Family, Friends, Food and Fun
Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve posted here. What have I been doing? Well, a lot and nothing special. July was a laid back month, not a whole lot happening, until the week of my birthday, which is the last week of the month.
On my birthday, Matt went to work and when he came home we went to the casino for a dinner in the buffet. It was good, as always. We enjoy that buffet, but the price makes it a place where we don’t often eat. We checked out the table games area, since the table games have been added since the last time we were there. They were all full and I was surprised at how few there were. Maybe they think most people are happy with slots, but you the saying “If you build it, they will come”. After being in Vegas multiple times however, this local casino is just ‘meh’. Except for the buffet of course. :) Then we went miniature golfing.
The next day, my friend Deb came to the house to see the place with furniture in it and for us to go on a birthday lunch. We chose my most-favorite non-vegetarian local restaurant, Mad Mex. I chose the chickpea chili and quesadilla lunch special. The chili came in a tiny, tiny, cup. Think espresso sized cup vs. regular coffee. The quesadilla I chose was the tofu one, and … well, I thought the tofu would be seasoned and thin, but it came unseasoned and in cubes. Blech. Finally, I got my sour cream and guacamole and I was able to tolerate it.
Deb bought me a most awesome birthday gift. Here it is:
And a few days later, birdies noticed:
I love this gift. It makes me smile every time I see a bird come by to feed. But then I see this:
I usually open up the patio door to scare him off. I like squirrels just fine, but I put out food for the BIRDS, not a squirrel. :)
And while we are talking about food, Matt and I made some homemade pizza a few weeks back. Here is a picture of my creation:
Looks yummy, no? I used Daiya vegan cheese … both the cheddar and mozzarella flavors … I promise to my vegetarian friends, that this cheese is awesome … there are also lightly sauteed red peppers and onions and some Upton’s seitan sausage. YUM.
‘This is the best pizza I had ever had!
That is it for the food portion of this post. Now I will talk about more FUN and family.
Matt, two of my sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, and Matt’s parents, and me took the boys (nephews) and our baby niece to Idlewild park. Here is a photo of the kids before the day officially started. I called it the “While Everyone Was Still in a Good Mood” photo.
Joey, Jacob, Katelyn, Nicholas (Left – Right)
However, I ended up having to say “Some of the cutest kids in the world” photo as every one was so good. Each kid, and maybe even an adult or two, had one little meltdown, but it was over quickly and the good moods and behavior returned. It was a hot day, but not too much so as long as you didn’t stay in the sun for long. It was fun.
Five days later, we celebrated our nephew Joey’s 7th birthday at his party. He is such a cute kid and the most precious moment when the super shy Nicholas, who really doesn’t talk to me much, wanted to play ball with me. It was so touching and sweet. I enjoyed every minute of the attention he wanted to give me.
Later that afternoon, Matt and I spent three hours raking algae from our pond. Yes, it was as fun as it sounded. We learned an important lesson here. Don’t let the algae get out of control! What do we know? It’s our first pond.
The next day we attended Kennywood for Matt’s work summer picnic. Kennywood has the world’s best French fries and even though the company provided lunch, we still made sure to get some of them. We lasted three hours. I don’t know why, but we just don’t enjoy that park as much as we used to. The Thunderbolt and the Racer are some of the best coasters in the world, but after you ride those … you are left with mostly spinny rides that make me ill. And the park feels small, so you can walk around it multiple times and check on lines. I LOVE amusement parks, and I think I like the idea of Kennywood more than Kennywood.
When I was a young girl, I used to think the park was SO BIG and so much fun. I guess these things change with age. There is definitely a nostalgic factor at play here.
