Happy Christmas!

Wrapping is almost done.

The sugar high continues.

Post Office was visited.

We spread some Christmas cheer.

Safe travels to all of you and a very MERRY road ahead.

Halloween Fun - 2013

 

The sugar comma is starting to subside. Friday morning found us all a little groggy and hungover on hi-fructose corn syrup. That didn't stop my girl, she tip-toed off into her room with a bucket of loot and locked the door behind her. Let's just say she ate enough to make her self puke... whatever was left, I tossed into the trash can.
I am a mean, mean mama... Next year, the Switch Witch will do her job.
We had a super fun Halloween night. Our neighborhood was hopping with all sorts of fun. A few of the houses were over the top crazy with decoration and goodies bags of candy. There were tons of kids and the local news truck was even doing interviews. Sometimes, suburban life is pretty okay. Andy and I both agreed that if this was the level of excitement for pumpkins, Christmas is gong to be off the charts fun and crazy this year... Hide your milk and cookies Santa, Fifi is on the loose...

oh the excitement!

fill my BUCKET

can we go now, can we?

love is in the air...

don't erase me, Valentine.

sweet heart

I love you.

May your day be filled with love and light.

xoxoxo

Christmas 2012

Christmas PJ's

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house.... Jojo reading to O from my old book.

"Safe travels. I left cookies and carrots for the reindeer. Love, O and J"

Calm before the present opening storm.

Christmas Morning JOY!

CANNY CANES!

HOT WHEELS!!!

Princess Cheez-It at your service.

A boy and his dog.

Playing.

Putting things together. (A. got a telescope from Santa!)

Dinner time and more playing.

And then it started snowing, so we got out the sparklers and went out side to play.
I didn't get any photos of the sparklers in action... New Year's Eve is gonna be fun this year!

Frosty.

festive

I was informed that there are ONLY 10 more days until Christmas...

Good thing we got the tree up this week.

Halloween Recap

There were these cute little pumpkins (down the street)

and then these cute little pumpkins (in my house)

O decided to go with the ghost theme after all and even let me paint his face. Fifi wanted nothing else but to be Minnie Mouse. 

She was the cutest darn Minnie there ever was, even if her mama forgot to put shoes on her for the trick-or-treating. Oops!
 
(I promise she was much happier than she looks here!)
Everyone was just to excited to go.

 

I got a little witchy at work

It was a fun day, but can someone please, please, please, do something with all that candy!

Face Painting

The week before we headed up to the cabin for the pre-Fourth weekend, my Dad-in-law went over an itinerary he had in his head for Saturday.

He had it all planned out, down to the hour, what we would be up to and what the kids would be doing.

 

I giggled to myself at his ambition. Had he forgotten that there was going to be 6 kids (actually 7 with the addition of a cousin from my bro-in-law's family) under the age of six, plus 8 adults and 4 dogs wandering around the joint?
Keeping everyone on track can be a chore in and of itself. But I nodded along with his ideas.

I totally loved that he had so many fun plans smashed in for the one full day we would all be there. 

One of the things he had on his "bucket list" for the day was, "Face paining, I really want face painting.Would you mind doing that again this year?"

 

Needless to say, Grandpa Mike was the first in line when I pulled out the paints.

The rest just snowballed from there.

I was pretty bummed out when I opend my new fancy face paint kit to find that someone had stole the 6 stencils and one of the brushes from the box, but I made due with what I had.

 

Despite this sleep boy look on the boy's face here, O has asked to have his face painted nearly every day since last Saturday.

Face paint is officially a part of summer 2012!

The Food of the Fourth (and Drink)

There is just something about summer time food. 

Things you don't usually eat unless the temps and the fun are running high.

Here is our Fourth (or the weekend before, in this year's case) of July Menu.

We enjoyed "Mundo's Ribs" also know as "Andy-que"

This is the basic idea/recipe that was used this year for the ribs.

Start with 6 racks of ribs.

For the Rub:

4tbls brown sugar

2tbls paprika

2tbls essence of emeral

2tbls garlic powder

2tbls black pepper

2tbls kosher salt

2tsp cayenne pepper

Mix the rub ingredients well and rub thoroughly on the racks of ribs. 

Wrap the ribs and put in the refrigerator over night.

Grill all day long (about 6 hrs) on a Weber grill 200-250 degrees. Start with ribs, bone side down. The first hour of cooking, smoke with apple and cherry wood briquets. 

Rotate the rack of ribs from back to front about half way through the total cooking process.

Grilled corn on the cob and garlic bread. The gang likes to wrap the bread and corn in foil and grill until done. The bread gets unwrapped and grill marks are 'applied'. We fancy it up that way. tee hee.

Grilled zucchini

I wasn't in on this recipe, but slicing the zucchinis into 'steaks' and then marinating in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, smashed garlic, salt and pepper and some lemon juice usually does the trick.

Grandma's Mac Salad

This recipe will  yield about 6 servings

Ingredients

2 cups dry elbow macaroni, cooked, rinsed, and drained

1/3 cup diced celery

1/4 cup minced red onion, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, drained (I have left this out when I made it while pregnant/nursing, because onions and Fifi weren't agreeing, and it still came out really good)

1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup prepared mayonnaise

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoons cider vinegar

3 tablespoons sour cream

1/3 cup sweet pickle relish

4 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon yellow mustard

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl combine the macaroni, celery, onion, and parsley. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, 2 mustards, Worcestershire sauce, relish, sugar, vinegar, sour cream and salt. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir to combine, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve cold (it just doesn't taste right unless it has chilled, so plan ahead for this one, it's worth it).

Store covered in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days. I promise, it won't last that long though.

Also enjoyed before dinner, Garden Party Cocktails.

After dinner?

Root-beer floats, of course.

I hope your Fourth of July is filled with good food, good friends and FUN.

Happy Birthday AMERICA!!!