July photo challenge

Bennett Family Summer 2013 Bucket List

     To get this mommy more in the mood of fun and more into the feel of summer, I have followed some wonderful mommies and created our Summer Bucket List. This list a bunch of activities for the girls and I (Joe too on the weekends) to do.  More to help us remember the fun it is to be a kid in the summer and I think it will keep me accountable for all the " coulda, shoulda, woulda" ideas I come up with.  So here is our comprised list. Be on the look out for pictures and a few possible write ups of our adventures; because you know there is bound to be an adventure in every activity!

1. Blueberry Jubilee

2. McConnell Springs

3. Kentucky Children's Garden @ the UK Arboretum

4. Orange Leaf

5. Greaters 

6. Louisville Zoo

7. Get a library card

8. Farmer's market

9. Living arts and science center

10. Feed ducks at Jacobson park

11. Children's museum

12. Go to movies

13. Thursday night live

14. Boyd's orchard

15. Evans orchard

16. Horse park

17. Ride a horse

18. Salato wildlife 

19. Picnic

20. Raven Run

21. Eat at Parkette 

    Hope to get this finished by the time summer ends and you never know what adventure will include!  

Happy 2013!!!

With 2012 gone and 2013 going well, here's to hoping to keep up with those resolutions!

Not to beat ourselves up if we fall behind a bit on them. But to always remember they are things we strive to improve our lives with!

Ikea 2013...and so the journey begins...

Since we have recently moved AGB and I ventured off to Ikea for some items we needed to organize the new playroom and see what they have recently gotten. When we go on a pilgrimage to Ikea we make the most of it; this isn't like a local trip to Target. It is a hour and half trek each way.
As some may recall it has been a little over a year since our first adventure to Ikea when I thought I could tackle that beast with 2 under 3 by myself; this trip little A stayed at home with Mimi. So AGB and I get there and of course we had to get the items off our "shopping list" from everyone (sadly all items were out of stock=another Ikea run soon) and got the items we wanted for the playroom and a few extra things. One of which was a laundry hamper for AGB.
I have some pretty wonderful and generous parents who bought me an embroidery machine for Christmas, and this machine is what helped AGB and I complete our little project. We found this great metal and white nylon fabric hamper for about $13. And considering she is almost 4 and not the most careful with those things this was perfect. BUT she wanted pink. And it does not come in pink. So mommy had an idea!
A short ride home, dinner for the family and the Anna and I got to work. Since her room is butterflies and flowers we decided on some butterflies. We used many different colors due to as I was informed there are many different ones in the world. :)
The following pictures are our "before and after". All in all I have a happy little girl who loves the hamper and putting her dirty clothes in it (let's hope this continues for years...).

Crockpot creamy Italian Chicken

New recipe time!

With fall in the air and days seem to be getting shorter with daylight, I wanted to get the most out of my day and not standing in the kitchen.  So out comes the crockpot!  

This is a super easy recipe that has 5 ingredents - that is right 5.

Crockpot Italian Chicken

• 4 Chicken breasts
• 1 packet Zesty Italian dressing seasoning
• 1 8oz cream cheese block 
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 package of fresh sliced mushrooms

Place the chicken breasts in the crockpot and spread the Italian dressing seasoning packet over the chicken breasts.

I then poured the fresh sliced mushrooms over top of the chicken

Add the condensed cream of chicken soup over the chicken and also the cubed cream cheese

Place the lid on top and cook on low for 4 hours.  Serve over pasta and we are having with some veggies on the side.

This turned out YUMMY!  We enjoyed it so much that I forgot to take a finished picture before eating.  

~On a side note, if you don't like mushrooms then don't add them.~

But I have a few adjustments to make to the recipe - 

• Next time I will cube the chicken prior to placing in the crockpot; this would make it easier to dish out when the meal is complete.
• Also I think that I would combine the soup with the cream cheese (softened) in a separate bowl and then pour into the crockpot.

Fireplace makeover

Well we have been working on different things around our house; painting, changing light fixtures, and updating some things here and there.  One of the things that has been bothering me is our fireplace.  It is major focal point of our living room and I felt like it was this dark blob on the wall.  A traditional fireplace  - which is fine with us, but it just needed something new.  So between checking out things at Lowes, the internet and Pinterest; I decided to paint the brick and give it a "facelift".  The people in the paint department at Lowes are a wealth of knowledge; I often wonder how much training people get prior to working in their departments.  Anywho, Abigail and I ventured off to Lowes to see what they told tell me about painting bricks.  They were able to supply me with a nice primer and some useful tips.  Now painting with a 1 year was not going to be happening here so I was able to tape off the area around and await for nap time.  

before

Once I got Abigail down for a nap, Anna and I went to work on the fireplace.  I had to put 2 coats of the primer on the brick, as you can see from the picture above it was a rather dark red brick.

I sanded the wooden mantel with a very fine grade sandpaper.  Then I painted over the already painted mantel, it was the same color as the rest of the trim used to be prior to the room redo.  It was more of an antique white and we went with a "white" white.  And I also got to down to business with painting the brick too.  Again I did two coats of paint over the bricks.  

Ta Da!  the finished look

Now what to do about the brick on the floor...

Vanity seat up close