a week at the beach

Last week we took a risk and headed to Destin, Florida during Hurricane season and in the midst of the oil spill. To our luck, we had blue skies every day and didn't see a single tar ball. So if you are considering heading down for one last beach trip...go for it!

These two boys kept us busy but we did find some time to relax, read books and go to a matinee (can't remember the last time I was able to do that).

David's parents joined us for the week and I think the boys were more happy to be on vacation with Nana and Pops than with Momma and Dadda.

We sure were glad they were there too!!

tomato recipes

Tomato season is coming to an end but thought I would share a few favorite recipes that we enjoyed this summer.

Tomato Salad
2 lbs. assorted vine-ripened tomatoes
12-14 slices of fresh mozzarella
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. honey
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10-12 basil leaves, plus flowers if any
1. Slice large tomatoes; leave small tomatoes whole, or cut into wedges or halves. Arrange on platter with cheese.
2. In a small bowl, whisk 1 tsp. salt, the vinegar, and honey until salt is dissolved; whisk in olive oil. Spoon over tomatoes.
3. With kitchen scissors, snip basil leaves and flowers over tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt to taste.
(Recipe altered slightly from Sunset recipes.)

My friend Carrie shared this cherry tomato tart recipe on her blog and also made it for a group of women on night. It was delicious so I thought that I would give it a try with the cherry tomatoes with had from our CSA. It was super easy to make and the dough will definitely be used in future recipes.

bedtime buddies

We are probably going to make the switch to a big bed for Asher soon. But until then, it's fun to watch Jonas climb into bed with Asher and they pretend to sleep. They turn out the light, grab their lovies, turn on the noisemaker and tell me to leave the room. It's just too cute!

Scooby, Dooby, Doo, where are you?

We celebrated our nephew, Luke's, 5th birthday this weekend while David's sister's family was in town. So of course that meant some cake making went on in our house over the past week. Asher and Jonas decided they wanted to help me make the icing for the cake. Jonas is finishing up the last touches of the powdered sugar and of course, cleaning up!

Luke wanted a Scooby Doo cake this year so here is what I made for him.

My favorite part is always seeing the child's reaction with the cake. Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out in time to catch his first glimpse at it but he seems pretty excited about it in this picture below.

We had a fun birthday party with all the cousins!!

Downtown with Cousins

This past weekend David's sister and two kids came to Nashville. We decided to hang out downtown on Friday by taking the free bus. The kids loved it as you can see below!

We decided to hope off near the Shelby Street Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge. The kids loved walking up the bridge and peering over the sides. We had great views of the city, the stadium and the river that had several boats for us to watch.

Highly recommend this outing if you have little ones!!

Step Into Africa

I have been absent from the blogging world for awhile on account of two reasons: 1. I have helped coordinate volunteers for the Step Into Africa exhibit that our church partnered with World Vision a couple of weeks ago and 2. Our computer had major viruses and we were unable to download anything on to our hard drive which meant no pictures!! So hopefully, I can now get back into the swing of things and will have more to blog about since I have been gone for so long. Below is our family standing in front of the exhibit or "the Village" as Asher likes to call it.

Asher and Jonas both loved for us to be at "the Village" which we were at about every day that the exhibit was open.

I highly recommend if you hear of World Vision being in your area with the Step Into Africa exhibit YOU MUST GO!! We had close to 2000 visitors go through the experience. You get to choose 1 of 4 African children's stories and how their lives are affected by the AIDS crisis. The AIDS crisis is the largest humanitarian crisis of our time. If you would like to learn more about this and take your own journey, go here.

Porch Living

We have been enjoying our lunch on the porch lately. Asher actually requests to sit out there despite the hot days we have been experiencing. Thankfully, our front porch is on the north side so it stays shady and a breeze often whips around the corner of our house. So, if you are ever walking down our street around lunch time, come on up and we'll serve you some lemonade! :)