Living in Munchkinland

Happy Birthday to a beautiful, amazing woman inside and out. You are my best friend and my role model and I am so happy to celebrate you today. XXOO, Amber

We're off to Houston this morning. We intend to see my in-laws, celebrate my mom's birthday and hit the Renaissance Festival this weekend. I'd tell you more about it, but I sliced the tip of my finger off last night cutting zucchini matchsticks for my shrimp red curry and now typing is a long and slightly painful process. Hopefully I'll have some pics up when we get back and I can tell the tale through photos. XXOO, Amber

Portuguese stew is my all time favorite winter dish. My mom used to make it while I was growing up and it was always delicious. It was one of the recipes I meticulously copied down when I went to college and one I always pulled out during the first cold front of the year. Over the last year I had to give up my favorite stew because the ingredients just weren't south beach friendly. There were potatoes and ketchup and italian sausage. Then the other day I made a smoked salmon chowder from one of my south beach cookbooks where they replaced the potatoes with turnips. Would that work in my portuguese stew recipe, I wondered. I pulled out the recipe and looked it over with a new perspective. It would work! I could do it! I modified the recipe and cooked it last week. It was amazing. Delicious. Fantastic. It's such a comforting, filling, hearty dish and I can't wait to share with you the updated version. The recipe is found below. Amber's Portuguese Stew 1/2

My mom threw a rockin' party for my Dad and Uncle Larry's birthday party last night. I did the event planning for it to help out. We had fantastic food from Timmeron Catering with three stations, one of which was an active station with the chef creating quesadillas, sausages, and satays on a huge grill out on the lawn. We also had three bands. The West Side Horns, The Lucky Tomblin Band, and Jackie King each played a set. We also had fantastic fireworks from Wolf Stuntworks. I'm guessing we had about two hundred people there and I think everyone had a great time. I know my dad did. It was the best birthday party I've ever been to if I do say so myself. The fireworks were my favorite part. My sister and mom and I sang a song with the band! It was so fun and we are all exhausted this morning. I wish I had the camera in the beginning because the food and tables were absolutely gorgeous. There were a plethora of pumpkins and fall foliage. My mom had created these

Michael took the boys to Davis' Montessori school Halloween Party last night. I wanted to go very much, but I was working a different party so I couldn't go. The kids looked sweet in their costumes and the pictures were fun. It looked like everyone had a great time.

I've been crazy busy this week. And last week. I can't keep up! I used to have too much time. Now I don't have enough. I'll be quick and try to catch you up. Last weekend we went to Bastrop and stayed at the Hyatt Lost Pines . This place is fantastic! We went with the whole Tomblin family and had a blast. Davis rode bicycles all weekend and adored spending time with his cousin Kade. We roasted marshmallows, ate fancy dinners, played by the pool, watched movies in bed and had a wonderful time. The resort is perfect for people with children. It's like our own Dirty Dancing summer resort right here in Texas. I wish we could go there every year. The pictures above are from our weekend. It really deserves it's own post, but I'm on a limited time budget this week. This week has been the week of getting ready for my dad's birthday party. I've been trying to help my mom get everything prepared and it's a big job! I'm also still trying to

We headed to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday morning. Two years ago we went to the one in Elgin and last year we went to Sweetberry Farms in Marble Falls. This year we were hoping to find a patch a little closer to San Marcos and a bit less crowded. We found just what we were looking for in the Ford Family Farm . We got there right as it opened and there were only two other cars there. They had a hay maze and an obstacle course that the kids loved. They had a choo choo train of wheelbarrows pulled by a driving lawn mower. They had a hay ride pulled by a large tractor. They had pumpkins for buying and painting and a little photo opp area and gourd bowling and stuff your own scarecrow. It was small, but perfect for your 2-5 year old. Our friends Elizabeth and Zach joined us with their boys Graham and Dean and later my friend Alicia joined us with her three children, Josephine, Josiah and Annabella. We had a great time and the boys had a blast too. The two hours we were there flew b

I love to travel. I'd travel once every six weeks in a perfect world. I love to travel with my kids and without them. It's probably my favorite hobby. It's also my most expensive hobby. Because I can't be traveling all the time, I've developed the habit of researching travel to tide me over. Here are a few of my favorite links for travel with children: Ciao Bambino I really like this one. It's a recent find with lots of villa rentals. Family Travel Guides This is handy resource. Family Travelogue A great blog to which I subscribe with bloglines. Delicious Baby I love this blog as well. Tiny travelers This has come in handy a few times. Vacation Kids Not beautiful to look at, but really very comprehensive and very handy. Cruise Mates- Traveling with the Baby This is a great website for cruising with kids or just cruising in general. These are links that I use all the time for Traveling in General: Caribbean Way Gorgeous Villa Rentals Fuel Cost

Yesterday morning we all ran/walked the Alzheimer's Memory Walk for the third year in a row. It was great. We had such a fun time and really moved fast this year. The kids had a blast and my good friend Cheris joined our team and brought her two children as well. Davis and her daughter Violet and my nephew Kade ran the second half of the race on their own two feet after eschewing the stroller. After the race we headed over to the downtown Farmer's Market and ate empanadas and bought some beautiful produce and some delicious quinoa and pecan papardelle. We ran into our friends Jodi and Owen there and I got to ooh and ah over their beautiful new baby. It was a great morning. We went home, showered, napped and played until it was time for our sitter to arrive and then Michael and I headed to the Texas Waste Disposal Exotic Game Ranch for the 5th Annual CASA of Central Texas Fundraiser. We've been every year and have always really enjoyed it. My mom has been board pres

I got this from my friend Heather at Us and Eamon . I thought it was fun. Thanks Heather! Book Meme 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 42. 3. Find the first full sentence. 4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions. 5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Where powdered pectin is used, corn syrup can replace one-half the sugar. And with liquid pectin, 2 cups of the sugar can be replaced with corn syrup. Honey can also be used to replace sugar. Light, milk-flavored honey generally is the best kind to use. In recipes without added pectin, honey can replace one-half the sugar. When pectin is added, 2cups of honey can replace 2 cups of sugar in most recipes; 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar can be replaced by honey in small recipes. The Ball Blue Book: Guide to Home Canning and Freezing. Edition 30 Originally published by Ball corporation in 1977.