Dining Room Update - Part 2

My dining room furniture is complete.  I honestly don't think I could love our updated dining room set more.

My friend, Emily, painted my dining room table, chairs and china cabinet about a year ago.

I recently acquired the matching server from my parents' set and immediately called Emily to ask her to paint it.  Here is the before:

I thought the room needed some color so Emily painted some options on the back of the buffet:

We went with the color on the right, General Finishes Persian Blue. After applying two coats of paint, Emily distressed it and then applied a cocoa wash.  She also stained the top of the buffet to match the stain on the top of the dining room table.  We left the hardware as-is - I love keeping a bit of the original piece in tact.  Here is the finished product!

My grandma passed away this summer and I inherited a beautiful mirror that we hung over the server.

Thank you Emily!

thirty seven

Having your birthday fall on the weekend is the BEST.  You are given the green light to go ahead and celebrate all weekend long.  So that's what we did.

On Friday, my actual birthday, my parents took Clara and I out to lunch.  We had the most beautiful weather on Friday and got sit and eat outside.

Lunch was followed by a trip to the mall to ride the carousel and the train.  This was more for Clara.  I nearly threw up riding the teacup on the carousel with her.

My sister-in-law came over with my niece and nephew after Clara and I picked up big sisters after school.  Living in the same neighborhood with my brother and sister-in-law is such a blessing and having our kids growing up near each other is irreplaceable. 

Tim came home from work with these beautiful flowers too :) 

On Saturday, I got to FaceTime my niece who just went away to college.  She's the first grandchild to go away to college (and 1/2 of my dynamic babysit duo).  We are all having a hard time letting her go.  I can't even imagine how hard it will be when my own kids leave for college...

Saturday afternoon, my mother-in-law and father-in-law came over to celebrate my birthday as well as my father-in-law's birthday.  My in-laws live near Ted Drewes and always offer to bring over a truck load for special occasions.  My #1 favorite treat!

Saturday night, Ava had her first ever sleepover!  

All of the calls, texts, emails, FB messages from family and friends made me feel like the luckiest lady on earth. Aside from almost visiting the ER and my dishwasher breaking for the gazillionth time, I couldn't have asked for more.  Thirty seven is going to be a great year, I can feel it!

Meet the Teacher Gifts & the Leukemia Lymphoma Society

It's Back to School time!!  So much preparation goes into the start of school. Not just for us parents and our kids, but for teachers too. My oldest is starting 2nd grade and my middle one is starting kindergarten.  The teachers at our school have been so good to us and have so much care and concern for my girls. They really try hard to make the kids feel important. They even give them little "welcome" gifts that the kids LOVE and each year I think to myself "I wish I had thought to give the teachers a little gift." 

This year I remembered!  My cousin, Cindy, is the BEST baker I know. She could honestly open a bakery she's that good. She is also a fantastic IT Consultant and has her own IT staffing solutions company so she doesn't have time to open a bakery. 

Cindy's claim to fame are these fabulous sugar cookies that she bakes and decorates. She takes orders from friends and family and friends of friends, etc. I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to order cookies from her and the time has come!!  Here are the "Meet the Teacher" cookies that Cindy made (and packaged!) for us.

Aside from these cookies being beautiful and delicious, Cindy does not ask for payment for her time and materials and talent. Did you hear that???  She does it for FREE.  All she asks is that you make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. How amazing is that??!!??!!

If you're looking for gifts that "give back" you can Google "Shop with a Purpose" for more ideas.  I can't wait to give these cookies to the girls' teachers.  And I need to get them out of my house soon or I'll eat them all myself!!

Perfect Summer Salad

I haven't posted any dinner recipes in months because I haven't been cooking lately.  Our garden has been producing a tasty variety of lettuce so we have mostly been eating salads for dinner.  We never seem to get tired of mixed fruit and nut salads.  

Here are the ingredients for our favorite summer salad:
1.  Variety of lettuce (We grow spinach, arugula, butterhead, romaine, looseleaf, oak leaf, kale and swiss chard and use a little of each in our salad)

2.  Fruits (We pick 2 fruits from strawberries, blueberries, peaches, pears and mangoes)
3.  1/2 avocado
4.  Pistachios (costly but totally worth it)
5.  Blue cheese (I know it sticks but you don't notice it when it's mixed up in a salad and it really does taste great)

5.  Sweet Italian dressing (If you're from St. Louis, you can't go wrong with Zia's!)

TIP: The key to making a great salad is dicing up all the ingredients, including the lettuce, so that you get a little bit of each ingredient on a bite :)

As a side, I also like to make a tomato salad using California Olive Ranch olive oil (it's the BEST!), fresh ground pepper and chopped basil.

Homegrown tomatoes are honestly better than store-bought.  I don't know why but they are. We had a little bit of success with our tomatoes this year.

We also have a fierce addiction to Whole Foods Olive Bread - sliced, warmed and dipped in California Olive Ranch olive oil.  Mmmmmmm.....

Dairy & Egg Free Banana Muffins

I have been trying to find some healthier treats that I can put in Sidney's lunches when she starts Kindergarten in the fall.  In addition to having dairy, egg and nut allergies, she also has texture issues with foods.  Unfortunately, she did not like these muffins...so Ava and I ate them all.  They were DELICIOUS!  I really can't believe she didn't like them.  I can only figure that it was the texture - she's kind of a hard, crunchy kind of girl.  Anyway, if your kids don't have any aversions to soft, delicious muffins, they will love these!

Ingredients:
1.5 cups white whole wheat flour (you can use all-purpose flour too)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce (or you can use 1 egg)
1 cup mashed bananas (3 medium...although I've often used just 2 large bananas)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a mini muffin pan.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.  Make well in center. 
3. In another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients. 
4. Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Stir just til moistened. 
5. Spoon into muffin tin. 
6. Bake 15 minutes or until wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. 

Step 2:

Step 5:

Cool and Eat!

Surgery {x 2}

My two littlest had surgery on Monday.  I had so much anxiety in the months leading up to this day.  I hated that it had to happen and I hated that I had to keep it a secret from the girls.  But the biggest source of my anxiety was the anesthesia.  The thought of putting my girls under general anesthesia scares me for a couple of reasons.

First, my oldest, Ava, had to go under general anesthesia to have glitter removed from her cornea (long story: Part 1 & Part 2) and had a horrible reaction coming out of anesthesia.  I didn't know how Sidney and Clara would react to it.  

Second, this past June an article was published by researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital that claims: "Surgical anesthesia given to children under the age of 4 years may be associated with reduced gray matter density in certain brain regions, leading to lower IQ and poorer language development."  

Well crap.

My husband and I talked with several doctors including our pediatrician, another pediatrician, the ENT performing the surgery and an anesthesiologist to try to weigh the pros and cons.  Obviously, you know what we decided.  

We may never know if the anesthesia has had an affect on their brains, but the good news is the surgery was successful, the girls did not have as bad a reaction coming out of anesthesia as Ava experienced and both girls are pretty much back to normal already.

My heart goes out to those parents whose children have to go through serious surgeries. And multiple surgeries.  I don't know how they do it.

I'm so blessed to have my girls back.