I found these lovely little appetizers on Pinterest and made them last weekend for a dinner party. The picture doesn’t show the final product, which was drizzled in olive oil and balsamic reduction, but it does the little beauties justice. In addition to adorable, they are delicious! Little basil leaves wrapped around mozzarella balls and grape tomatoes…bite sized caprese salad!
Oh, and I made the cake plate – more on that in a later post 😉
Friday night we joined good friends Ryan and Lisa for dinner and the George Strait concert. It was the second time I’ve seen him and it’s honestly one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. The man may be getting older, but man can he still entertain! He hit all of my favorites; Run, Blue Clear Sky, The Chair and Amarillo by Morning – a favorite of both PW and I. We especially like that we have been in Amarillo, in the morning while listening to Amarillo by Morning. We’re nerds, we know.
The Iphone did not capture just how good our seats were…
I think the best part about George is he plays a ton of old stuff with a few new songs – so the result is a lost voice from singing along all night. We also had fantastic club level seats thanks to Ryan. Although when PW is enjoying himself, he is all. over. the. place in those rolling chairs…
I think my favorite was the encore. He opened with Fireman and then did a 10 minute long rendition of Folsom Prison Blues. It was really amazing.
The last time I saw him was about 7 years ago. My entire family was there and we had a box. PW was still in law school and completely annoyed because we kept calling him and singing to him despite the 2 hour time change. The best part was Mame was there and being a life long George fan, she was in heaven. And a little drunk. Which made for a lot of screaming and cheering. It was hysterical. It didn’t quite feel the same without her this time.
When we were kids, my favorite songs was All My Ex’s Live in Texas and (which we heard on Friday). The reason it was my favorite was because I thought it was about tic tac toe – like x’s and o’s. I would always ask Mame “Where do the O’s live?”. Her response varied from trying to explain that it wasn’t about tic tac toe to just responding “Tennessee – where his hat lives”. I was also a little baffled why he sang a song about Ocean Front Property in Arizona when we didn’t have an ocean. It was then that she would explain that there used to be an ocean, but not any more. Because trying to explain sarcasm to a 3 year old is just too much work … as I am learning myself.
To me, cooking is love. Making a meal for your family is an expression of how much you care for them. So this Valentine’s day, we’re doing dinner in. I’m making of PW’s favorite dinners: marinated flank steak, sauteed mushrooms, twice baked potatoes and cookies that B helps make. I’m hungry just writing it!
See my post on Scottsdale Moms Blog today for the recipes: http://scottsdalemomsblog.com/
And do me a favor and pretend that we are making Valentine’s cookies and not Christmas cookies in Baylor’s pic – k? Sometime’s there’s just not enough time and or cold medicine in a week to stage a holiday appropriate pic!
One of my mom’s favorite childhood stories about my sister Ali is when she came home asking my mom for a recipe for ice. Ali had been in the nurse’s office that day at school and the nurse had pulled out ice cube trays and popped out a few for a scrapped knee. Ali was in awe – we had an ice maker so she had never seen a tray of ice before and was totally enamored.
My step sister told me recently that her daughter asked to listen to the radio – when she put on XM radio, Madi said “no mom, like the real radio. Can we listen to the real radio sometime?”.
This past weekend it was my turn. At a friend’s house for a party, Bay and I went to the bathroom to wash hands. While in there she stared at the shower curtain. She gently pulled it back and said “Oh neat! The bath tub!”. I didn’t get it at first, but I guess she’s never really seen a bathtub with a curtain pulled across it. Oh how fascinating the world is when you’re two.
Ugh. Bay’s crud has finally attacked my immune system and won. I used to put up a fierce fight when I would feel the first signs of illness coming on – lots of rest, running it out, extreme mental denial of any illness, etc. However, because my two year old now hangs out with other two year olds at preschool a few half days a week, she comes home with every illness imaginable. Because despite her classroom being very clean and constant hand washing throughout her day, preschool = cesspool. Therefore I no longer fight it. At the first sign of a tickle in my throat, I down my usual cocktail of vitamin C, Mucinex D, Zyrtec and sometimes and Advil for good measure.
After a rough night’s sleep due to a scratch throat and PW’s scratchy throat and Baylor’s scratchy throat, I was a little more sleep deprived than usual. I realized my normal morning routine was a little scattered and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what came next on the priority list. Despite my general fuzziness, we made it out the door on time.
I dropped B off and stood for a few minutes watching her interact with her buddies – they were all hanging on the playground fence laughing and waving at a car parked with two dogs inside. It always cracks me up to see what she’s doing when she doesn’t know I’m looking.
I walked to the car making mental notes to remember to bring money at pick up for the pancake breakfast, to make a note about what I had signed up to bring for the Valentine’s party and which errand I needed to get done first. I pushed the button on my keys, heard the tell tale “beep beep” of an unlocked car, opened the door and started to swing into my seat when I realized something was weird…why are my seats tan and not gray? At that point a voice from the back door said “good morning”. I looked back to see a mom pulling her kiddo out of his car seat on the passenger side. It was then I realized I had just attempted to get into someone else’s car.
Thank God the mom clearly had a sense of humor and or empathy that she didn’t scream but rather just laughed and said “same car??”. And thank goodness I had at least attempted to get into a car that was exactly like my own (there are 4 white SUVs of the same make and model at B’s school – I counted) and not one that was completely different. I proceeded to get into the correct car and drive straight to Starbucks for an extra shot of caffeine to hopefully wake myself up a little.
While retelling the story to my friend and neighbor, a mom of three, she informed me that she too had done the same thing a few years ago. So at least I’m not alone in my airheadedness. Which means I’ll have friends when PW finally checks me into the funny farm.
Phew. It was one of those busy weekends that leave you in need of another weekend. Sadly, it’s going to be an equally busy busy week followed by another busy busy and super fun weekend! Here’s what we did:
Swim partner, Ryder’s 3rd birthday
Dinner with the Phi’s – my ribs still hurt from laughing
Dinner with our preschool friends – picture 4 towheads wearing every stinking piece of dress up clothes and accessories we have and parading through the house. It was fantastic.
Baby shower / house warming party for work friends.
Oh, and Bay has a touch of a cold which is making sleeping difficult…for everyone. But she’s in good spirits when awake and I’ve got my famous Bobbi Brown concealer to cover the oh-so-scary dark circles under my eyes so we’re in good shape. And judging by the length of that last sentence, we do have coffee.
And in true I’m-having-way-to-much-fun-to-remember-to-take-a-pic form, I have no photo evidence of our super fun weekend. Boo.
But this week will prove to be equally busy with lots of water company work (so very close to completing our rate case – wahoo!), invoicing for the water co (always fun to create and then stuff 90 invoices into envelopes. Don’t worry, I reward myself with wine), Scottsdale Mom Blogs post (hello Valentine’s dinner in recipes),play dates, school and swim – and we wrap up the week with the George Straight concert and super bowl party. Phew. Glad we all napped yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon, B and I ventured out to a new farmer’s market with cousin Zoe and Christane. It was a great little set up with just a few booths selling local produce (at awesome prices) and a lot of vendors with jewelry, honey, hair clips, baby clothes, all kinds of thing I don’t need and yet feel the need to purchase.
One of the jewelry makers is a company called Tangerine Jewelry Shop. Even from far away the stuff was gorgeous. When I got up close, I was shocked to see how reasonably priced everything was. Some of the jewelry has real stones, which makes them a little pricier. But a lot of the stones were really colored and cut glass making for a lovely alternative for the financially challenged.
I picked up this little bauble for $30!
I’m seeing Christmas 2012 for all the ladies in the family coming together….! Check out what they have to offer on either their website, Etsy shop or at a farmer’s market. I will say, they have tons more a the markets than they do online so find out where they are going to be and bring your wallet, but don’t worry, it will still be full when you’re done.
A family friend brought what looked like little chocolates for dessert to Ali’s baby shower. I had one…and then another…and then another. And it didn’t stop for two days until I had eaten all of the left overs. I stopped counting because I didn’t want to admit how many I had.
Despite the recipe, these really come out more like cake. I’m thinking maybe another try at cake pops in my near future?? Make them. Make them soon. Your mouth will thank me (I don’t want to hear what your butt will have to say).
1 SM BOX CHOC INSTANT JELLO PUDDING
1/2 C COLD MILK
BEAT PUDDING AND MILK WITH WHISK FOR 2 MIN (IT REALLY DIDN’T TAKE THAT LONG)
CRUSH 36 OREO COOKIES FINE (ABOUT 3 CUPS)
ADD PUDDING MIX
SHAPE INTO SMALL 1 INCH BALLS FREEZE 10 MIN
MELT 12 SQUARES OF SEMI SWEET CHOCK(1 1/2 BOX)
DIP INTO MELTED CHOC AN AND SET ON WAX PAPER COOL 20 MIN.
MELT 1 SQ WHITE CHOC AND DRIZZEL LITTLE DESIGN ON TOP
In anticipation of my sister Ali’s baby shower this past weekend, I tried to find some baby shower game ideas that were a little outside of the box. And by that I mean something that was not annoying like that damn game where you put the clothes pin on your shirt and ever time you say “baby” someone gets to take your clothes pin. The last shower I was at where we played that game, a fellow guest literally started pinching me after she took all my pins. It almost got ugly.
I found the usually stuff like “Guess Mommy’s Tummy Size”…boring, and potentially a loaded game if Mommy is a little larger than she thinks she is. “Baby Item Word Scramble”…yawn. “Finish the Baby Rhyme”…blah blah blah.
As I dug deeper, I found some really messed up baby games. Such as:
“Pin the Sperm on the Egg”. I’m not kidding.
“Dirty Diaper” – I thought this was only in the movies – you melt candy bars into a diaper and make people guess what the candy bar is by smelling it. There are no words for describing the level of nastiness of that one.
“My Water Broke!” – guests are given drinks with ice cubes containing plastic babies. When your ice-cube melts setting the baby free, the guests shouts that their water broke and they win a prize. I actually kind of like this idea because I don’t really have to participate, but it needs a new name.
“Bobbing for Nipples” – again, not a joke. Just like bobbing for apples but you use bottle nipples. Lovely.
We ended up using a variation of a game we played at Ali’s wedding shower – she gets asked a series of questions and then has to eat something when she answers wrong. Pregnancy themed food was pickles and ice cream – ice cream if she was right and pickles if she was wrong. I only tortured her a little with questions like “how many feet does the average toddler crawl in a day?” and “who is the celebrity whose daughter is named Sadie Grace?”.
All in all, it was a lovely shower and Ali got lots of great gifts – I was running around like a crazy woman so I didn’t get any pictures, but Ali’s sister-in-law did so more to come!
One of my best friends Chrissy sent me an article yesterday – really she tagged me on facebook with the caption “Carry on Warrior” Wisch Wand, you’re going to love this”. And in true friend-who-knows-you-all-to-well form, I did.
The article is pretty much the premise of The Goon Room: sometimes being a parent is just downright gross. And annoying. And exhausting. And not fun. It talks about those annoying people who stop you in the grocery store and tell you to be sure to cherish every moment – and they are usually telling you this on a day when you’ve not had a shower, slept a collective 3 hours, your baby is screaming while simultaneously spitting up on you…again.
The tag line of the article is “Carpe Diem!!!” – or seize the day to you and me. The article is hilarious, truthful and sweet – I love how this momma is able to laugh at the gross stuff, shrug off “failures” and focus on the small wins. This is the kind of mom I strive to be.
I’m also going to start yelling “CARPE DIEM!!” instead of “WHY IS NO ONE LISTENING TO ME???”. Mostly because I think thinking about how I want to remember every moment of Baylor being a child – even the annoying ones – will make me chuckle.
Here’s the article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html
The Goon Room 