Back to SCHOOL!

A week from today school starts,...and with the start of over new year comes complete chaos. McKenzie starts  preschool three days a week for a few hours each day,... Riley starts her two year old nursery school program twice a week and the girls will be in a variety of other extra activities including storytime and indoor soccer. Needless to say we are busy, and with two kids attending school now, I needed to figure out a way to keep things organized, for them and our sanity. Here are some neat things I found on Pinterest.com that I am going to try to help us all keep on track this year.

Here is to an ORGANIZED and STRESS FREE 2012-2013 school year.....

To keep it easy in the mornings when things are most hectic, clothes can be planned out for the week....

that means pants, shirts, socks, shoes and hair accessories all together in one easy place to find.

 

I'd LOVE to have a work station like this, but we don't have the room for it. But my fridge WILL look something like a mixture of the following pictures to keep homework, paperwork, and permission slips organized for each kid.

And for sure this year I am adding shelving to our living room so we can finally display some of the girls' art work. Will love the change of art with each season.

 And....drum roll please...here are the backpacks for the girls this year. How fun are they!? I couldn't resist the "Mackenzie" collection from Potterybarnkids.com. Purple butterflies for Kenz...and Pink owls for Riley. Could these bags fit their personalities ANY better? It's like they were designed specifically for them!

Alex Bay 2012 Part 2

Alex Bay Part 2

Note to self: Having a three day vacation is not enough time to do everything that you want to do. Someone remind me of this next year when I'm making reservations please?

I fell in love with the beach when Tony and I lived in Florida...unfortunately we don't have that luxury living in Upstate New York, however we do have these little gems of clear, warm water, and white sandy pieces of paradise. The girls were excited about heading out to the beach.  I'm pretty sure they would live there if I'd let them. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, the sun was shinning, the air warm, and the cleansing breeze would hit us every few minutes to cool us down. Who am I kidding, I would have lived there all day if I could have!

McKenzie immediately started looking for shells....

 Even Daddy got involved...

 She found some good ones!

Riley focused on finding rocks...her favorite!

And then she would bury them....

McKenzie's first fishing experience

(Thank you Jess and Jeff for the Spiderman pole...she was estatic to use it!)

Yea, she wore a dress fishing....got a problem with it?!

After a few practice casts with the rubber fish....she was ready for the "real worms"

She claimed she didn't want to hurt them...so Daddy took care of the icky part

First fish = sunfish the size of a half moon cookie

Kenzie's first fishing experience,....from Riley's perspective

Riley was not impressed with fishing....

 She didn't understand why she couldn't fish off the 10ft ledge drop off like Daddy and Kenzie...

 So she stared me down...

...and tore apart some of the practice worms...(I know gross)

Told me Kenzie "did it"

 ...and then....

 ...gave me...

.....an earful about how she couldn't go fishing....and how it wasn't fair....

Maybe next year kiddo!!

Cream Cheese Mac & Cheese

Cream Cheese Mac & Cheese

Can't take credit for this delicious dish,...found it while I was perusing Pinterest this morning,...which then linked me to go here,...I'm so happy I did! 

3/4 Pound elbow macaroni
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese (4 ounces)
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (4 ounces)
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (4 ounces)

4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the macaroni for 3 minutes (it will still be very chewy). Drain the macaroni and return it to the pot. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and toss well.

Butter a 10-by-15-inch baking dish. In a large bowl, whisk the heavy cream with the half-and-half, milk, eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir in the cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses and the macaroni. Spread the mac and cheese in the prepared baking dish and scatter the cream cheese cubes on top.

Bake the macaroni for 5 minutes. Using the back of a large spoon, spread the melted cream cheese cubes evenly over the surface. Bake for 40 minutes, until bubbling.

Remove the baking dish from the oven and preheat the broiler. Broil the mac and cheese about 3 inches from the heat source until richly browned, about 2 minutes. Let stand for at least 10 and up to 20 minutes before serving.

Alex Bay 2012 Part 1

Every year we venture up to the 1000 Islands for a vacation. This has been a tradition in my family since my birth. My Mom always tells a story of how my parents were camping in a tent at Kring's Point when I was first born, when they heard a rustling outside....not knowing what it was, they left the tent to see what was making all the noise,.. to their surprise there was a baby skunk drinking from my bottles. The little shit opened the cooler, took a bottle and drank it. The image of a skunk drinking a baby bottle is quite hysterical, and knowing our family this most likely did happen,...there are so many other crazy memories we have shared as a family while camping,...and this year was only another to add to the list.

Now that McKenzie and Riley are a part of our lives, we are following the same yearly camping tradition my parents set long ago. Every year my brother and I looked forward to our two week camping trip in our pop-up camper, and cried when we had to leave, like legit tears. We loved it up there. I can only hope that as the girls get older they can share the same feelings Bobby and I experienced.

Both of our girls have been up to Kring Point State Park, since they were born. We are talking, McKenzie at a year old but, technically she was up there before she was born, but I'm not counting months here, and Riley when she was three weeks old. I can remember a co-workers saying we were NUTS for  camping with a newborn,....to me, it was normal,...crazy, but normal for us. It seems like with each year that passes it gets a little easier with two very active, enthusiastic kids to do more of what we love. Each year brings different experiences, laughs, and unexpected situations to the trip. This year was no exception.

 Our campsite this year. #15

 How could you NOT love this view!?

Check out that bedhead!

The girls loved playing on the huge rocks...Riley was even practicing her climbing techniques. She called this one the belly slide. She laughed all the way down since it tickled her belly.

Daddy-Kenzie time...

Pirate Days

The great thing about travelling to Alex Bay in August is that they have one week out of the summer devoted to pirates. So, in support of Bill Johnston, we decided to get into character for "Bill Johnston's Pirate Days"

Captain Bogey

Argh!!! 

Kenz got into character really quick as we were waiting in line to board...

Peg leg needed....

Riley was only somewhat amused with the hat, but LOVED the sword!

Watch out for those pirates!

Secret password? AHOY!

Allllll aboard!

We "thought" we were going on a short pirate excursion that was focused around kids...What we didn't know is that we would be on a 2 and 1/2 International cruise that would take us from Alex Bay to Canada....and then back.  Kenzie the pirate was bored after the first 20 minutes. Can you tell?

But, the good news is that we crossed six things off of McKenzie's summer bucket list...not to bad for a three day trip, and 2 and 1/2 hour boat ride....

2012 Summer Bucket List  (Did you know bucket list is now a word in the dictionary? 

You're welcome for the nugget of knowledge)

1. Ride on a boat

2. Ride on a plane

3. Ride on a train

4. Drive a boat

5. Drive a car

6. Go to Canada

7. Go fishing

8. Marry a Prince

9. Buy the move it, move it song from Madagascar

10. Sleep over at Gramma and Ted Ted's

 Riley was happy once she got some popcorn....

Even Tony got into the fun...it was quite amusing to listen to him "try" to talk like a pirate....Example 1: "Argghhhhh we there yet?" Example 2: "Do you want to eat a hambaaarrrggggah and fries?" yea,...they got worse from there...I'll save you the torture....

 Canadian boat docked at Boldt Castle

A quick stop at Boldt Castle (we will do this next year, when Riley is a little bit older. As big as that place is, all I could image was her getting lost, or falling on all those stone stairs. If you haven't been, you need to go,...like now. Do it.  

 Pump house

 View from the dock

The boat house

The highlight of McKenzie's day was steering the three decker cruise ship...yea, she thought she was the shit.

And we are on our way again...

 Riley thought she was whistling....when she really wasn't....

 Even pirate girls need to take a quick nap from time to time....it WAS a 2 and 1/2 hour trip for that matter...

 Thank you to the woman who took this shot of our family. It was amazing that everyone smiled on the first shot!!