What I Have Been Up To

I still haven't fully gotten back into cooking, although I did make Spaghetti with Fried Eggs and Bread Crumbs last night and it may have been the push I needed to plan my menus.  So simple, but SOOOOO very good.  If you like runny egg yolks, you have to try it.

I am teaching a new preschool class next year (VPK, which is 4's and 5's) and have been spending lots of time getting things ready for my room.  As you can tell, we are the hippos.  Finding hippo themed items for the classroom is not easy, so I  painted center signs myself. 

And painted tote bag after tote bag.  I can do these in my sleep, but thankfully I am done.

I have a lot of classroom to cover, so more hippo crafts to come :)

I want to take my mom to The Creative Connection!

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to attend BlogHer Handmade and The Creative Connection Event with my mother.  As you know, my blog is a little bit about everything my mom has taught me through the years, cooking, crafting, sewing, etc. and it makes up a lot of who I am, and what I am trying to teach my own girls.   This conference would get me inspired! 

I don't get to spend a lot of time with my mom.  She lives in St. Paul (coincidentally, where the conference is being held) and I live in Florida.  When we are up there to visit it is with the entire family, which means lots of grandma time, not so much mom/daughter time.  It would be amazing to spend the weekend just her and I learning about the things we both love.  And come on, have you ever experienced fall time in the Midwest?  My FAVORITE season....jeans, sweaters, and mittens - something I never get down here.

I am writing this post as an entry to win 2 passes.  If you would like to attend the conference with someone you love, go enter HERE!

Free Pizza?!?! (and the GOOD kind!)

Event Details:

Date - August 4th, 2011
What - FREE* FRESCHETTA® By The Slice pizza event
Where - From the comfort of your own home

FRESCHETTA® will be giving away thousands of slices of our delicious By The Slice pizza in a special live online event. The FRESCHETTA® By The Slice pizza will be given away in 5,000 increments every half hour. There will also be fun, interactive contests where you can win additional coupons.

On Thursday July 28th, 2011 the website http://www.freefreschetta.com/ will be available for you to sign up for a reminder email and view a preview of the events to come with host Mike Rylander. On August 4th the reminder email will be sent to those that signed up, and the event will be live at 11 AM on this day for all to sign up! This event is a great way to try out FRESCHETTA® By The Slice and get to do so for FREE!

Add-Ins

I just haven't been cooking much this summer.  We have been away 5 out of the 6 weeks and getting back into cooking isn't going so well.  I've been eating lots of cereal and have discovered a new way to enjoy it.  I just took this Blueberry Sauce out of the freezer and have been enjoying a scoop of it in my cereal.  SOOO very good.  The hint of orange makes it over the top good.  It turns my milk (almond milk - another YUM) blueberry/purple.  Fun :) 

Do you have any weird add-ins that are oh-so-good??

I am also making some crock pot yogurt so I can use the blueberry sauce that way.  Don't ask me why I'm not using fresh blueberries at this time of year.  I guess we have reserved those just for snacking handfuls.....and making more blueberry sauce!

Little Gasparilla Island

My in-laws just had their 50th wedding anniversary and to celebrate the entire family spent a week on "Gilligan's Island" - more commonly known as Little Gasparilla Island.   There are no cars, stores, restaurants, etc. on the island so the ferry was our lifeline.  It took Scarlett a while to understand that the "fairy" was not going to fly us over to the island.  We packed pretty much everything we needed but did have to make a few trips to mainland to pick up more groceries.   We stayed in condos (which Scarlett called condors) right next door to the star in the above photo.   Beautiful!

There were so many shells!  The Gulf coast is known for it's shells and this island didn't disappoint.  Sanibel and Captiva were just south of where we were. 

The sand bar right off the coast was full of sand dollars.  It was an easy swim from shore.  At times all 12 grandchildren where out there.  There were a few days that the water was very calm and tide very low which made for easy sand dollar finding.  We also found sea stars, conchs, and clams.  So fun to look at nature up close.  Three of the mornings that I ran, when the ocean was calm, dolphins surfaced not 40 feet from shore (in between the shore and the sand bar).  I am positive they can see on shore because each time they would come up parallel to me and swim along with me as I ran.  If that isn't motivation to get up and run each day, I'm not sure what is!

 We also found shark's teeth.  Lots and lots of them in all different shapes, colors and sizes.  You could find one every foot if you looked enough.  I can't imagine how there are so many in one place but this was a great place to find them. 

There was a full moon on the last night which lit up the sky.  We were hoping to go out to try and see baby sea turtles hatching but never made it.  The next morning I looked at the nests around the condo but none were disturbed, so I don't think we missed it.

We had a perfect week with family and made many memories.  I hope to take our family there for OUR 50th anniversary :)