visitors

We spent most of this past week with this fun family!  We had a full house and loved every minute of it.  It was fun to watch the kids all play together so well.  They really only see each other once a year at the most, but it didn't seem like that watching them play.  And having a toddler around again was really fun!  We tried to show them the best of St. Louis (and saved some so they would come back sometime, too).  This was at the zoo, but we also hit the Arch, the Farmer's Market at Soulard, and a few local things here in LSL, O'Fallon and Chesterfield.  I even got to go shopping for organization things with Lynda - be still my heart!  Someone may as well have told me I won the lottery.  Well, maybe it wasn't that great, but it was pretty awesome.  Mostly the kids just wanted to play together - they didn't care much where it was. 

The house is very quiet now.  We miss them. We're so glad they came all the way here to see us!

it's baseball time again

florida

This was such a fun trip.  We had the nicest weather I think we've ever had on a spring break Florida trip.  Warm breezes, warm water to swim, very little humidity, no rain, sunshine....ahhhhhhh.  And we got to spend a lot of time with Brian's family - so thankful for that!

 entertaining ourselves during the very long car ride

 Spent the night with the Martins in Atlanta

 Wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon.  The boys LOVED this!  They had been wanting to go to a water park down there for about 3 years now.  It has always been too cool before, so they were very very excited to get to do this.

 Ethan and Brian swam with the sharks at Typhoon Lagoon.

 We always try to get to Cocoa Beach while we're there.  We love the beach.  The water was too cold for Beth, Rick and I, but Brian was an awesome dad and went in with the boys.

 The annual building of the sandcastle. 

 The boys thought they were awesome to be able to get up on the Lifeguard stand.

 One day the girls took a little shopping trip to a place called "The Barn" - very very fun!  So the boys went and created their own monster truck and hot rod with PaPa and Brian.

Chatting the afternoon away on the lanai.  I can still feel the warm breeze and sunshine.

someone's been playing at OUR house.....

I was looking around today and found the funniest things that made me smile and made me stop and be grateful that we have kids that want to come play at our house and kids of our own that enjoy playing with them.

 Found this at the top of the stairs when I got home this morning.  We've had the cutest little girls here the past two mornings right before school.  They are definitely girly girls, but they seem to LOVE to play with all the boys' stuff when they come over.  I know this was their idea cause they always line the toys up along the railing, sometimes stuffed animals for a zoo, sometimes airplanes getting ready for a battle probably (definitely the boys' idea I'm sure). If it had been the boys the airplanes would have been in piles and heaps everywhere :)

 These giraffes revealed themselves from behind the dining room curtain a few days ago.  This meant that our adorable 4 year old neighbor, Will, had been playing with the boys.  He loves animals, and they usually have some game of hide and seek when he's here.  This makes me want to cry cause there will only be a few more weeks of this before they move, and I won't hear "Mrs. Jonica" everyday anymore.  That's going to be a tough one for sure - for everybody at our house.

And this was my surprise in the shower this morning.  These action figures had obviously battled it out while I was sleeping.  Means one of the boys was taking a shower in our bathroom last night.  Means I didn't know anything about it cause my awesome husband took care of bathtime and bedtime last night.  Means I have boys who never like to stop playing, not even to shower.

i want to be here

Lake Eola - Downtown Orlando

  Brian took this picture our last night of vacation, and I love everything about it.  The reflection of the city lights, just starting to really shine.  The swans in the water.  The silhouette of the palm trees.  The fast-fading sunset.   The feeling of the warm breeze that was blowing that evening.  The memory of being there with almost our entire Weiler family, just walking around enjoying the evening.  Aaaaahhhhhhh, I'm ready to go back.

lettuce wraps

Several people have requested this recipe, so I thought I'd just put it on the blog and then I can just send them a link instead of forgetting about getting the recipe to them for days....weeks....months.....

I am NOT a big fan of Chinese food, so I was a bit hesitant to try this when one of my co-workers, Kelly, brought this to a work luncheon last year.  I'm soooooooo glad I was adventurous, because this is one of my favorite meals now!  Please try this even if you don't like Chinese food, cause it really doesn't taste that much like it to me, and you would really be missing out.  Better yet, come visit us and I'll make it for you!

See, doesn't it even look pretty?  All green and fresh......much better than the cloudy, dreary, snowy weather we've had recently.  More SPRING-like.  I like it.

Lettuce Wraps

1-2 heads of Boston lettuce (you can also use iceberg, but I like how the Boston curls up - works better for me)

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

1-2 cups chicken broth

3 medium cloves garlic

2-3 tsp canola oil

1 cup chopped scallions (white part, green part or both)

1/8 tsp ground ginger (or 1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger)

3/4 cup Hoisin sauce (with the Asian foods at the grocery store)

4 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp Asian (dark) sesame oil

In a crock pot, add the chicken and 3 whole cloves of garlic (peeled).  Pour enough chicken broth over the chicken to pretty much cover it.  Cook on low for about 7 hours.

(If you have less time, you can also chop the chicken and cook it in hot oil and minced garlic - I just like to cook it in the crock pot because it's so so easy to shred and that's the way we like to eat it)

Pull the lettuce apart into pieces that look like little "boats" and store them until you're ready to serve the wraps.

After the chicken has cooked, shred it and put it to the side, keeping it warm.

In a large skillet, stir in the scallions, ginger, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil.  Add the shredded chicken and heat the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring until it bubbles and is heated through (2-3 minutes).  It will burn (we know this from experience), so stir it constantly and watch it carefully!

Place a bit of the filling in each lettuce "boat" and then wrap like a burrito and enjoy!

cheesy chicken-bacon-avocado quesadillas

These were on the menu tonight and the kids put them on their "all-the-time" list (minus the avocado).  I don't think they minded the taste of the avocado (they both like guacamole if I remember right), but the mushy texture is what made them get the forks out and start digging all the "green stuff" out.

You can find the recipe here at Kevin and Amanda.  I changed it just a bit cause we had cooked chicken I pulled out of the freezer and we only use turkey bacon so we cooked that in the microwave and had no bacon drippings (plus I don't think turkey bacon would make much "drippings").  I would imagine that the chicken would be even yummier cooked in the bacon drippings, though! 

Anyway, we will definitely make these again!