A yummy dessert recipe!

This one came out of my "Recipes to try" file. I got it from here. It is super yummi-licious! It is easy to put together too.

Asphalt Pie
From Sistersstuff.blogspot.com
INGREDIENTS:
Oreos
1/3 c melted butter
1/2 gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream
small container of whip cream
Caramel ice cream sauce
Chocolate ice cream sauce

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

Set out ice cream and whipped topping to thaw.

Crush 3/4 package of the Oreos. Mix crushed Oreos with melted butter. Spread on the bottom of the pan.

Drizzle on some caramel sauce over crust.

Set pan in freezer for about 20 minutes until firm.

Spread on the ice cream over crust. Return to freezer for 20 minutes or so until it is firm.

Spread on whipped cream evenly over ice cream. Drizzle more caramel sauce over top and then drizzle chocolate sauce over the top. I also added a few more crushed Oreos sprinkled on top.

Freeze again for 20 minutes or so until firm.

I recommend setting this out for 10 minutes or so before serving, just to soften it slightly. Cut your pieces pretty small, this is very rich and sweet, but oh so yummy!

Day 2 of Spring Break

The boys went skiing bright and early this morning. Spirit and my nephew, P (who is 9), have been skiing before but Lefty and my nephew, C (who is 6), have not. So the younger boys will be in ski school most of the day. The place they are skiing has a ski school all day that included lunch and ski rental for a real reasonable price. All 4 were beyond excited to go! I hope everyone has a great time!

I am at work until noon today, then I will go home and get the girls (my niece, Lady Bug, my sister and my mom) for lunch and shopping. I am so excited to have a girls day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Apparently yesterday the boys were quite naughty together and my sister made them clean my house! I don't know all the gory details, all I heard was that they were making very poor decisions as a group. Hopefully they all learned a lesson and will be better behaved the remainder of the week!

Weekend review

I left work early on Friday because my mom flew into town. She is here from Oregon and I haven't seen her in over a year. On Saturday, my sister and her family flew in from Seattle, but she is staying at a rental house, not with me.

Saturday morning, my mom and I made roman shades for Spirit's room. I will have to get pictures of them and post, but today Mr. Man took the camera with him for some work stuff he needed it for. I will post pictures later this week.

Sunday we spent the day with my sister and her family. The kids played hard, got into a snowball fight with the neighbor kids (that ended kind of bad so I had to call everyone in!) and then my sister took all 3 of my kids with her to the rental to have a little sleep over! I hope they all had fun!

Today, I am at work and my sister and mom are going to hang out at my house today until I get off work. Kind of a bummer that I have to miss the "party"!

Tomorrow I will work half day. The guys are all going skiing (Mr. Man, my BIL, my 2 nephews and my 2 boys) and so after I get off work, my mom, my sis, my niece and Lady Bug are going to do a girls day! Should be fun!

LAST DAY TO SIGN UP FOR THE FLIP FLOP SWAP

We have quite a few participants, but I would love to get some more. Please click here to read the rules for the Flip Flop Swap and then hurry and sign up! It will be loads of fun!

If you've already signed up and have not received an email questionnaire from me I promise it is on it's way, I fell a little behind! I think this is going to be a lot of fun, we have some great people signed up! I can't wait to get a new pair of flip flops!

My mom flies into town today - I am SO excited to see her! We have lots of crafty stuff planned to do while she is here.. I promise to post pictures!

Friday Recipe - Bread Machine Pizzas

I have tried several recipes over the years for pizza dough, but this one is by far the easiest with very good flavor. I have tried over night doughs, lower fat dough, regular dough being mixed by hand, but none of them were as easy to make as this one and none met the "family approval" rating!

This took about an hour to make in the bread machine and then by the time we all made our pizzas and baked them it was another hour. Definitely can be done on a Friday night or Family Movie/Game Night.

Bread Machine Pizzas

From Good Cheap Eats.com

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 c water

1/4 olive oil

2 Tbls honey

4 1/2 c flour

1 Tbls salt

1 Tbls yeast

TOPPINGS INGREDIENTS:

Pizza sauce

Mozzarella cheese

pepperonis, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, onion, diced tomato, sliced black olives, bell pepper, etc. any toppings you like



A preheated oven is key to a great crust, so I recommend turning the oven on while the dough is mixing in your bread machine. Preheat to 475 degrees.



Combine the crust ingredients in the bread machine pan according to the order listed above. Set machine to the dough setting and start machine. Check it after 10 minutes to make sure all the ingredients have been incorporated and not stuck to the side of the pan (if it is stuck mix it in with your hand or a wooden spoon.

Grease your cookie sheets or pizza pans and sprinkle with cornmeal or flour.

When dough is ready, divide it into portions. This recipe says it makes 6 individual pizzas or 3 large - we made 6 personal size pizzas and one large pizza. Shape each portion into a flat, round shape. Place on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Spread pizza crust with sauce (about 2/3 c for large pizzas and about 1/3 c for smaller ones)

Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over top of sauce. Added any combination of toppings that you would like (our favorites are tomato and crumbled bacon or traditional cheese and pepperoni).

After you get your toppings on then top with a little more mozzarella cheese.

Bake pizzas for 8-15 minutes, depending on the size.

Spring snow storm

Funny to think that I am hosting a flip flop swap and this is what I woke up to today!

The kids schools are closed so I am home from work today. Mr. Man ventured into work and he said once he got out of our neighborhood the roads had been plowed and sanded so while he is working I made the sacrifice to stay home with the kids (it is a big sacrifice too!)

Since I have family coming this weekend I am taking today to clean and get the house ready for visitors. I have already completed Lady Bug's room (including cleaning out her dresser and closet of clothes that don't fit anymore!) I have done 2 loads of laundry (washing, drying, folding and putting away!)

The kids and I also spent some time this morning working on Cards For Cancer. Here is a picture of our cards. Some of these were done with a friend of mine over the weekend (I'm sure you can pick out the ones my friend and I did and the ones the kids did today!)

I think we will make some oven s'mores this afternoon and watch a movie by the fire. What could be better than this? Well, warmer weather where I can wear my favorite flip flops... thats what could be better! In the meantime though, I will have fun hanging out with these kiddos of mine!

Have you? I have...

Have you signed up for the Flip Flop Swap? I did.

There are quite a few people participating, but I would still love to have more involved! Click here to sign up or send me an email.

Go do it... you know you want to! :-)

Is it Monday already?

My weekend was so filled with errands, volunteer projects, and housewarming party to attend that when I woke up this morning I felt like I didn't even get a weekend at all. *sigh*

It was all good things this weekend though, so I am not complaining about that part, just the fact that I feel like I never sat down all weekend!

Saturday morning, Mr. Man and I had to work on getting the new computer hooked up to our wireless network. Then a friend and I did some volunteer work for Cards For Cancer (a bunch of teams get together and make cards for people (adults and children) in cancer hospice care.) Then I had a housewarming party to go for another friend of mine, ending my day about 9:00 pm.

Sunday, Mr. Man got called into work. So the kids and I went to church then home to eat lunch and clean house. I have company coming this weekend and really needed to do a deep clean on the house.

This morning I woke up sneezing, sure hope it isn't a cold...I hoping for just allergies because I don't want to be sick when my family gets into town.

Hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week too!

Meal Plan Mar 20 - 26

I am trying some more new recipes this week (denoted by an asterisk) -- remember I have a goal to clean out the "recipes to try" file!

SATURDAY:
Breakfast - Apple french toast casserole*
Lunch - Quesadillas
Dinner - Honey baked chicken* / crusty rolls / asphalt pie*

SUNDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Mac-n-cheese / peas
Dinner - Chicken with bacon-sage brown rice*

MONDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Sandwich wrap / chips / fruit
Dinner - Spaghetti / salad / apple crisp

TUESDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Spaghetti / carrot sticks w/ ranch dressing / cookie
Dinner - Breakfast For Dinner

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast - Pancakes / bacon
Lunch - PB&J / chips / fruit
Dinner - Burritos / fruit salad

THURSDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Burrito / fruit / cookie
Dinner - Tuna noodle casserole / peas

FRIDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - meat roll ups / fruit / veggie sticks
Dinner - Lasagna Roll ups / salad

Friday Recipe - Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

This recipe comes from my long time friend. Her mom used to make these for us when we were growing up!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter
1 cup chunky peanut butter
2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers (or Rice Krispies)
2 cups chocolate chips

Melt butter and peanut butter over low heat. Add powdered sugar and crumbs. Mix and pat into 9x13 pan.

Melt chips over low heat and spread over the top. Refrigerate and cut into squares.

Birthday Boy's planner

I guess Lefty takes after his mom with his love for lists and planning. He came to me back in February...yes February folks... with his spiral notebook in hand and showed me his plans for his birthday...which is the end of April.

He had a page for the guest list. A full page of hand written names of all the kids he will be inviting {or as his mom says, all the kids he would LIKE to invite}. There was a total of 23 kids listed. {hmmm, mom thinks that sounds like a lot of kids!}

He had a page for the "centers" that he would have going on during the party. He knew how many kids would be at one certain center at a time and he knew how often they should rotate centers. {yes, he did!}

He then realized he would need some "adult helpers" because of all the kids he would invite, so he had a page of adult helpers. Yet, another half page or so of hand written names (probably 10-15 names), these adults included uncles, aunts, adult friends, etc.

This whole party is to take place in my home. While I feel my home is a nice size for entertaining friends and family on a small scale, it is no Community Center. Not even close to being able to hold a major amount of people (comfortably anyway) in my house. Even with these "centers" he wants, my house is not set up for all this.

I was talking with a friend of mine, she works in the school system so she is around little people all day, and she also has 2 kids of her own. She was telling me to go ahead and let him help me plan it, he will get a sense of how much work it is. Ok, fine and dandy, but my thought on that is he will only realize how much work it is AFTER the fact. So in the meantime, I am reviewing his lists and trying to figure out a compromise!

I will have you know that the party I had in mind was not quite as big and elaborate! I will do another post later on what we finally agree on!

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE FLIP FLOP SWAP -- Email me or comment by clicking FLIP FLOP SWAP!

I know it isn't Friday, but...

I know I usually share recipes on Fridays, but what the hay, it is my blog and I can do whatever I want, right? right.

This is an easy recipe for homemade bagel pizza bites. I have made these a couple times. I make a couple batches at a time and then store in the freezer, they make great quick lunch or dinners for the kiddos (I like them too!) I buy the mini bagels at Costco and use some for breakfasts and the others for these pizza bites!

Homemade Bagel Pizza Bites
INGREDIENTS:
mini bagels, cut in half
pizza sauce
mozzerella
pepperoni, diced (optional) {I found some mini pepperonis that work perfect}
Any other toppings you might want, onions, peppers, sausage, black olives... my family likes plain cheese or cheese/pepperoni combo.

Place the bagel halves on a cookie sheet (I use a large cookie sheet and get 8 bagels (16 halves) on there). Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 30-45 minutes (this way the sauce won't seep into the bread making it soggy).

Remove cookie sheet and spread pizza sauce on top of bagels.

Top with mozzerella cheese and toppings.

Place cookie sheet back in freezer for 2-3 hours until the toppings are set.

Remove from freezer and store in large freezer-safe Ziploc baggies.

TO BAKE: Place a bagel pizza bite on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheese melted.

Flip Flop Swap!

With the weather still cold and icky here I find myself getting more and more anxious for spring to get here - and I don't just mean the date that the calendar says spring begins - I am talking about sunshine and warmth!

In light of spring making its way our direction, I want to host a flip-flop swap! Doesn't that sound like fun? What better way to ring in spring than to participate in a flip-flop swap? In the spring/summer I am in flip-flops most of the time. I big puffy heart me some flip-flops!

Here are the rules:

1. Send me an email or comment here, if you are interested in joining, BY MARCH 26th! Please include your email address or have your comment link back to email. **There is no need to have a blog to participate, just an email address.**

2. Have your package mailed out by April 16th

3. You will be sending a pair of fun flip-flops to your partner and you will not reveal yourself until you ship the package!

4. The amount you should spend on the flip-flops is $5.00 - 10.00 (you are welcome to spend more if you like, but please do not be offended if your swap partner doesn't.)

6. As soon as you receive your flip-flop package, please blog about it (with pictures).

PLEASE HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD SO WE CAN HAVE LOTS OF PARTICIPANTS!

As soon as I hear from you I will send you a small questionnaire so that I can match partners together.

I will get your swap partner's email and/or blog address to you by April 1st which gives you 2 weeks of shopping.

Monday, Monday

* Wake up an hour late, thanks to time change ... CHECK
* Make first cup of coffee, filled with cream and sugar ... CHECK
* Spill first cup of coffee ... CHECK
* Run late for work ... CHECK
* Drive off and leave important daycare paperwork at home ... CHECK
* Turn car around, while already running late, to go back for daycare paperwork ... CHECK
* Go to Starbucks for a "fix" (yes, while already running way behind schedule) ... CHECK
* Earn free Starbucks drink, so decide to make it a Venti ... CHECK
* Spill Starbucks while walking into work (only a little thankfully) ... CHECK
* Get to desk and realize computer isn't working ... CHECK
* Reboot server to get computer working ... CHECK
* Log into email and find notification of winning a giveaway (YAY! The silver lining to the Monday) ... CHECK


Welcome Monday -- can you not be so rough on me next time? Thanks!

Meal Plan Mar 13 - 19

This week I am trying a couple new recipes (which are indicated by an asterisk) and will let you all know how they turn out!

SATURDAY:
Breakfast - Breakfast burritos
Lunch - Chicken nuggets / homemade mac-n-cheese / peas
Dinner - Lasagna Roll-ups* / salad / garlic toast

SUNDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal & toast
Lunch - Left overs
Dinner - Cabbage buns / green beans / cottage cheese

MONDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Bagel Pizza bites / Carrot sticks
Dinner - Taco Ring

TUESDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Cabbage buns / fruit
Dinner - Chicken Casserole* / applesauce

WEDNESDAY (St. Patrick's Day):
Breakfast - Lucky Charms cereal / green juice
Lunch - Green apples / green grapes / sliced cucumber / green fruit roll-up /shamrock shaped sandwich
Dinner - Corned Beef (I used her recipe last year and it was a HUGE hit!) / Cabbage / red potatoes / bacon wrapped asparagus / rainbow cupcakes*

THURSDAY:
Breakfast - German Pancake / fruit
Lunch - Meat roll-ups / chips / fruit / cookie
Dinner - F.F.Y. (Fend For Yourself -- this is when we clean out the fridge and eat up left overs. Sometimes this means we all end up eating something different!)

FRIDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - PB&J / chips / fruit
Dinner - Homemade personal pizzas using bread machine pizza dough

Friday Recipe - German Pancake

Sometimes this is also referred to as a Puff Pancake. This is so yummy and so pretty! You can top it so many different ways. Sometimes in my house each person is topping theirs a different way!

German Pancake
INGREDIENTS:
1/3 c butter
1 c flour
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 c milk
2-3 Tbls sugar

Place butter in a 9x9 glass pan and stick pan in oven while oven preheats to 425 degrees (the butter will melt as the oven is warming up).

Put eggs in a blender for 1 minute. Add flour, milk, vanilla and sugar. Blend 1 minute more. Pour into the pan with the butter. Bake 20 minutes.

Serve with syrup
OR
sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar
OR
squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle with powdered sugar on top
OR
top with fresh seasonal fruit

The UN-birthday

My bloggy AND (I'm happy to say) real life friend over at Rainy Day In May is hosting a giveaway in honor of her birthday! You should go check it out because it is for her 29th birthday {again}! The super cool thing about her giveaway is that the more people that enter her giveaway the bigger the prize gets... how totally cool is that??

So head over HERE to check out the giveaway! If you enter the giveaway, please let her know you heard about it here!!!

A Wednesday mish mash of things...

I don't have just one thing to blog about today, instead I have several little things:

#1 - My neighbor and I have worked out a great system the past couple weeks for getting our grocery shopping done. Her husband often works weekends and my husband works occasional weekends. SO, we have worked it out that one of us watches all the kids while the other goes grocery shopping. It works out splendidly!!! I love it!!

#2 - I gave up pop for Lent - I have been so good. At first I substituted iced tea for the pop but now all I have been drinking is water or milk. Pretty good!!

#3 - I have this bad habit of collecting tons and tons of recipes I want to try and then never get around to trying them. I made a resolution (of sorts) to try all the collected recipes. I have also made a rule that the recipe has to look absolutely killer before I can add it to the "recipes to try" file. I have a HUGE folder filled already, no new ones until I have emptied this folder! My goal is to empty the folder by the end of the year...

#4 - My mom and my sister Steph (and her family too of course) are coming to visit me at the end of the month. My mom will be staying with me for a week! YAY! and we have some fabulous projects in mind to do around my house! I can't wait. My mom's best friend lives in town so she will also spend a few days at her house. My sis and her family will come over here and there throughout the week but they have other family here they will need to spend time with too! She has kids all about the same ages as my kids so they get a long just fabulous! I think maybe one day all the "boys" (Mr. Man, my BIL, my 2 boys and my sisters 2 boys) will go up skiing, we're still working out that one. I am so excited to see them all!

One day....

The other day Lady Bug was spinning and twirling all over the kitchen. She looked at her dad and said:

Lady Bug: "Do you know what I'm doing Daddy?"

Mr. Man: "No. What are you doing?"

Lady Bug: "I am practicing to be in the Olympics. One day when I am an adult, I am going to be in the Olympics."

And her mom and dad have no doubt that one day she will do great things, maybe even the Olympics!

Meal Plan for March 6 - 12

SATURDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Chicken nuggets / fries / fruit
Dinner - Ribs / crash hot potatoes / spaghetti squash / applesauce

SUNDAY:
Breakfast - Breakfast Sausage Balls
Lunch - Left overs
Dinner - Mozzarella chicken / garlic pasta / crusty Italian bread / salad

MONDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Wrap sandwich / Apple slices / pretzels
Dinner - Burritos / Fruit salad

TUESDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Burrito / fruit / chips / cookie
Dinner - Ranch broiled chicken / Mediterranean salad (new recipe)

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Meat roll-ups / fruit / pretzels / jello cup
Dinner - Baked Ziti / Garlic bread / Salad

THURSDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - PB&J / chips / fruit
Dinner - Nacho Casserole / corn

FRIDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Wrap sandwich / fruit / chips
Dinner - Chili / crackers / cheese

Friday Recipe - BLT Salad

One of my favorite dishes to take to potlucks. It always goes quickly.

BLT Salad
INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch of broccoli, separated into florets
1 head cauliflower, separated into florets
8 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 c chopped tomato
2 tbls green onions, chopped
1 c mayonnaise
1/3 c sugar
2 Tbls vinegar

In a large salad bowl, combine broccoli, cauliflower, bacon, tomato and onion. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine mayo, sugar and vinegar; mix well until smooth. Pour dressing over salad just before serving and mix well to coat.

Who is in control?

I was talking with a friend the other day and she was telling me how frustrated she is with her son. She told me all he wants to do is play video games and watch tv instead of doing homework and his grades are suffering for it.

I tried telling her that maybe she needs to tell him he can't do those things until the homework is complete. Her response?

"Oh ya, right. Then he just whines and throws a fit. It just isn't worth it to me."

So, even though I was shocked beyond belief at "It isn't worth it to me" I decided to try again and I told her find something that makes him tick and have a reward of some kind for improved grades. I told her about the reading Bingo we did in our house and suggested she could maybe come up with some kind of "Homework Bingo" and have different things on there for math, and reading or whatever he is struggling with and when he fills it up he could get a reward. I even offered to help come up with something. Her response?

Oh ya, right. He would want me to buy him something HUGE."

I told her that she could define the reward, not him. Her response?

"Like that would work."

I decided not to give up quite yet, I feel so strongly in helping kids succeed in school, so I tried telling her to set up a homework spot so he is completely comfortable and the space is quiet. Her response?

"Where do I do that? He will just want to be where I am and I am usually cooking dinner at homework time."

See the pattern there? I don't know who has the bigger problem, mom or student. But I do know that student definitely rules the roost and calls the shots.

After more talking it appears she doesn't force him to sit down and do homework until well after dinner and by that time he is tired. She also told me that he isn't completing assignments and she doesn't know why. Doesn't it seem logical that if you know your child is "too tired" then you up the homework time to get done before dinner? Doesn't it also seem logical that if he isn't completing assignments that she needs to sit him down and find out why?

I had more suggestions for her but when I hit the brick wall each time before, I decided she didn't want my help so I would just let her talk. I am praying for her and her son each morning before school, right along with my prayers for my own children.

I know we aren't perfect parents and certainly don't have perfect kids, but homework is homework and it gets done before dinner in our house. Now we both work full time and so the kids have to go to the afterschool program so I have encouraged them to work on homework there. They don't always get it all done in the afterschool program, but it sure helps to get a jump start on it. They are required to read for 30 minutes each night, so we have a routine that they get ready for bed and can read in bed for 30 minutes. That works for us and might not work for everyone, I realize that, but seems like this mom should be trying things instead of just letting it go.

For the record, if my kids have homework, there is no TV, no video games, no playing outside, no internet until the homework is complete. On those days when they don't have to go to the afterschool program then they are allowed to have a snack and play until about an hour before dinner and that is when they start homework. Our designated "homework spot" happens to be the nook in the kitchen. That way Mr. Man or I can be available to help if necessary. All the kids have desks in their room and occasionally the boys will choose to do homework in their room, but not very often.

I'm just sayin' I know who is in control in MY house! :-)

I think this was the perfect birthday gift!

Since we weren't doing a huge party for Mr. Man's 50th birthday, I decided to do a scrapbook for his birthday with pages made by all his friends and family because I thought that would be a good memento of his birthday!

In January I sent out a letter to everyone asking them to help me make a scrapbook for him. I included a piece of scrapbook paper and a return envelope. I addressed the envelope to come back to my office so he wouldn't see any of them. For some people I sent an email instead of regular mail (both to help keep the costs down and in some cases it was because I simply did not have a mailing address for certain people). I asked them to email me something and then I printed them out and put them on a scrapbook page.

As they started coming back I really liked how everyone's personality and style showed on the page they created and the stories written. The emailed stories reflected individuality too. It was really cool! I had some people write him a letter about what their friendship meant to them. I had some people do a scrapbook page with pictures and journaling. I had some write a birthday wish for him. Some people wrote their favorite memory of him. Some people emailed me pictures and others didn't but it all came out SO cool! Not one page was alike and I really loved that. Some were extravagent and others were more simple, but that is what made the book extra awesome! I loved it and so did he!!! It was all so neat! I loved reading what people wrote and looking at the pictures. I had the hardest time keeping it a secret - but I did and so did the kids! We would spend a few minutes here and there working on it when Mr. Man would leave the house to run errands or whatever. One kid would stand guard watching for him to pull down the street (or in some cases, I would) and then we would quickly hide everything.

When we gave him the book he actually teared up. I told him it was a group effort present! He read and re-read all the pages several times.

Here are just a few of the pages, I haven't counted to see the total number of pages we ended up with, but as you can see in the picture at the top of this post, the book was busting at the seams!

The birthday boy's weekend

Even after all the stink my husband caused over his birthday we had a celebration this weekend and he had a great time!

We went to his sister's house on Friday to spend the weekend and we had the best time E.V.E.R.

We got there Friday evening and as we walked in the house his parents were sitting there. He said "WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING HERE?" He had no idea they would be there.

His sister had set this amazing table and prepared the most amazing food for dinner! We had salt crusted prime rib that simply melted in your mouth, roasted asparagus, spaghetti squash, rolls, and this divine soup that my brother in law made (a sweet red pepper soup with creme fresh....oh man that was SO good!)

On Saturday we woke up to one of his niece's and her husband there (which would have been another surprise to Mr. Man, except that my brother in law prayed for their safety as they traveled-- hee hee!)

We spent the whole day with family, enjoyed a fabulous breakfast at home, then had cake (it was a birthday party we could do whatever we wanted!) and then went to a super yummy burger place for lunch.

After lunch, his parents headed home and we did a little shopping and then went back to my sister in law's house to hang out.

Saturday evening, his niece and her husband headed home and we dropped off Mr. Man and my brother in law to a hockey game while my sis in law and I shopped.

Sunday morning we went to church with them and then out to lunch before we had to head home ourselves.

Such a fun, fun, fun weekend.

**NO PICTURES -- THIS DUMMY FORGOT TO BRING THE CAMERA!!! I AM WAITING FOR OTHERS TO EMAIL ME SOME**