Yesterday we hosted a casual get together with friends for Memorial Day. These dear friends are the people we met the week we set foot in DC over 6 years ago. They have stuck with us through our comings and goings. We all have older kids now and have spread out geographically so we don’t all see each other as much as we would like.  It was nice to get everyone together, comment on how big the kids have gotten, eat yummy food and relax on a holiday from work!  The guest of honor was an adorable 7 week old golden retriever puppy, Wesley Friesen!  He was a charmer!

At dinner time we set all of the kids up outside with their plates and headed in to eat, a few sprinkles later and all of the kids had successfully shifted their picnic of 11 kiddos into the clubhouse of our swing set.  Why we run around coordinating the kids so much I don’t know, they can clearly fend for themselves!

The Menu

(only possible because I think morning sickness has finally passed!! It only took 17 weeks but I am thankful)

many of these recipe links might be repeats because we pull them out each summer!

Appetizers

Sun-dried tomato artichoke dip with baguette (with this recipe I sub goat cheese for feta, it’s more of a spread then a dip)

Spinach dip and veggies

dinner

fried chicken- cheated here, left it to the experts and picked up KFC!

loaded baked potato salad-another cheat, thanks Costco!

corn salad with cilantro lime vinaigrette

Barefoot Contessa’s Pasta Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes

Fruit Salad…thanks, Margaret!

Dessert

Blackberry Peach Cobbler Bars, thanks Rebecca (and Southern Living)!!

Homemade ice cream a la Seth and the kids who helped crank it!

The absolute best overflow of a great night was that we finally wore Owen out. He fell asleep immediately and slept until 7 AM for maybe the second time in his entire life. I was about to keel over from exhaustion after such a packed weekend but clearly it was just the right balance for the O man.

Happy Memorial Day! And of course more important than any friendly gathering and yummy food, we want to thank those who have served our country and those who continue to serve.  We greatly appreciate all you do. And this year we especially remember the Foreign Service Officers who gave their lives doing what they love!

We decided to start out small…as in, a tent in the back yard. Seth has been talking to the boys about camping for a while. And once you mentioned something to a 3 year old you can expect to talk about it often! This past weekend Seth had planned to take the boys on  Friday night but some major winds kept them inside that night. Saturday we had a busy, fun day ending with a dinner with my brother Ryan and his family and my cousin Rosanna and her husband Evan. Seth decided since the boys would be up late anyways to surprise them that night with a rain check camp out. We were not  sure who, if either of them,  would make it through the whole night out there. I was invited for reading time but then I got the boot and the rest was boy time! They went to bed nicely but were up before the birds at 5:15!!

first s’mores of the summer!

first water balloon fight….silly Easter bunny brought some water balloons and we have talked about them EVERY DAY SINCE EASTER! So, last week we pulled them out and filled up a bowl. They lasted all of 5 minutes. But the boys loved them!