it's my girls' world

My mom is here to help me as I recover so there is lots of Trinidadian home-cooking going on. And she's been baking home-made coconut bread. And she's bought lots of Ferrero Rocher. Oh and my brother just discovered 99c Frostees. Can you tell I've fallen off the clean eating band-wagon?

+ that a friend is coming to take me to lunch today.

Lots of family time before my brother left, pool time and pool snacking! I've not ventured out too, too much these past few weeks with my arm but we've loved all the little trips and family time. First my in laws came back to help me out again and then my parents did.

Recovering.

Getting our summer schedules finalised.

Sorting out stuff at home. Tons of little projects on the go! 
Unpacking about 5 bags of stuff my sister in law gave me from moving!

My new book by Emily Giffin got delivered to my Kindle this morning! I've taken a little peek and it seems to be a great read. I also need to watch the last episode of Season 2 of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce. Oh and the Bachelorette sometimes.

We eat lots of salads around here all year round. Yeah there's the standard recipe of protein, baby spinach, veggies, nuts and fruit tossed with some vinaigrette which I use lots but I like to mix it up ever so often.  Here are just a few of my favourite different light summer salads, light, healthy and super easy to put together. 

This parmesan kale salad is pretty light--- with the exception of a few parmesan shavings. The dates and nuts add lots of sweetness and crunch.

What are your go-to summer salad recipes. Linking up with Shelly and Katy today for Spiel The Beans!

Happy Friday, folks!! Here are a few random favourites from this week.

1- I've just printed and started organising A's flamingo pool party. The 'vision' (and I use that word very loftily) started with a $10 Chapter's gift card and this float.

Then I fell in love with this invitation

And now there are lollipops and a cookie cutter. 

I'm at a loss for pool party favours though. In the past couple years, I've tended to do just one bigger spend item- I'm kind of done with giving and getting all the tiny trinkets and trash as party favours that end up being SO much money. I've done buckets and pails one year and sunglasses the other year, both of which would have been perfect for this year's pool party. Any suggestions?

2- My mom is here to visit and help me out in my time of need. Yay for all the help, the cooking, the chats and the QT!

3- I finished this last Elin book in just three days--- another light summery read chockful of all the complex characters and interesting minutae that I find so very entertaining. #nojudgementzone 

4- And these little ladies just finished up gymnastics for the season! 

5- A belated Mother's Day present from my D is my new favourite. It's been a long time since I carried around a wallet, preferring a small cross body wallet/bag instead. I'm going bigger again and this is the first step… now to find a bag!

Hope everyone's weekend is amazing!! One's done with school and the other has only three days again.  We are in full on summer mode here beginning with an invite to a pool party with a Hollywood Glam dress code-- if anyone knows how to combine those two in an outfit, please help a girl out!! 

Linking up with 

Andrea, Erika and Narci for Favourites on Friday

Amy for Hey Friday

5- Fold in the berries

What are your favourite home-made breads?

Linking up with Beth and some other lovelies for Tuesday Talk.

 On Saturday:

+ a friend came to visit and help me out for a few days and was showing us how to tie a scarf around the kids (hands free indeed)

+ we ran errands and bought Father's Day gifts

+ I tried the 'pink drink'- we don't have strawberry acai in Canada so I subbed hibiscus berry. It really wasn't all that

+ C had her first book signed by an author.

+ D got his new bike

+ the girls went to a movie with my friend so D and I  headed to a patio for sangrias and appies

+ I made an orange berry bread- D did all the stirring

On Sunday:

+ we opened presents-- lego for the win

+ the orange bread was an awesome light breakfast

+ we headed to the Cambridge Mill for a champagne brunch-- oysters and crab legs for the win-- I always get my money's worth

+ C and I went for a nice  sweaty walk

+ we swam in the sweltering heat and drank some mojitos

Happy Monday, friends!

Linking up with  Biana

HAPPY FRIDAY! Here are a few of our faves from this week.

Swimming

We've gotten a local neighbourhood teenager who is a swim instructor to come a few times a week to teach the girls some swimming- a half an hour for each girl. Cass can already swim a bit but we're working on her technique! A needs all the help she can get. Only problem is that girlfriend gets so cold so fast so we've been having to teach her for fifteen minutes, take her out to warm her up for 1/2 an hour while C goes in and send her back in.

Mega Duplo

We are all about the Lego here these days. Cass is doing an Angry Birds one and A is obsessed with her mega duplo creative picnic. She can play for an hour with it-- and it comes in a box so she can toss stuff in it store it after. Grape and ketchup sandwiches, anyone?

Bedding

My mom gifted me some bedding for our new king size bed (the  house came with a king size bed frame) in January and my mom brought it for us last month. It's from West Elm when they had their huge begging and although the quilt at the bottom is accidentally twin sized, I'm loving the clean, calm look-- I'm thinking some sort of small textured pillow to complete the look.

Family Love

Well my in laws are leaving today (cue the ugly cry). They've helped so much since the collarbone incident and we will be forever grateful! The girls have loved spending all this time with them... think sugar and sleepovers for three weeks straight! A friend is coincidentally visiting from the US for a couple days and then my mom will be here for about 9 days! So happy for the help.

Magic Eraser Magic

 Since I'm home more these days, I'm doing all these little long overdue projects like washing winter coats, scrubbing lunch bags and going crazy with my magic eraser.... FYI, great on shoes and boots to give them a fresh look.

Happy weekending, friends! And to all the dads out there, especially my dad, father in law, brothers, and of course sweet, sweet D who has pinch hitted me out so, so much these past few weeks, have a wonderful Father's Day!

Linking up with 

Andrea, Erika and Narci for Favourites on Friday