The Stork Lady

If you have kids and you're from St. Louis you've probably heard of The Stork Lady.  In case you haven't heard, The Stork Lady is a HUGE consignment sale that starts tomorrow!  I went last year and it was a madhouse!  Mom's come with all their kids (which I do not recommend) in strollers and wagons and do their shopping for the year.  They sell tons of kids clothing for all seasons, accessories, baby gear, toys, games, books, and more.  If you can handle the crowds and long lines at check out, you can find some good deals.

To make it a successful trip, I'd recommend leaving the kids at home and bringing a friend or grandma along.  That way, one of you can shop while the other holds a place in the check out line.  That line can get seriously out of hand!  Also, bring a good bag or cart to hold your purchases.

LOCATION:

125 Kenrick Plaza Drive
Shrewsbury, MO 63119
  (in the shopping plaza across from the old Kenrick Move Theater.)
  (in the former ‘Cabinets, Flooring & More’ building, across from Powerhouse Gym & Value Village)

HOURS:

July 12th - 9am - 7pm
July 13th - 9am - 7pm
July 14th - 10am - 3pm  (most items 50% off, July 14th only)

Check out the website for more info.

Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells

I discovered stuffed shells a couple of years ago when Sidney was born.  After I got home from the hospital, a bunch of my friends organized meals for me and one of the meals was stuffed shells.  Yuuuuuuuum!  I wasn't much of a cook back them (I'd call myself the reluctant cook now) - the most I'd done with pasta was boil noodles and throw some sauce on it.  So I was very excited to learn that stuffed shells are almost as easy!  Since this discovery, I've made several varieties of stuffed shells.  These little cuties are my latest favorite.  I've made this a couple times now and made some changes from the original recipe on this website.

Ingredients:
1 box of jumbo pasta shells
4 oz reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese + 1/4 cup for topping
Pesto (homemade or store bought)
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (see Notes below)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Marinara sauce

Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2.  In a large pot over high heat, boil water and prepare pasta shells as directed on package.
3.  Cook pasta shells only until al dente. The pasta will finish cooking when the dish is baked.
4.  Drain the pasta shells and set aside.

5.  In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, 4-5 tablespoons pesto, shredded chicken, garlic, salt and pepper.

6.  Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish (~ 3 – 4 tablespoons).

7.  Fill the pasta shells with the filling and place in a baking dish.  
8.  In a small bowl combine ~ 6 tablespoons of marinara sauce with ~ 2 tablespoons of pesto.  
9.  Spread the combined sauce over the top of the shells.

10.  Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of cheese over filled shells.
11.  Cover the baking dish with tin foil and bake shells covered for 20 minutes.

12.  Remove tin foil and bake for 10 more minutes or until shells are bubbling hot and cheese melts.

Notes:

This recipe makes 25 – 30 shells.

To cook and shred the chicken, boil chicken in a pot for 12-15 minutes until cooked through.  Remove and use two forks to shred the chicken.

Baby Naming

Did you know that 11% of parents regret the name they gave their baby according to BabyCenter.com!  

I think it's pretty stressful to pick out a name for your baby.  You want something unique, but not crazy.  You want the name to be cute for when they're little, but also professional-sounding for when they're an adult.  You want the first and last name to sound nice together.  You don't want obvious bad nicknames to be derived from your child's name.  And you don't want your child's initials to spell something undesirable.


As if that isn't enough to consider, new research shows that an easily pronounceable name may be linked to career success.  A study published by the Journal of Experimental Science found that among 500 US lawyers, those with simple names - such as John and Sue - were promoted more often.


You may know that our third girl is due this October.  I am a bit nervous about picking a name for this little girl.  It was hard enough for us to come up with Ava and Sidney's names.  And I love their names so much.  I just can't imagine that we will find another girl name that we love just as much.


Here is the list of the Top 100 Girls Names in the US (according to a search I did on Google):

Nothing has jumped out at me so far.  What are your favorite girl names?  Maybe you can help us name our baby!

Breakfast Cookies

Good morning!  I hope you had a fun 4th of July.  I have the perfect breakfast snack for you!  I was looking on Pinterest for a quick and mostly healthy breakfast snack and I found these cute and yummy little Breakfast Cookies.

They're the perfect snack and if you're in a rush in the morning, a couple cookies will tide you over.  Here's how you make them:

Ingredients:
3 mashed bananas (ripe)
1/3 cup apple sauce
2 cups oats
¼ cup rice or almond milk
½ cup raisins 
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup Whole Ground Flaxseed Meal (optional)


Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2.  In a medium bowl, mash the bananas.  I'm sure there's a tool you can buy to mash bananas.  I found this wooden thing in our drawer.  I think Tim bought it to mash the limes when he makes Caipirinha's.  It works great for mashing bananas.  A fork would probably do the trick too.


3.  Combine remaining ingredients in the bowl and mix.  I like to add Flaxseed meal to recipes whenever I can (sorry I forgot to include it in my Ingredients picture).  It's so good for you and doesn't change the taste.

4.  Drop dough on a parchment lined baking sheet (~2 Tbsp for each cookie).


5.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Cool on a cookie sheet before packing in an air-tight container.


This recipe will make about 20 cookies.  Yum!

Alphabet Car Game

I've been working on the Alphabet with the girls.  Ava (4 years) is working on recognizing and writing her lower-case letters and Sidney (2 years) is working on recognizing letters.  When I saw this project on Little Family Fun I knew it would be perfect.

I used card stock to make the car, road, sun and cloud.  I used a circle punch to make the wheels out of card stock.  Then I had it all laminated - everything lasts longer when it's laminated.

I also attached an envelop to the back with double stick tape to hold the "wheels" when we're done playing.


How to play:
Set out all the letters.  Say a letter and have the kids find it in upper-case and lower-case and place them on the car for wheels:

You could also say two different letters and have them find two at a time in upper-case:

Or find two lower-case letters:

Sidney is also working on identifying colors so sometimes I her her find two wheels that are the same color:

Sometimes Ava has fun just playing with the wheels and lining them up in alphabetical order too.

Fourth of July Firecracker

One final Fourth of July art project - Firecracker!  Ava gets a bit scared when she hears fireworks at night and lately someone has been setting off fireworks almost every night!  I thought that if we did some firecracker arts and crafts it might help prepare her for the 4th of July fireworks shows.

Here's what you need:

- One piece of white 12" x 12" card stock

- Red and blue crayons

- Red, white and blue star stickers (I got mine from Michaels)

- Red, white and blue tulle

- 4th of July ribbon

First, I had Ava stick the stars on the white card stock and then color around the stars with red and blue crayons.  She decided to write the names of everyone in our family.

Next we cut pieces of ribbon and tulle and stapled them to the bottom of the card stock.

Then I rolled up the paper and stapled the top and bottom.  I also used double stick tape to secure the two sides together.  I used regular tape on the inside to make sure it stayed put.  Then, I covered the staples on the top and bottom with a piece of ribbon using double stick tape.  

The last step is stapling a piece of ribbon to the top to use as a handle.  Then I covered up the staples with a piece of ribbon across the top of the card stock using double stick tape.

Happy 4th of July!