Tomato Pie

Might I suggest a delicious recipe for your summer tomatoes? I made tomato pie tonight for supper and I have to tell you it is the best thing that we have eaten in a while. The great thing about this pie is it is as easy as 1-2-3 to make. Start with about 4 ripe 'maters, seed them and add a little salt then set aside. Gather these ingredients...

1 1/2 cup cheese
3 tbsp mayo
1 tsp Italian seasoning

Mix the mayo and cheese and set aside. Put a layer of tomatoes in a 9" pie crust and sprinkle 1/2 of the Italian seasoning on top. Add the next layer of tomatoes and the rest of the seasoning. Put the cheese mixture on top and place in your oven at 425 degrees. Now go outside and play...



After about 30 minutes you should have really worked up an appetite so...return inside, wash your hands, remove the pie from the oven, and, if you can wait, let cool for 10 minutes.

We served this...

with hamburgers, fresh corn and cantaloupe for the perfect summer meal. Make it if you have a chance - you will not be disappointed!! Stay tuned because I can't wait to tell you how we get such great summer veggies. Have a great night!!

Back to the Beach

We were lucky enough to get to return to the beach for a second time this summer. This time we went for a quick weekend trip with Matt's parents, Bebe and Grandad. Our view from the condo was absolutely beautiful...

The water was literally swimming pool clear which is how I like it - no wondering what is underneath your feet. Unfortunately, Hannah got sick while we were there and she nor Lily wanted to sleep. I spent a lot of time inside trying to coax one child or the other to sleep and not much time photographing. I did get this one of Lily...

The girls got some quality time with their grandparents and that is what is important. Matt and I did get to sneak away for about an hour Saturday night to the outlet mall. I heard a rumor that Restoration Hardware had opened a clearance center at Silver Sands and I had to see if it was true. If you are in Destin I highly recommend that you stop by...it is fabulous. You need some time to rummage through everything but we were able to find some great light fixtures and bath fixtures. They even had a chandelier I have been looking at for the past several months for 60% off! Definitely worth the visit if you are in town.

Since I didn't get an opportunity to take many photos I thought I would share these that I took at the zoo last week. We went so that Hannah could play at the splash pad. It was a little busy and Hannah took it all in from here...

She also spent some time sitting on her friend the lizard...

We took a quick spin on the carousel...

before it was time to go home. We always love a trip to the zoo!

This is Hannah and Lily's last week of school until September so we have plenty of adventures planned for August. Be back soon!

Thank you Lord

These were the first words that popped into my head as I walked outside each morning this weekend. Thank you Lord...for the beautiful sunshine, for the beautiful weather, for the beautiful day! We tried to enjoy the wonderful blessing of blues skies and low 80 degree weather in July by spending as much time outside as we possibly could. We continued last weekend's work of trimming back hedges and were finally able to complete the task. When we weren't working we were doing some of this...

to gaze at this...
As I was watching the clouds drift along I was attacked by...

followed by....
This mommy attack looked like this from above...

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!

Bargain Central

As promised, I thought I would show you all my two bargains from the yard sale that I mentioned in my last post. The first is these...

Now hold on. I know you are all probably going eeewwwww! Don't worry... I am going to change the fabric. My plan was to make two headboards for Hannah's room from scratch but then I saw these two already done. I could not resist and have saved myself the time and energy of having to get the plywood, batting, etc. Now all that needs to be done is to change out the fabric and they will be done. Hip hip hooray!

The second bargain is what stayed glued to Hannah's sweet little face for the entire weekend...


While I was checking out the headboards Hannah was checking out this pink Little Tykes digital camera. She ran up to me so excited about her find and I proceeded to ask the owner if the camera worked. She said no...her kids had used it once, she had lost the instructions, cords, etc and she knew nothing about it other than she had paid $50 for it. We paid a $1 for it thinking it was worth a dollar whether it worked or not. We brought it home popped in some new batteries, found a cord that worked and voila - Hannah has a perfect, almost brand new digital camera of her very own. She then began to pay me back for every time I ever made her smile for the camera. Lily, Matt and I became her photographic subjects as she followed us around saying "say cheese" all day. Here are a few examples of her work...



I think my mother might have passed along her talent for chopping off heads in her photos. Her pictures actually do get better as the days progress. Who knows maybe this $1 camera will lead to her future as a famous photographer!

I am not sure if I will ever get a photo of Hannah's face again. Every time I try to take a picture of her she puts her camera to her face and takes a picture of me. For instance, this is me trying to take a picture of her when we arrived at Sloss Furnaces...

and here is another of me trying to get her in the "tunnel"...

...a little hard to make out but believe me when I say it is once again me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me. Oh well, maybe you will get to see Hannah's face in pictures again when some of the excitement of the camera wears off!

Super Saturday

Our day started Saturday as most do these days...very early. After some blueberry pancakes, Hannah and I headed out to a yard sale. We were very successful in our trip and came home with not one but two fantastic bargains. I will save more on this for another post though.

We spent most of the day working in the yard but once late afternoon rolled around it was time for some fun. A wonderful artist, Christopher Fennell, was having a reception at Sloss Furnaces to show off his recent piece "Bats Baseball" made from 800 aluminum baseball bats. This is about to leave Sloss for permanent installation at Southside Park in Atlanta, GA and we wanted to take a peek before it left. As you can imagine, it was quite amazing! These arrows greeted us when we arrived and directed us to the artwork and reception...

We followed the arrows and turned a corner and saw this giant mass of baseball bats that almost seem to be in motion...




After being thoroughly impressed by the size and scope of this work, we had a chance to chat with the artist. Fennell lives in Birmingham and was very nice. His work is very interesting and you can find out more about him here.

While we were there we also explored part of Sloss Furnaces. It is a really neat place and if you have not been you should definitely find an afternoon to visit.




Matt and Lily enjoyed the scenery...


After our afternoon fun we headed over to my cousin Lauren and her husband Chase's for dinner. This was Matt's first time to see their super cute house. Here is the happy couple with their puppy Romy...

Dinner was yummy but Hannah liked dessert best...

We had a great time, as we always do visiting with Lauren and Chase and I am sure we will see them again very soon.

Check back soon for an update on our great yard sale finds!

Home again, Home again

Well we are back from a fantastic week at the beach. To be completely honest I was not ready to come home but all good things must come to an end and so here we are back in Birmingham. As I mentioned in the last post every year we spend a week at a little hole in the wall part of Florida known as Port St. Joe/Mexico Beach. My family has done this for as long as I can remember and it is a treat. Thanks to articles like this one and several others it is not quite as quiet anymore but we love it. This year we were there with my wonderful mother...

sister Rachel...

sister Bekah and her fiance Hugh...


and my aunt Beth and uncle Eddie (who I forgot to get a pic of) and their 3 bathing beauties...


otherwise known as Julia...


Rebekah...


and Ella...


My aunt, Susan, lives in Port St. Joe with her family so we spent some quality time with them....

We had a blast. Hannah has been talking about this trip for the past 6 months - seriously - and I don't think she was disappointed. She played in the water...


she played in the sand...



she had daily popsicles with her cousins...


she held the sand beetles her aunt Bekah dug from the sand...


she ran from the Hugh alligator who kept terrorizing the little ones from the ocean...


she flew a kite...



Lily had a big time too...


Those of you who are mothers know that there is nothing like having an extra pair of hands around to help with a baby. Well I was lucky enough to have sometimes more than 5 extra pairs of hands. It was great.


When Lily wasn't being held she was playing on the beach. She started scooting while we were there and I am expecting her to be full out crawling any day now. I had a big blanket on the sand for her to play in but she kept scooting to the edge and trying to eat the sand...


We got smart and put her blanket in a baby pool and she had a big time - without the sand...


This was a much needed vacation and Matt and I are back feeling much more rested. There is nothing like the beach and family for a little summer pick me up. We are counting down the days until next year!!