Fun with a Friend

Today I had three little girls that played together so very nicely!  Our friend Regan came over to play with the girls, and they just had so much fun!  Regs is a sweet little girl, and all three of them play nicely together.  Heather said that Regan took an awesome nap this afternoon too, so that is great!  They went to the playground and played in the sprinkler and the pool and were generally just silly!

Pregnancy update:  I'm hot.  I've never really had a hard time with heat before when I was pregnant, but this time I'm just really hot!  We've had pretty weird weather so far this year, with it swinging from freezing cold to super-hot without too much of a transition so I think that plays into it as well.  I certainly was not eased into the heat this year.

Sewing update:  I fixed a hole in Joel's pants...that is a step in the right direction, right?!  I just have no motivation for projects!  I don't want to do anything except lay around in the evenings!  Joel thinks I'm quite lazy:P  I don't see him doing much either ;)

Have a lovely, hopefully cool, night!

Pool Day

These are pictures from our pool party last Thursday with my niece and nephew.  It was really an all-day party for them!

Little Miss Laine was so cute with her curls...she didn't last as long as the other children in the cold water:)

Pnut had a ball, as per the norm.  She loves water!

And here we have the ghost child who looks like he rarely sees the sun:)  He also had a blast!

Miss Pilly loved the squeezy balls that would fill up wtih water.  She even squished them on her own head.

This is an example of how Pilly lives in her own worls.  Anthony and Pnut are racing around the outside, splashing and carrying on, and Pilly is just standing in the middle dumping water from one cup to another, totally oblivious to anything happening around her!

They would periodically jump out and run around the yard to warm up.  This was after everyone was done, though.  The girls loved Anthony and Laine's special towels!

Resting!

We had such a lovely weekend, and Carolyn's wedding was beautiful!  The girls didn't really have a nap Friday or Saturday so they were really tired.  We took Sunday and today to rest and catch up so that everyone is basically back to normal.  Today we had Pauljay over for lunch.  He kindly kept Java for us while we were away, and I think Java enjoyed himself.  He practiaclly mauled Pauljay with kisses when he saw him in the kitchen!  It was nice to know he was with someone who enjoys him!

For a special treat tonight, we had pudding.  The girls and Joel love pudding, but I hate using milk to make it!  We go through milk fast enough without adding that in!  Here is some of the evidence of their bath:

They did enjoy it!

The girls cried when we left him at Pauljay's house.  Pnut wanted to know if we were going to get to have him back!  They love their puppy:)

Tomorrow I have my first doctor appointment for this baby.  It is just an intake history.  Not very exciting.  I can't wait for 20 weeks when we can find out what this baby is!

Just Too Busy

Whew!  What a week!  We have had something every morning and night practically of this week.  I think the only morning we really had off was Wednesday.  Tomorrow we leave for Carolyn's wedding (where I should fit into my dress!), and then we come back on Saturday.  Next week is going to be another busy one with three more softball games and several things happening in the morning again! 

We had a fun time with family today, and the kids had a blast in the pool.  I'll have to post those pictures later because my camera is not on the computer desk.  And now it is supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow!

I'm sneezing a lot so I need to go.  I think I have an allergy to the field we were at tonight!  Have a great weekend!

Cuteness!

Pilly's computer keyboard that she made.

Sprinkler Fun!

Friday was a warm day so we got the sprinkler out.

The girls were quite excited when their silly daddy came out to put his head in.

And they had to do the same.

Someone told me later that she didn't need a bath because she had already had one in the sprinkler...

Much fun was had...

...and the dog wisely stayed away from the crazy maniacs!

Southwestern Chicken and Black Bean Burritos with Mexican Chunk Vegetable Salad

Today was my turn for cooking club, and I was super-excited to try some new recipes.  I re-looked through my Rachael Ray's Classic 30-Minute Meals and found some things that sounded so good to me but I knew Joel wouldn't eat them!  I was so excited to get to eat them, I forgot to take pictures.  These recipes are from pages 15 and 40.  As per usual, I will list the actual recipe and then my modifications:)

Burritos
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
A couple shakes hot sauce
1 T EVOO or other oil
1/2 onion (I used red)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 T smoky bbq sauce
salt and pepper
lettuce
tomatoes
scallions
flour tortillas

Rub chicken with cumin and chili powder and hot sauce.  Heat frying pan to high and cook on each side for four minutes or until completely cooked through.  Remove from heat
While cooking chicken, heat another fry pan and warm up the oil on medium-high.  Cook chopped garlic and onion until softened.  Add beans and bbq sauce.  Chop fully cooked chicken breasts and mix in.  Heat thoroughly and season.
Place mixture in tortilla and top with lettuce, tomatoes, and scallions.  Wrap and enjoy!

I pretty much stuck to the directions in this one except I didn't rub the hot sauce on the chicken.  I wasn't sure about how to do it without making a mess so I just shook it a couple of times over the bean mixture.  I didn't have scallions, but I did have sour cream, which I thought was delicious.  I definitely want to make these again, and next time I think I will shred the chicken instead of cubing it.  I think it would mix more thoroughly with the beans that way.  Really, really good, and filling, meal!

Veggie Salad
2 tomatoes, seed and chopped
1/3 cucumber (or more), chopped into bite-size chunks
1/2 medium onion (again I used red)
1 medium red or green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 T chopped cilantro or fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 t hot sauce
juice of 2 limes
2 T EVOO
salt and pepper

Chop all vegetables and place in bowl.  Sprinkle with chopped cilantro or parsley.  Put hot sauce, lime juice, and EVOO.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Mix well.

I omitted a lot from this, the jalapeno, the celery, and the cilantro.  I also was only brave enough to put in 1 t of the hot sauce and half of the green pepper.  I am sort of sensitive to super-hot stuff like jalapenos, and last year my throat partially swelled after eating something that had a lot of jalapeno in it so I wanted to take it easy.  I'm learning to like peppers more, but I am still not crazy about large chunks of them so half of the green pepper worked out perfect.  I pretty much think celery is just gross unless it is covered in peanut butter. 

I let this sit in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes before eating it and I had some again tonight with supper, and I think it just gets better the longer it sits.  The dressing really soaks in and is good.  It went really well with the burritos, and because we felt that it really was a relatively healthy lunch, we felt free to have large helpings of dessert:)

For dessert, I made Granny's Chocolate Cobbler, which was featured on Tasty Kitchen last week.  I put freshly made whipped cream on top, but I think ice cream would be really, really good.  It was quite delicious, and I appreciated that all of the ingredients were things that I already had around so it would be easy to whip up for a quick fix!

I just love Cooking Club!  It is so fun to eat good food and have a fun time with some dear friends!  I already can't wait for next month!:)