Summer Days!

So excited it is finally summer!  I have had to take a step back recently.  We have had a very very busy few weeks and this mama is exhausted!  We are renovating two of Ryan's offices (more on that later) and with Ryan's business partner just having a baby and more excited work related things happening all at once it has been ENSANE!  All good things of course, but just all at once!  We have just been running at full steam.  I also have a hard time saying no sometimes.  I am beyond blessed to have such amazing friends, but with that comes lots of plans and commitments.  I find myself never having down time.  So recently I have had to learn to say no!  This may mean missing a girls night, a birthday party or play date, but it is so important to carve out down time.  Some of my favorite times lately are days when we have nothing to do and just play with the twins!  Well today was one of those days.  For some working out or a day at the spa is their release.....for me its cooking and playing!  This was one of those perfect summer days!
Ryan had business meeting the first part of the day so I just played with the kids in our pjs in the morning.  They still rock out a morning nap, which gave me time to shower and make a meal for a friend who just had a baby.  When Ryan got home I left to go bring the meal and visit with Simpson and her sweet baby boy!  Then we met up for a late lunch as a family.  I know that the twins are at the perfect age for first.  Their first pickle was today and it was hilarious!  They of course, in true twin fashion, reacted completely different.  E hated it and G loved it!

Ryan ordered a basketball goal a few days ago and it arrived!  He taught G how to dunk! We have also been loving these adorable honest company diapers!  We never hang out in our diapers, but with ones as cute as these we couldn't resist for a few minutes.

While they slept in the afternoon we prepared dinner together.  Tonight we are having Ribs, collards and mint oreo ice cream!!! Number one rule: triple wash your greens!

 Ryan made his own rub for the ribs.

 I got out some stress smashing some Oreos(gluten free of course) hah!

We have outgrown our blow up pool from last summer so we had a new one to try out after they woke up from naps!

It started to rain so we went inside and played some more while watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!  I love kids movies and glad I have a real reason to watch them now! Since we were about to feed them dinner we decided to rock the cute diapers again!

The kids watched Ryan start the ribs on the grill in the rain.

We have started to train the twins to eat with spoons.  It is hilarious and an absolute disaster, but so entertaining!  We gave them carrots and pretzels to dip in the hummus, but they prefer to eat it with a spoon:)

 Ryan smoked the ribs for a few hours and once we put the kids down they were ready to eat!

Yummmmmmm!

 And the Mint Oreo ice cream I made was also amazing!

So there you go....my perfect summer day!  I look forward to more family summer days and taking the time to do it!

Summer Tomato Pie

In one week (two weeks ago) we had 5....yes 5 friends who had babies.  I have lots of meals to plan to bring to these sweet new mamas!  My go to in the summer or early fall meal is a salad, tomato pie and either dessert or a breakfast item.  My tomato pie is nothing crazy, but it is an easy thing to bring and such a crowd pleaser!  I have had a few people ask me for the recipe so I decided to post it for all!

Ingredients:
9 inch pie shell (I always use the Whole Foods Gluten Free one)
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken
1/4 sweet onion
3-4 tomatoes (thin slices and squeeze out excess juice)
1/4 cup sliced basil
2 cups shredded cheese- I use combo of Cheddar, Gruyere and Mozarella
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Frank's Hot Sauce
S & P

Instructions:
1. Sautee onions over med heat with a  little EVOO until soft and starting to brown.
2. Preheat oven to 350.  Place pie shell in oven for 5-7 min.  If using a frozen crust bake 8-10 min.
3.  Squeeze as much moisture out of the tomatoes as you can. I layer them between paper towels and let it sit for a while.

4. Sprinkle the bottom of the pre-cooked pie shell with shredded chicken, then sautéed onions, then spread the tomatoes on top and next the basil.

5.  In a medium sized bowl, mix together the cheeses, mayo, hot sauce and S & P.  Spread this mixture on top of the tomatoes and basil.

6.  Place the tomato pie in the oven and bake until browned and bubbly- about 30-45 min.

I usually cook completely before dropping off for a meal.  As long as they are eating that night it should be fine and easily reheats later that night or the next day for leftovers!

Fathers Day!

Ryan is such an amazing dad that we celebrated Fathers Day all weekend long!  We had a great relaxing Friday night and Ryan made filet mignon!  Saturday was a family day until we left to go to the Elton John concert!  So Elton John isn't Ryan's favorite artist or anything, but we do like his music and figured we had a sitter and should go do something fun!  I am in complete awe of Elton John.  I mean he is 67 and literally jumped on top of the piano at one point and danced!  When Ryan and I first started dating in college we were at a dueling piano bar and heard Elton John's song "Your Song".  That soon became our song and that was the encore song of the night!  Seriously magical night!

We ran into my dear friend Corey and her closest family friend (who happens to be a mom of triplets!)  Corey is constantly telling us we remind her of each other so much she says we could be sisters.  I was finally able to meet sweet Katie after a few years of keeping up with her thru her blog and Corey.  She is an amazing mom and one of the absolutely sweetest people I have ever met!

Some of my favorite parts of the night were Sir Elton's piano solos....his fingers move so fast!!!!

On Sunday morning the kids and I gave Ryan one of his fathers day gifts.  The green part is Graham and Ellie's feet print and I turned them into golf greens!

We made a dip and served it on his new plate and played outside for hours!

One of the reasons I love Ryan so much is because he is such a kid at heart!

We decided to have a red neck car wash....Graham loved it!

They did this for a long time!!!

Friday during naps I made healthy popsicles- spinach, almond milk, mango and chia seeds.

G and E loved the ice cold popsicles on this hot summer day!

Ryan didn't want the healthy popsicles so I made him his favorite- Lavender Honey Ice Cream!

My sweet little helper!

I haven't been making ice cream as much the past year as I normally do because unless we ate it in the first 48 hours or less it was basically ruined by frost bite.  I recently found these containers and gave them to Ryan for fathers day!  They store the ice cream and keep it nice a fresh!

After naps we spent the rest of the day watching the US Open.   Luckily the kids behaved so Ryan could pay attention and sneak in a few more snuggles:)

I am beyond blessed to have such an amazing husband and daddy to my babies.  I pray they grow up and realize how lucky they are to have him as their dad.