rustic tomato tart

we grew more tomatoes than we know what to do with around here so i have been searching pinterest for tomato recipes that not only look good, but will be apetizing to everyone.  i stumbled upon this tomato tart.

it was super simple.  a great recipe to make with kids (as you can see i had an extra pair of little hands helping me).  all i had was whole wheat flour for the dough, and it was delicious!  i wasn't sure about adding the mustard, because i usually don't like whole grain mustard but it gave it a complicated flavor without tasting mustard-y at all.

maeve ate seconds and calvin had thirds!  i will definitely be making this again. luckily our garden fared very well during irene so we will have lots more tomatoes to come!

goodnight irene

a few nights before hurricane irene hit we went to my husband's company picnic. they set up a mini-carnival just for employees. lots of rides and no lines. my kids ran around barefoot and went on as many rides as they could manage, stopping only to eat a quick bite of hotdog. it was a memorable summer night.

24 hours later irene hit us. we were well prepared (food and water for days, tub filled with water, a stack of library books, a sheet fort and flashlights). we did get an evacuation notice, but decided to 'weather the storm'. for us it was not as bad as the news was making it out to be. we had a few large limbs down but they did not fall on anyone or anything. no flooding. we did loose power, but only for about 24 hours. about half the poeple i work with still have no power (3 days later!).

i feel very lucky that we escaped practically unharmed. it has been a rough week for us with a very unexpected loss of my father-in-law and a cancer diagnosis for my dad, so i think hurricane damage would have put me over the edge. we are getting through it day by day. hugging each other a little more. staying calm and carrying on...

last days of summer vacation

we have been making the most of the last week of summer vacation by tackling all of the unchecked items on our summer to-do list.  trips to all our favorite parks, the aquarium to see the dinosaur exhibit, the natural history museum (again to see the dinosaurs, and the whale), playschool, the beach, my husband's company picnic (see pic above), and now we are hunkering down for our first real hurricane.  

we were directed by the town to evacuate but i think evacuation is not necessary.  our apartment is on the second floor, it has new windows (none of which are large), we have plenty of water and food, and our landlord (who grew up in our apartment) seems to think it will be fine.  we did park one car at a nearby middle school that is up a hill, just in case we are super flooded and something happens to our car.  this morning we went to the library and got tons of books and even a movie.  i have lots of games to play, forts to make, and legos to build with to keep us occupied for the next 24+ hours.

as a last resort if it gets super scary, i got sparking apple cider so that we can have a storm party to ease some fears and we'll sing favorite things. :)

wish us luck!

afternoon snack

i made these lemon bars. i used to make them in college all the time and then recently we had some lemons that needed to be used and the recipe just popped back into my conscience brain from wherever it was hiding. such a delicious summertime treat. and it is a cooking light recipe so how bad of an indulgence can they be? :)

by the way, as i was linking to the recipe i noticed that mine look like they have a lot more powered sugar than the recipe shows.  hmmm...

wedding weekend

last weekend i flew to california for the wedding of a very special friend. trisha was my college roomate. we were neighbors in the dorm, freshman year and met though an electical outlet. really. the wedding was in mammoth, which i complained about being hard to get to, but it was so worth it once i was there. i had not been there since i was 13 or so and i had forgotten just how magical a place it is. the wedding was super rustic (we sat on log benches, see photo above). the theme according to trish was "crazy, mismatched, cool" or something like that. which is so perfectly her.

they did a fingerprint guestbook, which i had never seen before, but i thought it was so sweet and something to they can frame and hang up to see everyday as a reminder of thier wedding day and of all the people that touched their lives, shaping them into the people that they are today, perfectly matched for each other. (kristin (another college roommate) painted the tree!)

this was the view as we walked to the wedding site.  can you see the waterfall?  the snow on the mountains?  amazing.

here are some handmade gifts i brought with me for some of the babies that now outnumber us college roommates (13 babies and counting!).  two quilts, three bibs, one pinafore, and two krink-ly taggie toys we call baby paper (babies LOVE it!).

it felt so so good to be among good friends who really know me (better then i know myself sometimes).  it is hard sometimes living across the country, away from lifelong friends.  i am lucky to have made some wonderful sure-to-be lifelong 'east coast' friends too.  but there is something so comforting about being with an 'old' friend.

when i asked trisha how the ceremony went and what she was thinking, she said "it felt like a big hug, like everyone there was giving me a huge hug, so i felt totally relaxed".  this is exactly what this weekend was for me too.  a huge thee-day long hug.   

{this moment}

inspired by soulemama.

sweet sewing

i made this little criss-cross pinifore for maeve the other night.  i made the pattern myself, based on a shirt that maeve already had.

it cuts out in just two pieces, the outside and the inside, which made it super easy...

and reversible!

she wore it a couple of times, but i decided it was a little bit small.  i have a slightly larger one cut out and will hopefully sew it tonight.  i gave the one pictured to a sweet little friend (her mom was my college roommate).

tic tac toe!

on a rainy summer day recently, calvin and i were playing tic tac toe.  he loves to play and it is a game we can play anywhere, like at a restaurant while waiting for our food.  as we were playing on this rainy day, we got an idea to make a whole book of tic tac toe boards.  calvin wanted to keep track of when he won and how he won (where he put his 'o's).

i quickly made up a template on the computer, we printed it on 7 sheets of paper, front and back.  he chose a cover and i sewed the spine.  in all of about 15 minutes we had our tic tac toe book.

we played many games that day and since.  after studying past games, calvin now has a 'calvin strategy' that he uses to win and according to him it works most of the time.  my nephew already asked for one of his own.  

i am thinking that maybe a hangman book might be fun once calvin can read more words.  maybe for christmas?  i also saw this on pinterest and i am adding it to my christmas gift list for both kiddos.  

and yes i did just say (type) christmas.  i am determined not to be frantic the week of christmas this year.  i am starting now.  there are only 140 more making days before the big day after all :)