Yesterday was my mom’s birthday. A milestone birthday. My dad took her to the local Mexican restaurant for dinner and when they showed up…surprise, Jason and Molly and crew were there. And so was G. G., Jeremy, Delaney and I. Bri and Allison were at a basketball game, so they couldn’t make it. And we were also missing Scott and Erika. :(
After dinner, everyone came to our house for cupcakes.
Happy Birthday, Mom!! Thanks for letting us celebrate your BIG day with you!!!
When I picked up our mail, this is what I found:
Delaney likes to “play mail” and she has all sorts of stickers and return address labels that her grandmas have given to her. Sometimes she sticks her mail in the mailbox and then I have to remember to take it out the next morning. Apparently she snuck some mail past me. Sorry Mr. Mailman!
Last week Jeremy took his class on a field trip to the state capitol, Topeka. It was an all day and into the evening trip, so I took advantage of the fact that he wouldn’t be around for dinner and fixed something I knew he wouldn’t like.
Cashew Rice and Chicken Casserole
I started with a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli. I love those things. They cost less than a package of chicken breasts and it’s already cooked. It’s pretty much a no-brainer!!
Combine chicken, long grain and wild rice, cashews, celery and fresh parsley.
Add melted margarine, chicken broth, white wine, pimentos, sour cream (hence the reason I have to wait til hubby is away) basil, salt and chopped garlic.
Bake and enjoy!
Here’s the entire recipe:
Cashew Rice and Chicken Casserole
2 1/2 c cubed cooked chicken
2 1/2 c cooked long grain and wild rice
1 c salted whole cashews
1 c (2 stalks) sliced 1 inch celery
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
3 T melted margarine
1 1/2 c chicken broth
1/2 c white wine
2 (2 oz) jars pimento, drained and chopped
1 (8 oz) carton of sour cream
1 t basil
1/2 t salt
2 t chopped garlic
Heat oven to 350. In a 9 x 13 dish, stir all ingredients. Cover and bake, stirring occasionally for 50-60 minutes. Uncover; continue baking for 10-15 minutes or until rice has absorbed all liquid.
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The other recipe is a side dish I found on pinterest. I thought it looked amazing. And then I saw it was from pioneer woman and I knew it would be amazing. And I was right! Here it is. You must try these. Soon!
Click on the picture to go to pioneer woman’s awesome blog and find out how to make these super easy, super yummy potatoes.
We got together with some friends a week or so ago. They have a new puppy…a great dane! She and Nate enjoyed each other’s company!
Today we had a rare treat…a day off from work! Nate’s nurse was coming to work, so we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to do something fun with the girls. Of course, there was only girl at our house willing to do something fun with us! It was too windy and chilly to go to the zoo, so we decided to go to Exploration Place, a hands-on children’s science museum in Wichita.
This Kansas girl is no farm girl. But she liked the novelty of milking a cow. With a mechanical milking machine. And the fact that the cow is fake helped. A lot!
Experiencing the wind of a tornado.
Building a dam with dad.
Flying an airplane. Her great-uncle Craig would be so proud!
And her favorite thing…playing in the kitchen. Nothing like paying big bucks to go somewhere else and do things you do everyday at home!
They also had a traveling exhibit about geocaching. You use a gps to find caches that other people have left behind and registered on a website. There are caches hidden all around the world. I think this would be a fun thing to do as a family. I always have big ideas that we never seem to do. Perhaps someday.
Happy President’s Day! Happy day off of work!!!
Delaney’s at the age where you never know what’s going to come out of her mouth. Here are a few of her latest funny quotes.
Me: Delaney, I’ll read 3 pages of the I Spy book before your nap.
Delaney: You’re killin’ me, Smalls! (It’s really only funny if you’ve seen the movie The Sandlot).
Delaney: I cut my finger on the envelope. It was bleeding and I was freaking out.
Gaga: Well I’ll be darned.
Delaney: No….you’re Gaga.
Delaney: Say “Why are you wearing your shoes?”
Me: Why are you wearing your shoes?
Delaney: Because I’m going to school to tell my teacher I’m sick. I will tell her I have a fever and I’m throwing up. But I won’t tell her I have diarrhea. We don’t say that word.
Me (While watching Toddlers and Tiaras with Delaney): Do you want to do that someday?
Delaney: I can try.
Sometimes she cracks me up!
This is the first year for Delaney to have a Valentine’s Party at school. So we worked hard this weekend to get Valentine cards prepared. I could have been one of those moms and made some fancy Valentines like the ones I’ve been seeing on pinterest. Like this:
or this:
But let’s face it. If we keep the expectations low from the beginning, no one is disappointed!! So we did Princess Valentines from Walmart and Delaney signed a “D” and I wrote the rest. Easy Peasy.
Then she decided to make a Valentine for me. And she actually wrote “mom” without any help other than me telling her the letters to write. The reason this is so remarkable is she has been extremely stubborn about writing up to this point. In fact, this was the first time I was even able to convince her to write a D. So I was pretty impressed with the results!
So what if it’s upside down. I think it’s beautiful!!
Sadly, this morning Delaney was throwing up and had to miss her big Valentine Party. Boo!!
Even though pinterest wasn’t my go to place for Valentine cards, I did actually get a couple of other ideas for Valentine’s Day.
This is the candy bouquet I made for Jeremy.
And after our Papa Murphy’s heart-shaped pizza, we’ll enjoy these little morsels of yumminess:
