Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Family Weekend

On Friday I spent some of the day baking.  First up was another loaf of focaccia bread - my second of the week:


And some lemon cookies:


I also got snacks ready, and cleaned the house.  On Friday evening we had Christopher's parents over, and we snacked in the backyard.

We started with pico de gallo and chips, and focaccia bread with olive oil and balsamic.


Next up was asparagus wrapped with herb cream cheese and prosciutto.  We put these on the BBQ and grilled them slowly until they looked like this:


Then we had super crispy salt and pepper wings


And mini pitas stuffed with cream cheese, bacon, jalapenos, etc.:


It started getting pretty dark out, so I had to use flash for the next couple of photos.  After about an hour break from eating we had some cheese, crackers, olives, pickled veggies, and then coconut shrimp.


Dessert was strawberries with a chocolate chip dessert cheese ball, and lemon cookies.


We had a really nice evening visiting, and enjoying the super hot weather.  There is a lot of shade in our backyard, so it's the perfect place to sit and enjoy the warmth.  This July was the hottest/driest we've had on record!

On Saturday we went to our niece Remi's 1st birthday party.  We walked over to the park where the party was, and enjoyed the afternoon with family.  Dinner was hotdogs/hamburgers, macaroni salad, and chips.  Cupcakes were dessert, and the birthday girl loved hers!


Remi with her dad (my brother):


We loved getting together with everyone, and I got a lot of snuggle time with our newest nephew (three weeks), and our niece who officially turned one on Sunday.


We had another birthday party on Sunday!  We drove to Indian Head to celebrate our niece Elizabeth's 2nd birthday (Christopher's sister's girl).


There were so many kids at the party, and so much for them to do!  Vicki and Will's house is a massive church, which they've been renovating over the past few years, and the yard is huge.  She has a blog about the church reno adventures.  There was a bouncy house in their yard, a pool, swing set, a couple slides, etc.  The kids had so much fun, and we enjoyed hanging out with family.

I got a lot of hugs from our niece Charlotte (Christopher's brother's girl), and the birthday girl Elizabeth.


Christopher and his brother Steve (who runs the popular blog, The Vaping Bus Driver):


Dinner included hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad and tater tots.


It was a busy weekend, but it was super fun to see so many of our family members and to spend so much time outside on the hottest weekend I can remember.  Summer is so short here, so I looooooove the heat.


How was your weekend?  What did you do?

1 comment:

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Wow, so much birthday fun!! You guys have so many nieces and nephews now. Isn't it the best gig ever? I have loved watching my nieces and nephews grow up. My Godson/oldest nephew turned 13 last weekend which blows my mind!!

Last weekend was great! I was at the lake Fri through Sat afternoon and then I came home so I could get some stuff done/spend time with Phil. It was nice to have a day to work in my garden and do things around the house. I made Phil's favorite meal, lentil enchiladas, for dinner which he loved!! The weather has been hot and beautiful here, too, which I love! The weather while I was at the lake was absolutely perfect as it was sunny, there was a very light breeze, and the humidity was low. The lake was so calm most days. Could not have ordered better weather!