Happy Friday! I survived our first full week of summer at home. Yay! My strategy is to work a bit each day and then plan one fun thing to go out and do with the kids each day (even if it’s just a stop at the library or sprinklers in the yard). One of our fun activities this week was watching Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I can’t even tell you how excited I was when it came onto Netflix service recently. The kids totally loved it! I especially love how nervous Cate would get during the suspenseful scenes, it was crazy cute. Also, I can’t believe how much of that movie I still have memorized. Kinda scary.

Here are links to all my other stuff on the web this week!

On Babble:

• What To Do With Your Summer Tomato Harvest
• 3 Kids, a Mom, & a Kitchen: Jake’s Buried Treasure Banana Pudding

And Cosmo:

• 14 Delicious Desserts You Can Make on the Stove
• 20 Recipes That Will Make Zucchini Your Favorite Summer Food
• 16 Slushy Drinks That’ll Keep You Cool All Summer

Your turn to share whatever you want! Blog posts, fantastic finds, summer activity ideas, it’s all fair game!

Hello, everyone! So, I really took a break from the blog this week…I don’t know the last time I did that! It’s just that we were too busy doing things like this…

But the party ends today…we’re flying home this afternoon! We’ve been gone almost a month and, as absolutely wonderful as our trip has been, it will be nice to sleep in our own beds tonight. That is if we survive the flight…wish me luck flying alone with 3 kids!

Here are my food posts elsewhere on the web this week!

• On Babble: Healthy Morning Milkshakes!
• On Cosmo: 17 Shrimp Dishes You Should Make All Summer
• On Cosmo: 11 Fun Things You Can Make with an Ice Tray
• On Cosmo: 8 Fabulous Fondue Recipes

Your turn for show and tell – share whatever you want!

Happy Friday! Just a few fun links today and then I’ll be out of your hair! 😉 As always, please share your own stuff in the comments, too! I love seeing what you’re up to/what caught your eye during the week/all of it!

Okay, so I really loved writing my Babble post about making fondue with kids this week. We put it all together with our extended family here in New Jersey and had a blast! The cooking was fun, the eating was fun and everything tasted wonderful. Plus, there are lots of cute photos and two great recipes in the post. So, you know, be sure to check it all out!

• 3 Kids, a Mom & a Kitchen: Fun with Fondue!

And here are some fun posts on Cosmo this week!

• 13 Fun Uses for Pancake Mix
• 15 Crazy Amazing Things You Can Make With Cayenne Pepper
• 18 Quick Summer Snacks You Need Now

Right now I’m visiting my parents in New Jersey. My brother and his wife had TONS of fresh basil from their garden, so they decided to try drying it in my mom’s old food dehydrator.

Drying the basil was easy and very hands off, BUT here are a few things we learned:

• A LOT of fresh basil makes just a LITTLE dried basil. The basil you see in the photos is all the dried basil we got from 8 large trays of fresh basil.
• It takes a looooooong time for the basil to get completely dry. We followed the instructions and cooked the basil at 105ºF. The dehydrator was running for about TWO days. It’s an old deyhdrator, so maybe a new one would be different, but holy smokes it took forever!
• If you already have a food dehydrator or know someone who has one, it’s definitely worth drying basil if you have a whole bunch because it’s so easy. However, if you’re only planning to make dried basil with your dehydrator, it’s definitely not worth buying one. At least that’s what we think!

Here are my posts on Cosmo this week!

• 23 Reasons to Eat Cake for Breakfast (i.e. MUFFINS!)
• 20 Unexpected Ways to Use Cereal

Show and tell! Feel free to share whatever you like!

Happy Friday! We are having loads of fun here in New Hampshire. Well, besides the mosquitos. I could do without the mosquitos. But the views make up for it. And the fun with family, including Nate’s Ninja turtle-themed birthday party complete with GI Joes. Also, on a related note, we flew out via jetBlue and basically I love them more than ever. That’s all. They’re the best.

Here is my post for Babble this week:

• Fresh and Pretty Patriotic Berry Pudding Parfaits

And food fun on Cosmo!

• 20 Totally Crazy Rice Crispy Treat Recipes
• 10 Surprising Things to Do With Pudding
• 10 Cool Frozen Yogurt Recipes You Need This Summer

Lastly, I’m going to be sharing some yummy milk recipes on Babble in the next few weeks in support a new Disney web series called Citizen Kid, which features ordinary kids doing extraordinary things. Below is the first episode and it’s super cute. Click here to see more great stories! I’ll be sure link to my milk recipes when they go live, too!

Alright, you know the drill – share your own stuff!!!

Happy Friday! I hope everyone is having a great summer. Our summer break is off to a great start, well, if you don’t count Owen putting a bead up his nose and having to run to the doctor to get it out. At least I got to experience that parenting rite of passage, right?

Okay, so, my posts on Babble this week are really cool and you have to go check them out! I shared some of the food and drink we had at our lip sync party last week, which was delicious!

How to Create an Italian Soda Bar: For real, I LOVED this. The sodas were delicious, there were so many ways to personalize your drink and it was pretty! Also, the Italian soda bar is appealing to kids and adults alike. Such a great thing to do for parties! Be sure to click through to see how to do it.

How to Create a Bruschetta Bar: For the appetizers I set up a bruschetta bar and it was scrum-diddly-umptious. Click through for the deets.

And here are my fun food posts on Cosmo this week!

• 18 Tasty Ways to Eat Breakfast on the Go
• 10 Awesome Desserts You Can Make in the Microwave
• The 15 Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You Will Ever Eat

It’s show and tell, which means the whole class gets to participate – share your stuff!

Happy Friday! Today I’m just gonna get right to it and share my food links for the week!

On Babble (the site is back up, yay!):

• 10 Totally Delicious and Creative Guacamole Recipes 
• 3 Kids, a Mom, and a Kitchen: Barbecue Chicken Salad

And food fun on Cosmo:

• 15 Ways to Make Tofu the Best Thing You’ve Ever Eaten
• 14 Unexpected Ways to Eat Cookie Dough
• 18 Grilled Vegetarian Meals That Taste Incredible

You know the drill, share your own stuff, too!

Happy Friday! Let’s start with an inspirational quote, shall we?

You guys, House of Cards!!!! We just finished the second season and there are SO MANY THINGS I want to say but I won’t because then I’d just be a big spoiler. But, I will say this: Nate is worried that my mind thinks too much like Frank Underwood’s because I totally predicted how this season would end at the end of last season. Maybe I should get into politics…

A BIG congratulations to my amazing sister-in-law Hannah who just launched her own company, Odessa Swimwear! Until June 15, you can get 20% of your order and free shipping if you enter the code 2042JUNE. If you’re looking for a high-end bikini made from beautiful fabrics, Odessa is just what you need!

Two quick shout outs before I get to this week’s food links.

• My chair finally arrived from Dot & Bo and it is perfect. I am so happy we were able to buy it! On a related note, Dot & Bo asked me to guest post on their blog! I was super excited they reached out because, seriously, I love them. Check out my post on the Dot & Bo blog here!
• Have you seen Joss and Main? It’s similar to Dot & Bo, but the collections are organized a bit differently. Like Dot & Bo, you essentially can find super awesome stuff for your house at great prices. We recently ordered a rug from Joss and Main (which I instagrammed a few weeks ago). The rug is GORGEOUS, but apparently not very resilient. We had an issue on the second day with some spilled water. Yes, just plain old water. Joss and Main’s customer service replied immediately and rectified the situation, going WAY above and beyond what I ever would have expected them to do. So, there you go. Really cute stuff, great customer service. Thought I should spread the word!

And on Cosmo this week:

• 16 Unexpected Things You Can Do With Cake Mix
• 15 Incredible Recipes That Will Impress Absolutely Anyone

Your turn! Share whatever you want!

Happy Friday! I have a few fun things to share today!

First, how did I not know about Derek before this week? SO GOOD. Derek is a comedy-drama from Ricky Gervais that is on Netflix and I watched the whole season in one day. (I was sick in bed and Derek was the only upside to that incredibly boring day!) I’m gonna say it even though it’s cheesy – this show will make you laugh and it will make you cry. And cry some more. I seriously love this show.

Second, I discovered a cool website started by a friend of a friend called With Love, From Brooklyn. The friend of a friend is chef Dara and her site features gift sets made of artisan treats from Brooklyn. The site is filled with all kinds of deliciousness and super cool stuff, including some really fun ideas for Father’s Day. So fun!

Here are my posts on Cosmo this week!

• 15 Creamy Cinnamon Rolls You Need Immediately
• 20 Absolutely Amazing Avocado Recipes
• 20 Wonderful Waffle Recipes You Need to Try
• 14 Completely Perfect Key Lime Desserts

I’m done! Now it’s your turn to share!

Hello, friends! Before we get to this week’s links and normal show and tell, I just wanted to give a quick update on the fires here in North County San Diego. We have literally been surrounded by fires on three sides since Wednesday morning (the fourth side is the ocean). While we are very close to the fires, our neighboorhood is in a spot where the chance of our home becoming victim to wildfires is very remote. So, my little family is safe and sound, as is our home. But it’s been heartbreaking to know so many in our community have not been so lucky. And the fires continue to burn. Please send prayers/positive vibes/anti-wind spells our way.

Our view of the Poinsettia Fire from the living room on Wednesday shortly after the fire began.

On a much lighter note, here are my posts on Cosmo this week. (The baking hacks are super cool, btw!)

• 12 Totally Life-Changing Baking Tips
• 20 Insane Treats You Can Make With M&M’s
• 10 Stuffed French Toast Recipes for Your Best Breakfast Ever

Happy Friday. And, as usual, please share anything you would like in the comments!