My good friend Margie gifted us with some tickets to see Peter Pan at the Riverside Fox Theater.  We were so excited to go, especially since the two youngest, Marco and Naomi, had no idea!  

They love watching Peter Pan on DVD, so imagine their surprise to be able to see it LIVE? 

We practically live around the corner from downtown Riverside and the Mission Inn area.

We were at the cross walk and they still didn't notice the marquee. haha!

 It wasn't until we were taking this picture of them that they started to get an idea as to what was going on.  Seriously made me laugh!

 The list of cast members that night.

 In this picture, they are completely aware of what they are doing there and who they were going to see. 

 Thanks to Margie (Cathy Rigby's sister-in-law) and Michelle (her niece), we also got to meet Cathy!! The two youngest actually went back stage to meet her and then she told Michelle to bring all of us for a photo or two.

 She was so sweet (and petite!!) and took lots of time with my kids.  She was giving them Fairy Dust out of her pouch and filling up their pockets with it!  Look at Naomi in the picture above.  Can you tell she was excited? =) 

 We had a wonderful evening.  The show was magical and my two youngest got their first "broadway" experience.  

Peter Pan to the audience: Do you believe in fairies?

Marco and Naomi *at the top of their lungs*: YES!! We do! We do!

Pinned and Tried: Cilantro Chicken and Spicy Thai Noodles

You all know by now that I love Pinterest.  Well, I'm a big believer that if you are pinnin' you better be doin'.  That is the only way to justify any time spent there (in my opinion, anyway).  Don't get me wrong.  I love to end my evenings sometimes just browsing through the pages and pin away, but I also know that if I pin it, I should make an effort to try it!  My daughters and I plan to do a lot of  trying and testing of the things we pin this summer and that's got me really excited!

Well, not too long ago, my friend made this meal for us and I asked her where she found it.  So she told me it was on foodnetwork.com and told me the name.   Later that evening, I made sure to look up the recipe and I pinned it.  I finally had a chance to try it out for myself.  I did not create this recipe.  Like I said, I got it from the food network and the exact recipe can be found here.  However, I did change up a few things to suit my tastes and what I had to work with... which is what you've got to do sometimes.  I also "eyeballed" a lot of the amounts of ingredients, but I tried to stay true to what was listed.  So... here it is.  We LOVED it.

Ingredients

Cilantro Chicken:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 in. cubes (about 1 (+) pound)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
• 2 limes, 1 zested and 2 juiced
• 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

Thai Noodles:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2  cups chicken stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons Thai green curry paste
• 1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
• 3 green onions, white and green parts, chopped, (save a bit for garnish)
• 1 pound spaghetti, cooked al dente (I love Barilla pasta. Al dente every time)
• 1/4 cup crushed roasted peanuts

Directions

For the chicken, combine all ingredients in a bowl and let it marinade for about 30 minutes.

Cook on medium high heat in a pan until chicken is opaque and done, but not over-cooked.

For noodles, I had them boiling while I prepared the chicken.  I drained the noodles and let them sit for a minute while I took the same pot that I boiled the noodles in and added the olive oil, lime juice and zest, chicken stock, garlic and pepper flakes.  I gave those a good stir and seasoned with salt and fresh pepper.  Then I added curry paste, green onions and the rice vinegar and made sure it was all combined and let it simmer for a about a minute or two.  I then added a little bit of the chicken to the pot, then some of the noodles and kept tossing, then some more chicken and more noodles, toss... until it was all in one pot.  I added the crushed roasted peanuts and then gave it a final toss.

I wanted to make sure that everything was thoroughly coated with the delicious sauce.

I served the dish on my beautiful, red Princess House dish and then garnished it with LOTS of chopped cilantro and chopped green onion.

Everybody loved it.  My husband and 4 children (ages range from 4 - 16) kept saying how great it was.  There is a definite lime/cilantro taste, and  the curry paste and pepper flakes gave it a spicy kick that you could taste, but it wasn't so spicy that the little ones couldn't eat it.  Because of the lime and cilantro, it also tasted light, fresh and very summery.

The original recipe calls for ginger and carrots.  Well, I forgot to add the carrots and I didn't buy any ginger.  You can check his recipe on the link to see how much you'll need to add.

This dish was great and a definite keeper.  I LOVE finding great dishes on Pinterest.  

Do you have any good recipes or links to share? =)

Finding My Wings...

I guess you can see a progression here on the pages.  I didn't realize it, but I think I tend to turn to my soul journal more often during the difficult or confusing times.  I don't know, I think it may be because I don't have to betray myself with words that would not suffice.  I am not a complainer.  I don't like to be negative - even with my closest friends or family, so I turn to my books.  I do journal happy times to of course, but sometimes your heart is heavy and you just need to have an outlet.  I find myself praying as I play with the different mediums and textures.  I may not always love what I've created, but I always feel a little better in spirit.  You should try it.  Clearly, you don't have to be an artist.  Just do what moves you. 

Another school year is over...

Wow.  You blink just a few times and another school year is over!!  

My Hannah is now a SENIOR.  Seriously? Can that be true? I can't help but shake my head as I type.  She had some struggles in math/chemistry...but did really well other than that and got two varsity letters (Water Polo and Swim)    

 Hannah with two of her friends at their Varsity Swim team banquet.

Taryn finished the 7th grade as an honor roll student all three trimesters and is ranked #9 out of almost 400 7th graders.  We are so proud of her drive and determination to do her best.

Taryn with two of her friends at a graduation party.  They'v been friends since they were four years old.

 Naomi was glad to take an end of the year gift for her teacher.  We got a beach towel, drink tumbler and filled it with ice tea mix packets, sunblock and Subway gift card.  

We attached a free printable card (found at  Skip to my Lou Blog)

 Mr. C was such a great teacher for Naomi.  

She had a great first grade year.

This is Marco who will be 5 years old at the end of July.  He starts Kindergarten in the fall.  This mama may be just a wee bit emotional about that. *sigh*  I know he will be a good student.  He's so curious and hungry to learn about everything.  He was a little stressed when we went to pick up the girls from their last day of school.  He thought it meant that he was starting that day and he didn't know how to write all of his letters!  I had to stop myself from laughing.  He was so sincere and worried about it.  You should have seen the relief on his face when I told him that he still had time to learn. =)

Our summer is already off to a great start.  The two olders have enjoyed some time at the home of some friends, gone to the beach and have a water activity with the youth group and plans with their aunt and uncle for the weekend.  The two youngers have spent some days at the park which has a splash area and wonderful playgrounds, "lake", etc.   Today we spent the day at the park and had a picnic.  Naomi wrote a list of what our day would be: Picnic/eat, go for a walk around the lake/explore, get wet, play in the playground and get wet some more.  They completed the task.  It was an awesome day.

I asked the kids what they'd like to do this summer and here are some of the things they mentioned - big and small.

• Go to the beach
• Go to San Francisco
• Visit Grandma (their Great-Grandmother) on the way to San Francisco.
• Go to an amusement park.
• Establish an exercise routine for all of us.
• Eat healthy and lose weight.
• Read
• Help Marco get ready for school.
• Have picnics
• Grill outdoors more often
• Go to Market Night as much as possible this summer (huge farmer's market)

We shall see how it goes! We are already on track!!  How about you, my friend?  What are your summer plans?

A Giveaway!!

Oh WOW. I'm so excited to learn that my facebook page, Altered to Perfection, has reached 106 fans. =) 
I'd like to celebrate reaching 100 fans by giving all of you a chance to win one of my CUSTOM DESIGNED JOURNALS. 
All you have to do to enter this give away is: first, make sure you are already a fan by "Like"ing the page on facebook and then SHARE my page on your facebook wall (click the little gear in the top right corner of the page and click SHARE) and then come back to let me know you did that by commenting here on this post or on the facebook thread about the giveaway. =)
As always, thank you for your awesome support.
I will keep this open until Friday 10 p.m. Winner will be announced Saturday morning.

 I sometimes add a pocket in the front.

 I also add tags if I have some cute ones around.

It's my goal to try and personalize your custom book as best as I can.  

I take great joy in trying to really match the person for whom it's been ordered.

You can see more of my work and items for sale by clicking on the ETSY bar on the right on this page.

Hello June and welcome summer!!

This is the last week of school for my children.  I will then officially be the mother of one SENIOR in high school (Hannah), one EIGHT grader (Taryn), one SECOND grader (Naomi) and KINDERGARTENER (Marco).
All four children will be in school this fall.  It's a bittersweet feeling, really.
Hoping to make the most of this summer.  We all have plans of:

• getting in shape
• getting organized and simplified
• making the most of each day
• spending lots of time outdoors
• catching up on reading

Of course, there will be a lot of other things thrown in for good measure, but this is what we're thinking for now.  How about you?  Do you have any big plans for the summer?  =)

A Beautiful Life...

This canvas has been re-purposed and re-painted several times.  It has recently just been a work in progress for me and I think I'm finally happy with it...for now.