Yum!

My lunch was so yummy! Whole wheat tortilla with half of an avocado cut up, thinly sliced purple onion, smoked turkey, baby spinach leaves and salt/pepper. Very filling and knocked out a lot of food groups.

Not so yummy- the watermelon we brought home from the watermelon festival (grown by relatives no less!!) that I cut today. It was kind of gritty.

What did you eat for lunch?

Wordless Wednesday- French "Fashion"

Small town Saturday fun

We have not seen Mr. Pink's grandmother in a few months so had decided to go visit her yesterday- BEFORE realizing it was going to be another 100 degree day! However, it just so happened it was the day of their annual watermelon festival. This festival was started years ago by Mr. Pink's grandfather and his friend. It's a big deal in this sleepy little southeastern NC town! We got there in time for the parade. We found a nice shady spot in front of the church where Mr. Pink's mom and dad were married. Mr. Pink's grandmother, "Big Mom," to her numerous grand and great grandchildren (despite her petite build), braved the heat and sat outside with us to watch the parade. The kids had a ball once they realized these numerous float riding beauty queens threw CANDY! After the parade we ate lunch (roasted corn for me) by the river, had homemade ice cream and visited a few relatives at the festival before heading over to Big Mom's house to spend more time with her. Then we went to visit some friends at their Lake Waccamaw lake house for a pizzza dinner and an evening swim in the lake before returning home happy, full and tired! Here is our day in pictures.

Snow cones!


Our spot in the shade. Waving to the people in the parade.

Ready stance to catch more candy!

I love these tiny cars!

More shade by the pretty river. Mr. Pink said his mom used to swim here when she was little.

Eating a hot dog watching some kids wading in the river.

The church where Mr. Pink's parents were married.

I hope you stayed cool this weekend one way or another. We're going to the pool soon to attempt to stay cool on yet another SCORCHING day in the south!

Wordless Wednesday- They grow up so fast!

Isn't this funny?

Girls' Night

I know it's Monday (already?), but wanted to post on a fun Friday night I had. I got together with my friend and former roommate (3 years in college) for much needed GIRL time...or non-mom time! To start off our evening we went to a Thai resturant in downtown Raleigh.

Above are our spring rolls. So yummy. We split a spicy vegan tofu and vegetable dish. See that huge water glass on the right. It was necessary. We even requested them to back off on the spice!

Cute bar in the restaurant. Pre movie refreshments at an Irish pub.

One more bit of refreshment...

...and then a great Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. The opening scenes were flashes of monuments, cafes, streets around Paris to which I ooh-ed and ahh-ed recognizing places I'd been and hope to visit again.

We always have a great time! We're both raising sons so it's nice to shed mommy responsibilities for a little while. Looking forward to our next "date" (we always do dinner and a movie - foreign films are our favorite or anything pertaining to France!).

All is well in the Pink House.

All is well? Yes, because mini#1 was able to see this HIGHLY anticipated final installment of Harry Potter today. Yes, he and Mr. Pink were a part of the record breaking number of viewers this weekend. He loved it! He's on his 2nd reading of all of these books. He just finished book #5 yesterday. These characters are his friends at this point! Did you go see it? Lines were horrendous around here. Fortunately we bought tickets right after church for the 3:45 show and didn't run into this problem since a show had just started. Anyway, everyone is happy though I should have paid another $10 for mini#2 to go because all I heard was "can we go to Target?" all afternoon!

I went to a Birthday BBQ last night for the husband of a sorority sister last night. It was fun. Saw two girls I had not seen in YEARS! However, upon arriving home and asking our sitter how the minis were, she shyly said, "Fine, but I have a fat lip." The story was they had been tossing a large marble back and forth, but she told him let's stop so we don't get hurt. Mini#2 threw one more time when she had turned her head to talk to mini#1 and it hit her in the mouth! Then he was embarrassed, hid in his bathroom before mini#1 coaxed him out to finally say he was sorry! She applied ice. I was so embarrassed! Our first injury to a babysitter! Ugh! Boys! But both are snuggled in bed and off to school tomorrow. All in all, a great weekend!

Tasty Thursday

It's been so HOT here this week! 100 degrees Tuesday. But for some reason I was craving some hot jambalaya. I found this slow cooker recipe and gave it a try yesterday. Really good!

SLOW COOKER JAMBALAYA

1 lb chicken breast cut in cubes
1 lb andouille sausage, sliced (I used smoked turkey sausage and admit it should have been a spicier sausage like andouille)
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes w/juice
1 large onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp parsley
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1 lb frozen shrimp, thawed (cooked with no tails)
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp Tony Chachere's creole seasoning (I went easy on cayenne and more on this seasoning.)

Mix all ingredients except shrimp in the slow cooker. Cover and cook 7 to 8 hours on low or 3 to 4 hours on high. Stir in shrimp during last 30 minutes of cooking. Serve over cooked rice. I made brown rice for me and white rice for Mr. Pink. Mini#2 loved the chicken and mini#1 loved the sausage, but this is more of an adult dish I believe. Would make again with spicier sausage!

Last week Part 2

SO. What did I do with the munchin while the others were out in nature? I'll tell you.

- We went to the mall to get him the world's ugliest shoes he's been begging me for for no less than 3 months. I had hoped he'd forget about them. No way. Not this guy. However, I made him go to all the stores I wanted to go to first (and he had to behave) if he wanted those ugly shoes. It worked.

- We went on a date to Cheesecake Factory afterwards (he had grilled chicken and broccoli as opposed to the healthy option he choose in above photo!) and after dinner we shared the best piece of cheesecake ever. I think it's because he joined me on my booth seat and we cleaned that plate in about 5 mins tops smiling and laughing and ooohhhing and ahhhing together.

-I received hugs for days because of the ugly shoe purchase. Zig-techs by the way. Heard of them? Those hugs felt good! And he now runs faster or so he says.

- We went to the neighborhood pool.

- We went to the gym and then the gym's pool that has a "way cooler water slide" than our neighborhood's water slide. I rode it with him and threw a water football with him, too. And whatever happened to a simple diving board? These days the kids are spoiled by our lazy river pool and water slide pool.

- We went to "meet the teacher night" and then to see the Transformers movie. It was a customer event our insurance agent threw. Had I known the language was as it was, I wouldn't have taken him, but it was a very good 3D action film. I had a hard time scrubbing fruit punch out of his yellow Polo shirt though. He dripped it all down the front!

- We went for frozen yogurt.

- We went to eat Mexican food Friday night and then home for a movie night. Cat in the Hat. Not my choice. He loves that movie. I made popcorn and I may or may not have dozed off for a minute or two.

-We went for a bike ride and tried to see as many animals/insects as possible. We saw quite a few things: Bee, butterfly, bird, grasshopper, 2 wild turkeys....yes, not kidding. 2 wild turkeys that scared me, but they were equally scared and ran off into the woods upon our mutual sighting.

-We went back to the dang pool!

So, if you've read this entire dribble...you'll also see that we also had adventures in nature and water and air conditioned theaters, stores and restaurants. Fun week for all was had!

Last week

For most of last week we divided our household and went our separate ways. Well Mr. Pink and mini#1 went away. Mini#2 and I had a stay-vacation at home. Mini#1 and daddy went to the NC Mountains for fun and bonding. They had a fabulous time and mini#1 is still talking about their adventures. I thought I'd share a few of their pictures.

They saw beautiful mountains....


and skylines...

They saw (harmless) bears....

They bumped into real Cherokee indians.... (don't you love the preppy one on the right?)

They went to an outdoor drama one night where they learned more about the Cherokees.

They rode in a funky "Hamster toy" as mini#1 described this....

They went rafting 2 different days on this...in a 2 man "duckie" (kayak/canoe)....

Then they met up with some of their cub scout den and went tubing down the river one day. A lot of nature, history, and water sports. We're already talking about all of us going back one weekend. The only sour note of the trip you ask???? Mr. Pink lost his 15 year wedding ring while rafting that first day on the river!!! But mini#1 tried to lighten up the situation on the telephone with me by telling me he found a $20 bill where you turned in your life jackets. I told him we'll put it towards a new ring. No, I'm not that cruel people.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recap of my time spent with the other not-so-mini.

It's official.....

(Year round) School is back is session as of 8:10 a.m.!! Ignore the incorrect date stamp on these photos! They were indeed taken this morning. Forgive me for sporadic posting lately. When you only have a 4 week summer break you try to get in as much as possible. But don't feel sorry for us. We will still go to the pool in the afternoons, go on a few more weekend trips this summer AND back to the beach in September when YOUR kids are starting school and we're out again for 3 weeks. Anyway, the minis are off (in new shoes of course!) and I'll be back to blogging. Happy Monday!