Cookout at Kayla's featuring the Harlem Shake!

Tonight Kayla and Derrick had us over for a cookout! I didn't take very many pictures, but everything was delicious!!! Cheeseburger.



Kayla invented this banana cream pie creation that had melted chocolate on a graham cracker crust underneath the banana deliciousness. It was amazing!



The evening ended with a Harlem Shake!

Grilled Pizza with Cheryl

Cheryl came over to give Ben a haircut tonight. He shaved his head! I'm going to learn how to do it so that I can do it in the future! We made grilled pizzas. Mmmm.

Wine Cooking Club

Valerie was the hostess for the April installment of cooking club, and she chose WINE as the theme. What a delicious theme!! We started off with a round of Prosecco before we even left the car. Cheers!



Where there is wine, there has to be cheese!



I made wine cheese bread, which Valerie made for cooking club once in January 2010 and then again in June 2011. I think about that bread often, and have always wanted to try making it. Wine Night was obviously the perfect opportunity! It was my first time using my new stand mixer, so that was exciting! It turned out great! I seriously would marry this bread. If I wasn't already married.



Pretty springtime table!



Spring salads! Featuring Valerie's first ever crop of asparagus!!!



Yumi made the classic mussels in white wine. Here are her live mussels on ice.



Mmmm, Valerie shared a VERY delicious bottle of red with us. CHEERS!



We also did a blind tasting! We all tried to guess which varietal we were tasting. I asked Valerie to give us some pointers on what to taste for, and we all ended getting 100%!! Awesome!



Nancy made poached eggs with a wine sauce. Fancy!



Yumi's mussels in wine sauce!!



Emily made the mushroomiest mushroom soup I've ever tasted. It was AMAZING! Sherry and cream sherry were involved. Mmmmm.



Summer made us floats!! She made Riesling Pear sorbet, and then floated that in a glass of champagne and cognac.



CHEERS!



Slurp!



Valerie made a red wine pasta sauce with wild boar. It was a cozy treat as the night started to cool off!



Our final course was another ice cream made by Summer. Cocoa Zin, made with red wine. This was seriously in all seriousness the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had. This picture looks like the cover of a romance novel (written for me): Flowers, candles, wine, wine cheese bread and ice cream?!?! Swoon!

Farewell, Cherry Trees

Ben and I drove by the cherry trees several times this week. They're spectacular! They're beginning to fade, so we decided to take a blanket down and spend the evening enjoying them.







This guy was wandering around playing a HARP! The cherry trees are magical enough to begin with, and this took it over the top!





Sunset at the cherry trees.

Cherry Trees!

The cherry trees waited to bloom until after I was home from conference. YAY! Ben and I went to visit them. Aw, little baby cherry tree!



Splendid!









We decided to top off the afternoon with an ice cream cone from Larry's Dawg House. MMM! What a treat!

NBIA Conference in Boston

The NBIA annual conference was in Boston this year. Here are a few tidbits from the week.

We decided to try something different, and flew out of the Parkersburg Airport. It was the cutest little airport ever!!!!






What a cute little plane!



The view from my hotel room was beautiful!






We didn't get to leave the hotel very much, because there is so much work to do, but we did get to explore the city a bit.



Randy and Mary Ann wore matching outfits. TWINS!



I got to try my very first lobster roll! It was DELICIOUS!



One of my favorite things about hotel conference lunches is that there is always a basket of rolls. Oh, hi!!!!



Tom's birthday was on Monday during the event. Of course, we spoiled him with a birthday Honey Bun.



"FOR ME?!"



"You shouldn't have."



Wishes!



Elizabeth's birthday was on Tuesday! So many birthdays! Ozan brought her this sprinkly cupcake. I got to have a bite and it was DELICIOUS.



Birthday flowers and champagne! I like it when there are birthdays during conference!



Tuesday night, we had dinner at Bukowski Tavern. Look! A unicorn!



They have a mug club, where if you drink all 135 of their beers during a 6-month period, you earn a mug to hang above the bar. Then, any time you come to get a beer, you get a full mug of beer for the price of a pint! Sounds challenging.



Mmm, oatmeal porter.



SUPER delicious turkey burger!



Hattie got a Unicorn Pegasus!! We meant to do this last year, but it never happened. So this one was long overdue!



Lunch at Towne on the final day, before heading to the airport. Prosecco tastes soooo good after a hard week of grueling work!



Clam chowder. This was incredible. It was SUPER rich.



And chilled lobster tails! Don't mind if I do!



MAPLE COTTON CANDY.



Cotton candy and champagne! Pretty good combination!



Magical cotton candy stick.