Friday, March 30, 2012

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Today is Ben's birthday! Happy birthday, Ben! We both took vacation days from work so that we could have an awesome day of fun. We started things off by playing games on our iPhones in bed.



Charlie came up to wish Ben a happy birthday, too!



For lunch we went to China Panda and got a sushi feast!!



Then we went on a little birthday shopping spree. Afterward, we went to the Ridges to do some putt putting!







We went to Salaam for dinner. Mmmmm.



When we got home, there was a sweet thunderstorm headed our way, so we hung out on the deck for awhile watching the lightening. It was a wonderful birthday, and we're going to celebrate some more tomorrow! I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Spring Cooking Club

I was the host for the March edition of cooking club. Since the first day of spring was this past week, I thought SPRING should be our theme. Spring is the best!!



Mom helped me pick a ton of beautiful flowers from her yard to decorate for the party.



As soon as Nancy arrived, she put a giant pot full of artichokes on the stove to steam.



Meanwhile, Summer dished up her soup to kick off the eating! She made a Spring Green Soup.



It was so fresh and bright tasting! So many delicious greens went into the soup!



Yumi made two loaves of ramp bread. One was a simple ramp bread and the other was stuffed full of roasted potatoes!! She also made a ramp compound butter with lemon. It was rampalicious!



Summer sliced into those beautiful loaves so we could have bread with our soup.



A match made in heaven!



At this point, Nancy's artichokes were ready to enjoy! Served with some lemon butter, they were very fun to tear into. Layer after layer of deliciousness!



I made salmon cannelloni with a lemon cream sauce.



This time, we passed around the potato ramp loaf! This salmon recipe is amazing. I made the little pasta crepes myself!!!! It wasn't even hard!!!! But I sure felt fancy!!



Emily made cornish hens. They had a yummy couscous stuffing and delicious garlicky skin.



There's my little guy!



Valerie made Special Rhubarb Cake. It was so sweet and crumbly and delicious. With a vanilla sauce drizzled on top. Perfect springy ending to a delicious night!



Thursday, March 22, 2012

Cherry Trees!

Last night, Ben and I went to the cherry trees to celebrate their awesomeness. I look forward to them all year! What was even more awesome was that Bob had given Ben a stack of Free Taco coins for Taco John's! Better than gold!! We decided the blooming cherry trees was a good occasion to cash them in.



There they are! So beautiful!



Ben carried our Taco John's picnic while we looked for the perfect spot.



Picnic!



We decided to try the new fish tacos. We weren't allowed to spend our free taco coins on them, so we got them in addition to our free beef tacos. I thought the fish tacos were DELICIOUS!! Ocean-caught white fish fillet in a crunchy tortilla crust. Mmm. Served with a fresh lime!



Cheers!



We actually stayed until dark.



The trees look pretty at night, too!






This afternoon I headed back to the trees to enjoy them in the sunny heat of the day.



They're so white this year! Some years they are more pink!






I was actually there today for a special reason. To help capture a family portrait of Mer, Pete and Kate! Dad and I were the photography team.



One of these pictures is going to go up on the wall at Athens Bicycle! So cool!





I hope everyone has gotten a chance to go enjoy the magic of the cherry trees!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! We had Mom and Dad over for a traditional Irish baked fish dinner, and had green whiskey cocktails for good luck. CHEERS!

Friday, March 16, 2012

2012 Gravel Rouser Grab 'n' Get

Summer and I were in charge of a checkpoint during the 2012 Gravel Rouser Grab 'n' Git. Since it's St. Patrick's Day Weekend, we headed to Jackie O's before our shift started to enjoy some Irish Car Bombs! As if we needed an excuse.



Our checkpoint was the stairs between the Richland Avenue Bridge and Electronic Vision.



Our first racers!



The weather was ominous, but it never did rain! The thorns were very intimidating.



Fearless Ron was the only racer to tackle the thorny hillside to get to us!





We were giving out buttons!







Audrey left her bike at the bottom and ran to us. Biathlete!







Incoming Tornado!



Aaron is always willing to sacrifice a few seconds of his final time in order to provide us with some wisecracks.





It was a great event! Then we went to the finish line to eat chili and no bakes.