Skip to main content

free food anyone?

this has been something of a crazy weekend! but lots of fun. it was the weekend of 4 million bbq’s. okay, how about 3. could have been 4, but we were bad neighbors and skipped one to get a lot of much needed yardwork done.

bbq #1: dave’s company picnic was out at tolt macdonald. it’s always great to get together with all of dave’s co-workers who I see twice – maybe three times- a year, and their families. yup. I love making small talk with a bunch of people I don’t really know, but should because I’ve met them so many times, but really don’t because all I’ve ever done is met them and made small talk. hmmm. okay, I’m exaggerating. it wasn’t bad. the kids definitely had fun. there was a bouncy house!

well, some of the kids. shane was skeptical at first. see how enthusiastic he is?

045

but he did eventually decide to go in, and then later, he and dave played a little whiffle ball, and eventually bailed on us completely and went to start a soccer match.

036041074

and then I pulled the kids out of the bouncy house in order to try and make them eat.048051

there were a few other fun activities set out for the kids, too. like bubbles and all sorts of wands.

063067

and jump ropes. watching micah try and jump rope was pretty darn funny. he was all spastic. he knew what he was supposed to do… he threw the jump rope over his head and started jumping up and down frantically.

 072071

this was almost as funny as him trying to figure out how to hula hoop. he was watching this girl who knew how to do it, and you could see the wheels turning as he was making a good effort to make what she was doing happen to his hoop too. he finally found a way that worked for him…

075076077079

then we headed over to the playground for a few minutes. 087088

and took cheesey pictures of each other.090091094

the funniest was when micah was trying to take a picture of dave, but didn’t notice that he was holding the camera the wrong way… this is what he got:092093

we about died laughing. and then we loaded up and headed out for…

bbq #2:

a friend was hosting a backyard bbq to celebrate her husband’s birthday and her mom being in town. lots of friends, lots of kids, good food, too! what’s not to love?

oh yeah, and blackmail photos:096

I just know that having a picture of 11 year old shane driving a pink barbie jeep will come in handy someday!098103

we called it quits on that party a little early, to get home and get kids to bed in a somewhat timely manner…

and, last but not least, there was…

bbq #3:

the annual salmon bake/church picnic after church today. I didn’t bring my camera, but we didn’t really do anything that interesting. we got our food, we sat and ate it while we chit-chatted with friends. oh wait, we were at church, so I guess we were ‘fellowshipping’ (btw, I hate it when people use that word as a verb!) but it was fun and tasty, and it’s always nice when you can feed your family 3 meals in a row for free!

I’ll leave you with this, because it struck me funny. we had pancakes and sausage links for dinner tonight. layla decided the sausage was too spicy… but somehow, eating just the edge off of it was okay…

sausage on the cob, anyone?108

Comments

you may like...

dear to do list,

i hate you. actually, i loathe your existence to my very soul. and i refuse to have anything further to do with you. you can consider our relationship OVER. please do not try to contact me, as i will be unavailable. do not stalk me. do not try to make me feel guilty for abandoning you. YOU SUCK! sincerely, rachel

christmas day at barb & paul’s

(otherwise known as “ana and elsa’s” to my kids.) after breakfast, quick showers, packing up clothes, jammies, and gifts, we loaded up in the car and drove south to my cousin, barb’s house. we got there around 3. my parents and aunt marilynne were already there, as well as my other cousins, lynne & jim. there was chatting, and munching, and drinking of spiked cider going on. soon, mike and marie showed up with baby liam, and everyone applauded! LOL. gotta love having a baby around! after that, caitlyn and her fiancé, danny arrived and that was everyone. we had traditional hedvall family (my mom’s mom’s family) swedish christmas dinner of halibut and sausages, along with other yummy fixings. then we sang carols (which was both beautiful AND hilarious), paul lit the candles on the tree, and finally opened presents. we got gift cards and the game, qwirkle (which I’ve wanted for the last 2 years!), layla and micah got some toys and accessories for their rooms, shane got an awesome r...

the zoo

yesterday, the last day of spring break (well, weekday, at least) and shane had had enough of not doing anything expensive interesting. so we packed a lunch and went to the zoo. it was a little cold and rainy when we left, but by the time we got there, the rain had stopped and it turned out to be relatively warmish.    layla was determined to see some fish. i guess we should have gone to the aquarium, but we did manage to find her a few fish. i think her favorite was the super huge reticulated python that actually moved while we were watching.  well, the top 3 feet or so of it moved. the remaining 5 or 6 feet of it stayed coiled up where it was.  we probably spent the bulk of our time in the “zoomazium” which is a fabulous indoor playground type area.  there’s a huge tree that layla and shane spent time doing laps through.  you climb up the inside (think mcdonalds playland climbing structure) and then slide down a big twisty slide.  there wa...

white wine marinated pork chops recipe

this recipe comes from the weber’s REAL GRILLING cookbook and is my family’s recent favorite way to have pork chops. shane thinks these are the best food he’s ever eaten, and will generally eat 2!  i think layla asked for seconds as well, and micah pretended they weren’t on his plate… which is typical.  we’ve made them on the grill, or broiling in the oven, and both are equally good. 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh thyme (I have used dried as well, and it works fine) 1 tbsp minced garlic (think I used a clove, maybe two) 2 tsp kosher salt (this was a little much. I think the second time I made them I reduced it to 1.5 tsp.) 1 tsp freshly ground pepper pork chops (4 or 5) whisk ingredients together in a bowl. place pork chops in a large ziplock and pour in marinade. seal and turn several times. refrigerate for 2 hours, turning once or twice.  allow chops to stand at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before gril...

the saga of layla's ankle

on Monday morning, layla got out of bed and complained about her ankle hurting. I looked at it, and not seeing anything or figuring how she could have injured it in her sleep, I dismissed it. she didn’t complain about it the rest of that day, even through walking to a friend’s house for a playdate, playing all afternoon, and walking home again. that evening, during dinner, she started complaining again. I thought she was being dramatic and trying to get shane in trouble, because the two of them had been horsing around. when she didn’t want to finish her dinner and crawled down the hall to get her jammies on, I went to look at it. lo and behold, it was crazy swollen! the first picture is the bad ankle, the second is the good ankle, just for comparison… so we put some ice on it and chilled out for awhile. I wrapped it in an ace bandage and put her to bed. she did not sleep. she whined and whimpered and moaned and cried. dave got her up and had a look. we put some more ice on it. we dis...