Monday, July 21, 2008

June Foodie Club


Justin and I hosted our Foodie club on Saturday and the theme this month was South Africa. It was really fun and interesting because all of us didn't really know anything about cooking food from that area. We ended up having some of the best food yet!






Here's our little wine station


Here are some of the South African wines we enjoyed. They were all pretty good and I don't think any of them were over $10! At least the ones we bought weren't :) South Africa doesn't usually come to mind when you think "wine", but they actually have some great vineyards over there!


Part of our fist course, Freshly made plantain chips.


Mealie (corn) soup


Cucumber and Onion Salad


I don't remember what this one was called, but it was like a chicken stew with spices and veggies.



Align CenterThis is a rice dish made with Tumeric and raisins.


This is a Squash Bake that is very much like a custard.


These are spinach rolls, which were a puff pastry with a spinach filling inside.


Here's the food all plated. It was all so wonderful! I love foodie club!


This was the Milk Tart that we had for dessert, which was like a custard pie.


Here are all the master chefs, minus Justin and me :)

Monday, July 14, 2008

Tobias' first wedding

Tobias was the ring bearer in our Friends, Aaron and Jeans, wedding. He did a great job, but he did momentarily steal the show when he tripped down the stairs coming down the aisle! But he was brave and kept going and everyone thought he was cute.

Here he is after we got his outfit on. Unlike the flower girl, he wasn't really excited about dressing up!




Here is Wendy, our friend and the wedding coordinator, pinning on his boutonniere.



Here he is with Natalie, the adorable flower girl. Despite the look on his face, they got along well :)



He wasn't so sure about the whole picture thing. We just told him to think about lollipops then he magaged to squeeze out a smile!



Here's Aaron and Jean taking pictures with the kids.




Here's Aaron catching Tobias just time for a picture.




Justin and T waiting for the wedding to start.




Tobias enjoying some post-ceremony lemonade and the hotwheels cars he got as a prize for enduring a long day!



Justin and me before the wedding.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Tobias' 3rd Birthday Extravaganza!

Tobias turned 3 on June 30! We had a "Thomas" party the Saturday before and had a blast. Thomas and Friends trains are Tobias' current obsession so we had a very Thomas filled day at the park! Tobias' Nana, Aunt Niki, and cousins Emily, Rowdy, and Sawyer even drove out all the way from Reno and stayed the night!



Here is Tobias, his cousin Emily, and his friend Kaitlyn rolling around in the grass.



Here's a picture of Kiernan running by. It was hard to keep the kids still long enough to take photos of them!





Tobias enjoying his balloons.


Here's Tobias and his friend, Aaron running in the grass.



Here's the Tomas pinata. It was a pull string one, thankfully, so we didn't have to hand a bat over to a bunch of 2,3, and 4 year olds :)



Here's the kids claiming their loot.



I think this was the first time Tobias has actually had a lollipop so he was very excited!




I forced Tobias to stop and take picture with me. I don't think he was too upset about it though.


Here's Kiernan collection flowers for my mom.


The Thomas cupcake I made for Tobias.


I think this was one of the cutest Tobias moments ever! This is when we were all singing Happy birthday to him and I wish I could have gotten it on video! He was bashful, giddy, and so happy all at the same time. He just kept covering his face and giggling. You could tell he felt very special.


yes....cupcake time!


Frosting...Tobias favorite part.



Kiernan was totally stoked about the cupcakes too.






Then came present time! It was a little crazy, but T got some very nice gifts!



















After the party in the park we had the "after party" at our house with all the cousins. They were so dirty after the park so they all had baths then played for a bit. Here's Kiernan unwinding after a hard day of playing a cake eating.


Our dear friend Amy came over to play with all the kids too, which was a special treat! My kids adore her and all the cousins warmed up to her instantly.



Emily, Sawyer, and Kiernan playing with Amy!


Here's Tobias, Rowdy, and Sawyer playing



Emily and Kiernan



Tobias, Rowdy, Sawyer, and Justin in the background trying to regain his sanity :)


Here's the whole fam having breakfast in the morning before Judie, Niki, and the kids hit the road to head back to Reno.



Here's all the cousins from left to right: Emily, Tobias, Rowdy, Sawyer, and Kiernan (who wasn't too happy at the time).


Here's "Nana" and Sawyer trying to keep Kiernan in the picture :)


On Tobias' real birthday on Monday Justin and I gave Tobias his big present from us which was a permanent train table (all the pieces are glued down) the we made from scratch. Justin cut and sanded a piece of wood so it would fit on top of the train table we already had and put brackets underneath to keep it from sliding off. Then we took two nights to figure out a track formation that would work (we had a hodge-podge of things I had got off of craigslist and other places). Once we got the track right we took a picture of it and took it apart so I could paint the wood. Then using the picture we re-assembled the whole thing and glued it together. It was a bigger task than we expected, but it was fun and the boys love it so I think it was worth the effort. And Kiernan can't destroy the track so it cuts down on fights and frustration. they still fight over who gets what trains though :)


Here is Tobias right after he woke up in the morning. You can't see him because he is walking around with his blanket on his head. He was very excited when opened the train table. I got it on video, but I'm still working on getting that on the blog. He just kept saying "Wow, special train tracks!!" over and over.


I also scored big on Thomas and Friends trains on craigslist so he got a TON of new trains.Here he is with the "mother load" of trains. And that is only some of them!



Here is the train table



Tobias and Kiernan playing peacefully, but not for long!


One happy birthday boy!



Tobias also got his first big wheel. He loves it, but has some coordination work to do :)



My dad got T some base ball stuff- a glove, some balls, a bat, and a Tee. So we went over on his birthday to play ball.