From the Kitchen

Coconut Lemon Chia Bars
Another vegan recipe from Oh She Glows.  The only thing different about my recipe is that it's missing dried cranberries.  Only because I didn't have any in the pantry at the time.  Delicious and perfect for breakfast!

Goodwill Finds

It was raining this morning when we all woke up...FINALLY!  It was a nice little change from the crazy 100 plus weather we've had for so long.  We decided a couple of Goodwill trips would be the perfect rainy day activity.
We found a few things

Giant Bowling Set - $6
Totally worth it!  Benjamin has a ton of fun.  Sometimes he rolls the ball and sometimes he just runs through the pins laughing.  Either way he has a blast

Crib Sheets - $1.99
We found one blue and white gingham set and one tan with white stars set.  The gingham set is my favorite

Milk Glass Bud Vase - $0.50
I only found one vase this time around.  But it was by far the cheapest.  I usually find them priced for $2.  I have developed a slight obsession with milk glass.  So please, if you ever see any snatch it up for me.  David just shakes his head every time I find any, he always asks what I plan to do with it and I honestly, I don't know.  But looking at this picture, it kind of looks cool just clumped together on top of our dresser.  I have even more of them downstairs, I should dig them up and see what kind of arrangements I can come up with. 

Glass Hurricane looking Jar - $2
I have Fall plans for this baby.  I'm thinking a pillar candle in the middle with lots of loose acorns at the bottom. 

Those were just a few of the things we found.
The rest....
Brand new Five Star computer book bag for $5
Two wood frames (1 11x14 and 1 8x10) for $1 each.  I will most likely spray paint them white
Elmo book $1
Orange Mesh Shorts for Benjamin $1

It was definitely a great visit this time around :)

From the Kitchen

Best Boot Camp dinner = Spaghetti Squash.

I normally don't feel like eating anything after boot camp on Tuesdays and Thursdays but I know skipping a main meal completely, especially after such an intense work out is not a good idea.  So I've been trying to come up with some light and easy meals for those nights.

I drizzled olive oil, sea salt and pepper and baked it for 30 min. at 450.  And then added a little parm cheese and Voila! Easy Peasy healthly dinner :)

Litchfield 2012

We were invited to Litchfield again this year.  It seemed like a bigger turn out.  Benjamin was only crawling last year when we were there so things were much different this time around.

Benjamin has finally gotten used to the life jacket.  Thank goodness because we'll be at the Lake of the Ozarks in a couple of weekends and he's not going anywhere near the dock out there unless he's strapped up with a jacket.

I didn't take hardly any pictures :(

Oreo or Carrot?  Definitely not the carrot

Hopefully there will be a next year!

Stork Diaper Blanket

Last weekend David and I we are invited to our friends Jeremy and Sarah's for a diaper party.  They are pregnant with their second baby and we are so excited for them.  I wanted to bring something more fancy than just a standard pack of diapers and I wanted something different from a diaper cake so off to pinterest I went to look for ideas.
It didn't take me very long at all to find my inspiration.  I decided to go with the baby blanket / stork idea.

How stinkin cute is this!?!

DANCE!

Benjamin is a dancin fool! David put on an old Drum DVD he found (it's the drummer from the Dave Matthews Band) and Benjmain went nuts! My favorite part is the hands in the air and the fact that Maddie is completely uninterested by the screaming toddler inches away from her :)

From the Kitchen

Black Bean Feta Dip

• 1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 can shoe peg corn
• 6 oz crumbled feta cheese
• 1 bunch of green onions (chopped)
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil (or a little less depending on what you like)
• 3 Tbsp sugar 

Stir vinegar, olive oil, and sugar and pour over the rest of the ingredients and Ta Da - That's it!  

Strawberry Lime Granita
From Oh She Glows blog
Pretty amazing that it only takes 4 ingredients to go from this 

To this

Happy 4th!

I'm not exactly sure why but it did not feel like 4th of July today.  I don't know if it's because it falls right smack dab in the middle of the week or what but it really felt like a normal weekend day to me.

Ok, never mind. Our neighbors are in full firework mode right now (9:30pm), so it's starting to feel a little like the 4th :)

We figured it was too hot to do anything other than swim so we took Benjamin to the water park.  We were over due, we should have taken him a long time ago.  He definitely had a good time.

He was completely drained by the time we got to the car.

He took a great nap when we got home which worked out perfectly because I painted the red wall in our living room.  Not completely sure if I'm in love with the color I picked out so I might be repainting this weekend.  I'm going to give it a few days before I make any decisions.  I'll keep ya posted with before and after pics once I settle on a color :)

Bath Tub Paint

I've seen it floating around on Pinterest so I decided to give it a try.
1 tbsp cornstarch
5-6 pumps baby shampoo
2-3 drops food coloring
1-2 tsp water


I love the bright colors

I just figured Benjamin would do finger painting in the tub.  But David had other plans.  He busted out the big guns and brought in the BBQ sauce brush.

Benjamin definitely had a blast with it so I'm sure we'll do it again :)