Traveling Toward Retirement

We started our day with a drive from Waco to a Fort Worth which wasn’t a long drive. Luckily we have a similar taste in music and Katie’s playlist kept us all entertained. We hit up a few FREE museums today. Everyone who knows me, knows I love the F word. Both of them. So we checked out the Amon Carter Museum and found many pieces of beauty to stare at. This string exhibit was one of our favorites. It looked like the string was moving.  We then made our way over to the Modern Art Museum (free on Fridays!). This place has some out there pieces. Definitely “modern” as the title suggests. Todd and I were a little stumped on some of the exhibits. How is this NOT Kanye West on a horse? Literally titled “The blob.” After enough walking and gawking at artwork, we decided our tummy’s were ready for lunch and set out to find the one thing you think of when you think Texas - SUSHI! So, the Lion King roll is on the bottom of that photo and it was too delic...

Yes, our purpose for staying in Waco was indeed to check out the famous Magnolia Silos, Magnolia Press, and the Magnolia Table restaurant. We are huge fans of the HGTV show Fixer Upper and this was a must do for us on our tour of Central Texas. So we headed straight to the bakery this morning and grabbed croissants, cookies, and a cinnamon roll. There were no complaints, but lots of photo ops! It’s clear that Chip and Joanna know how to market - or they have an amazing person who markets their product! Everything at the Silos is well staged and ready for a Disney experience. We obliged with many photos. They have a darling outdoor garden full of veggies and everything gives the feeling of “you could do this too!” It’s a very inspiring mood. After the Silos, we strolled down the street to Magnolia Press which is like a huge Starbucks, Magnolia style. More photo ops and some spacious seating. I can imagine that all of these places are packed in the summers. Day after Chr...

We spent Christmas Day traipsing around Waco, Texas and mentally preparing ourselves for the madness of Magnolia Farms and the Silos tomorrow. But today, today was calm and quiet. There was virtually nobody in downtown Waco and that was great for us as we drove around and snapped photos in front of a ton of cool murals. Why can’t we do this in our little town? These pieces of artwork and really beautiful but also provide great photo ops! They sure got us out of the car! Here’s a few of our favorites. 622 Washington Ave, Waco, TX Same mural but different view  1000 Columbus Avenue 720 Franklin Avenue 5th and Franklin 324 S 6th St, Waco, TX 910 La Salle Ave, Waco, TX After all the touring around the murals, we checked out the 100 year old Waco Hippodrome Theatre. They have rooms for live theatre and regular theater rooms with servers for dinner! It’s like a Studio Movie Grill if you’ve been to one of those. The food was actually really good! W...

These little bad boys are the simplest dessert you'll be making for a dinner party. Add some fresh strawberries and a little dusting of powdered sugar and this easy dish will look like you spent an hour in the kitchen! Easy directions: Combine 1 box of Angel Food Cake and 1 can of Lemon Creme (pie filling) and stir. Then pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Can't imagine these have many calories because the cake mix is fat free. Serve after cooled and enjoy!

I'm not sure how your stairway walls look but we've been feeling like our need something bigger. Most substantial. We had a few 8x10 frames with family photos but with such a huge wall they just didn't seem to make any impact at all. Enter Pinterest. I saw this great tutorial at www.girlinair.com and with a Sunday afternoon free decided to take a wack at this. The boards I used were actually old closet doors that we had removed and put in mirrored closet doors. These worked great because they are hollow and therefore lightweight, however, you could use any wood for this project cut to any size you'd like. First: the photos were easy. Take pictures in landscape, up close, download to Picasa (free online photo editor). You can change the photo to black and white if your camera doesn't have that setting. The important thing is to RESIZE them to 18x24. This will come in handy with the next step. Add a thick border of you like. Second: upload photos to Staples.co...

Oh my gosh. It's already feeling like a loooooong summer with three kiddos at home all day every day. Needless to say, someone is going bananas around here and sadly it's me. I've been trying new recipes and trying to hide out in the kitchen as much as possible. Kids come in and ask what's cookin', grab a bite to eat and then go back to Legos, books, or whatever it is that's captivated their attention for the day. Today I whipped up the strawberry ice cream and then I just had to keep going and make the banana purée that is supposed to taste like ice cream. It's a cleaver idea but really it's banana purée. Ice cream needs dairy and sugar and there's just no getting around that. BUT if you are looking for something healthy to hold you over when perhaps you're trying to avoid ice cream, then by all means whip this up. You just need frozen bananas! Add to food processor and pulse until creamy and smooth. It's smart to freeze the bananas ou...