Just Some Misc. Pictures

While I was at the Triad/Highland game last night, Bruce took the girls to a Hardee's somewhere in St. Louis to see Blues player Cam Janssen. Our family loves Cam. He is always so nice to our girls and claims that Bailey is his favorite fan. She even had a Christmas ornament made for him which had a picture of him and her on it. Thursday night, they baked him cookies, which he apparantly ate while signing the autographs. Too funny!

You can see the plate of cookies on the corner of the table here.


Cam and the hunk......or is it Bruce and the hunk? Hmmm.......


Bruce turned 41 on Wednesday. We are now the same age for 3 months. I asked him that morning what he wanted to do for dinner that night and he said he would like home-made pizza. Cool, that's easy enough! Chef Boyardee helps with the crust! Anyway, we gave him a little bit of everything as gifts. He got Blues pajama pants (which he is wearing in these pics), a navy USA t-shirt with "Johnson 6" on the back (this represents one of the Blues players who is playing for the US Olympic hockey team), some cash, some scratch-off lottery tickets, some gift certificates for back scratches from us, some Ghirardelli chocolates, and a cookie cake. The girls also painted him a wooden plaque with "#1 Dad" on it. He really seemed to like all of his gifts.




And lastly, a few pics from last weekend when I made a new recipe....."Cream of tomato soup." It started with Campbell's condensed tomato soup as a base and then included lots of other ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, cheese tortellini, cream, and basil. It was good and I will keep the recipe to make again next fall.




Have a great weekend!

Game Night Food

Tonight we had a game night at our house. Three other families came over with their kids and some snacks and we had a really good time. The adults first played euchre, then Scattergories, and finally Taboo. While we did this, the kids (7 girls and 1 lone boy - lucky guy!) played in our basement doing who-knows-what. We laughed a lot at ourselves and each other and it was really nice. Two of the families had to leave around 9:30. Then our family and the other who was still there played a game all together - the Disney version of Apples to Apples. It was fun and had been a long time since I played it.

Here are some of the foods I prepared for tonight. I took these pictures early and then of course, forgot to take pictures of the actual people who ate the food. Gees!

Sun-dried tomato and pesto dip. This was OK but next time I make it, I will used the oil-packed tomatoes instead of the dried ones. I also think I fried the almond slivers on the stovetop a little too long.


Neiman-Marcus dip.....YUMMY! I first ate this last Sunday at church when another lady made it for a gathering there. I came home and immediately acquired the recipe, which is really delicious. It's more like a cheese spread rather than a dip though.


Fiesta shrimp cocktails.....these were good too. I think some of the guests were a little apprehensive because they might not look the greatest, but the taste was really good. They marinated for 24 hours in a combination of tomato, green chiles, cilantro (one of my favorite herbs), green onion, Italian dressing, a touch of hot sauce, and a bit of honey. We had leftovers which will be my lunch tomorrow!




It was a great evening, spent at home with great friends. Very nice way to spend a Friday night!