i heavily rely upon reviews and ratings for, well, everything in my life from toddler toothpaste to sushi bars to ipad applications to soy milk. it is paralyzing.

the catch? i’ve never reviewed anything in my entire life. ever. and so i wonder, with whom am i placing my trust for choosing the best chai tea latte kcup or the best-reviewed jazz bar or the world’s most tasty crabcake? i wonder…

the banks family top-5 review portals:
1. amazon.com
where we relied upon the ratings of 1,459 people to tell us this protective cover for our iphones will ensure a shatter-free screen when our 15 month old daughter pitches it across the floor when her animal app doesn’t immediately load

2. tripadvisor.com
where we, almost 5 years ago, booked a honeymoon in this #2-ranked estate in st. john, usvi. (only because 126 people reviewed it with an average rating of 4.5/5.0 stars).

This photo of Estate Lindholm is courtesy of TripAdvisor

3. google reviews
on our most recent vehicle purchase(s), we relied upon the reviews of others to steer us into a trustworthy car dealership (oxymoron?) and away from cut-throat money launderers. 162 people told us to go to honda of concord was the way to go. so we went.

4. apple.com
with apple products taking over the world, i dare not even waste my time installing an app with less than 4 stars. that’s why i chose the Lose It app (recommended by over 1154 dieters) over the Lose the Belly app (which i still need).

6. netflix.com
with free time at a minimum, anton and i are required to choose media entertainment at a maximum enjoyment level. there’s no time to waste on subpar acting, a poor plot line, or talking animals (a personal movie pet peeve). so we stick to the ones with rave reviews like this television series that we just completed season 5:

7. myrecipes.com
quick – it’s thursday night. 5:30. we’re starving. we’re both on diets. we’re starving. ava’s vying for our attention. what to do? take a panoramic glance of the viable ingredients in the kitchen, go to allrecipes.com and type it into the ingredients finder. out pops chicken tortilla soup, ready in 30, full of protein, and only 187 calories per bowl. oh, and it got a 5-star outstanding rating from 20 hungry folks. dinner was served.

photo courtesy of myrecipes

the list goes on and on. and on. preschools, blu-ray players, organic cleaning products, hair ties, mascara, protein bars, and merlot…..but who is providing the information? and why do we base our day-to-day decisions upon the opinions of others?

goal 1: to review something i love. i’ll keep you updated.

the dilemma? pillows. and not only pillows, but pillows that will pull in the smokey blue accent color against the navy, red/rust, and wheat colors throughout the rest of the house.

so here are a couple of options with the sofa that she has in light wheat, along with a few pillows hosting red & smokey blue patterns, and a painting from kirklands that we spotted a few months back (**they are now both on sale for 50% off**)
this painting…..

or this one…..

shop away, madre!

cooking light!!!

after an unofficial poll of friends and family who have purchased cookbooks, have subscriptions to the monthly mag, and are weekly visitors to their website, it is a landslide win for the legitimately tasty goodness of cooking light recipes (with a reduced amount of fat, calories, salt, carbs, and sugar).

that being said, i could go on and on with my favorite recipes, but i have to share the following treat from cooking light: comfort food (a delicious gift from mumsy and pops).

since anton and i are *ahem* trying *ahem* to cut down on snacks (our most favorite past time), i made these bars as a GIGANTIC thank-you to my interventionist team at one of my elementary schools who are undertaking the task of screening all 608 students in areas of reading and math. can i get a what-what for rewarding this feat with a chocolately treat?

i followed this recipe exactly, starting with:

mixing a devil’s food cake mix with an egg white, skim milk, butter, and fat-free sweetened condensed milk in a bowl.

and pressing that mixture into your trusty 9X13, baking for a few minutes to give it a heated head-start:

while the crust is toasting in the oven, mix marshmellow creme (or fluff as some peeps like to call it) in a bowl. try really really really hard to restrain yourself from eating a spoonful of this mixture, as it will give you an instant sugar high similar to the way a 3-year-old drinking mountain dew will instantly become a terrorized bull running about your house. just a warning.

spread that mixture over the crust and dollop (a technical term julia child probably wishes she would have used) the remaining crust dough onto the top.

after baking for 20 minutes, it continues to boast the entitled “ooey gooey” satisfaction of the best of the best brownie treats.

go ahead, cook it up.

allow me to explain my husband’s possessive protection over “the cake”. the first year we were married, he turned 27 years old and we celebrated his birthday with a trip to the biltmore house in asheville. upon returning, i scoured cookbooks, recipe forums, and websites for the best chocolate cake recipe. oh, the choices! do you go duncan hines and call it a day? do you grate your own bittersweet chocolate? do you take a nod to the french and use only eggs and butter and eat it half raw? do you go for the gusto and break out the bundt pan?

i finally decided upon barefoot contessa’s basic chocolate cake recipe (secret ingredient: 1 cup of freshly-brewed coffee) with chocolate frosting.

and here’s the birthday boy, trying out his 27th birthday cake:

here’s the 2010 version of “the cake” to celebrate his 29th:

and here’s the 2011 version of “the cake” for the big 3-0:

and may i present to you, “the cake” version 2012:

you know it’s good when he gives you the “there’d better be more where that came from” look:

interested in “the cake”?
check it out here on food network!

happy birthday, anton!

it has become a spontaneous tradition – spontaneous meaning that lauren and i had a conversation about 4 years ago that went something like this:

erin: “i want to do something special for christmas eve”
lauren: “yeah, like special food”
erin: “yeah”
lauren: “yeah, like more than chips and salsa”
erin:”well, i’ve never used our fondue pot”
**after approximately 30 minutes of browsing recipes, we decided to make a cheesey, winey, garlicky pot of goodness and it has become an annual even since.

and so it began. we have made it every year for the past 5 years and just this year i realized that we had, indeed, made a pot of cheesey goodness each year on christmas eve. and so we introduce our fondue tradition:

sharing the tradition with a younger generation:

part of staying at our own house for the first time EVER includes making our own traditions, and; unfortunately, bearing the brunt of hospital shift work. anton had to “eat and run” on christmas eve, dedicating a 4-hour shift to the hospital so parents with older children could enjoy their evenings with their kids (while ours was sleeping soundly awaiting santa).

and this was the look on ava’s face when we told her that santa claus was coming to our house that night! (i think she may be saying, “but mommy – i didn’t make my kringle cookies or leave carrots for the reindeer….i’m so unprepared for his first visit!”

even without the cookies or carrots, santa claus came and left ava a very special cybermonday gift:

ava woke up christmas morning and exclaimed “cook, cook” when she saw the kitchen and quickly made us a christmas morning strata.

before attending church, we headed to my mom and dad’s house to open a few gifts, where ava fell in love with baby stella and promptly gave her a welcoming hug to the family:

encouraging her to move onto other gifts after she discovered goldfish graham crackers in her stocking. ahhh, the wonderment of a 15-month-old!

taking art lessons from her secretly artistic (shhh-don’t tell) daddy at her new table!

christmas day was quite perfect on a sunday, celebrating the holiday at church and finishing the day with our family over yummy food. favorite item on the menu? pumpkin soup!!!

christmas preparation # 1: the ever-popular christmas greeting card
so for those of you who are coupon fanatics, i’m sure you have a daily email subscription to groupon, which gives you daily deals from pet grooming to chocolate stuffed macaroons to 50 inch televisions to a curry-infused dinner at your nearby indian restaurant. so when i saw a groupon deal for our local olan mills, i convinced myself i could get a decent picture out of our 14 month old for a christmas photo shoot. (raise your hand if you have old church photos of your family done by olan mills? oh, the beloved hand-on-eachother’s-shoulders pose is timeless and always good for a giggle).

step 1: find a dress. first stop? janie and jack, gymboree, gap. although incredibly beautiful, whimsical, and holidaytastic, i couldn’t part with 80 hard-earned dollars for a wear-it-once dress. so where did i turn? ebay. and found this wore-it-once-last-christmas dress from a baby in michigan, all for 12 dollars including shipping. we’re glad we chose this dress, as it was the perfect dancing attire when she received baby chloe on christmas day!

step 2: find some headgear. for those of you who know ava, she isn’t your typical baby who rips bows, headbands, and/or hats off of her head. in fact, she loves things on her head and enjoys accessorizing and proclaims “ooooohhhh” when she knows she looks extra cute. claire’s, watch out for the banks women in 10 years! take a look at this photo snagged by anton a few weeks ago when she insisted upon wearing this size 6 months hat on her head – silly girl:

and although it looks like she is practicing to be mary in a nativity play; she is just trying out my pajama shorts as a fashion-forward headpiece:

so back to headgear….because the dress was a champagne color, i adored several headbands on etsy.com like this from pinkpaisleyboutique:

but i did not have time to order anything and after browsing two malls, i didn’t find exactly what i wanted – so i made my own headband out of a metallic gold woman’s headband (my kid’s head is in the 95th percentile) and i bought a sparkly poinsettia at ac moore for 1.00 and clipped apart the leaves to make a glittery holly leaf headpiece for ava kate, pictured below posing for the overly energetic olan mills photographer:

step 3: pay for expedited shipping for christmas cards (oops) so they would get here in time to be sent out again. i almost talked myself out of it this year because of the craziness of the current times; however, i thought it would be a corny yet wonderful tradition to have yearly family christmas cards to cherish each year. well, until she’s 18 and then the mandatory participation requirement will become optional.

christmas celebration #1: christmas in west virginia

we traveled to west virginia 2 weekends before christmas to celebrate with marc & diane. here they are getting ready to receive the gifts of all gifts – a date night complete with details from start to finish, from pre-dinner drinks to snacks during the movies. we even put on a little theatrical production set to ’twas the night before christmas.

ava and rylee picked up where they left off…loving each other:

watching lion king in the nude seated in their new chairs from mimi and pop:

and trying to figure out who was going to get to open presents first!

the ikea tunnel was a big hit, even with the adults!

when we returned home, anton’s cousin elliot, wife tiffany, and baby cadence (3 weeks younger than ava) drove over from fayetteville to visit for a few days. ava and cadence gave each other a run for their money. as pictured below, ava is a food hoarder and non-sharer. we must teach her southern hospitality immediately!

pretty cadence:

so that brings us up to the week of christmas….stay tuned for the highlight reel: part deux tomorrow!

but for now, let’s rewind 30 days and i’ll show you a peek at the silver and gold-themed decorations that decked our halls this christmas season:

i was inspired by the pairings of silver and gold, especially highlighted by the barn of pottery as seen here:

and so with the song from rudolph the red-nosed reindeer claymation movie in my head, i set out to festivate (new verb) our home. now, it is important to note that all decorating was in turbo-fast mode due to the our time constraints of ava’s naptime.

so, in roughly 90 minutes, we morphed the following:
1. weaved in sparkling feather boas into an already-purchased green wreath and filled glass vases with bulbs purchased at big lots for a total of 6.00 for the lot!

2. bought a new tree, and trimmed it with new silver and gold decorations (all from big lots) including floral stems and sparkly pine cones

3. and threw around some fun details, like wreaths hanging from our foyer mirror, flanked by a festive poinsettia:

4. and our newest addition was the photo hanging system from ikea (12.99) to proudly display our christmas cards from our beautiful family and friends:

…..and cue baby crying.

ava awakes from her nap to discover her favorite ornament: dolphins!

so…one of my resolutions is to blog more…hopefully more than once every 30 days….:) thanks for hanging in with this working mama!

her kitchen love:
1. natural, earthy tones
2. off-white shaker style cabinets
3. light green tiles for backsplash
4. butcher block countertop

obviously, she has great style ALREADY, so i offered to piece some of her ideas together so she can decide which direction to go….

first, let’s talk about the entryway. she was debating about inserting some tough material for the entryway into the house. i adore black and white tiled floor and it represents a nod to the past and it’s a modern twist in kitchens and mudroom/laundry rooms these days.

i also like the idea of inserting chalkboard paint on a wall or painting a huge frame as seen below and hanging it, as it serves for writing notes, the girls drawing on it, and is magnetic for handy notes and grocery lists. some folks are daring as they have painted the side of their kitchen island – how fun!

mudroom ideas….

kitchen ideas….

the butcher block is a great idea and is a staple in country-esque kitchens. maintenance requires oiling it every once in a while to keep it sealed; however, folks do say that because wood is a porous material, you have to be careful of raw chicken, kool-aid, wine, etc. that may stain. it’s a beautiful accent to the white cabinets and would pull in the floors with ease.

my favorite piece that would be worth the bucks is to find a farmhouse pendant as shown in the moodboard. hanging either one or a set of three over the island/bar would be a small purchase but would make a HUGE impact to the style of the kitchen.

throwing in some color….

i love the idea of using green subway tiles for the backsplash. they come in about 673 different shades of green, so that will probably be the most difficult decision to decide between kiwi, citron, sage, or apple. it adds a cheery punch to the natural elements of the kitchen. i would encourage the use of paint that would support the tile, a color in the same “family,” but perhaps a shade lighter and carried into the mudroom. it’d be a nice accent to the black & white tiles as well (did i mention that home depot has lay-it-yourself tiles???)

and for a few accent pieces….

barstools will be invaluable, as the girls will be eating breakfast & lunch here probably everyday, doing their homework, coloring masterpieces, and helping mommy & daddy cook. i love the idea of using white wood stools to match the cabinets and matching the tiles, and interchanging cushions with the seasons. for a more eclectic look, you could use barstools with different colored legs.

there are a plethora of sites that sell reclaimed wood islands and kitchen bars, which would be lovely. but the real gem, in my opinion, would be to spring for a farmhouse basin sink. how beautiful is that?

am i on the right track? want to see more of something specific? need more direction in a certain area?

here’s to running water very, very soon…..

the time: 3 weeks after the birth of our first child

the season: fall

the holiday: halloween

the emotion: exhaustion, newborn baby anxiety/happiness

the extent of dressing ava up as a cute little animal was limited. my aunt debbie sent a halloween onesie and bib, so i dressed her in it and squeezed her chunky thighs into some black skinny jeans, propped her up beside a pumpkin, and called it a day.

ava kate @ 3 weeks:

fast forward one year:
the time and season is the same, and the emotional rollercoaster has subsided to a nice, even-keeled stroll. instead of experiencing new parenthood qualms about waking in the middle of the night 15 times by a screaming baby and wondering if we were even HOLDING her the correct way; we are now experiencing the transition from babyhood to toddlerhood, which is scary in and of itself of the tantrums that are slowly beginning to arise….WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR SWEET BABY???

at any rate, i scoured the bins at our neighborhood yard sale a few weeks ago and scored this deal of the century halloween costume from children’s place for a whole 1.00. it was more than perfect, as it included a hat, which ava loves. she requests “hat” any chance she gets and points to the mirror to look at herself and grins at the humorous reflection looking back at her.

look at this cute little black cat:

perhaps the most ironic part of the entire night was that she was infatuated with the huge box of candy, placed herself right in the middle of all of it (crushing some pretzels and flattening some three musketeers, i’m sure) and had NO idea that it was candy, the most tasty food she’s never had the opportunity to eat.

then, lo and behold, we had a visit from none other than tiger woods himself!

don’t you love my costume?

happy halloween!

i had beautiful mental imagery of what ava’s first birthday party would look like. i had done countless google images searches and saved jpegs of picture-perfect cakes, food, favors, and decorations.

i knew i had to compromise because i’ve found myself working more from home in the evenings this year because i’m adamant about leaving when the clock strikes 3:30 so i can spend as much time with ava before bedtime at 6:30.

that being said, i prioritized. i tried to think of ava, at 16, looking back on her 1st birthday, and what she may cherish. so…here’s a rundown of the party details:

first, i scoured pages of etsy shops to find a cute birthday outfit. when i found one that i liked, i couldn’t fathom paying 20-30 dollars for a onesie with scraps of fabric sewn on (especially when grandma dot could whip it up in the matter of seconds). so i sent her a photo of this:

and we ended up with this:

and i must claim that birthday girl looked totally fab in the cupcake tee (dancing to the music from her birthday video):

and because ava isn’t really into characters at this point, i capitalized on my only chance to throw her a party that i could choose the theme. i kept it simple – lavender and kiwi with a mexican-themed buffet of food!

party banner & green tissue paper puffs:

(confession: you can easily make these puffs yourself; however, i bought them at party center. people say it’s either time or money, right? money won this one).

the photo banner was super simple – i cut out triangles from funky paper found on a clearance shelf at ac moore and chose my favorite 12 photos from the past year to represent each month. punch a hole in the corners, string a ribbon through the top, and hang it to document your baby’s first year of life.

these cupcakes were totally last minute. i had planned to make cake pops, dip them in white chocolate, and decorate with lavender and green chocolate/sprinkles, tie the bottom with ribbon to make them look like balloons. here’s how it all went so very wrong:
monday: baked cake. let cool. added frosting. rolled into balls. placed in freezer.
tuesday: anton ate one.
wednesday: anton ate one.
thursday: i made anton stay home from going to the gym (to burn off the aforementioned cake balls) to help me dip and decorate. he was ecstatic.

anton “um, something isn’t right with this chocolate.”
erin “it looks like water got into the pot. did you dry out the pan before you put the chocolate in?”
anton – silence.

plan b. we chose to dip the chocolate in lavender. we carefully placed them onto wax paper to cool. upon cooling, we picked them up to find that they looked like mountain-top removal on top of a lollipop stick. they were completely flat. anton suggested they be a fall harvest acorn. to which i replied that everyone knows acorns aren’t purple! (you can sense my frustration at this point, huh?) in a moment of sheer desperation, and imitating a 2 year old’s finest tantrum, i shoved all of them down the sink/into the trashcan.

so the next day, we made these and shaped them into a big number one:

that same night, i made ava’s cake. i used an applesauce carrot cake recipe. upon taking the cake out of the oven….
anton “are those carrots?”
erin “yes”
anton “those are big chunks, erin! are they still crunchy?”
erin “of course not. it just baked for 45 minutes.”
*erin reaching in to try a piece of the carrots. crunch. in the same tantrum style as before, the cake found it’s way into the garbage.*

so i made a successful (finally!) applesauce cake with cream cheese icing for her first taste of goodness:

she was extremely confused as to whether she was actually allowed to continue to eat what was in front of her!

but soon realized that people were smiling and encouraging her to eat more, and so she did….chunks of icing went straight into her mouth (quite neatly, i might add!):

and when it came time for gifts, she was all about the business (and quite polite, as she took time to play with each gift before moving on to the next!):

she ripped off paper one….piece….at….a….time….

overall, it was a great day. people say it’s more of a celebration for the parents who actually survived the first year. but to be honest, we didn’t have to survive her….she deserved that party to have survived us!

happy birthday, ava kate!