The Past Few Days

Several years ago, I came across a picture of - and a recipe for - raspberry bars. They looked so good. I tore the page out of the magazine and...never made them. That magazine page has been sitting in my drawer since 2007 and everytime I came across it, I was reminded that I never gave them a try. On Tuesday afternoon I finally got around to making them {using the leftover fresh raspberries that I bought to adorn the top of the cupcakes that I made for the 4th of July}. I have been delighting in these yummies for a few days now.....

I finally got around to tending to Ilah's laundry. I hang all of her clothes to airdry and only use the dryer to dry her bibs and socks.

Speaking of laundry....my mother is a PRO at getting out tough stains. I was about to toss a few of Ilah's bibs that were stained with carrots and my mom said, "give them to me, I can get them out". I sort of underestimated her, surely thinking that she would return the bibs to me with the stains somewhat still visible. Nope. It was like getting brand new bibs when she returned them to me. How did she do that?! Even when she gives me her step-by-step instructions, I still can't manage to get out tough stains like that. So instead, I just resorted to buying Ilah nylon bibs that allow me to wipe up the messes so that her cloth bibs are spared! Ha! I found the below JJ Cole bibs on clearance at Babies-R-Us and bought a few.....

Yesterday afternoon, Ilah and I met up with my mom for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and then went to the mall afterwards. A few days ago when I pulled into my mom's subdivision, I saw this cute little bunny hopping around and I stopped and took a picture of it. It's the little things in life, right?......


Lunch was good {as it always is at The Cheesecake Factory!}. I got a Chinese Chicken Salad. Even the lunch portion is huge!.....


After lunch we headed to Macy's. I needed to return a few dresses that Ilah recieved as a gift and get them in bigger sizes. While we were there, we spotted these "Dora, The Explorer" dresses.....

Ilah, at just 6 month old, is TOTALLY into Dora. She jumps up and down {in the seated position}, and coos and smiles and laughs so much when Dora is on. It's the cutest thing! I came to discover "Dora, The Explorer" when I was flipping through the channels one day to see if there were any cartoons on with bright colors and learning elements. Ilah immediately became enthralled with the "Dora, The Explorer" cartoon. So I started recording them and we watch Dora together in the morning and in the afternoon, usually 15 minutes at a time. This is usually the only time Ilah "watches" tv. Funny story: Before leaving for work this morning, my husband went to delete a Dora episode that he thought we had already watched. I frantically said, "No!! I didn't see how it ended!!". Apparently mommy is just as much into Dora as Ilah is! Ha ha!

While at Macy's I checked out some blenders. I've been making a lot of smoothies at home lately and we need a better blender. It's kinda crazy how expensive blenders are but I guess it really does pay to have a really good one....

While I was browsing in the cooking section, something caught my eye. These little silicone mini mits by Martha Stewart. I love the easiness of slipping these one your hands in lieu of big ol' oven mits all the time....


It's been scorching hot here in Atlanta!! The temperature gage in my car steadily reflected 100 degrees all day yesterday. Ilah stayed cool in light clothes and cute little sandals.....


My mom bought me a Lolita ice-cream sundae bowl for my birthday.....

And it's been filled with quite a lot of this......


Although, I should be eating more of this instead....

Don't you just love it when you pick out a sweet, juicy watermelon!! I cut this one up yesterday and added it to some other fruit to make a big fruit salad.

Dele and I will be going on vacation with some friends in September to the Smokey Mountains in Tennesee. I hear it's so beautiful. We will be renting a cabin and staying for 3 days so I've started to look at some rentals....

Well, that's what's been going on around here for the past few days! I know Atlanta isn't the only place where it's been incredibly hot, so I hope everyone has been staying cool and enjoying these summer days!