belle isle aquarium + conservatory: a photo series

On our second to last day of summer the girls and I hopped in the car with Granny and Aunt Izzy and headed to Detroit's own Belle Isle. I assumed that the green houses would be warmer than the temperature outside but seeing as the day called for a high of around 75°F I thought it would still be enjoyable. And it was for the most part aside from a few parts where we experienced a multitude of people.

If you do not like fish, plants, or my mediocre photography skills this post is not for you.

As any outing for us goes, we were out the door later than I had planned, but we arrived to Belle Isle with plenty of time left on our hands and we started off with a walk through the aquarium.

^^ Piper was absolutely entranced by the fish. Mainly they were just fish commonly found in the great lakes, but there were a few saltwater varieties including upside down jellyfish!

^^ Panther chameleon. I don't know about you, but I was upset that I spotted him so easily.

Next, off to the conservatory!

 ^^ Piper's running freedom didn't last long. I was surprised and happy to see the place so busy!

  

^^ Gotta love ivy that's made in China.

^^ Such a happy Granny with her girls.

^^ And so begins the journey of Piper insisting on carrying Granny's purse back through the cactus house and outside to the fountain.

  

^^ She had me in TEARS over the struggle of those stairs. I thought she was going to put it down for a second before crossing the grass so I went to reach for it and she took off running!

  Then when it was finally time to gather our things and head home, Piper absolutely did not want to leave. Kennedy was asking if we could go home by the time we hit the tropical plants. You win some, you lose some.

Since 1904 y'all.
Leia

mid-week meal share: korean beef bowl

Yeah, yeah I know! It's been a month since I posted a recipe, I'm horrible. Even so I cooked this meal in August and am just now getting around to having it ready for you guys. 

I've gotten in the habit of writing down when our perishable dinner items expire on the white board in our kitchen to hopefully guarantee that we will eat them before they expire. Now to just get in the habit of looking at the board. When I noticed that our pound of ground beef needed to be used and I was no where near a chili mood,  swiftly grabbed my laptop and navigated to Pinterest where I searched "ground beef dinner". I know, I know this is the search of a MASTERMIND. But it brought up this recipe. I had everything I needed aside from green onions and sesame seeds so I think to call that last minute dinner finding a success is an understatement.

Cost effective: yes, and I'm assuming you'll have most of the ingredients like I did.
Easy to concoct: mmmmhmmmmmmmm!

First off, I am unsure when we acquired an economy sized jug of vegetable oil.

Here's all the fixin's you lovely folks will need:

¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp ground ginger
1 lb ground beef
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1½ tsp (3 cloves) minced garlic
*2 green onions
*sesame seeds
*rice

1. In a small bowl whisk together your brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper flakes and ginger. If you are going to cook rice with your meal I would recommend doing so at this time.

2. In a large skillet heat your vegetable oil over medium-high heat and cook your garlic "until fragrant". Honestly, I don't understand this because garlic is fragrant right off the bat, right?

3. Add in your ground beef and cook until browned; drain excess grease.

4. Stir in your sauce mixture and cook until heated through.

5. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion if you went that route and enjoy!

So simple and yummy! Definitely wished I would have had some green beans lying around to go with this. It reminded me somewhat of this mongolian beef recipe I made earlier this year only much easier to cook. Will definitely be making it again in the future!



Gotta love Pinterest.
Leia

kindergarten

We survived our first day of kindergarten!

Brynna from BeeDeesigns is THE BEST!

Kennedy's first day of kindergarten: September 6, 2016.

My teacher is Mrs. Payne.

I am 4 years old.

When I grow up I want to be a police officer.

I love playing with Avery and Dad.

In true Kennedy fashion she could hardly sit still enough for a photo, and I will truly never understand why she thinks hands in front of her face is an appropriate pose. Luckily, the sign cooperated so it wasn't a complete shit show. 

She was so excited for school today that she could barely get to sleep last night. The excitement surprisingly remained the entire morning. I was more nervous than she was, I think. For preschool the routine went as follows: drive her to school, walk her to her locker, walk her to class and sign her in, say our goodbyes and then leave. For kindergarten we just drop her off at the front of school and she's supposed to navigate the halls to her class. Yah, I was feeling less than okay about the first day of school. When we got there she requested that dad take her in. I bet the sign didn't give that one away. When exactly did I become chopped liver again? Somewhere along the line I missed the memo that the kindergarteners and their parents met in the gym and waited for their teachers to come and get them. So, I unfortunately waited like a sitting duck in the car when all along we could've had this nice family goodbye. OH WELL, maybe next year on the first day of kindergarten, right? Oh yeah, nope.

She had a great day, and we did surprisingly well without her (and hooray for a nice 12 hour PTO day). If Piper hadn't been home to keep us company things might have been a little different.



Cheers to a great school year!
Leia

labor day at the outlet mall

Guess who waited until the last minute to hit up the outlets for their Labor Day sales for back to school shopping?! Yeah, this chick. School ONLY starts tomorrow.... and I ordered Kennedy's backpack a few days ago as well so needless to say I somewhat dropped the ball on the back to school proceedings. Probablllllly because I'm somewhat in denial that kindergarten is really happening tomorrow. Tomorrow. TOMORROW. TOMORROW!

Silently weeping.

Leia

greenfield village: a photo series

With summer coming to a close and the weather slightly cooling down I was trying to think of some last minute things to do with the girls. Ah-ha! Greenfield Village! Growing up, and still is as an adult,  it was one of the coolest places to visit. It's a huge outdoor museum that has original (and recreated) historical homes and has many different hands on activities and rides. Ranging from old train yards to Thomas Edison's workshop and Wright Cycle Shop. Due to these homes being right next to each other, as I kid I thought all these innovative individuals were next door neighbors. The result of obviously not paying attention on the tour.

Two perks of this trip:

1. Any adult ticket purchased granted children in FO' FREE!

2. On our way in we were stopped by a lady and her two kids and she gave us their ride wristbands! Did I feel like a heel about it? A smidge.

Things we did:

• Rode in a 1923 Ford Model T
• Got to see the last Model T ever produced from the Highland Park plant, "The Fifteen Millionth"
• Ate an authentic era lunch of hot dogs, french fries and bottled lemonade
• Got upset when Kennedy wasn't old enough to participate in the train turntable
• Rode on a historic locomotive
• Visited a working farm
• Rode a 103 year old carousal
• Cried when we got off the carousal
• Kept reapplying Kennedy's bracelet because it was obviously not sticky anymore
• Visited Thomas Edison's first power plant
• Stared at some cows
• Stared at some sheep
• Walked past most of the buildings because "there's something over here I want to see, mom"
• Had to convince Kennedy to interact with the exhibits that we were allowed to
• 
  

^^ Kennedy was SO excited to ride in the front seat but when our driver pulled up she decided against it. Merp.

 ^^ Didn't want to go in because a horse drawn 'bus' was a better sight.

^^ Kennedy was absolutely certain we were going to get in trouble for sitting in these rocking chairs.

 Overall it was a fun afternoon, but they were obviously more interested in the hands on things versus the historical coolness of it all. Next time I'm hoping to be able to ditch the stroller completely. We were also very happy that the rain held out as long as it did; the sky looked sketchy all afternoon but held off until we were safely on the way home.

"Step into the sights, sounds, and sensations of 300 years of American life."

Leia

4 going on 16

These shoes.

This pose.

And she asked for a mirror for her room.

Pray for me, and her ankles.

Leia