the 40th Anniversary Party

My sister and I (and our husbands) hosted a 40th Anniversary Party for my parents this past Saturday. It was a bit all consuming this past week, making sure we had everything ready.  It ended up being a really nice time to celebrate such an accomplishment!  Here are some photos of the event.

this is a picture of the original cake

and this is the copy for the party.  The invite had a picture of them cutting the cake.

the 40th is the ruby anniversary, so we went with a red theme.  Candles were NOT allowed at the place we rented so I found these flameless ones at Amazon.  I set them on some red glass beads, just to add a little height.

of course I had to make some cookies!!

the flower arrangement for the buffet table

and finally....

since the party was only for about 30 people, the ENTIRE bottom of the wedding cake was left over.  I was responsible for dessert for Easter dinner...so...I scraped off the flowers, added that frosting to the top to have a smooth surface, and voila!  An Easter Cake!  J and C had fun helping with the jelly beans!

Menu Plan Monday

Well I have been planning our weekly menus since the start of the school year (that's my New Year) and thought I would finally jump on the band wagon and post our menu (You can go here to see many more menus)
I plan breakfasts and dinners and lunches just seem to happen and are never all that exciting!

image courtesy of about.com

Breakfasts:
Monday: French Toast
Tuesday: Muffins and smoothies (still need to make the muffins...)
Wednesday: Cereal (woo, super exciting!)
Thursday: Scrambled eggs and bacon
Friday: Bagel day (John has this at work, so we do it at home too!)

Dinners:

Monday: Anniversary Party leftovers
               (Chicken Piccata, Grilled Salmon, Asparagus, Bread)

Tuesday: Turkey Burgers on whole wheat buns
                Veggie tray, Pineapple chunks

Wednesday: Grilled chicken (supposed to be 80 here on Wednesday!!)
                    Salad with corn, black beans and avocado

Thursday:  Baked Burritos, whole grain chips, salsa and salad

Friday:  Homemade Pizza, veggie tray

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

(I'll be back tomorrow with an update of all I've been doing the past month!)

CAN NOT WAIT!

I am flying to Florida to go here to spend some much needed time with this handsome guy!!!

 

Spending the next few days getting ready!  I can not wait to leave, and meet up with this guy!  (he is away on business (shocker, I know) and we are meeting up at the airport!)

I will miss my other two guys while I am gone though....but as I explained to J yesterday (when we drove John to the airport) He and C will eventually go to college and get married (maybe) and leave, and then Daddy and I will be stuck with each other, so it is very important that we spend some time together now, so we can still get along when it is just the two of us...:)

Now I just hope the weather cooperates....

Valentine's Day Cookies

After being inspired by her and this article in Southern Living, I decided to try to make some Valentine's cookies of my own.  I usually do make heart cookies,  but have been wanting a more "finished" look for them.  I have never used Royal Icing before, but recently read about how versatile it is, so I thought I would give it a try.  How fun!  Here are some pictures of my results.  I am pretty pleased with how they turned out, although I haven't actually tasted them yet.

 

  

I'm also having fun experimenting with my camera!  Happy Valentine's Day!

No snow is fine, but no power?!?!

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we had a snow day, but with no snow. Fine. I had a good day with the boys. We needed the day anyway. Yada yada yada. As the day was coming to an end, I made some pizza dough so we could have homemade pizza for dinner. I was supposed to head out with some girlfriends, so the pizza would be easy. While I was making the dough, the boys were playing outside. I noticed that the wind was increasing, (we live up on a hill right near the ocean) so I called the boys in, put the dough in the oven to rise and we continued with our Valentine assembly (Must finish Valentines.) All of a sudden the lights went out! At first I thought perhaps a fuse had blown, but nope. The power was out. It was quite interesting to see the boys reactions.  They were both pretty scared, but didn’t want to show it.  We gathered candles, called the light company and sat down to make a plan.  Pizza was out as a dinner option, since I have an electric oven,  so we decided to go out to dinner, in the hopes that when we returned, the power would be back on.  We got our coats and headed to the garage.  I got in the garage and realized I had no idea how to open the door manually!  Luckily one of my neighbors came to my rescue.  Very easy really, but I just didn’t know what to do!  I am really going to have to learn more about the workings of our home, now that DH is going to be traveling as much as he is!  Anywho, we went to dinner, had a lovely time and when we got home, the power was back on!  We were all relieved to say the least!  No more thinking about where we were all going to sleep, how we were going to stay warm etc.  And, most importantly, I was able to go out as planned, thanks to my wonderful sitter, who let me just play it by ear.  All is well here at Chez Tickled Pink, DH gets home around 2 this afternoon, as opposed to 2AM, so that is grand.  Now I just need to go put away all the candles! (and finish the dishes I was just about to do when the power went off...)

Un Snow Day

Well, due to the forcast the boys school was canceled today.  But, really NO SNOW!!  I did need the day with them though.  We had a project to complete...

 

Can you guess what we are doing???

Does a closer look help???

We made these last year too.

Here is the (almost) finished product

 They still have to be attached to the heart doilies, but as far as I am concerned, the Valentine's are finished!!  Phew!  68 crayon hearts ready to be delivered tomorrow.  Assuming we have school.  And I really never assume anything.