Le Park and Meatballs

I love that there are 107 parks near where we live...always a place that sucks the energy out of toddlers. Meaning: good naps later. This Saturday, we celebrated Story's 2nd birthday at a funsy park near our house. Here are some pictures...and I realize I don't have a single one of the party itself, which was fantastic! Why? It's tough to carry around a camera and chase a wild child (Harper) around a populated playground. David got to watch Piper Lee, the calm one. I drew the short straw. (And no, we don't play favorites, gracious alive. I'm just saying that PL is a lot easier on the back.)

Piper Lee is in the yellowish shirt and Harper is in the white, smarty pants shirt...because she is my child and she is a smarty pants.

So, I'm working on my new blog design. EEEECK! I'm so excited! I hope you guys like it. It's got a unicorn on it.

Also, we're putting down hardwoods...FINALLY! Remember, like, 107 years ago when we wanted to put some down and then we found out we were having twins and it was like, "Huh, maybe we should save for that instead." Well, now the girls have jobs and we went this weekend and picked out the wood! It's bamboo, which was what we originally had picked out, and it's super cute. I LOATHE our kitchen, so we're redoing the cabinets and possibly the countertops, too. I'll be posting progress pics as soon as the fabulousness begins. Our carpet...blah...don't even get me started. If they got a black light in here, it'd look like a crime scene...wait, no, no it wouldn't. Because, it's not blood...it's just water and pee (the babies', not ours) and vomit (the babies' again, not ours) and juice and milk and all kinds of food and snot and drool and most likely some poo. Poor carpet. I'll show you a video of it sometime...it'll be like a walk of shame through the living/dining rooms.

The other evening, there was that show on Food Network...I don't remember which one it was...but the guy was trying all different types of meatballs. And I just couldn't get that out of my head. I wanted some meatballs. David found a Giada recipe for meatballs–excuse me...a-meat-a-balls-ah–and we made those suckers Friday night. Y'all...MYWORD...so delicious. I don't like to fix meals that take forever, so our side dishes were super fast and easy. Roasted asparagus and cheese-stuffed tomaters.

You cut the asparagus off 2" or so from the bottom, drizzle with EVOO, salt/pepper, voila.

We used Campari tomatoes, because, well, I'm obsessed with them and I can't imagine there's any other kind of tomato. Cut those bad boys in half, dig out a little hole, stuff with cheese, salt/pepper, voila.

Cook both for 10 minutes at 350ºF. So easy.

MEATBALLS! These were amazing. And actually, they were turkey, so a teensy bit easier on the figure. It's Giada's Italian meatball recipe...onion, breadcrumbs, an egg, turkey, parsley, ketchup, salt/pepper...I think that was all. David sautéed them until they were brown, then added in three small cans of tomato sauce, stirred that around, added the meatballs back in and simmered for 10 minutes. Super easy and so delicious. Even better the next day for lunch.