Laura's first day of Kindergarten!

Can it really be true that I child in Kindergarten???? Laura had a great first day, and I am so excited about the school she is going to... best decision ever!!!!

Bye Irene!

We survived Hurricane Irene! Woohoo! We didn't have any damage other then a mess in the yard to clean up the next day, and we lost power Saturday afternoon - through Monday afternoon, but it could have been a million times worse! We have a good generator set up, so we still were able to keep our fridge cold, keep fans in the house, and even watch TV lol. The important stuff you know! Thankfully we have natural gas so I was able to cook normally, and we all had hot showers. We had some fun with friends that stayed with us during the storm as their area floods easily, and since our husbands are both police officers and had to work that night we were able to just hunker down together in our house while they were at work. We really were lucky though. The girls and I took a walk the next day, and we saw a few houses that had trees down on their houses, and a small boy in our town was killed when a tree came down on their apartment. So sad!

Since we came out with out any unexpected damage I am now the proud owner of a sweet Ford Fusion! I freaking love it! Another cool feature on it is it has this interior lighting that you can change the color on, and one of the options you have is pink! Hehehe, when I found that on the car it sealed the deal. Yesterday we made it official and the car now has a happy home with us.

Hurricane Irene also has continued to mess up my daughters first day of being an offical Elementry schooler....The area where her school is at is still without power... I am crossing my fingers that Thursday or Friday she will be able to go.

Other then that we have just been hanging out, and I have been busy plotting my next cooking projects, as I want to try out some new receipes...stay tuned for those!

Who doesn't love cookbooks?

Recently I was approached by The Cook Book MarketPlace, to share an amazing 40% off discount with my readers! The Cook Book MarketPlace can be your resource to purchase pretty much ANY Junior League cookbook, as well as other wonderful organization cookbooks from other non-profits. You all know I solemnly swear to you that any Junior League cookbook is going to be worth Every. Single.Penny. My own mother, who pretty much has her own cookbook library in her pantry, will even tell you that Junior League Cookbooks are the best hands down. They have the best recipes that are tried and true! Amazingly, if you purchase a cookbook from their website, and use the special code NAP40 when you check out, you will receive 40% off your purchase! You just can't beat that! Think of all the wonderful books you can add to your collection, or give out as gifts. I plan on purchasing several to give as Christmas gifts. Have any bridal showers coming up or new neighbors? Buy a cookbook, tie on a pretty cooking spoon with a bow and you have the perfect gift! Over the next few weeks I plan on talking some about my favorite cookbooks that you can purchase from their website, and trying out some yummy reciepes! Get to shopping and remember to use the code- NAP40

Go away Irene!

Hurricane Irene is messing with my child's first day of Kindergarten, which is supposed to be tomorrow.... she still had meet the teacher day, in which we went down to her classroom and checked everything out, and met her teacher, whom we already knew as she lives one street over. Laura was shy, but seems to really like her teacher and thinks her classroom is awesome. A few pictures from the morning, before we took off to Costco to buy water, bread, and other needs to get us through the unknown of Irene! I am heading out tomorrow morning to Food Lion to get a few more needs, AND I think we have found a car... but will probably wait until after the storm before we bite the bullet! It's pretty though!

So we have a generator, plenty of food, so hopefully we are set to go. We have plenty of games, and arts and crafts stuff and books, so hopefully if we are without power for a long time we will be occupied and safe!

Thursday thought dump....

*This week our area experienced a earthquake. Don't get excited- most people didn't notice it. I was in my SUV, and actually thought my car was about to die, so I was excited to find out my car was ok and it was just an earthquake.

*A hurricane may impact our area, and gas, water, and bread are already hard to find. Hopefully everyone makes it out safe, and with the least amount of damage as possible.

*Dave is hunting for a new work car for me. The Pontiac is fine, but we want something with better gas mileage as I will be attempting to take our oldest to school every day, and I have a bit of a commute to work. Plus, let's be honest, there's a lot of miles on Miss P. He's attempting to find a Ford Fusion that's a couple of years old.

* This has been the craziest busiest week, and of course I still can't make everyone happy, because everyone thinks the world revolves around them. News flash. It doesn't.

* I have to go to Costco today to get a few things, and I am trying to mentally prepare myself for the hurricane freak out crowds. I will attempt to behave myself with the shopping cart, and not mutter curse words.

* Thank your police, firemen, healthcare providers, utility repair persons, and military this weekend, who will be working overtime to make sure the general public is safe during this storm, and can't be at home to protect their own families.

Weekend cooking and new cookbooks!

So this weekend I tried two new recipes... both from Pinterest. The first one I made was a cookie bar recipe that consists of a graham cracker crumble crust, melted chocolate chips, and cookie dough with heath bar topping, all baked and cut into bars. A-freaking-mazing.... I honestly gave most of it away, and cut them in small bites since it was so rich...

Sunday morning I attempted Breakfast Muffins, but I have a huge muffin pan, so my result looks more like a breakfast bite rather then muffin. Dave and I loved these, but the kids are apparently not fans of their eggs, biscuit, bacon and cheese all mixed together. They like all of those things seperate, though they did try them at least. These were good, and I wouldn't mind making them again for just Dave and I.

*I will go back and put in the links for the receiepes but Pinterest is down right now, so check back later for the links.

Recently I went to a local antique mall, and while browsing for nothing, I stumbled upon three Junior League cookbooks.... I have learned that my favorite receipes either 1. come from the interenet via food websites, blogs, or pinterest. or 2. Junior League or other woman organizations cookbooks. You just can't go wrong with Junior League cookbooks! I didn't spend more then $5 on each of these cook books, and that's a steal! I had been wanting the Tidewater on a Half Shell one for quite some time, and the Out of Our League one, is a best seller and one that I remember my mom cooking out of. I am looking forward to looking through them later tonight and planning on making some items from there soon!

Cramming as much as I can into summer....

Saturday was a busy full day for all of us. As Laura starts school this friday, I am attempting to cram in some last minute fun. Several months back on groupon.com in our area, there was a paint your own pottery deal at a place in Williamsburg that I snatched up. The girls had never done it before, and I had been wanting to do it with them for ever... We finally went out yesterday to use it as it expired soon. Our friends with a new baby joined us too, so their 3 year old could particiapte as well.

Rachel picked out a piggy bank, Laura chose an owl bank, and well let's be honest, we chose Emily's item which was a small fish. Rachel kept calling her piggy bank and guinni pig bank lol. Rachel decieded to paint her pig all purple with some polka dots on it, and Laura took her time and did different colors on her owl. Emily kept saying "NO HELP!" and painted her fish blue and orange. They had a lot of fun and already have told us what they want to paint next time. Even David admitted he wouldn't mind painting his own coffee mug. I'd love to go back and paint a platter. You can have the items shipped to you, but since I work in the area I will just pick up all of our items in about a week.

After our pottery time, we had lunch at a park the girls had never been to. They enjoyed playing, and I made them take a picture with a massive oak tree!

We headed home, and attempted to all take naps, before heading out to the movie theatre. Emily was very cranky so we didn't try to take her, plus we were heading to see Glee the 3d concert experience, and didn't think she would miss much. So this was all of our first 3d movies at a theater, and let's just say we spent a small fortune...oh well, we hardly ever go to the movies, so it was a special treat. When the ticket lady gave us the total I even had her repeat it to me twice, and I was shocked lol. I mean it wasn't a real concert for goodness sakes, just a movie concert. It was worth it though as the girls did really like it, and I have to admit the 3d stuff was pretty cool.

I ended up making a yummy dessert/snack I saw on pinterest, and I have plans to make a fun breakfast here in a few for everyone once they wake up. I will share pictures and links for all of that later! Happy Sunday everyone!