A Klutzy Kind of Day

You ever have one of those days where you just wake up klutzy? Everything you try to pick up, you drop twice before you finally get a grip on it or you stub your toe three different times but always the same toe or you knock over your coffee cup that is always in the exact same place so why are your instincts not working right today?? You know what I mean? Ok, it's one of those days for me. And the worst of it was when I went to shake up the bottle of coffee creamer and for the first time EVER I did not put my finger over the lid, like I always do anytime I shake a bottle of something. And of COURSE this would be the one day that I did not completely close the lid. You see where I'm going with this? Shake-shake-shake....coffee creamer EVERYWHERE. My fridge door was still open so it got all over the inside of the door. Nice. And sticky. Good morning.

Tart Du Jour: Tea & Honey. Judges Rule: Very nice. It's a warm morning today but it's not too "fallish" of a scent so it works. Mildly sweet and unusual in a good way. I have a feeling this scent will be an "acquired taste" kind of tart.

Today is going to be a flurry of laundry. We're leaving for Vegas tomorrow for Alyson's baby shower and Kyla's dedication. I'm a little concerned because McKenna keeps telling me that her head hurts and she's running a fever of 100.1 underarm. Right now she's lying on the couch, cuddling with a stuffed penguin. Kyla had something similar the other day and we thought it was due to teething but Erick put two-and-two together and it looks like it was a mild virus. Fortunately, Kyla's only lasted about 24 hours and had no other symptoms besides the fever and crankiness. So I think we're still ok for our trip tomorrow. We'll play it by ear.

We're planning ahead for the 4-hour drive. I got a power adapter for my laptop so I can scrap on the way (woohoo!) and we bought McKenna a portable cd player so that she can listen to music or stories-on-cd along the way. She's pretty excited about that and we haven't allowed her to open it until we get on the road. I didn't want to have the novelty of it wear off too soon because then it would be pointless. LOL! We're gonna pack her little backpack with snacks and activities that will hopefully keep her occupied. So either Kenna will be busy and Kyla will take a good nap and we'll make great time.....or neither of those things will happen and we'll have to make 6 stops along the way for the potty, for snacks, to stretch, for potty, for snacks, to stretch, for potty....you get the idea.

Have you noticed all the fun fall styles that are out in the stores now? I swear that Gymboree will be the financial death of me. I could easily max out a credit card there. Partly because every single item is cute but also because they are way too expensive. That doesn't mean I don't occassionally splurge there though. = P

For McKenna we got this dress:



and this little knit hat:




We also bought her the matching tights and a really cute pair of boots at Target. The boots are perfect. They're tan and they have a trim on them that matches the dress perfectly! So cute!

She also fell in love with this pageboy hat and it looked so good on her with her little curls so we bought this too:



For Kyla, we went more for function and we bought her this jumper:



After a thread over at DST about hair clips for girls, I remembered this great site for the No-Slippy Hair Clippy. So I browsed there last night and picked out this for McKenna:


and these for Kyla:




We bought them a few cute (more affordable) outfits at Target as well. And McKenna also added these to her dress-up collection:



Her dress-up collection was getting pretty overwhelming in size. So imagine how ecstatic I was when yesterday, Mr. UPS knocked on our door with a birthday package for McKenna from Elaine and family. Look what they sent her:



SWEET! It's just perfect for all her dress up clothes! She calls it her "treasure chest" and she loved getting to fill it up with all her dresses, shoes and accessories. Thanks again Chaney family!


Ok, and one last product in the line-up....

Has anyone tried this new limited edition ice cream from Haagen Daaz?


It's called Sticky Toffee Pudding and it is so.....freaking....good! Read the description from the website:
a tribute to the popular English dessert, our rich vanilla ice cream is swirled with a sticky toffee sauce and morsels of moist, brown sugar cake.

Put a little warm caramel sauce on it and it is YUM!

Ok, now I really, really need to tackle that laundry. So I will leave you with these:

Pictures of McKenna's third birthday!

And this delicious recipe that we made the other night. When it was done cooking, I looked at it and was really skeptical. But it tasted really, really good. And it was so easy to make!

Reuben Casserole

Ingredients:

1 jar (16 oz.) sauerkraut (rinsed and well drained)
1 pound cooked corned beef, chopped into large bite-size pieces*
8 ounces sour cream
1 small onion (chopped)
1 garlic clove (minced)
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded swiss cheese
2 slices rye bread (cubed)**
2 TBS butter or margarine (melted)

Directions:

In a bowl, combine the sauerkraut, corned beef, sour cream, onion and garlic. Transfer to a greased 11-in X 7-in X 2-in baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bread. Drizzle with butter. Bake uncovered at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.

* You can buy corned beef at the deli counter and just ask them to slice it thick.
** We used Russian Rye bread and it was perfect!

Enjoy!!