Thursday, June 26, 2008

Liberty's Birthday....June19th

I know it took me awhile to get these up her, but hey...what can I say? I've been busy.

On June 19th, Liberty's second birthday, we woke up and I presented her with an extra special birthday balloon. It seemed like an important thing to do since you don't turn two every day. She looked so cute with her birthday balloon and her jammies that I just about wanted to cry.

Then after breakfast, we headed out to Oakland to a great place called Children's Fairyland.....it's a storybook theme park and it's just the right size for the 4 and under crowd.

She ran around like a maniac and had a great time. I think she went down the Alice in Wonderland slide about 57 times....I am totally not exaggerating either. Stay tuned for party pictures!


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Stay Tuned....

Rest assured friends and family....I have not given up on my blog entirely. I have been very busy working, recovering from the long fun-filled birthday weekend, buying presents for all of the many other assorted birthdays and graduations that we are celebrating this month, getting my house back to normal and taking Liberty to her 2 year check-up.


I have tons of wonderful pictures from her birthday and I can't wait to share them but I just might need someone to help me out by adding one or two more hours to my day....*sigh*


Hopefully I will find some time tomorrow night....maybe I can convince the hubby to make dinner, or take-out is always nice.


Here's a fun one to tide you over:



More soon I promise!!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Happy Birthday Liberty!!!!

Happy Second Birthday to the sweetest little Peanut in the whole world!!!!


Two years ago today:

One year ago at her birthday party:

This morning with her special happy 2nd birthday balloon:

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Dirty Faced Girl Blows Bubbles





Happy Father's Day!!!

Father's Day was pretty good around these parts. Liberty picked out some pretty cool custom painting stuff and a Spongebob pirate card for her daddy which he liked an awful lot.

We had breakfast together here, I called my dad in Virginia and talked to him for a while which was really nice, and then we all got together over at Grammy & Papa's for a nice family meal.

Mike's Surprise Party

Friday night after work, we went to our friend Mike's surprise 27th birthday party at Shaker's Pizza. It was really fun and Liberty enjoyed running around like a crazy maniac all night.

He was pretty surprised although you can't really tell from the picture (that's him in the red shirt.) All of his friends and family were there...and there was lots of beer and pizza which always makes for a good time.


Saturday, June 14, 2008

Best quesadillas in the world....

Tonight I proved once again that girls rule when it comes to grilling up tasty grub. My most recent grilling triumph is a recipe from my Real Grilling cookbook by Jaime Purviance, from which I have made many delicious meaty recipes, and it has not let me down yet.

I wanted to try something a little different as I have tried just abut every variation of marinated chicken breast and dry rubbed steak that I can get my hands on...so I tried this quesadilla recipe and it did not disappoint.


Grilled Chicken & Red Onion Quesadillas

Paste/Marinade:

2 large garlic cloves
1 jalapeno pepper stem removed
....(or stem, ribs & seeds removed if you are not into the spicy)
1 cup tightly packed cilantro leaves
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
( I used white wine vinegar because that's all I had)
1 tsp. sea or kosher salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp.freshly ground black pepper

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 large red onion cut crosswise into 1/2 inch slices
2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
4 10-inch flour tortillas

1. In a food processor, mince the garlic & jalapeno, then add all remaining paste ingredients and process until smooth. Coat the chicken breasts on all sides and cover & refridgerate for 3-4 hours.

then...

2. Lightly brush the onion slices with olive oil. Grill the chicken and onions over direct medium heat until the onions are tender and the chicken is opaque in the center; 8-12 minutes, turning once. Remove the chicken and onions from the grill and allow to cool. Cut the chicken crosswise into 1/8-inch slices and the onions into 1/4-inch pieces.

3. Evenly divide the chicken, onions and cheese over half of each tortilla. Fold the tortillas over the filling and press down firmly. Grill the quesadillas over direct low to medium heat until well marked and the cheese has melted, 3-5 minutes, turning once.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I served ours with Mexican rice, salsa and sour cream. I ate so much I feel sick...which I guess is the best sign of a really good recipe, since usually, I like to cook much more than I like to eat. I better go check on the hubby because I think he may have lapsed into a quesadilla-induced coma over there on the couch.


Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Pool Party

After the baseball game, we went out and enjoyed our fancy above ground pool for a little while.

Please try not to be too jealous of the posh lifestyle that we live.


Today's Baseball Game...

We headed out for the Crossbones game today to cheer on daddy and the rest of the guys. To say they didn't win would be an understatement....but I won't embarass them by printing the score.
I got a few good pictures and Liberty had fun playing with the big kids so all in all, it was a pretty good afternoon.


Saturday, June 7, 2008

Our new favorite kid product...

I picked this little contraption up the other day when I stopped at Babies-R-Us. It's a huge hit!


Friday Night Baseball Fun Times....

We went to the A's game last night after work (Liberty had a pajama party at Grammy & Papa's house.) It was Kurt Suzuki Bobblehead night so you know we had to go to add another bobblehead to our rapidly growing collection. We had bleacher seats...I 've never experienced the bleacher seats before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really fun. There were lots of very very excited people up there which made the atmoshpere really fun. The A's lost, but I don't think any of us let that ruin our good time.








The bleacher crew in action:






These two fit right in....







And last but not least- The award for the funniest t-shirt that we saw all night goes to......



This guy! hee hee!


Separated at Birth...

One of the sand people from Star Wars


And.....


Liberty wearing Daddy's sweatshirt