Ahhh...the weekend!

I am sitting here in my super quiet house on this beautiful, sunny Saturday enjoying my frozen strawberry lemonade from Panera. I highly recommend these...they are perfect for a summer day.

Sweet Hayes is sleeping in his room and the handsome hubby is painting our bedroom. Relaxing, quiet moments are rare these days. Instead of napping, I decided to catch up on some blogging.

First things first...Roasted Ricotta Roma Tomatoes! This recipe came from The Pioneer Woman, of course. I actually tweaked the original recipe a smidge. Here is the link to her recipe. And here is mine!

8 whole Roma tomatoes
1-1 1/2 cups Ricotta cheese
fresh parsley
fresh basil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
balsamic vinegar
parmesan cheese

Cut your tomatoes in half and scoop out the pulp. [I used the recipe for two meals, so I only prepared 4 tomatoes at a time.] Throw away the tomato pulp. Sprinkle some kosher salt in the tomatoes and lay them face down on a paper towel. This gets rid of some of the juices. Next, mix your ricotta cheese, garlic, and chopped parsley and basil in a bowl. I just thew in an amount of herbs that looked good to me. I wanted lots of green in my mixture. I used a spoonful of ricotta cheese for each tomato half. I went ahead and made the mixture for all 8 tomatoes. When I made the second round later in the week, half the work was already done! Fill each tomato half with the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with seasoned bread crumbs and drizzle balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes. Pop in the oven and cook at 400 for about 25 minutes. Pull the pan out after 25 minutes and top with parmesan cheese. Broil the tomatoes for another 2-3 minutes or until the cheese is good and melty. Enjoy! We ate ours with tuna melts. It was a super easy supper and we had leftovers for later in the week.

Next stop...home decor/baby proofing.

In "carpet room,' our TV storage is not ideal for little people. The cable box sits under the TV and is easily accessible. We debated finding a new TV stand with doors, but couldn't find one to fit with this monster of a TV. We found these great shelves at Ikea a few weeks ago...and problem solved! The DVR box is now way out of baby's reach.

The shelves and brackets they sit on cost a little under $50. I had lots of decorative items stashed away that filled the shelves up.

 I'm glad we got this done now. Hayes is now getting into the crawling position and lunging forward. It isn't official crawling, but it's close enough for me to start moving things off the floor.

We are in the process of re-doing our bedroom. Ryan is painting this weekend. We are getting a new bed, bedding, and curtains and maybe another new piece or two. Once it is done, I will have before and after pics!

It's party time! Brady, my super cute nephew, turns 2 in September! He has a new sister on the way as well. I decided my sister didn't have time for planning a party with the new baby, so I am helping out. She gets final say, but I am having so much fun planning a Pirate Extravaganza. I found this cute cupcake set at Marshall's that inspired me.

I found this Pirate Party and I love the color scheme for Brady's party. I also like the idea of finger foods in cute containers with fun pirate-inspired names. We will definitely have a jar of whoppers labeled "cannon balls."

Our beautiful niece, Landen, turns 1 in one week! We will be attending her ladybug party and I promise to take pictures of the cuteness Kristie creates for her big day.

I will do another post with more 5 month pictures of Hayes, once we have some. Here is one for now. It isn't great, but look at our big boy sitting up!

By the way, the BBQ restaurant mentioned in the previous post is City BBQ, of course. I thought everyone knew about my obsession with that place:) Enjoy the rest of your gorgeous weekend!