Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

Oh my goodness.  I have such exciting news to share.  I have been waiting almost 2 weeks to share this news with you. 

On Friday, my sister Adrienne got up and went to work, not knowing it would be the most memorable day of her life to this point.  In the middle of the day, her boyfriend Paul surprised her by proposing to her!  I am telling you… it was like something out of a movie.  Her students held up signs that said, “Mrs. W, will you marry me?”  Of course, she said yes and was soooo excited!  I am so excited for them. 

We had a little celebration party for them on Friday night.

Food and Champagne

Adrienne loves Skinnygirl Margaritas… so my other sister Meredith and her husband designed this cute label.

Adrienne’s reaction at her little surprise celebration… she didn’t know Ryan, Sadie, and I would be there… or my parents!

I cannot wait to see when and where they decide to get married.  I can’t believe my youngest sister will be married soon! 

Don’t they make a cute couple? 

So everything else about this weekend seems kind of boring now.  But… memorial Day weekend always brings the opening of pools everywhere… so that’s where we spent our day today. 

(ok… just me being weird.  But it’s so cute how little girls walk around with “baby wedgies” isn’t it?)

Last summer, it took Sadie about 1 1/2 months to get up enough courage to go down this blue slide, but today she ran right up the steps and went right down!  She played for 3 hours straight… and I mean NON stop.  She cried when it was time to leave.  I remember how going to the pool was the absolute best thing in the world.  I still kind of feel that way!  Summer is so much fun.

Tonight we decided to have breakfast for dinner.  Sadie helped me prepare this meal. 

She loves helping in the kitchen.  I think it’s so important to get kids involved in the kitchen.  Once I saw an episode of a show with Jamie Oliver, a chef.  I think it was called “Food Revolution.”  He was in a town that had a very high level of obesity, diabetes, etc.  He was in a school and was holding up different fruits and veggies, and asking the kids if they knew what each one was.  I will never forget that episode.  I couldn’t believe the kids couldn’t identify things like potatoes, cucumbers… how sad.  It was mainly because they had never seen those foods being prepared or in their natural state.

Speaking of natural… I’m so excited.  I’ve got a loaf of bread baking right now and this house smells heavenly.  I always wanted a bread machine, and a few weeks ago, I found one in my grandparents’ basement.  I brought it home to try it out.  This is my first bread recipe.  I can’t wait to taste it!

Ok… so a little teaser.  I’ve got a summer blog project that I think I will really enjoy… and I hope you will too.  The project will be revealed tomorrow… but here’s a little preview photo. 

Can you guess my summer blog project???  Leave a comment if you think you know! 

Snowed In... and Lovin' It!

Well, if there were no consequences (like make-up days) then I could get used to this. 

The day started with Sadie coming into our room around 7:15, saying, "Mommy!  Daddy!  It snowed!  It snowed!"  So cute.  I still feel that way when I wake up and look out the window to see the blanket of white.  It was Ryan's morning to get up early, so I went back to sleep for a little bit.  Then, around 8:30, I started smelling something wonderful.  Was that bacon???  And then... the door opened... and Ryan and Sadie brought me breakfast in bed!

And look... he made it into a smiley face.  Cute.

We were lazy for a bit, just enjoying the morning, but soon we had to go check out the winter wonderland.  It took is about 15-20 minutes to get everyone dressed, bundled, and ready.  After 5 minutes, Sadie wanted to come back in.  :)  We had to warm up and then do a round 2.

At lunchtime, I heated up some of that Veggie Soup I made Saturday.  Don't you love soup on a cold, snowy day?

Soon it was naptime for Sadie and Ryan, so I used that time to play Wii Fit games and bake a loaf of Whole Wheat Mollases Bread.  Mandi from Itzy's Kitchen posted this bread a couple of days ago.  It looked so delicious.  The recipe was originally posted by Joy the Baker.  Here's the recipe.  It came from the New York Times.

I had never used molasses in anything before.  But bread with only 6 ingredients?  No messing with yeast packets?  No waiting on it to rise?  No need for dough hooks?  Yes... this is my kind of bread recipe!

I used the yogurt instead of the buttermilk this time, but next time I would try the buttermilk.  The batter was extremely thick.  More like dough, really.  Maybe it would be a little different with buttermilk. 

This bread is so good, though!  A little crunchy from the corn meal, and slightly sweet, but not dessert sweet.  I tried it with a little light cream cheese on it.  Oh yumminess.  If you divide it into 8ths, it is 6 Points a slice.  Higher on the Points, but very filling.

So, we've just enjoyed some sliders, spicy fries, and spinach casserole. 

I am so full!  This spinach casserole is another really simple but delicious recipe.  I'll post about it tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is another snow day!  I can hear it sleeting right now... EEK!  Hope we don't lose power!

Tonight's agenda: watching an old favorite...



Oh... Ron Burgundy... how I love thee...

The Southern Christmas Show!

Yesterday was a special day.  My husband and I celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss!  I can’t believe that 9 years have passed since our wedding day!

And… how sad is this… we didn’t even see each other!  (Well, not much anyway… we had about an hour and a half together.)

My friends and I like to hit the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte each year, and this was the ONLY day we could all agree to go.  So… Ryan and I are going to celebrate our anniversary this weekend instead!

Have you ever been to the Southern Christmas Show?  If you are like me and LOVE a chance to get into the holiday spirit, you must go.  Angie, Mandy, and I got on the road yesterday as soon as we could and headed to the Queen City!

As soon as you walk in the door, there are beautiful holiday displays, holiday songs playing, and all kinds of wonderful smells. 

The first place we went was to the wine tastings.  Now, don’t judge.  It’s literally right by the entrance.  It’s not that we TRIED to go there first.

We went to the Duplin Winery booth.  I usually totally ignore this wine, because I don’t like sweet wine at all.  For those who don’t know, Duplin is a winery close to Wilmington, NC, and they make Muscadine wines.  There are LOADS of people out there who love it.  So yesterday I asked if they had any wines that weren’t sweet.  I tasted their Burgundy, and I actually really liked it.  It’s not at ALL the kind of wine that I usually like.  It’s dry, yet it tastes like Muscadines… It’s very light and fruity!  I think this would be a great summertime red wine.  I don’t think I would drink this all the time, but I actually bought a bottle to take home.

We saw all kinds of cute gift ideas… but we did more tasting than shopping!  

I tasted all kinds of goodies….

Some delicious bread from Elaine’s Slices of Heaven…

This was actually some of the zucchini bread, which was wonderful, but I ended up getting the cranberry bread.  It was delicious!  It has this amazing icing on it, and it is so moist!  This bread has oranges, cranberries, walnuts… it is perfect for the holidays. 

If you are interested in looking at all the different flavors, take a look at their web site: http://www.slicesofheaven.com/ .  They also do amazing gift baskets, too.  You can order online, but there are also places you can buy it in Charlotte. 

Take a look at this fudge display…

I tasted several yummy kinds, such as Cheerwine fudge, Fudge with jalapenos, and Raspberry Cheesecake fudge. 

I took some of the raspberry cheesecake flavor home with me. 

There were also soup samples…

ciders and coffees…

dips and spreads...

Just an aside... this dip was called "Crack."  Actually, it was "Cajun Candy," but the salesperson said it was also known as Crack because it's so addictive.  His sales technique was to call out, "Wanna try some crack?" to everyone who passed by his booth.  Amazingly... it worked really well.  The booth was flooded with people.  I didn't bring any "Crack" home with me, though!

And there was so much more!  Here's a peek at the goodies I brought home...

If you’d like to go, the show lasts a few more days.  You can visit the web site for more information about the Southern Christmas Show.  Make sure to wear comfortable shoes!  This show is HUGE!!!

When I got home, hubby and I enjoyed some wine and fudge and toasted to the next 9 years!  Next year’s a biggie for us… wonder where we should go for our 10^th anniversary???