Whatchooo Doin This Wknd? 3/29. And a funny story about Jason Isbell....

Several fun things happening this wknd. Its supposed to be rainy on Saturday but Sunday is like mid 60's and sunny! They postponed the Folly Beach Sea & Sand Festival bc of the weather but good news everyone....it is now happening on my birthday wknd :)

On Saturday you can go to our James Island library at 10:30am and they are showing Despicable Me 2. And then something I just hate that we are missing: The Fancy Nancy Garden Party is happening at the Main Library downtown at 11am. We were there this afternoon and they were setting up and it looks so cute! If we were going we would definitely need lil gloves and a sunhat :)

www.ccpl.org

Disco brunch at Avondale Mellow Mushroom? Sounds awesome!

I love a good theme.

I have a gold lame (pronounced lamay but Idk how to put an accent over the E) shirt that I wore to a friend's Vegas -themed wedding reception

that would be perfect for this.

Find out more info here.

The Pour House is supposed to be doing the Food Truck Court again this Saturday but we'll see with the rain chances. Dallas Baker & Friends and the Cane Creek String Band are playing and its from 12 - 5:30pm. www.charlestonpourhouse.com

Sunday Brunch Farmers Market

Alot more vendors are back this Sunday and the Hungry Monks are playing.

This past Monday Jason Isbell was at the Charleston Music Hall. His new album is supposed to be amazing and evidently he put on quite a show. 

Every time I think of him I giggle. Tab and I went to see him at the Pour House in 2008 right after he went solo from Drive By Truckers. 

It was a good show but he was pretty drunk during most of it. 

(I think he is very sober now.)

And he was playing with a guy who used to work at Steak Out in GA?

 We were such young kids :) Newlyweds!

So after the show we ended up backstage with Isbell and all of his groupies. It was all very cliche. He had a girl on each side of him, the air was thick with cigarette smoke and everyone was talking and laughing and passing around a bottle of warm Jack Daniels (which I pretended to swig but didn't bc its gross). So Tab and I are sitting there, pretending to be cool and 

acting like we belonged there.

Pic below is bad but I was trying to catch the cliche-ness of it all without getting busted snappin pics.

And...all of the sudden....Tab randomly blurts out 

"SO. WERE YOU KICKED OUT OF DRIVE BY TRUCKERS OR DID YOU LEAVE?"

...crickets...

And then after what seemed like an eternity of awkward silence one guy says 

"WHO SAYS THAT?"

and Tab backtracks and is like 

"I mean...its not like I'm a reporter or anything!"

Jason Isbell laughed quietly and never answered really.

So after that no one offered us the Jack Daniels again.

We slinked out of the Pour House in the wee hours of the morning, giggling about what had happened.

Ohhhhhhhh Tab! 

Goodness I love that story.

Happy Wknd y'all! Maybe I will see you on Sunday :)

Brick House & Sunday Brunch Farmers Mkt over the wknd

This past wknd was jam-packed of good times. Did the Family Fun Day at Brick House Kitchen on Saturday morning and the kids had a blast. Got there right when it opened so we could wear Louis out in the jump castles before bigger kids arrived.

Tab ordered a serrano chili beer that was on special and it was disgusting.....FYI. 

Funny pic bc Louis is literally eatin it while we are taking pics of beer...

Free face paint!

Betty has to get Hello Kitty every time after she saw her friend Brady with it once....a long time ago.

Sweet blue-eyed bffs: Annie & Betty

Balloon animals!

Then on Sunday we headed to Riverland Terrace for some park time and lunch at my fave lil farmers mkt.

Picnic

Tryin out some locally made cheese.

A little duo called Oh Valentino was playing at the mkt and it was pretty packed even though only about half the vendors were there. One of our fave new vendors is a bus that sells vintage clothes! Its awesome!

A little 360 video. Tab...lol

It was a really nice wknd.

Turkey Meatballs!

Such a perfect toddler food - especially for this CHUNK of a boy I have that is already eating me out of house and home. 

My gf, Lexie, told me about these turkey meatballs she had been making for her kids that were an All-In-One meal. She did ground turkey, oatmeal and sweet potato. It's so easy to be flexible with this! Lately I've just been doing turkey and a grain and then serving it with a vegetable. I've been making those little 5minute cous cous boxes (the tomato lentil and the Mediterranean curry are the best for this), letting them cool and adding them in with 1lb of ground turkey and one egg to bind it and then rolling into meatballs and cooking at 350 degrees for 30min. 

 

Make sure you follow the package directions and add some olive oil in when making the cous cous or it turns into one big cous cous cake. Which is not really a bad thing bc I cut that into little squares and that became a good finger food too. But for the meatballs you want the cous cous to mix well with the ground turkey. Don't over mix or it will get tough. 

I've also tried it with quinoa and I've added a steam bag of creamed spinach (that was a huge hit). You could use regular chopped frozen spinach - just be sure to squeeze out the excess water. 

The possibilities are endless and these are so easy - I make them once a week. And they are perfect for weekends when we are always 

eating lunch out or on the go!

(pay no attention to his Santa pjs - we're still rockin them)

Thanks for the idea Lexie! And if y'all need any catering done down here in the lowcountry check out her business online here: Harvest Catering and on Facebook :)

Whatchooo Doin This Wknd? 3/22

Spring and beautiful weather means happy hour outside! We love to visit the Pour House deck for this very reason but yesterday afternoon we packed up the kids and took them to Bohemian Bull Beer Garden (biergarten? idk)

 On our way to happy hour!

Love this girl...and this chair :)

Spring also means the FARMERS MKTS ARE COMING BACK! One of my favorites starts again this Sunday. The Sunday Brunch Farmers Mkt in Medway Park is so cute and sweet. We pack lunch and eat at the picnic tables there while listening to the live music they have or we'll stop by to check it out and walk around before heading out to lunch somewhere. Bc they are in Riverland Terrace, the people who have mini-horse pets there (I think there are 3 now) will walk them down and they are so cool!

Brick House Kitchen is having their Family Fun Day...again. We went last time and had a good time (beers + jump castles) but mostly bc we were one of the 1st ones there and it hadn't gotten crowded yet. Crowded jumpcastles with older kids is never fun. Its annoying - why don't they make rules about that? Or have separate jump castles for ages 7+? Anyway - they got rained out last time (after we left) so they are having a do-over. We might do it again!

Its Fashion Week here, if you are into that. I wish I could be, but my idea of fashion is Old Navy or Target jersey knit and I inappropriately wear leggings as pants...alot.

Soooooo......

But - one of my fave fellow James Islanders walked the runway this past week and looked AMAZING doing it! 

Not many kids can pull off a pose like that - she has it DOWN!

So proud of you Berkley! Can't wait to say "I knew you when..."

I mean...she's like 5 and waaaay more fashiony than me! (its a word)

Other than that I think we might hit Folly Beach - its supposed to be mid 70's and sunny which is seriously my perfect weather....minus all the pollen. We always go to the 8th block on the right side bc it isn't too crowded and there is a shower off station at the Public Access that actually works. We've always had great luck finding shells and starfish there (in season).

That, a birthday party cookout for a special friend, and some MUCH NEEDED yard work and our wknd is packed! How about you? Doing any thing fun? Let us know in the blog comments or Facebook comment section!

Arts & Crafts: St. Pat's & Easter

Yay for the first day of Spring! 

So ready to be done with this nasty cold weather 

and today its 75 and sunny....ie: perfect.

Wanted to backtrack a bit and show some fun stuff 

I did with the kids for St. Pats.

We made Leprechaun masks! 

We have round stamp sponge brushes for the orange beard.

And the results after alot of stapling by me....

Sweet Lil leprechauns....

They are definitely good luck.

Yes.- his finger is in his nose.

This is the 2nd year I've done the PINCH PROOF shirts with Betty. It's so easy to buy a bag of tshirts and have them on hand....

even if they are wayyyyy too big :)

We focus on one holiday after another here. And when there is a lull in holidays we focus on the season and do seasonal crafts. Pinterest is my go-to...I am not coming up with this stuff on my own, people!

So immediately after St. Pats we moved on to Easter and spring. 

Happy Spring!

I cut a bunch of egg shapes out of construction paper and that is our ongoing craft. It is great to have ongoing crafts - especially when the baby is eating supper and I need the 3yr old to be occupied during THE WITCHING HOUR (5pm-7pm). 

with the scrap paper I cut out zig zags and polka dots that she can use for gluing.

All while this kid is munching away and watching his sister.

 She can do anything with the eggs - glue, watercolor, acrylic (washable) paint, markers, crayons, etc - so it really allows her to be creative.

YALL. This is seriously my kid. SSSSSSSSSssssstop it.

I mean.....

I'm pretty sure I heard a Star Wars theme song in there? 

Is that what it was?

Another ongoing craft that is easy to set up for spring and allows them to be creative? Cut out the egg carton cups. Betty (and Miles) paints them all the time and gives them away to friends. We take green pipe cleaner and stick it thru the bottom to make a stem. I will try to add a picture of the finished product but these are great and seriously so easy. 

I cut out Easter eggs (or egg carton cups or hearts if its Valentines...etc) during nap time and it seriously makes my life so much easier. To have a craft for her to do when I need her to be occupied is great.

And last but not least....we balanced an egg for the vernal equinox! 

It worked!

 We are geniuses....obviously.

St. Pats 2014 video

In the St. Pat's Parade....for the 6th year! (or 7th...we can't remember)

I don't even remember what made my sister, Jennifer and I decide to do it the first year. But I'm so glad we did. The first year we decorated our trailer (float) with a large plywood rainbow going into a pot of gold. We definitely looked like a lesbian group and quickly made friends with SC Pride :)
The next year we named ourselves Fun Time Friends and made a girls only rule, no kids, no boys unless they are driving or acting as security detail walking behind the float.
We have grown to include a core group of 7 girls, but we miss 1-2 every now and then.

Our group this year. Jennifer, Mama and I. Susi, Stoner, Rai, and Marty.

We make this a family affair. 

Mama walks alongside the float and hands out candy to all the little ones.

We have so much fun! And the crowd was huge this year. They LOVE our music and dance along with us and the kids dig our bubble machines - I think we are a hit :)

They turn the fountains green for the festival.

Our cousin, Ashley, let us borrow her trailer for our float and so we did a little advertising for her photography company Dabble!
She has taken pics of my family before and they are amazing!

We out-do ourselves every year and I can't wait for next year's parade!