The most fun EVER!

Tommy went to a birthday party held at the local skate rink this afternoon and declared it the best birthday party he’d ever been to in his whole life.

Wow.

I cook, therefore I…

have to walk. And walk. And walk. (Speaking of walking, have you visited the fundraising page yet?!)

Today the patient got news she needs a minor outpatient surgery.  It’s just being overly cautious… to rule out any potential problems. I’m not really worried about it. But the poor patient hit the end of her rope with that news and had a kinda bad afternoon.

So… I baked.

These Blueberry Muffins from Simply Recipes… rock.

Oreo Truffles are always a crowd pleaser. (Thanks for turning us on to these, Missy!)

And least anyone worry about the caloric intake of the household — the above items were for Teacher Treats at the boys’ schools.

Lastly I mixed up a batch of Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. Those will be baked Thursday so I can send in some to Art Class with TJ.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm at least the house smelled heavenly!?

Blue and Gold Banquet

Tommy is now a Webelos I. Woo!

 

There was even cake to celebrate my official birthday. 😉

Surprise! It’s a Birthday Party for ME!

This afternoon I thought I was going over to e’s place for a ‘surprise’ lunch. I knew he was cooking and I knew I was supposed to show up to eat with parents and kids in tow. Tori had gone to help decorate and I was just pretending not to know about lunch since she was being hush hush.

Ha. Joke’s on me. She was being hush hush for a reason.

When boys and I arrived we found these by the road:

I thought that was such a wonderful surprise. (I have a chalkboard fetish apparently… love them!) But wait… there’s more! As I chatted with the furiously cooking e

and Tori (and K who just happened to show up to help out — I am oblivious at times!)

some friends walked in the door… then more… and more… and more.

Surprise! I am getting a party whether I want it or not. 😉 I was totally surprised and shocked and… it was good. The only bad part? I was so shocked I hardly took any pics.

Tori made this cake totally by herself. I was so impressed!

A man that cooks for me… be still my heart.

These are black and white for a reason… I am SUNBURNED.

Thank you to all my friends and family that made my day special. It was amazingly cool to feel that loved. Thank you. I know e worked his tail off on getting that all put together. I thought the guy threw a pretty nice party… but I might be biased. Thanks e!!!

*More pictures next time, honest!

I leave you with a note Tori had put on some doors to guests before everyone went with the quiet entry method. (And thank you to Tori for all her hard hard hard work as well. What an awesome young woman!)

Still shaking head laughing…

Happy Happy Boy

Today TJ picked up his new Nintendo 3DS system and two games. He saved up well over half. Very proud of him working so hard to save that money. Every bit of it was earned from jobs or trading in old stuff.

His smile says it all.

PS He is only allow very short periods of time in the 3D mode due to his past visual issues. Please don’t feel the need to lecture us about it. We researched. Thanks! 🙂

Gumbo in hand, Toes in the sand

Today was the Second Annual Dauphin Island Gumbo Cook-off.

We decided to make it an adventure.

Look! The van/monster truck is on the water!

Gumbo!

Hmmmm, wonder why they have Alton’s stuff in the silent auction?

So, this creative picture did not turn out well… but notice the shrimp boat. We’ll get back to it in a second.

So, remember that shrimp boat?

There were a few camera guys on board…

Oh yeh…. and Alton Brown.

He was the judge. How cool is that?

Okay… kids were gumboed out… so… on to the beach.

Good luck

To Tori and the entire FMS Symphonic Band at the State Band Festival Assessment today.

Sigh.

Apparently I have been too hard on my teenager recently. We’ve a ROUGH few months. She’s had a lot of stress. I’ve had a lot of stress…

And I just want the absolute best for her. From posture to grades to how she holds her fork, for goodness sake.

Sounds silly once I read it.

I just want to know I taught her how to hold her head high in life. How to achieve the best she can by working hard. And how to eat properly without being embarrassed!!

She’s 14. All too soon she’ll be heading out that door. I want to know I’ve remembered to tell her all the important stuff before I forget.

But maybe I need to quit being so caught up on these little things… and just enjoy her.

I love you, crazy girl.

Stopping to smell the roses

Well, not really. Allergies and all, you know…

On the way home from school today Tom and I just took pictures instead of actually smelling.  And fine, they weren’t actually roses. Just work with me, okay? I think Tommy took some pretty neat shots myself. Fun to see what catches his eye.

 

Oh, and we stopped to see the bunnies at Windmill Market as well.  Because, well, we could.

Home, home on the Bay…

Well a few blocks off.

*just an iPhone snapshot from my de-stress wave sound therapy.