Last week I turned the big 3-0. Since I now have 2 healthy little men, I think that I have accomplished quite a lot.

I really wanted a great picture of me and my boys on my birthday, but Brooks had other ideas.

Mark jumped in the picture and it turned out to be a great family shot. Maybe I’ll try ‘the mom and her 2 boys’ shot in a couple of weeks.

My little bean has become a long string bean. He is such a wonderful, peaceful baby.

I was going to take a picture of my family’s new favorite food, but we were so excited to eat (we each had around 4 helpings) I wasn’t able to capture the dish. I discovered the recipe in one of my Italian cook books. The magic wasn’t the noodles or the squash or the onions in the dish, but the delicious pesto sauce. It was so simple: 3/4 cup of roasted and salted pistachios, 2 cups basil, 2 garlic cloves, and lots of olive oil. I sauteed the chopped garlic in about a tbsp of olive oil for 30 seconds (until you can smell it). Then I combined all the ingredients in a food processor with the garlic and added enough oil (while blending) to make a thin paste. It was so good I’m heading to Trader Joe’s tomorrow to get another bag of pistachios.

In two weekends we are going camping. This trip will not only be my first trip with little guys, but our first camping trip together. We were so excited that we thought we should set up our new tent in the backyard before the big event.

Brooks was a lot of help.

The finished product.

This last photo is of our garden. We started small – really small – with seeds. Now our garden is like a jungle. I have so many tomatoes and okra and several bushes of basil – I’m running out of ideas for recipes. When people come to see us, they go home with a bag of fresh vegetables. Its been a lot of work – Mark’s being doing most of it – but its been totally worth it. We are already planning our garden for next year.