Fun Meals

The theme of this week and blog is "Delightful Dining."

As you've probably already read, on Monday we had Lloyd, Heidi, Anika and Andrew over for Teriyaki Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries and good conversation.

On Tuesday, it was Girls' Night Out. I got together with 6 other girlfriends to celebrate the winter birthdays at a fun restaurant. I came home feeling full...full of my delicious dinner and full of the happiness that comes from a much-needed break and hearty laughter.

On Wednesday, I found myself husband-less with my friend Amy (mine was busy all day with youth group prep and hers was out of town on business), so we spent the afternoon and evening together: chatting, making dinner (calzones and spinach salad) and watching our kids have one of the best times ever playing. Like any friend that comes over, Ella had to dress up Jonathan as a princess. He is such a good buddy to oblige! They also cracked us up by playing a crazy version of "Ring Around the Rosies" that involved giving each other rides, the exersaucer, tumbling onto a pillow and yelling "Wing! Wing!" When night fell, we loved trooping outside to check out the lunar eclipse. Good friends, good food and good times...who needs husbands, anyway?

No special meal plans for Thursday, but we did start a new game. Ella and I have been creating a menu. I printed coloring pages off the internet that match the play food she has in her kitchen. We've been busy coloring and decorating these pages. Yesterday, I put them in sleeves in a binder, put a table cloth on my coffee table, dressed up in an apron, introduced her to linen napkins and Viola! we can now play restaurant. This is endless fun...Ella marches in, picks her table, flips through the menu deciding what she wants (and it's always something wacky like "pancakes, hamburger, chicken and tea, please"), I serve her, give her the bill then she leaves and we start again. A few times she's tried to be the waitress, but she always screws up my order and forgets to bring me a fork!

As for Friday night, we have a rescheduled dinner and game night to look forward to. Now that we are all healthy, we plan to eat our friends' good cooking then seriously beat them at Trains. Watch out Sara and Arend! :)