Shaz by the Sea

Yesterday (Saturday, 7/26) we were feeling very adventurous. I've been wanting to bring the boys into DC and take some fun pics by the monuments. In fact, I drove into the city on Thursday - but there was no parking anywhere! I ended up going home. The drive itself was fun, and good to get out of the house, but I really wanted some cute pics. So Saturday we did it. We went into the city for about 4 hours, the boys were awesome. We fed them right before we headed in, parked by the National Mall and walked around. We fed them often throughout the day because it was HOT! We didn't want them to get dehydrated. Here are the Phelan boys in front of the National Gallery of Art - I was surprised they let strollers into a lot of the places. Cool for us!  We stopped at Starbucks and then took a little breather on the grass at the National Mall. We fed them again there. The boys got TONS of attention all day. We secretly felt like Michelle and Barack (ha!). But really, wha

Auntie Chrissy came to visit Conor and Caden again this weekend and they are so happy to have her here. :)  I was telling Chrissy that Friday (7/18) was the most 'regular Shaz' I have felt in a long time because she was of course around, I also went to visit work for a few hours and I cooked up a "from scratch" meal. It was a fun day. She loved seeing the boys, they are much more interactive now - since they are smiling and cooing. They are adorable. We of course had appropriate outfits on waiting for her arrival. But before Chrissy arrived, we decided that Friday night was going to be our "seafood night". We would plan to stay in with the boys and cook some different seafood that we have never yet cooked. So last night, we were deciding what to make...would we make swordfish? A different kind of salmon? Bam we thought we would cook up some crab cakes. I searched online for a guideline of what to use and had most if not all of the ingredients in

I feel like shrimp is a great addition to summertime dishes. Sure, you can have it any time during the year, but for some reason it feels like summer to me. In a recent blog post I mentioned I had a fantastic Greek salad with grilled shrimp on a patio in Old Town Alexandria - to me, that is SO summer. I have also been really diggin shrimp cocktail at the house. We don't really have time to do happy hour or apps out at restaurants these days, so we often make a few apps or have wine and cheese, or recently, wine and shrimp cocktail. Well, we happened to have a shrimp cocktail in the fridge and rather than having that as an app when Jim gets home from work, I decided to whip up a quick and easy dinner. Sometimes I am intimidated to cook seafood - so how simple is this shrimp scampi idea? There is a paleo shrimp scampi idea under my recipe tab, so if you are in the mood for shrimp - both are great options. I took out all my ingredients, and then immediately started boiling some wa

We had a lot going on over the past week. The whole Phelan family came down to visit the boys and to attend Jim's cousin Liz's wedding on Saturday, 7/12/14 in Washington, DC. What a beautiful bride, gorgeous cathedral and stunning cocktail hour/venue. It was quite impressive! We were greeted at the cocktail hour with a tray of white wine, champagne and gin rickeys . Yum. We were fortunately all able to attend the wedding due to Aunt Joyce and Uncle Den stepping in to babysit C-Squared. They thankfully enjoyed themselves and A and B were on their best behavior - proud moment for Mom and Dad. Our fun filled week began last Wednesday, 7/9 when my mother-in-law Irene came down from Boston. She planned to come a little earlier than everyone else so she could spend some time with her grandsons. It all went by way too fast, but it was so fun. I must say, our place here in DC is much more conducive for visitors than LA. Jim's Mom, Dad, brother Joe and sister Theresa were all h