Take me out to the ball game

On Thursday, my sister Elyse and I took Claire & Luke to their first San Francisco Giants game!

My sister got amazing (and free!) tickets to the game from one of her clients at work and she asked me if I wanted to go with her. 

It was a Thursday day game, most people had to work, but since I am on Maternity Leave, I was able to go and I brought along Claire & Luke since Kate was at school.

Our tickets were right along the first base line. So awesome.

 Luke did this most of the game:

Claire had a blast & was excited about her new Buster Posey T-shirt.

One of my favorite things about baseball games is the food.

Since we were in the city, we had access to our favorite...The Coffee Bean!

It's not a baseball game without peanuts!

And Cracker Jacks! (Gotta love the vintage packaging!)

I had one of the yummiest Philly Cheese Steaks for lunch!

 Claire did really well at the game, she sat for 6 innings and then we decided to take a walk around the ballpark and check out some of the fun kid friendly things in the park (the tot lot and the slides)

I didn't get to take pictures of Claire and all the fun things she got to do because of this:

Beautiful views of the Bay Bridge from the park.

 Because it was Claire & Luke's first Giants game, they got certificates from Guest Services.

 It was a great day at the game, and I am so glad we went!

It was the final home game for the regular season & we won 7-3!

So glad I was able to go to the game.

It was definitely an adventure taking a 7 week old & a 4 year old to a baseball game, but it was really fun and they did much better than I expected, I am so glad my sister invited me, Claire & Luke!

Next up....the playoffs! Go Giants!

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Even though the calendar says it's Fall, here in California, we don't get true Fall weather until October/November. 

Temperatures are in the 90s this week, so it still feels like Summer. 

With the summer weather stretching into September, we get an abundance of zucchini in our garden this time of year. (And, because I am a slacker, we have huge overgrown zucchini that needed to be picked & used up!)
We are carb junkies in this house, and I love making breads. I have a yummy zucchini bread that I make, but I wanted to mix it up and I had a bunch of blueberries from the Farmers Market I need to use...

So, I made some: 
Blueberry Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

 1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2  cups white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups shredded/grated zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries (which is 2 cups for all you non math people!)

For the Topping:

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 
 Lightly grease 2 loaf pans or 4 mini-loaf pans (I use Pam spray)
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. 
 
Grate & Fold in 2 cups zucchini

Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. 

Gently fold in the blueberries. 
Pour into the prepared  pans.

I add a sugar topping. In a bowl mix 3/4cup white sugar & 3/4 cup brown sugar. 

Sprinkle on top:

Bake at 350 for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean.
(I usually check it at 50-55 minutes to see how it's cooking) 
*If you make 4 mini loaves, it only takes abut 50 minutes*

Let cool & slice up!

These would also make yummy muffins, I am going to try that next!

(Just shorten the cooking time to about 20-25 minutes)

We gobbled up 2 loaves within 2 days!

Enjoy!

My Fall TV Lineup

It's here peeps. 

Fall TV Premiere week. 

Yesssss.

One of my favorite weeks of the year!

I thought I'd lighten things up around here since I have been so EMO lately with post partum hormones & Kate starting Kindergarten. 

I'm ready for a shallow post, aren't you?
Good.
Let's talk about TV!

Here is my current lineup of what we watch & are going to try out this Fall:

 Monday:

Monday Night Football
(LOVE Monday Night Football)
&

How I Met Your Mother(LOVE this show. We have been watching it since the beginning. It is equivalent to FRIENDS for me. A good replacement! This show is what FRIENDS was for me in college. )

Last year we started watching 2 Broke Girls

 It is pretty cute, we will watch it again this season.

Tuesday:
New Girl

 

 Started watching it last year & LOVE it.


A new show on Tuesdays that I am going to try out is Ben & Kate.
It's on right before New Girl, so I will give it a chance!

Wednesday:
We don't have any shows we watch on Wednesdays, so I want to try out Nashville. I have no idea what it is about, I just want to watch it because Connie Britton (aka Tammy Taylor from FNL) is staring in it.

 And, we will try out Guys with Kids because it looks funny.


Thursday:
The Office (hope it's better than last season)

2 and a Half Men

Final Season, so I am going to watch. I'm ready for this show to be over.

Friday:
 We use Fridays to catch up on all our DVR'd shows that we don't watch during the week.
One of the new shows we watched last year, Whitney was moved to Friday this year.


Saturday:
College Football
SNL (no more Kristen Wiig or Andy Samberg, so sad!)
Or Saturdays, we rent a $1 movie from Red Box

Sunday:
Sunday Night Football (we love Football in the house!)
Amazing Race

Shows that start up in January:
Rules of Engagement:

Biggest Loser!
This season they are having kids on it, to focus on tackling childhood obesity.
And, Jillian is back! YAY!

American Idol!

 Can't forget about The Bachelor!
Guess who is the Bachelor, it was announced this afternoon....

 Sean! #teamsean all the way!

*All images from google images*

Shows I "broke up" with from last year....in other words, they are still on my DVR not watched for some reason.

• Modern Family (we missed the first season, and just never got into it)
• Parenthood (missed the first 2 seasons, haven't started watching them)
• Up All Night (missed the first few episodes, but have all the others on my DVR)
• Glee (never finished season 2, but have Season 3 on my DVR)

This post makes me sound like a TV junkie (maybe I am!), but we mostly just DVR everything and watch it on Friday nights. We are SO exciting. Ha!
And, as the months go on, we cut out shows that we don't like or they just stay unwatched on the DVR in what I call "DVR Suburgatory"

What are your favorites? What new shows are you excited to try out?
Any shows you broke up with after last season?

Insta September & My New Nephew!

It's an Instagram photo dump!

The past few weeks have been crazy busy, so not much time to blog, so here is a snapshot via Instagram!

Kate had her first soccer game (aka Bunch Ball) I'm a Soccer Mom! Ha.

Not sure if soccer is going to be her sport, but she did score a goal at her first game.

My mother in law gave me a bottle of one of my favorite wines for surviving my first month with 3 kids:

Cuppa Kim's Mug Swap! Here is my mug & other goodies from April!

I have a new habit every afternoon.

I call it caffeine o'clock. Sometimes it's iced coffee:

Other times it's Diet Coke or Coke Zero.

 Waking up several times a night with a newborn is kicking my butt!

I have been entertaining myself with the random late night TV since all my shows are on summer repeat, I have been watching random things like Hotel Hell. I already get the heeby-geebys when I stay at hotels. This show makes it worse!

And, Breaking Amish. Seriously. This show is BIZARRE. But, I am so intrigued by it.

 

Last weekend we went on our first road trip as a family of 5 for my cousin's wedding.. And, guess what I had for the very first time??? Chick Fil A!

I got the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Waffle fries & Sweet Tea. Yummy!

My cousin's wedding was beautiful. His wife looked stunning.

It was Luke's first wedding, he slept the whole time!

One of my cousins had her little girl, Lilly 3 days before I had Luke. Aren't they sweet?

It was fun for my cousins on my dad's side to meet Luke!

I finally made Luke's birth announcements & got them mailed out. I love how they turned out.

Wednesday was a big day for our family. It was National Talk Like a Pirate Day, so of course Luke dressed up.

Wednesday was also the day my little sister Rebecca had her baby!!
I'm such a Proud Auntie!!!!

Welcome to the World, Jack.
Or, as we have all been calling him, "Captain Jack" since he was born on Pirate Day.
I told my sister his first birthday party should be a Pirate Party. It's never too early to start planning! :)

Our girls got to "meet" him via facetime on Wednesday night. I love technology.

 For his homecoming on Friday, my mom & I decorated their front door.

And, Friday night, Luke got to meet his Best Friend & Brother-Cousin for the first time.

Look what Kevin found at work on Friday & emailed me after he read my post on our baby names:

So glad he saved that notebook of names that we made 10 years ago.

Claire was up most of Friday night with a fever.

Sick kids with a newborn makes me nervous. Ugh.

Saturday was the first day of Fall. But, it didn't feel like it, since it was 95 degrees!

My hydrangeans are blooming which never happens this late in the year. So strange.

Nothing like swimming on the first day of Fall!

I am SO over the warm weather. Bring on the real Fall weather!!!! 

I want to wear boots & sweaters & scarves!