Sunday at the Zoo

Tough couple of weeks for the blog! I've been here and there but hopefully will catch a break for a couple of weeks. Last Sunday, we met the Haas family at the Zoo. I think all households with small children decided to meet us there too. It was more crowded than on the 4th of July. I guess this weather is bumping everyone's schedule up.  

Sweet Elena...I love her wispy curls. I secretely wished one of my children would have curly hair!

My cousin Evan and his littlest daughter, Sonia. I think her name should just be sweet cheeks!

Nate gazing at the giraffes - even though it's a fake smile, it's one of the best in recent history.

Lila loves the bird house! I captured her with mouth open ooohing and aahing.  The bird house is a little intimidating with all the loud squawking. But it didn't faze her at all.

I love when she gets so excited that she puts her hands on her knees and squats down. So cute!

Recipe Monday

Nate loves feta. So when I see a recipe that calls for feta, I jump on it. He was a little under the weather the night I made it this week for the first time, so he didn't get to eat it, but I hope he will like it when he tries it.

Lemon Feta Chicken with Oregano (http://www.skinnytaste.com/)

8 skinless chicken thighs (I used boneless skinless breasts)
juice of 1 lemon (mine was out of a squeeze bottle)
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp oregano
salt & fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 375. Trim all fat off chicken. Season chicken with salt, pepper, oregano, and lemon juice. Place in roasting pan and bake for about 30-45 minutes. When chicken is cooked, remove from oven and sprinkle with feta. Broil on low for about 2-3 minutes until cheese is golden brown (careful not to burn).

Delicious and healthy too!

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day 2012

St. Louis celebrates St. Patrick's Day in a big BIG way. We usually head downtown to the parade, but after fighting the crowds with 2 kids last year, and the fact that the 17th was actually on a Saturday which upped the anty on raucous behavior, we decided to hang out round our parts. The Zoo had plenty of green and was much more kid friendly. Well. It was at least until the Dogtown parade let out.

I wanted to get a picture of Lila like this one from last year...

But an odd thing happened this year, she can not only move, she can walk, talk and pretty much do what she pleases while you are trying to take a picture.

I think she still looks pretty cute anyway. And that hair! How does that happen in a year!

These boys had their own fair share of cuteness. Do they look like they are yelling?

There's a reason for that.

 They are. I thought this picture was extra cute of Gavin.

Enter Lila and begin the quest for the perfect picture. Not happenin. But at least all the Boyle-Odom grandchildren are there and not hitting or spitting at each other. Yet.

My 2 St. Patrick's Day hooligans. Lila just LOVES to be held by Nate.

Not.

Spring Break on Kiawah Island

I am thankful that Nate is to the point in school where he has a Spring Break. I'm planning to take a Spring Break from now until my kids are out of high school:) Truth is, without the thought of who will take care of my child while he is off from school for 5 days, I probably wouldn't bother to take the time off. But I'm so glad we did.

We went to Kiawah Island, SC where I expected it to be pretty chilly. But instead, especially after the first couple days, it was warm, beach lounging weather. The kids loved it.

Nate found this broom/sword/dead palm tree branch and played for countless minutes, making up stories and gettin' the bad people.

This was Lila's first trip to the ocean. She rocked it out of the park. She loved the sand, the water, even the sea gulls. Was not scared at all for the most part.

Sitting on the beach on one of the more windy days. It was a great beach right in front of our house and there weren't that many people on it.

One day, we headed into Charleston to bum around and hit up the Museum. 

The kids checking out the Hunley - the Civil War submarine. Lila looks so small compared to it! Even though it's not that big. Claustrophobic to think 13 people were inside there. Under water.

My Dad was such a big help with our kids. Entertaining them constantly.

Nate reflecting...sweet boy.

Lila playing on the beach - she really enjoyed putting sand in her bucket, carrying it around, and dumping it out. Just like a kid should like to do on the beach. Except Nate didn't. So it was a new experience for us.

 

Nate and his "Debbie" - we are trying to get the rest of the kids to call her Nana. If I was better at photoshop, I would fix that reflection on Nate's face. But alas. I am not.



Nate really hit his stride with the ocean. He loved to get in the waves and "surf" - even though the water was a bit chilly!

Another picture of my determined 1-year old. Let's just say I won't be getting on an airplane again with her any time soon:)

The only "group" shot I took. And sadly sadly sadly, I didn't get any pictures of Emily, Ben or Bluet. Shame on me. But go to Bluet's Blog HERE to see her in Kiawah.

Great vacation - the next time we go with these folks, there will be another baby in the mix! Yay!

Planned & Unplanned

My lack of blogging this past week has been planned and unplanned:) We were here the first part of last week...

 And then the second part we spent with family celebrating Green Day.

Fun times for the Boyles and I'll be back shortly to share the picture overload!

Recipe Monday

With hopefully warmer weather soon to be the norm around here, my thoughts turn to our favorite spring/summer dishes. This is a recipe that first made it to our house when Scott was a pharmacist at Wal-Mart back in the day. It is our go-to recipe for pot-lucks or when we have to bring a salad to a dinner. Nate loves tortellini and Lila likes spinach leaves. How could they be more different?

Layered Tortellini - Spinach Salad (http://www.tasteofhome.com/)

•1 package (19 ounces) frozen cheese tortellini

•2 packages (6 ounces each) fresh baby spinach

•6 cups shredded red cabbage (I leave these out)

•1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

•3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions (I leave these out)

•1 package (1 pound) sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled

•1 bottle (16 ounces) ranch salad dressing

•Cook tortellini according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large salad bowl, layer the spinach, cabbage, tomatoes and onions.

•Drain tortellini and rinse in cold water; place over onions. Top with bacon. Drizzle with salad dressing; do not toss. Cover and refrigerate until serving.
 
Enjoy!

This Old House

Most of the time, I love my old house. Most? That may be a little too strong of a word. "Some" might be better. Yes, some of the time I like my old house:) Yet, all of the time, I'm thankful to have a house.

It has loads of character and I find that I like it much more during the warmer months. From the stained glass windows to the thick doorways and baseboards, there are many things to like about our house. But today, I'm going to focus on the quirks, for comedic relief of course.

The driveway was obviously built for a horse and carriage and has no ability to accomodate a van or SUV. But we try to make it fit anyway.

(Thankfully we are going to do something about this soon - only took us ~5 years)

None of the doors really shut and none of them have locks. You have to push really hard or slam them to get them to shut. Our children are certainly not learning not to slam doors.

The water from the washing machine shoots out from a pipe on the floor into an open drain in the basement. Scared the bee-jeezus out of me the first time I saw it. Now it's just part of daily life.

If you open the door to the upstairs bathroom when someone is taking a shower, the smoke alarm goes off. The lady telling us to EVACUATE has worn out her welcome.

Speaking of showers, don't even try to run any other faucet in the house while someone is taking a shower. Trickle, trickle, trickle. Good thing is you know for certain when someone left the garden hose on.

Need a history on electrical & phone line wiring from 1918 - present? Just visit our basement and look up.

It goes without saying that the people that built this house obviously didn't need lots of closet space. Or electrical outlets:)

And last but not least, and this is not really because the house is old, but the cat's box and food are in the basement. The people that lived here before us had a cat too. They cut a hole in Lila's closet wall so their cat could get downstairs when the basement door was shut. Pretty genius. They had a sign on the hole that said "Will fill in" when we looked at the house, so we wrote it in our contract that they couldn't fill it in. It's really common place to us, but visitors think it is hilarious. Guess we'll have to fill that in when we decide to leave our old house.

And when that day comes, I know I'll be sad.