Ocean Breeze

A sampling of photos from our day trip to the beach.

 

Salt water taffy and fresh fudge shops dotted the boardwalk.

 

By sunset, the crowds on the beach had died down.

 

Some of the shops along the shore.

 

  

St. Edmond's Catholic Church is next to the historic Methodist Church. We went to Mass at the former.

There were thousands of people there when we arrived around noon. We found a clear spot in the sand, rented an umbrella, and set up our towels. The temperature and breeze were perfect!

Isaac enjoyed building and destroying sandcastles with Aunt Cassie.
 

 

 

 

I love this man.

This little bruiser picked up a few scratches at the pool this week. They look pretty bad but are healing nicely. He likes to test his limits. This weekend he learned how to hurl his body over the railing of his pack 'n' play, ensuring excitement at nap time from now on. We always keep a close eye on him.
 

This little one soaked up the sea breeze from under an umbrella for most of the afternoon. Lots of people asked us how old our baby was and told us that he was precious, which, of course, I ate up.

Aunt Cassie was so good about holding the boys when they needed it!
 

 

 

Andre slept quite a bit in the shade. That is the life, little man!

 

I really like taking the boys to the beach. It reminds me of all of the good memories I have of camping at Devil's Lake with my Grandma, sisters, friends, and cousins. I'm sure we'll have a couple of additional camping-lovers around here in a few years.

Isaac called this the "sand box."
 

 

 

Read More

Andre Meets His Godmother

We had a lovely visit with Aunt Cassie! More photos coming soon.

 

Read More

Sentences!

"Isaac like some music."

(Okay, not a perfect sentence. He says this while standing next to the stereo.)

 

 

 

"Why thank you, Isaac! I really appreciate it."

(Normally follows him doing something I told him to do. Yes, he says it to himself.)

 

 

 

 

"Why is the baby crying?"

(Several times a day.)

 

I'm really enjoying this age. He's super-independent and very excited about life. He likes to do everything for himself. He repeats everything he hears -- surprisingly long sentences and big words!

Read More

Fun in the Sun

 

 

 

 

  

Read More

Big Brother

Just thought this was a cute one from this week.

Read More

The Boys and Dad

This man makes sure that Andre gets "tummy time" every day.

Isaac is pretty excited about the baby. In fact, sometimes he loves him too much! I'm sure Andre will appreciate it in a year.

In the middle of a head-turn. He's pretty strong for his age. Just like his dad.

Isaac's shouting here. He has a hard time holding onto Rich, but loves this ride.

Read More

Summer Salad

I'm finally trying the recipes in the July '13 Cooking Light. (There was a nice blurb about the food of Traverse City, Michigan on Page 105, which makes me want to go.) It came in the mail the week Andre was born. So I didn't have time to pull out the recipes that looked interesting until now.

 

This is Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese and Basil, which is just what it says. Seasons: Olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and minced garlic. It was fun to experiment with different types of tomatoes. Everything is ripe here. We paired it with roasted chicken breast and peaches. A decent lunch.

 

Read More

Halibut with Bacony Corn Saute

Here is another "5-Ingredient Main Course" from Cooking Light. When I bought my first issue at a check-out counter last year, Rich said that buying a subscription would pay off if we found one new recipe that we really liked per issue. We have! Some issues are better than others. These may be the only two we use from the August issue. Let me know if you discover other great meals in there!

 

 

 

The ingredients (minus the butter). I didn't buy fresh corn because we needed to use some frozen corn that we had. The turkey bacon was on sale and was so much less fatty than pork bacon. The tilapia was also fresh, so I used that instead of halibut. Our store only had frozen halibut. I cannot taste the difference between white fishes normally.

 

 

 

They didn't need much drying because they were fresh. The salt and pepper stuck to the filets well.

 

 

 

I'm so glad I bought this splatter shield. It's been helping to keep the kitchen clean.

 

 

 

The final product: I liked it a lot. It could have used half of the butter and more olive oil for sautéing the fish. And I always use more salt and pepper than they recommend. Otherwise: fantastic!

 

 

 

This is what the toddler thought of it:

 

 

 

 

 

He finished his plate. (Not bad for someone who was refusing fish less than a year ago!)

Read More

Tomato Ravioli: Or the first not-nuked meal I made postpartum

Cooking Light advertised "Ultra-Easy" and "5-Ingredient" recipes in their August issue. They sounded like my speed. I've been nuking away for five weeks over here. But today I decided to venture out with both boys for some super-simple recipe ingredients. This is Tomato Ravioli, which I also simplified. (Who wants to turn her oven on to 450 degrees in this weather? We sautéed.)

 

 

 

Here are the ingredients (minus the garlic). I forgot to pick up shallots at the store, so I used garlic instead. It wasn't bad that way, though I'd really like to try it with shallots next time. Shallots weren't worth a trip back to the store with the boys.

 

 

 

Here is my awesome cooking space. No gaps! The sink is close enough to the stove that I don't have to carry boiling water far. Also, it's super easy to load the dishwasher. There are fewer spills because it's so close to the sink. And I can SEE the food, thanks to those under cabinet lights! The whole layout is super-efficient.

 

 

 

Aren't these tomatoes beautiful? Everything is ripe now! (I'm eating fresh cherries as I type.)

 

 

 

Here is the final bowl with garnishes. This took about 15 minutes to make, which is super-fast considering I always have one eye on an almost-two-year-old.

 

 

 

The best part about this: Isaac loves pasta. We are working on his picky eating, but it's nice to be able to count on him eating without much coaxing. And he's always been good about eating pasta.

 

 

 

Ever since he learned about hot air balloons, he lifts his food over his head at every meal and says, "Hot Balloon!" That would be what he's doing here:

 

 

 

And cleaning the bowl.

 

 

Read More

Saturday Off

I love, love, LOVE it when Rich doesn't have to work on the weekend! We took a nice walk on Saturday and brought the boys to a park. The lighting wasn't ideal for photography, but here is a sample of our day. I'm hoping to get more photography practice in this summer (maybe starting with having that lens cleaned. :/ ).

 

 

 

 

Isaac was more interested in throwing than kicking the soccer ball. His throw has definitely improved.
 

 

 

A grandma passing by wanted to be sure we got a picture of the whole family and sent it to the grandparents.

 

Read More

Summer Treats

We've been discovering all kinds of things in our home this week. I had forgotten about the sweet German baking chocolate bars in the pantry. These make such great summer treats!

 

Maybe Godiva won't hire me just yet based on the looks of these, but they tasted wonderful!

 

Read More