Kindergarten

So many emotions today. I can't believe five and a half years ago I was driving to the hospital to pick up my girl and today I took her to Kindergarten. She was so excited! She cried last night because she said she was going to miss all of the things that we would do together when she was in school. I put on my cheerleader face and told her of all of the fun things that she would get to do in Kindergarten, including one of them being ME being her music teacher!

I have taught at Legacy and Sunshine over 13 years and I never thought that I would be fortunate enough to have Ivy go to school there. I used to watch kids walk into school and think ,"Man, I would love to see Ivy in that uniform." Today was the day. I started to walk to the car, getting teared up, thanking God for Lucy, that I still have one at home. Again, a reminder that He granted me the desires of my heart. If I didn't have Lucy then today would have been much harder. Even in the pang of sadness that I feel in my heavy heart today, there are so many things that I'm thankful for. God is good....all the time.




New friends
Aunt Hollie came for my support. :)
Hugging Daddy goodbye
Ivy's new teacher, Mrs. Ottaviano
Last wave.

Meet the Teacher Night

I can't believe that it is finally here. My first born entering Kindergarten. In one sense I don't want tomorrow to come. In another sense, it needs to come because the anticipation of it is killing me. It seems like yesterday, we got the call that Ivy was being born. Now five and a half years later things are changing so fast. Ivy is the girl I love spending the most time with. She is a shopper, she gets my humor, we enjoy the same things, I enjoy our chats and now she will be at school. I am beyond blessed that her teacher is my friend Sabra. Sabra loves Kindergarten like I have never seen. She is so loving with the kids. I told someone yesterday that I feel like a Kindergarten teacher should be half "loving mom" and half "formal teacher" and I feel like that is Sabra. Ivy has already learned to say "Mrs. Ottaviano" and is soooo excited!Here is her new friend Kalea. They sit at the same table.

She sits in the front row, seat 1. I love it. She is right in the action.
It was different going to school as a parent. I have been to 13 Meet the Teacher Nights at Legacy, always as the teacher. I felt so blessed last night having my family there as I was teacher/parent. I have a feeling it is going to be a great year!

Family Staycation

Ok. So at the beginning of the summer I had a garage sale and sold all of my baby stuff so that we could take a family vacation this summer. Then 4 months ago Matt lost his job and so I saved the money to go somewhere to celebrate when he got another job. That hasn't happened. So while we needed to have some work done on both of our cars, there went some of the money, however, as I was reading one of my favorite blogs, this girl talked about her family taking a "staycation" so we did a mini one today. Our plan was to go to Santa Monica Place to window shop and have lunch. However, on our way there Matt said, "Man, I'd love to go to Tito's today." So me being the submissive wife :) , I told him we should go. It had been a while. Usually you can't find a seat but at 10:30am we had our pick. ( I know, you are thinking,"Who would eat taco's at 10:30am?" If your asking you haven't had Tito's!)Here's my yummy tacos. I should have taken a picture of happy Lucy with her head stuck in the refried beans and salsa. Yep, my girl is truly Mexican!
A great outdoor shopping place in Santa Monica. There was a famous female athlete in Nike and the Papporazzi were in the store filming her and taking pictures of her. I was sad that I didn't know her because it's in the sports arena and I only know actresses. But her bod was amazing...feeling a touch guilty at the Tito's.
On the 3rd floor roof looking down on Third Street Promanade.
This was my favorite part. This market had a lot of places to eat in there. I told Matt I'd love to go and eat there sometime.
Here is another part of the outdoor eating. You can see the Santa Monica Ferris Wheel from there and a sneak peek of the ocean.
Since we were only window shopping, we got in the car and were going to head over to the Grove. (one of me and Ivy's favorite places). On the way, we decided that we go there so often, so we decided to stop at Magnolia Bakery. It has a famous bakery in New York and they opened one in Los Angeles. SO CUTE! Ivy and I jumped out of the car and went in because the parking stinks so Matt and Lulu drove around while we picked out everyone's treats.
L.O.V.E.

Ivy, the happy customer.

peanut butter bar(Matt), Vanilla cupcake with green buttercream frosting with sprinkles (Ivy), Chocolate with Chocolate frosting (Lulu), red velvet with a creamy frosting (of course Kelli!...I was a little surprised by my frosting but it was still AMAZEBALLS!)
Yes. Please.
Besides the emergency stop at Grace Community Church for Ivy to go to the bathroom, it was a smooth day. Loved spending it with my family! Check out these places and tell me if you liked them!

Lulu's summer fun in Iowa

If you don't have a pool at Grandma and Grandpa's house, just pull an old bucket out of the garage!

Summer Food Crawl continued....

I have made a couple AMAZING things to eat this summer. I made 2 things this week and I will share one of them today. It tasted amazing but I don't think I made it right. I can't wait to make it again. I got a cookbook from my friend,Kelli for my birthday. It was from a restaraunt we went to in Nashville called The Loveless Cafe. Such great food!

I made the Suppertime Beef Casserole

1 (7 ounce) package macaroni and cheese

1 pound ground beef

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 (10 ounce) can onion soup

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the macaroni and cheese according to the package directions. Brown the ground beef with the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, stirring until crumbly, drain. Add the soup and prepared macaroni and cheese. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the mixture into a 2 Qt. casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes.

Keep in mind this is a southern recipe so it is not diet friendly. I used steamed broccoli as a side dish to make myself feel better. Matt loved it! Every day since then he says, " I wish we still had some of that macaroni casserole." :) Enjoy!