

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photo session

A friend of the family recently asked me to take pics of them. These are just a few of the many I took and have yet to work all the way through. They were a great bunch, 14 in total. So far, I like these best, especially the last one. Oh, and the third has a vintage action on it which desaturated the colors. More to come as I proof them but I wanted to get a few on here, in case any of them pops by for a sneak preview!

Next, a super easy, super delicious recipe. Probably NOT super lowfat!!
Cheesy Mostaccioli Recipe. A neighbor told me about it, but I found the recipe online to share. I just made it for the second time tonight, I divide it in two pans and freeze one for later, but I do not add the mozzarella until I bake it.

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party time

When I saw this adorable template with the rainbow, I knew I had to use it somehow. It took me a long time and lots of online help to figure it out but I did! Everything I used is from Sweet Shoppe Designs. I also found a super cool new font hook up: fonts for peas.

This is my sweet girl with her sweet boyfriend in the background. They had not seen each other since pre-school in May but they were thick as thieves instantly. You can what remained of her scraped face in this photo, she is completely healed now. Thank goodness.

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cool little gem

I found these 4x6 photo frames free on this blog (scroll to the july 11 post). What a fast and clever idea to dress up your photos fast and then print them.

One more cool thing...the day after Shelby's party, I got an email from Shutterfly/ Chuck E Cheeses with an offer to print 12 free thank you notes using a picture. It took minutes, I used this picture of her above and paid nothing but $2.49 to ship them here. Shutterfly is so on it these days, they are doing some terrific marketing.

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a whole lot of nothing..

going on. Actually, a lot of good and laid back living, but in a good old fashioned way for these two. They have gotten tons of new stuff but they do alot of what you see here...setting up a fort in the hallway below our stairs...filled with horses and unicorns, and obstacles for the horses, or people who think they are horses...to jump. And quality sister time too...like sharing sorta, your DS!

Shelby had her "kid" party on Tuesday at Chuck E Cheeses. A totally fun and worthwhile experience. I cannot believe this is the first time I have had a kid's party there b/c it was truly, low stress and low maintenance for me yet off the charts fun for all of them. And a good value too, if you can believe it.

Trying to get back in the mood to digi-scrapbook, I have tons of birthday stuff to document, along with boo-boos, milestones and maybe even a page or two about me, just to make sure they know I was behind the scenes (or camera, which is closer to the truth) too!

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from

super fun sprinkler girl to...

MAJOR fat lip baby :(
Shelby took a major tumble on the driveway. I saw her go down, face first and her head literally bounced back off the ground. I still could burst into tears any minute just thinking of it. She fell so fast, she did not even get her hands down to break the fall. The full impact was on the face, focused mostly on the lip, gums and one front tooth. Hoping for the best on that last part. ** I just checked her back out and I am pretty sure that tooth is moving around a bit. Now I have a whole new pit in my stomach.
Olivia is being so kind to her which makes it a little easier to take. They are both laying in my bed and Olivia is not only letting her watch her play the Nintendo DS, she has even let her do it!

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favorite things

right now, a short list of what I am enjoying:

Soyaki Sauce from Trader Joe's--We have had this twice for dinner in the past week. I marinate chicken breasts in it for about 1-2 hours and then grill. I have served it with Rice A Roni Rice Pilaf and right now this, is my fav meal!!! The flavor is just excellent.

Indoor S'mores--I made this on Sunday and everyone loved them. Extra good news: they were OK for my peanut allergic niece. (scroll down on that blog for the recipe)

Jennifer Weiner books--Just read my last one; In Her Shoes. Just as good as all the others.

Birthday gifts--My kids got some good ones. Honestly, to celebrate two kid Birthdays at once is like Christmas. TONS of stuff. Olivia is really enjoying some new DS Games. Shelby got a new Clifford game for the Leapster, a Horseland stable, and a new horse. Lots of other goods too but these are big hits.

Dinner with girlfriends--Last night I had dinner with my High School girlfriends and there are not many things better than laughing, supporting, crying, eating and drinking with that group. The hostess outdid herself with the menu. I hope to share one or two of those. Yum-o! Pin It

second party down...

one to go! Yesterday, we celebrated my girls' b'days together here at home with both of our families. It was seriously like Christmas for them. SO fun!! The cousins showed up with a wild, baby bunny. My girls loved that. Not sure if little Fufu is going to last long with all that handling but he/she was really cute. I did not get a great cake shot but I love this one b/c they are together and sharing the cake and candles without even a hint of a complaint.

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more bday...more class stuff

I always wondered not only how to create a digital 2 page layout, but more importantly, how to later print it as 2 pages. Now I know. This took me a loooooooooong time, it had a bunch of steps but woweee did I learn a bunch.
And funny, I took these pics just for the heck of it on Saturday and they turned out to be a perfect fit for this lesson which had mini photos detailing some steps in a process.
Tonight is Olivia's "friend" party, she is having 6 classmates to a little studio to create some Webkinz collars and leashes. So fitting for my insane Webkinz collector.

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it's been about this girl...

for the past few days!! Just some snapshots from my "little" camera. The bottom two are from a July 4th party and the top is her blowing out a single candle during a neighborhood party. She looks overwhelmed by the attention, huh? Not! We have had a great couple of days celebrating with friends, and late night fireworks that even Shelby has managed to come to enjoy. Lots to be grateful for.

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bacon ranch potato salad

So my neighbor tells me she is taking this potato salad with her on a boat trip this weekend. I am am all like: yea, yea, yea...until I hear her say 3 ingredients! Then I take note and I just made it!I am such a cheater that I bought a 1.5 lb. bag of new potatoes in a ready to steam bag. Cooked those, diced them, let them cool a bit and added bacon ranch dressing (I used Hidden Valley) and chopped up 3 green onions. It is really good! I just did a quick check online and there are a ton of variations out there. Other fun things to add:
hard boiled eggs
fresh cooked bacon
green or red pepper
homemade dressing, or made from a packet instead of a bottle.
Mine is off to it's rainy destination dressed only in three lonely ingredients. Oh well.
Happy 4th! Pin It

in just one more day...

This kid will be 7. It seems like just yesterday that I was grilling out on July 4th, a huge belly, covered by a big ol' man's Old Navy t-shirt (that was before their cute maternity wear debuted!) filled with excitement, knowing she was finally coming the next day. July 5, definitely one of the most exciting days of my life, hands down :)

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file this under

Just enough knowledge to get myself in trouble!! My mother in law wanted some "old fashioned" style pics, with selective coloring, to send to great grandma. Of course, I said sure, I can do that!! I got a handful of really good ones and I am pleased with all my post processing. What a group, huh? These are my two (obviously!) plus the cousins from their Dad's side.

Five of the seven of these buggers, the other two returned to North Carolina, are going to potentially STAR in a commercial today. Stay tuned!

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