Beadboard wall in my mudroom!

This is totally a plug for my amazing husband to whom I showed a picture (found on Pinterest) and asked if it was possible for it to be done. Being the spoiling husband that he is...he obliged and this past weekend in a day in a half, I had myself one 3/4 wall of beadboard cut, attached and painted. Voila! Ask and it shall be done!

I'm going to add some hooks (which was the whole purpose for putting up the wall) and throw a couple pictures on top and this project will be complete.

I love it! And I love my husband so very much. And no, he didn't write this post.

Bello Alberobello!

Back to Italia!

A morning trip to Alberobello less than an hour from our house in Puglia and a gorgeous little town famous for the trulli houses. One scenic street after another on the short walk up the hill of the old town and it's scenes like this one below, just one right after the other.

I could get used to walking out of my house with an alley like this:

But then, of course, you have to deal with the many tourists that come during the year to stop into places like this one:

With their own little purchase from our outing. Both girls love this little town!

Nutella Banana Bread

I love Pinterest! It is my perfect go-to for just about everything from how to get the rust stain out of our toilet to a new craft for the girls to fabulous recipes. And speaking of fabulous recipes...

Nutella Banana Bread

Ingredients

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup applesauce (in place of vegetable oil)
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup nutella, softened in a microwavable bowl for 10 minutes

Directions

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In a smaller bowl, combine the eggs, bananas, applesauce, milk and vanilla. Add the smaller bowl to the flour mixture bowl, stirring just until combined.
Now comes the fun part...Pour in half of banana bread batter into greased loaf pan then dollop in a few spoonfuls of the softened nutella. Repeat with remaining banana bread batter and then again with the dollops of nutella. Take a knife and swirl it around and it'll be oh, so pretty.
Bake at 325° for 1 hour 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Buon Appetito!

I will eat just about anything with nutella and this new recipe is sure to become a favorite. I just took my go-to banana bread recipe and added the nutella. I may try it again next time with some peanut butter also. Too much? I don't think so!

Last Weekend

I realize we are halfway through this current weekend but I did take pictures of our past weekend and wanted to share anyway.

We are into September and the weather last weekend was so perfect for starting to think about Fall. Which I have been doing now for at least a month. Time to break out the Fall decor, pumpkin and apple recipes and open windows 24/7. I love it!

Sofia and I made the crafty pumpkin above...a styrofoam pumpkin from the dollar store, some mod podge and epsom salt. I put the mod podge on and let Sofia just go at it with the epsom salt and that is exactly what she did. Which is why it looks more like snowy pumpkin than a barely-there glittery pumpkin. I did brush some off after taking the picture because pretty much anytime you looked at it there was salt coming off allover.

And while I baked up some pumpkin bread, Anthony and the girls started a 1000 piece puzzle.

Lunch was delicious...Creamy Spinach Pasta!

And later Saturday evening we took the girls to a nearby carnival for some fun...

Daddy had fun too!

They love the rides!

Afterwards we tried out a new pizza place and of course topped off dinner with ice cream!

It was a perfect family weekend from start to finish. And a great way to begin the school year, making some last end-of-summer and kicking-off-Fall memories.

Olivia's First Day of PreK4 at SCJN

Olivia began school this past week and so far, so good. She's only 3 half days but she's at a new school this year, with her big sister and I think she really loves getting ready for school together on those mornings and being dropped off at the same place. Mommy definitely loves it!

Sofia's First day of 1st Grade

We celebrated a major milestone this past week with Sofia beginning 1st Grade. My babydoll is now in school 5 full days!!! I can't believe it! It was a short week but a little taste of what I have in store for me for the year ahead.

You can also see a little shot of the belly bump - 24 weeks this past week already.

Where in the world did August go?!?!

So August came and went without so much as a hello or goodbye. I promise we did stuff and then also had a couple let's-not-do-anything-days too but I just am getting bad at posting. But I am getting great at not feeling bad about it. Sorry Mom, I know you like to see the pictures of the girls.

But we celebrated and documented my birthday. Yay. It's been tradition that even though I say every year I'm going to buy myself a fancy cake for my birthday, the girls and I end up just making one together. Which is fun, they love it and I save some money. Win all around. But we planned a trip to Cape May this year which was from start to finish just a perfect day. Sure the weather wasn't great with some sprinkles here and there, the girls asked way too many times "are we there yet?" and by the time we got home I was so tired and the baby was seriously kicking away probably from all the chocolate I ate from one of the best chocolate shops I've been to in awhile.

After a tasty lunch at Tisha's on the mall where we sat on the porch and took in the whole mall scene, we walked and walked and walked. And of course took in the adorable shops along the mall and some tasty sweets.

Enjoying their souvenirs, Cape May sweatshirts and some delicious sweets.

The Fudge Kitchen, yummy!

There you have it, a great time in Cape May with the family and we're definitely planning on heading back for some more fun.

The next day I received a couple of surprise guests for lunch! How excited was I pulling into the driveway to see my mom and Scott sitting in our backyard. Girls were pretty excited to see them too.

We missed you Dad and Antonio!