Happy Birthday, Kevin!

My favorite guy turns 44 today!

Kevin brings the fun to our family.  He plans all of our trips, makes sure that I'm the passenger princess and is always looking out for us.  He loves a good deal and is great at finding hidden gems.  He could survive on trail mix, protein bars and coffee.  He's doing big things at work and making sure we are all doing great things at home.  He takes care of all the important paperwork, is our tech support, builder of all the things and loves a delicious dinner at home.  He's the one who leads bedtime devotions and always has his nose in a book.  We're thankful for him!

Olive loves to play volleyball with Dad.

Fletcher loves to go backyard camping and shoot airsoft guns with Dad.

Leo is so sporty and so silly - just like his Dad.

We celebrated with Kevin's family earlier this week - burgers, homemade cake and his favorite people.

Leo was present, just did not want to quit playing with cousins long enough for a family photo.

Wishing him a wonderful year ahead!

4th of July

I hope you had a Happy 4th of July weekend!  We packed in as much red, white and blue all week long.  I baked a ton, we saw lots of friends and Kevin bought lots of fireworks for our neighborhood show.

I made the yummiest fruit pizza bar for my family.  We picked blackberries in the backyard.  I bought sugar cookie dough from the store and we baked the cookies into rectangles.  The kids topped their cookies with vanilla pudding, cool whip or nutella and then topped with berries.

Yum!  My crew doesn't LOVE fruit pizza so these small pizza flags were perfect.

We made red, white and blueberry pancakes on the 4th.  Note to self - It's harder than you think to make pancake letters.

I had some cookie bar orders.  I baked for that and then delivered patriotic cookie bars to friends.

Kevin took all the kids fireworks shopping a time or two to get the best fireworks for our neighbors.  We grilled out, had friends over for fireworks and had a great weekend!  I don't love that we're halfway through Summer, but we're determined to have as much fun as possible in July.

Olive did fancy nails.

I love a holiday table!

Fireworks show ready to go!  Olive lined the whole show up from start to finish.

The trees and the kids have both grown so much this year!

Another great 4th in the books!

Easy Summer Pico

This is my #1 favorite addition to taco night.  I try to make it about an hour before dinner, chill it and then serve with chips and tacos.  Kevin and I love it.  I try to make it for Taco Tuesdays.  It is also the perfect summer appetizer.

I'll list out the ingredients and then you can adjust to make it for a crowd of any size.

Chop everything tiny.

Bite sized tomatoes all colors

Sweet peppers any color

green onions

purple onions

yellow onions

Juice and zest of one lime or lemon

Sprinkle of salt and pepper or Kinders Seasoning Salt

*You could also add in some jalapenos, corn or cilantro if you like that :)

Stir until well coated and refrigerate for about an hour before eating.

This pico gets pretty soggy leftover.  It's best eaten the same day you make it.  I do eat it leftover on tacos, but know that it's not as fresh and crisp on day 2.

These multi-grain scoops are delicious!

And the pico mix is great with tacos!

Give this a try for your next taco night!

14th Bloggy Birthday!

Happy 14th Birthday to Polka-Dotty Place!  14!!!! I can hardly believe it.  

I have been writing for this space nearly every day for 14 years.  It has been one of my favorite hobbies, favorite outlets, favorite way to document our lives and I'm so thankful you show up to read what I write.  Some of you have been with me since we lived in Utah.  Wow!  I always said that I would stop blogging when it was no longer fun.  I'm thrilled to say that I still love blogging and can't wait for another year in this space.

Back in 2011, Kevin and I were living in Utah and nearly everything about our life was different.

We lived and loved life in a tiny apartment.  We had two cats - Oliver & Topher - who have both since passed.  We traveled nearly every weekend to explore all the wild west had to offer.  Jobs that took us to Utah for what we thought would be a five year process, ended up being a nine year adventure.  We both started and finished graduate school together at The University of Utah.  I was teaching 3rd grade in public schools.  Kevin was teaching/working/learning all over Salt Lake City.  Our circles of friends were different and we were much more well rested.  We loved our time in Utah!

Throwback to Summer of 2011:

The Badlands.

Mt. Rushmore.

The view from Kevin's office where we did a lot of studying.

Fast forward to 2025 and it feels like almost everything about our life is different.  We have 3 different cats.  We have 3 kids.  We have lived in 4 different houses and 4 different cities.  We're back in the Midwest which I wasn't sure would ever happen.  Kevin's is working his dream jobs and I love teaching kindergarten at a private school.  It'll be my first time ever to teach with one of my own kids in my grade.  We're about to enter junior high territory and the kids are making new friends and trying new things to find their own hobbies.  We're making our house a home and even though everything has changed so much in 14 years, we still love the life we are building together.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Thanks for caring about my family.

Thanks for sticking around for all the adventures these last 14 years.

Cheers to a new year ahead filled with new adventures!

Love you lots!

Pancake Spaghetti

Pancake Spaghetti.  I know it sounds weird, but hear me out.

We are enjoying trying some new recipe this Summer.  I saw this idea for pancake spaghetti online and saved it to do with the kids on a slow morning.  I mixed up our usual Hungry Jack extra light and fluffy pancake mix.  Grabbed a squirt bottle and then carefully poured the mix into the bottle.  It was really easy.

This would be so fun to make with your kids, grandkids, friends or family.  The kids loved making their own spaghetti and just needed a little help flipping.

Pan warmed up, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and then a full bottle of pancake mix.

Fill the whole pan one line at a time with pancake mix.  Let it bubble and firm up then flip.  Everything cooks quickly so watch it closely!

We made some eggs and had all of our usual pancake toppings - butter and syrup.

Cheers to slow mornings, delicious breakfasts and snuggles.  I'm in denial that it is the last day of June.  Summer needs to SLOW DOWN.

I hope you give this pancake spaghetti a try!

Friday Faves

Happy Friday, friends!  We had a great, hot week in the Midwest.  I'm having trouble remembering what day it is and we're all staying up way too late.  Sounds like Summer!

The best parts of our week were:

1. First Watch.  If you find yourself on the South side of Nashville in the Smyrna area, you must go here for breakfast/brunch!  Kevin found it for us on Father's Day and we loved it!  Everything was homemade and we all agreed that it was the best breakfast spot.  We got everything from pancakes, to omelets, watermelon refresher drinks, granola, homemade strawberry jam and waffles.  Everything we ate was amazing.  There is also some fun shopping all around.

2. Mr. Mitten's doesn't love to be cuddled.  He'd much prefer to make himself comfortable in a box or basket.  Anything I put as a centerpiece on a table is very enticing to him.

3. We have gotten so much rain this year which means the animals have all been very active.  Hello turtle in our backyard.  We also saw wild turkeys, a coyote, turtles, a snake and more.

4. This guy loves going to doctor's appointments.  It's not as fun when you have a bad ear infection though.

5. The kids love walking around the mall. Her birthday wish came true - ears triple pierced.  She says she's done now.

Walking with my best buddy at the mall.

Food court lunches.

6. Penny couldn't be happier to have us all home 24/7.  If you sit down, she wants you to snuggle her.

7. The big kids have been making all kidns of yummy food.

8. Hardy is getting bigger.  The boys love playing with him.  Leo told my mom, I'm going to kidnap that dog :)  So if he ever goes missing, check with Leo.

9. I'm thrilled to report that the pizza dough, pizza sauce and pepperoni from Trader Joes is FANTASTIC.  It tasted fancy and was so easy to make.

10. We met friends at The Hills and enjoyed playing in the AC.

11. Volleyball Olive!  She's having a blast learning a new sport with her friends.  We're all learning a lot while we're cheering on our favorite girl.

12. Leo came downstairs with a giant goose egg.  He said his head hurt and he needed me to take his temp.  I'm thankful he was okay, but we had lots of talks about not jumping off couches.

13. A quick follow up dentist appointment.  He was so funny and so brave. He just smiled and talked to the dentist the whole time.

Have a great weekend!  I'll see you back here on Monday :)

Linking up with Momfessionals