Thank goodness for Dads! I would have surely ushered Campbell in as soon as it stared raining and she would never have gotten this experience and we wouldn’t have gotten these great pictures. What an adorable moment. The top picture is from Ben’s camera (good ad for the droid moto x!) and the rest are from my DSLR.
She had a blast! And really, what’s wrong with getting drenched in the rain every now and again?
We went strawberry picking the other weekend and had the best time! The weather couldn’t have been nicer and the strawberries were perfect!! Each kid had a little basket and Ben and I shared a big tray.
Campbell ate more than she saved but Sam took his job pretty seriously and got some good ones! In fact we ended up with over 13 lbs! And don’t worry, not one strawberry went to waste. Besides just snacking on them, we made strawberry jam (with chia seeds instead of pectin), strawberry bars, strawberry rhubarb crisp, strawberry ice cream, and we froze strawberries to use for smoothies. We will definitely make this an annual tradition!
We had a great Father’s Day! We headed down to Richmond this morning to go to the Children’s Museum there. It was really fun!
But as great as the Children’s Museum was, it probably wasn’t worth a nearly two hour drive. After all, we have children’s museums in DC and VA. But that wasn’t the real reason we drove down to Richmond. The real reason of course was to have a Father’s Day lunch at Chuy’s–Ben’s favorite Texas restaurant that just moved up to Virginia!! It is exactly like the Texas locations. We would have thought we were back in Texas, except for the guy at the table next to us, who literally said “I don’t know what ranchero sauce is.” Dude! Don’t admit that out loud. Have some pride!
What a great day! And the kids couldn’t have been sweeter!
And of course, happy Father’s Day to my dad (aka Grandpa Pat). Thanks for being such a great dad!!!
And now for my final gift, for both Ben and my dad, I am really hoping the Spurs can finish off the Heat!!!! Go Spurs Go!!!
We had our last days of preschool here! Both kids had such great years and such great teachers, we were sad to say goodbye. But hopefully we’ll have an exciting summer!
Here are their first day and last days of school. Amazing to see how they have grown!!
And of course we had to get some sibling shots too!
What We Ate Wednesday: Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.
Wednesday: Roasted Potato and Frisee Salad and Hard Boiled Eggs
I made this salad but skipped the tomatoes and added hard boiled eggs for some protein. It was delish!
Thursday: ???
Um, I can’t remember and my calendar is wrong. Haha! So, um, leftovers?
Friday: Garlic Scape Creamy Pesto Pasta
I made this recipe but used garlic scapes (from the CSA) instead of garlic. Yummy!! And we also had a salad. We got a ton of greens in the CSA this week.
Saturday: Date Night
We went to see the Edge of Tomorrow (highly recommend) and grabbed takeout from Cava Grill on our way. I loooove that place!
Sunday: Collard Greens Gratin and Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes
We had more collards this week and I wanted to do something different so I made this new recipe. It was OK but I wasn’t in love with it. Campbell ate it all up though. So may be a good one to try? We also had twice baked sweet potatoes. I was trying to be healthier but I wish I had just used regular potatoes. Over all, not a great meal!
Monday: Pizza and Salad
Just TJ pizza dough, shredded cheese, and pizza sauce. And a salad. Easy and good!
Tuesday: Fritatta and Salad
We had some swiss chard in our CSA delivery so I made this frittata. Ben and I loved it and the kids thought it was fine. I also made oven roasted sweet potatoes as a side.
I had an amazing Mother’s Day this year! It is so fun being the star all day! We went to soccer practice and then had a lovely brunch downtown.
Then we had a nice day of hanging out outside, Ben finished up my nightstand project, and I went to tutoring (where one of my tutees even brought me flowers!). And then we had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in old town.
My favorite part of the day was the awesome cards I got from the kids. I know I will cherish these forever.
What We Ate Wednesday: Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.
Our CSA has started for the summer! I love having local, fresh vegetables delivered every week, and it give me a little direction when planning our meals.
Wednesday: Bean and Cheese Tacos
Super simple: tortillas, canned refried beans, shredded jack, and a little fresh guacamole.
Thursday: Rice Bowl
I decided to make this recipe again, but with the white rice the recipe calls for (instead of brown rice or quinoa). It was REALLY good with white rice! And it is super healthy, so I may just overlook the white rice. I haven’t tried it with brown rice though so maybe I should at least give that a try? (vegan)
Friday: Leftovers
Just cleaning out the fridge.
Saturday: Date Night
We went to Fuego in Clarendon! The food was pretty good (though definitely didn’t top my favorite Mexican restaurant) but the drinks were super delicious! And we got a great seat on the upstairs balcony on a beautiful night.
Sunday: Collard Greens, Baked Beans, Grilled Sweet Potatoes
I wasn’t sure what to do with the collards, so I decided to cook them like I did on New Years and pair them with these baked beans I have been wanting to try and grilled sweet potatoes. I made the baked beans with a bag of 15 beans just because I thought the variety would be tasty and healthy. Ben made the grilled sweet potatoes and they were delicious. He par-boiled them and then peeled and cut them. He seasoned them with olive oil, cumin, cayenne, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. (vegan)
Monday: Corn and Avocado Salad with Quesadillas
The problem with a CSA is that they give you a list of what they *expect* to have and then on Thursday, they give you your vegetables, which may or may not be identical to the list they gave you on Tuesday. I totally get why they can’t predict with 100% accuracy what will be available, and I know that’s part of participating in a CSA. But when you planned to make a radish corn salad because you thought you were going to have radishes in your CSA delivery, it is a little annoying when you go to make dinner and realize you didn’t get any radishes! But actually, dinner turned out fine. I threw in some red onion scallions instead of the radishes and added avocado. It was delicious! And for the quesadillas, I just melted jack cheese in buttered corn tortillas in the oven.
Tuesday: Spicy Cauliflower Stir Fry with Rice Noodles
I got this recipe from my friend Alison. It was SO good!! I threw in some slivered almonds to make it a little more filling and served it with rice noodles! (vegan)
My friend Kelly is super talented. When I saw her beautifully transformed Ikea rast nightstand in this post, I knew I had to copy it for our bedroom! The funny thing is that she is so creative, this post wasn’t even about the nightstand, it was about the Ikea lamp that she hacked. But she gave me a few pointers on how to create my own beautiful nightstand.
Here is what the Rast nightstand looks like. It is only $34.99, but not super beautiful out of the box, so you need to do a little work.
I went to Home Depot and picked out a color I liked and then had them mix it up for me in their cheapest paint+primer. I got the small can and I think it was about $15. I did two coats of paint on the nightstand, which already really improved the look of it.
Then, on Mother’s Day, Ben installed all the hardware for me. It took a lot longer than I was expecting because there were so many screws (60 in all!). But I think it was worth it (thanks Ben!). What a difference paint and hardware can make!
I also painted the nightstand on my side of bed (the Ikea one is on Ben’s side–lucky duck!). I am so happy with the finished look in our bedroom!
We signed Sam and Campbell up for soccer this spring. The practices were in our neighborhood–just a 10 minute walk–on Sunday mornings, which was great. They divided the kids up by age but they were all on the same field so Ben and I took turns watching each kid’s practices. It was really cute to see them doing their little drills and they both loved kicking goals. I hope we can do this again in the fall!
School will be out soon and the weather tells us it is definitely summer! We are going to make the most out of our summer with all these fun activities. The four of us came up with them together.
Let me know if you want to join us for some of these great summer activities!!