Riley’s Graduation, and Last Day of School!

Ok, I’ve been so lame with keeping up with the blog. Hello last post was in May! It’s been really busy around here, and I lost my precious time during naps to blog with Riley being home. And I must admit, I kinda sorta been reading too many books on my phone’s kindle. So, I’m going to try to do a couple of posts of June and then what’s been going on in July (it is July 7th already!)

So, the month stated out with school ending. This was very bitter sweet for us. Riley has really done well this year. He has grown and changed. The saddest thing for Riley was that none of his school friends are going to the same school next year. Everyone of them is going to a different school! Pretty crazy! He cried on the last day of school. He didn’t want to leave! We can’t thank the teachers and staff that took such good care of our little hawlet! I took him out for a little photo shoot in his cap and gown:

   

This one is my fav:

Graduation was amazing! There were so many people there! It was so cute. Riley’s speaking part was K is for kindergarten. And he did great. They sang a bunch of songs too. Very sweet.

The principle decided to give each of the kindergartens a medal that is given to the high school graduates. Riley was so excited! Thanks Mr. Pesce!

He’s teacher made remarks about each kid as they came up for their medals. Her remarks about Riley were that he will become a doctor. He is always the first one there to comfort his classmates when they are hurt. He is sweet boy and so kind. And he learned over 200 sight words. Go Riley!

  In the above picture: Mr. Pesce (principle) Mrs. Valentiner (his teacher), Ms. Morison (teacher aid) and of course Riley.

Riley’s favorite special was library. He LOVED story time and picking out books. And he loved Mrs.. Nelson the librarian! 

Finally the support staff:

The family:

 

The Grandma:

And the Grandpa:

The next day was the last day. Riley was very sad to see kindergarten end. He LOVED his teacher so much. Bye NWCTA! Thanks for teaching Riley so much and for the great start he has had in his academic career! I can’t imagine a better start for him. Thanks for all the love he has been shown by all his big friends. He has missed you all! Now on to first grade!

Bye NWCTA until 9th grade!

Another Fast and Easy Meal

So, tonight was one of those nights… You know the ones: everyone is feeling grumpy and tired, and there’s no plan for dinner… Yeah one of those, where you go back and forth: What do you want for dinner? I don’t know what do you want? And so on. Well, this wonderful quick dinner came to the rescue, again. It’s a quick meal with just a few ingredients! And SO yummy! This feeds a small family, but as my kids are getting older I need do double the recipe! Riley ate 1 1/4 of one! I think he would have eaten more if there had been any.

Hope you enjoy!

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas 

Preheat oven 350 degrees

• 2 cups of shredded chicken (I use rotisserie chicken, usually what leftover from having the bird the night before)

• 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar/Mexican blend cheese (we used Monterey and cheddar mix)

• 1/2 cup  ranch dressing

• 1/4 cup sour cream

• 2 tbsp diced green chilies (I use a small can of mild green chilies, I generally just dump the whole can in. It’s just over 2 tbsp)

• 4 flour tortillas

Mix together chicken, 3/4 cup cheese, dressing, sour cream and chilies in a bowl. Divide evenly and place in tortillas. Roll and place seam side down in 9” baking dish. Top with remaining 3/4 cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until the cheese is brown.

Beka’s first day of nursery

Beka is officially 18 months now! UGH how on earth did that happen? I’ve been asking myself that a lot lately. It just seems like this school year has flown by so fast! Our little Beka has been going to nursery class for a couple of weeks with Daddy, but today was her first solo mission! She did great. Here’s some cute pictures from this morning:

I got smart after the first few pictures and had Allen hold up the blanket behind… no one needs to see our messy bookshelf! Plus I think it looks better!

Have I mentioned lately that this kid is a clown?

She makes me laugh! When she’s not making me pull out my hair! She loves to climb and do anything her big bother or sister is. She LOVES to make you laugh, and will do all kinds of crazy things to hear you laugh. She’s our little screamer, and only seems to have one volume: Loud!

Most days she she’ll let me do her hair… no strike that, she demands that I do her hair. If she see Emma getting her hair done. However, the moment the car is in motion… yeah, those cute pony tails are gone! She’s got some curl to her hair, which makes her mad scientist look all the better:

This is typical Beka! She loves to laugh, climb and see how the world works! You’d better look out! Here she comes!

Fast, Easy Recipes

A couple of weeks ago, my sweet friend Erin asked me to post some of my favorite easy recipes.  You know those recipes that you pull out when it’s way too late to be starting dinner and you REALLY don’t want to have take out (again this week, for like the 3rd time). Or when it’s lunch time and everyone is starving and you just can’t stomach another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So, when I made the following two things this week, I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures and thought, why not share these.

So without further adieu, here goes nothing.

The first recipe I wanted to share was something I LOVED as a kid: English muffin pizza. It’s quick and simple. And kids love it! Emma and Beka helped me make these for lunch.  They loved the idea of making their own pizza.

English Muffin Pizza

4 English muffins (each muffin makes 2 pizzas, so you can adjust as you need to)                                                                1/2 cup spaghetti  sauce (personally I just use Rego or whatever I have leftover, you don’t need much)                    1 cup mozzarella cheese                                                                                                                                                                             toppings (my kids just like cheese, but I added a little pepperoni)

preheat oven to 425 F

Slice the English muffins in half. Spoon about a tablespoon of sauce on each one. Sprinkle with cheese and add toppings. Take a cooling rack and place it on a cookie sheet (this will make the muffins crispy and so good) Place the mini pizzas on top of the cooling rack and place in preheated oven. Cook for 5-7 until the cheese is melted and lightly browned on top. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

 

The second recipe is something I do just about once a week. My family loves it. What is this reoccurring item on our menu? Fruit salad with homemade whipping cream. This is so simple, and helps use up any random fruit I have hanging around! I love whipping cream, it’s so handy. I know it’s not the healthiest thing in the world, please don’t judge me to harshly! I try to use as much fresh fruits as I can. The canned fruit that I use has light syrup. Hope you enjoy!

Fruit Salad with Homemade Whipped Cream

 

1/2 to 1 cup of heavy whipping cream                                                                                                                                                         1 to 3 T of powder sugar

1 large can of fruit cocktail                                                                                                                                                                                1 can of madarian oranges                                                                                                                                                                                2 bannanas sliced                                                                                                                                                                                                    1/2 apple sliced                                                                                                                                                                                                  

other fresh fruits sliced                

Pour cream into mixer bowl. Add powder sugar. Using the  whisk attachment, whisk at high speed until soft peaks form (about 2-5 minutes).

For the salad drain fruit cocktail and rinse with water. Pour contains into a large bowl. Add rest of fruit to bowl and mix gently. Fold in whipped cream and serve.

I’ve also added grapes, peaches, pears and cucumbers.

 

So there you have it. Some of my simple recipes from my crazy life. Let me know if you try it and how they turn out!

Fun in the sun

It’s been a wacky month weather wise! Hot, cold, hot cold. Last week I took the little girls to the Springs Preserve. I was a little worried that Beka would be bored. She had a blast! They were so good:

Both girls loved the animals. I wish you could hear Beka’s squill of excitement when the lizard moved. It was so cute! Emma loved the fox and playing in the sandbox. I think her favorite part was going in the caves. She told me that she didn’t like the bats very much, they were creepy. (her words not mine)

Beka’s faviorte part was the playground. She was so cute climbing on EVERYTHING. The best moment for me though was when she climbed into the train, pushed her little face out the window and shouted: “Maaah!!! Maah!” at the very top of her lungs!. And when I said, “What Beka?” She just smiled at me. It was so cute. See pictures below.

It was a really fun day. Warm but not windy. So fun that we bought a membership and can go as often as we want. I almost stayed too long, and there were quite a few tears on the way out. But all in all it was wonderful.

Now this is how crazy the weather has been. The next day, we took the kids for a walk after dinner:

Everyone was wearing coats! It’s been so crazy. Got to love spring!

Mommy’s Trying to be fun

Last Monday Riley didn’t have school. They had staff development day. My house was a mess. I really wanted to clean it. But I didn’t want to waste one of our precious  days together doing that. Besides, the angels (that’s what I call the cleaning ladies who rescue my home once a month) were coming on Tuesday (thanks Mom).  So, I gather my brood and drove them up to see the snow. It was an interesting trip.  The best photo of the day was taken by a cute little oriental man, who came up to me and said, in his very heavy accent: “I take picture” I handed him my camera (I’d seen that he had one similar) and told the kids to look at the guy and smile:

 

  

Little Ms. Beka was not happy. She cried most of the time. If she didn’t have a death grip on my finger or up in my arms, she was screaming. Riley on the other hand had a blast! Emma was unsure, but enjoyed playing with her big brother. We ended the trip with a stop at Sam’s Club for lunch and a little shopping.

On a side note: Emma’s favorite place to go right now is Sam’s Club. Every time we get into the car she asks: “Are we going to Sam’s?”

She also says “My favorite place is Sam’s. It’s a wonderful place to shop.” It makes me giggle! I can’t help it. It’s really funny. She  get’s so excited when she sees the logo! What a nut!

Got to Love It

I love it when I have a vision of what I want and it comes out of my camera! It’s so exciting. Like being able to paint or draw and it turning out the way you plan. Of course, sometime you need a little bribery…  I told Emma that she could have the “new” toy she had picked out at Children’s Orchard, if she would be a cooperative model for me. It worked! And so for $4 this is what I got!
  
I think I got my money’s worth on that one.
I felt like I need to include this cute one of Ms. Beka. She was being such a stinker! She kept disappearing on me! I would take my eyes off her for just a second, and she’d be gone!  But you got to love that smile! She thinks Mommy’s pretty funny!
Finally, I just have to add how much I LOVE my camera, and the new lens! Check out my bee and flowers!  Got a love it!

Something new

So this weekend was busy (ok that’s not something new). I spent the weekend at an amazing conference WPPI (wedding, portrait photographers international) with my favorite photo buddies Erin Hatch and Celise Salmon. It was a blast, and a little over welling. I came home swimming with information. We also spent Monday at the trade show. This was really fun. And I won a few fun things too. I also bought one little thing. A little backdrop. It’s small but very cool. I grabbed Beka and tried it out today! I really like the color!

This is my fav shoot from today. Got the lights in her eyes… Nice color… hmmm, not too bad! Ok, so there is food all over her face…. that’s just Beka!

New Business Blog

So, I’ve finally decided to make a small jump. Come check out the new business blog. We are taking baby steps in the photography business, but at least we are moving forward. Later this month I’m going to be attending a photography convention here in Vegas (so excited!) And hopefully I’ll come away with some great tips and advice. Check out the new blog: Jessica Leavitt Photography.

I’m also taking an on-line class called the Joy of Love. Each day there is a prompted on what to take a photography of. It’s really fun. I’ve been posting those on the new blog as well.  It’s exciting to be taking on new adventures.

Sometimes things just make you laugh

Sometimes there really no good reason why something makes you giggle or laugh right out loud. And then sometimes well:

She looks so surprised! And that hair! It’s great!

Have a happy day!