San Gennaro Festival 2010

Ahh, fun for the kids! Cole's first roller-coaster ride (BY HIMSELF!), Alora's first Shave Ice and her first roller-coaster ride...a lot of food and a lot of fun (for the kids)! Just planned to stay a couple of hours and ended up there almost four! I recommend getting the day pass! The kids wanted to try ALL of the rides!

FOOD!

I really have a passion for food. I'm not so great at photography! This is my attempt at Food Journaling...Hope you enjoy it!










More food!

Perogies with Shallot Butter Sauce

Sausage and Peppers Hoagies

Turkey Fried Rice

Cheesy Broccoli Pasta

Pasta with Salmon and Spinach

Saimin with Eggs and Broccoli

Shrimp Pasta Lemon with Parmesan Cheese

Apple muffins with cinnamon

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins!
I love food! I'm so glad I've been able to get back into cooking while on summer break. Hopefully, this has been the jumpstart I needed since having the kids! Here are a few things I've "created"...well, they're from recipes but a lot of time I've had to make substitutions to my taste or from lack of ingredients!

New Backyard

Dad has been so generous helping us out in fixing up the house. There was damage to several parts of the house and some areas that were severely neglected. Our biggest pride comes from designing and rehabilitating the backyard. It was only desert dirt with a small block of cement immediately flanking the sliding glass door. Now, we have a patio, some turf, a shed, and some furniture. We are waiting on the (materials) patio covering to be installed. Hopefully, within two weeks it will be completely done. We are so excited; in the meantime, the kids are keeping it warm swinging or sliding after the sun goes down!

Fourth of July Birthday

Cousin Lyric's first birthday!

Fourth of July in Arkansas 2010

Corning has a carnival-type celebration with a parade and pageant. We made it just in time this year! Cole rode on the kiddie train and cousin Ariel won Queen of the infant pageant!

More Photos of Summer Trip

Here are some of the Arkansas side. Note the photos are uploading backwards in order.

Summer Trip 2010

This summer trip went as expected. There weren't any real surprises which we wouldn't have dealt with very well! Cole was actually better this year on the drive talking about going to Nana's house and swimming in her pool and watching the train with her. Alora was not as excited about driving. She was able to snack and nap for the mostpart, though saving us additional stress from all the screaming we anticipated. We probably spent more time driving than we did anything else; possibly more than everything else combined! Alora didn't want to sit in her carseat at all when we got home even after a couple of days of doing nothing but stay home. It was worth seeing family, though.

We drove up to Michigan and then down to Arkansas. In Michigan, we saw fireflies and fed ducks. We helped Grampa pick up leaves...There was a carnival with hot-air balloons as we were leaving one of which crashed on the side of the freeway! In Arkansas, there were a lot of mosquitoes and swimming and gardening with Grandpa Stephens and swimming and digging and watching trains and digging! There was even a toad trying to swim with us one day! The kids had a great time seeing their cousins again and meeting new ones! We also got to see Rick and Laura in Oklahoma City on the way back! The photos show just some of the highlights of our cross-country adventures.