A Few More Balloons

Indulge me while I post a few more balloon photos.  Sunday morning, Callie and I got up very early, loaded the boys in the car and drove out to LSU-S while our hubs were still sleeping.  We set up lawn chairs and waited for balloons to arrive to compete at three different targets and for an instant cash prize.

There were a few other families that came out that morning, some even bringing picnic breakfasts. This time, I brought my "big girl" camera.  Because the stakes were so high for the pilots, we knew there would be many balloons to see and we were not disappointed.

You hear the balloons before you actually see them, as they light their fires to fill the fabric with hot air.

The object for this competition was to drop "bean bags" in several different locations.  In addition, there was a tall post that they could try to drop a ring onto.  If their ring made it onto the stake, there was an automatic $5000 prize.

As each balloon appeared over the trees, Baby D exclaimed "hot fire" and we watched to see how they did in the competition.

There were 31 balloons in all---29 piloted by men and 2 by women.

We didn't see anyone get their ring on the stake, but many were able to drop their bean bags onto the designated target areas.

It was so much fun to watch and really quite beautiful in the early morning light.

My favorite was a turquoise balloon with geometric shapes, while Baby D's favorite was one with cats all over it.  All of this before 8:00 a.m.!!

Summer Food

Those of you that know me even a little bit, know that I do NOT consider myself a cook at all.  I like to eat, but cooking has never been my favorite thing.  My domestic talents seem to lie with sewing rather than creating interesting meals, so recipes need to be easy, and not involve a bunch of unusual ingredients.  I tend to eat the same things over and over, particularly for breakfast and lunch.  I also know myself well enough to know that if I don't have my meals planned out a little bit, I am NOT going to take the time to prepare something that is healthy, but will instead turn to filling myself up on unhealthy snacks from the pantry.

So, here it is summer (a somewhat eternal summer for me, now) and I'm home a good part of many days.  I've been trying to have healthy foods available in my fridge (fruit and such), and have planned several dinners to cook each week so that I won't be eating out as much or snacking.  This morning, I realized that I had a grilled chicken breast in my refrigerator that needed to be used right away, so I invited Callie over for lunch and whipped up my favorite chicken salad.

For those of you that find yourself struggling with difficult recipes and not enough time, this recipe is super simple and quick to mix up.

1.  Using my mini food processor, I finely chopped the chicken.  

2.  One chicken breast was more than the two of us could eat at one meal, so I bagged up half of it and popped it into the freezer for another day.

3.  Since my chopper was out, I also chopped up a handful of pecans and added them to the bowl of chicken.

4.  I like grapes in my chicken salad, but only had 3 grapes in the refrigerator??  What's with that??  Well the grandkids did just leave a few days ago.

5.  No one in my family likes mayonnaise, including me, so I use it VERY sparingly--just enough to make things stick together.

6.  That's it!  Stir it up and spread it on a sandwich round.

After sharing that with Callie, she shared a simple recipe with me---Zucchini Frittata.  Using this recipe as inspiration, I adapted it to fit what was in my refrigerator this evening.  I used eggs, 2% milk, 3 slices of cooked bacon, sliced yellow squash and fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden.   The recipe works best using a cast iron skillet (which I don't have), so I used a stoneware quiche pan instead.  It was super simple to make and looked really nice when I took it out of the oven.    

The best part, though, was how tasty it was!!  Yum!!!

Sunflowers + Some Freebies

Last weekend was the annual Sunflower Festival in nearby Gilliam, LA.  I have been able to go visit the sunflower fields each year for the past 7 or 8 years, but have never been in town on the day of the festival itself, so I was looking forward to it.  With temperatures soaring and a heat advisory in effect, we picked up Callie and the boys in the morning hoping to avoid the worst of it.  After parking, I suggested going ahead and taking a few photos while the boys were both fairly content.

Baby D LOVED running up and down the rows of sunflowers.

He was distracted by a few interesting rocks,

and airplanes overhead,

but otherwise he beamed as he made his way back and forth.

Baby D2 slept through most of the adventure.

After a few photos, we walked over to the festival.  There was coloring for the kids (and a nice big fan behind that booth, so we didn't mind waiting).

We were all so hot that we didn't take time to look around much, but there were craft booths and a few food booths, as well.  There was even a booth manned by local firefighters, which made for a happy toddler!

Our visit to the festival itself was fairly brief---I've heard the saying that "even my eyelids were sweating", but this was the first time I'd ever actually experienced it!  We stopped (with the car A/C running) along the Sunflower Trail for me to cut some to bring home with us and to take a few photos.

Here are some of my favorites from the morning.

But, my favorite photo is one I snapped with my iPhone of this sweet little sunflower!

I added some favorite quotes of mine to some of my photos.  If you would like to download them, simply click on the photo and save it to your own computer.  Enjoy!