Pick a Peck of Apples

As I have probably mentioned I am a member of the Westlake Early Childhood PTA a wonderful organization that allows mothers to get together and volunteer for activities in their community as well as attend parties, field trips and local activities with other families in with preschool aged children.  One of our favorite field trips every year is apple picking at Miller's Apple Hill.  Joel is the apple picking king.  He loves picking and eating as many apples as he can get.  This year was no exception!

Apple Hill offers an amazing orchard as well as a lot more.  There is the bulk store that stocks candy, dried fruit & nuts, baking and candy supplies, apples, cheese and much more.  Then there is Pumpkin Land.  This is a great little area for kids.  There is a maze with slides, hay to climb on, and animals to name a few fantastically fun things to keep the kids wanting more.

Yummy Night at A Taste of Westlake

So I just got back from A Taste of Westlake at LaCentre. What a wonderful event for such a important issue, the Citizens for Westlake School's campaign effort. The night was filled with fun, friends and food. Just what this website is all about.  

The outpouring of restaurants and other stores/services that agreed to take part in the event was amazing. It is nice to see Westlake business supporting the community. It is a win/win situation. The list of participants is too many to list however click on the link for participants.  

I ate too much, talked too much and laughed way too much. So overall it was a great night!! My favorite has to go to Houlihan's stuffed mushrooms. What can I say, this is my all time go to dish. Although I must admit I was not disappoint with dessert. The Cheesecake Factory's Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake  was to die for (figuratively speaking).

The community support was fabulous. I believe that Citizens for Westlake School's was able to sell over 500 tickets. I recognized many of the faces in the room including school board members, school principles and active members of the PTAs and other civic/service organizations throughout the community.

I brought my mom as my date, as Steve stayed home with the kids. I spent the night with a group from the Westlake Early Childhood PTA. It is so nice to see that even though most of our kids are not in the public school system yet, we support the schools to ensure the maintain there "Excellent with Distinction" rating.

Prayers for Boston

Between the hustle and bustle of life we somethings forget to be thankful for what we have. Days like today and the events in Boston should not only make us send out prayers and well wishes of safety and support, but also make us reflect at how lucky we are.  Our family has friends in the Boston area and we first and foremost wish them and others in the area today health and safety. We pray for those that lost their lives or were injured in the events and well as the family and friends of the victims of this tragedy.  

Unfortunately we cannot control the actions of others that choose to cause such pain and suffering to others. What we can do however is choose how we react to such a terrible event.  I will be hugging my children just a little bit tighter. 

Another Busy Day for this Mama

What a fabulously exhausting day.  Days like today help to remind me how many supportive people that I have surrounded myself with.  To all of you that have helped me in the past couple of weeks, thank you so much!

Today was the WECPTA Spring Kiddie Sale.  So this week has been crazy with last minute planning, set-up and more.  The sale went wonderfully today.  I am always in awe how the whole thing comes together.  For all of you great people that were there to help along the way and stepped up when I came begging for something...THANK YOU!!!

While I was busy with Kiddie Kloset my amazing husband, Steve, and fabulous friend, Jen, were out spreading the word for the Vote Marie Novak for Westlake Ward 2 City Council campaign.  I know the weather was horrible with the cold a rain.  I cannot thank them enough!!  I don't know what I did to deserve such great people in my life.

Then this evening was another great event, the Westlake Women's Spring Fundraiser, Casino Night.  What an enjoyable event!!  I actually played some blackjack and didn't lose all my money.  I even won a few things.  A beautiful gold chain and ironically I put a few tickets in the basket that I donated (I love the Pioneer Woman) because I just hated to give it up and I won it back.  So happy!!!

And then I got the best news of all tonight, I was cancelled from work.  If there was ever a day to be given off this was the best.  So I will be off to bed in a few minutes.  Life is good!!!

Girls Night Out

Picture from Melting Pot website

So I want to thank all my girls from work (Lisa, Julie, Kristin and Amanda) for a great girls night yesterday. It was a blast! We did Spa Night at the Melting Pot. What's Spa Night? Well it's a incredible deal and a whole lot of fun. First off if you have never been to the Melting Pot it's a must try. What's better than old school fondue  in sleek contemporary surroundings. Cheese, chocolate and cocktails...life doesn't get much better that that!

So the Melting Pot at the Fairview Park location which is the one in my stomping ground has Spa Night the last Monday of most months. It really is a fabulous value. For $39 inclusive of tax and tip. There is the Spa Night menu. From this you pick your individual choice of salad and cocktail. Then as a table you choose your cheese (the more people you bring the more choices of cheese you can try...ie a table of 4 gets one pot per table a table of 5 or 6 get 2 pots). The cheese comes with bread, tortilla chips, apples and fresh veggies to dip. Yum! Then you add in mini spa treatments and finish the meal with the tables choice of chocolate fondue with dessert dunkings (like cheese cake, crispy treats, brownies and strawberries). And this is not your average melted chocolate. They have dark, milk and white including mix-ins of things like snickers, marshmallow and caramel. And with this you the perfect ingredients for girls night out!

No Frills...Lots of Thrills

So one of my mottoes is "simple is usually the best."  Today was no different.  Me and the boys had a breakfast play date with our friends Dominic and his mommy Ms Amy.  Breakfast and McDonald's Playland.  What could be better? 

I know what your thinking, my previous post just glorified the "healthy supermarket" and now I talking about breakfast at McDonald's.  Well this brings me to another one of my mottoes "everything in moderation."  So back to breakfast filled with pancakes, maple syrup, sausage, hash browns, OJ and more.  Yum, Yum! I did try to be a little healthier and went for an Egg McMuffin (only 8 points on weight watchers) and added a hash brown (another 4 points) and washed it all down with my go to Diet Coke (0 points...Yeah!  This girl knows how to party!)

Well after breakfast it was off to play for the boys and mommy talk for the girls.  I think the boys had fun.  What do you think?



As for mommy talk it was a little of this and a little of that.  I need to lose some weight.  How's Weight Watchers going.  Better last week than this.  And work?  It's killing me.  Night shift what else do I have to say.  We have a lot in common.  We went to nursing school together.  We both work nights.  Both have 4 year-old boys. 

Our conversation was interrupted by the usual:  calls from husbands, potty breaks, a poopie diaper, Joel getting stuck on the top of the Playland and me having to climb up after him.  Like I said the usual!

After around 2 1/2 hours of food and fun it was time to get back to life.  Off to nap time.  Mommy works tonight.  Yuck!

Thanks to our friends Dominic and Ms Amy.  We had a wonderful time.  Looking forward to our next great..yet simple...adventure together.