Great pasta recipe

I was telling my mom last night about this recipe I found on allrecipes.com.  She wanted me to send it to her, but I thought maybe I ought to put it on the blog.  It is SUPER easy, but tastes great and made my whole family happy.  I added some cut up rotisserie chicken that I had leftover in the fridge.  I put it in at the end and heated it up while the feta cheese was melting down. 

8 oz penne pasta

2 Tbs olive oil

1 large 28 oz can of diced tomatoes

10 oz fresh spinach, washed and chopped

2 tsp minced garlic 

1 tsp of dried basil 
8 oz feta cheese

salt 

black pepper 

Boil the pasta, and when finished set aside until spinach and tomato mixture is done.

Heat oil in large pot.  Add tomatoes, spinach and garlic and cook until spinach is wilted. Then add feta cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.  The cheese will melt into the juices of the tomato and spinach.  If you want a little more kick you can add some red pepper flakes.  

ENJOY!

Sorry no picture.  Maybe when I make it again, I will remember to take a photo and post it.  

Breakfast with Santa

At church this last weekend the kids had breakfast with Santa!  Here are a few pictures from the event.  Surprising that we don't have any crying pictures of Marlie with Santa.  They put Lainey there with her and she was much more at ease.  Santa mingled during breakfast before they sat on his lap and I think that demystified him a bit.  The kids pointed out that they tested the beard and it is real.  But the hair, Reed noted that it was a little weird.

Afternoon at the park

The many faces of Marlie.  I can't believe how grown up she is getting.  Where is my little baby girl?

Lainey and Marlie are looking more alike the older Marlie gets.

Yeah! Summer! I hope we will have many more magical moments like these the next few months!  I love the first days of summer.  They are filled with hopefulness of what the summer will bring--what projects will get done, what fun will be had, what places and people we will visit.   

Spring Azaleas

Spring Pictures!  

Special thanks to our friend Dan West at danwestphotography.com for taking these photos. 

Goodbye Winter--Hello Spring!

Okay, I think its pretty safe to say that spring is here and we can say goodbye to winter.  So as a final farewell to the not-so-cold winters of South Carolina I thought it would be appropriate to post some pictures of our biggest snow this year.  This was one of two snowfalls.  Around here its a big deal to get ANY snow, but packable snow that can make a snowman and a huge chair.  The kids had so much fun.  We even went sledding after we built the snowman.  The snow was pretty much melted by the end of the day.  The snowman and the chair lasted a week and a half.  Just perfect.

The Swing

Anyone wanna come over for a swing?

   Our friend Dan took this photo and I wanted to add it to our last post about Reed's birthday party.

Reed's firsts and his 6th

First day of kindergarten. A little late on the first day of school pictures, but here he is in his new classroom, wearing his favorite star wars shirt.  He loves kindergarten, and especially loves the python named Sylvester who resides in his classroom.  The hermit crabs, fish, lizards, frogs, and tadpoles, are pretty great too.

Another first... the first lost tooth!  A very big day around here.   He lost it at school and brought it home in a little box, with great pride. Yes, the tooth fairy did come, and he said he's going to keep the gold dollar that she left forever.

Happy 6th Birthday Reed!  We had a party in the back yard.  We roasted hotdogs and marshmellows, and played on the zip line, tramp, and the new huge swing Dad and uncle Brian put in the Oak tree.  When it got dark we had fireworks too.   As the kids were swinging around the roasting sticks, I wondered whose bright idea it was to equip 7 boys with swords at dusk.  They had a great time, but I am glad that we didn't poke out any eyes, burn any fingers or toes, or catch the trees in the back yard on fire from the fireworks.  Oh, and for those of you who don't have a 6 or 7 year old boy, and are wondering--is it a jack-o-lantern?--is it a spider? --what is that?   The cake is a "bakugan" ball, which is all the rage right now for Reed and his friends.  Also, this is the second batch of cupcakes and cake.   The first batch was finished at 11 am, which was well in advance of the party.  I was feeling very good about not rushing right before the party.  One should be very careful with those kinds of feelings.  Several hours later, the cake which was placed on top of the fridge to keep it out of reach of Marlie (who will climb on the table), fell out of balance when the door was open and shut by my unsuspecting husband.  The cake flipped over, along with the cupcakes, face down on the floor.  I should have taken a picture of that view of the cake.  Thankfully it didn't happen right before the party, and I had time to pull a cake together with a little learning curve from the first cake.

Lainey, with her roasting stick ready to go roast her marshmellow!