Nana and Papa's Anniversary Dinner

My parents' (aka Nana and Papa) anniversary was April 19th. They've been married 41 years (awesome, I know). They have a beautiful home that has been exquisitely decorated by my interior designer mom. Buying presents for them is not an easy task because ... well, after 41 years, they pretty much have everything they need or want. Plus, Mom's very picky.

So rather than buying them presents, Brian and I decided to make them dinner. Allen provided a suggestion for the menu: chocolate cake. Good. That decision was made. However, now we had to come up with the appetizer and entree portions of the meal. We thought and thought about what they really loved, and came up with the following menu

Raw Oysters Served with a Ginger-Lime Relish and a Horseradish Sauce

Mixed Field Greens with Dried Cranberries and Maytag Blue Cheese

Moules Fromage Bleu

(Mussels in a Blue Cheese and White Wine Broth with Bacon and Shallots)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte

Candy Dish

Here are some pictures of the delicious food.

Raw Oysters served on Mom and Dad's Screened-in Porch.

(We got the buckets at Target for $1 each)

 Moules Fromage Bleu

 Just one of the four buckets filled with Mussel shells

 The Chocolate-Peanut Butter Torte (made from scratch thankyouverymuch)

 Mom's Candy Dish with JuJu Bees and Red Vines

I would never have had the guts to do this if not for my very brave and talented husband. He reassured me constantly that we could pull it off, and he patiently shucked three dozen oysters that evening. Thanks to him we were able to pull off (what I hope was) a lovely evening.

xoxo,
AHC

Câlins

Last Saturday, the three of us had a lovely dinner at Bistro Patois right here in the Habersham Marketplace. It's a yummy little restaurant, and it really makes one feel like she's in a little bistro in Paris (well, at least I think it does. I've never actually been to a bistro in Paris. Or to Paris at all). Anyway, adding to the ambience is the delightful French music playing.

Being that Allen's movie of the week was Ratatouille, we had all been hearing French music quite a bit. So as we sat in the little bistro, Allen piped up, and said, "It's the Ratatouille movie!" Such a smarty pants!!

After dinner, we went home to watch Ratatouille again. Allen and I snuggled together on the couch (the title of the post is the French word for snuggling). Here are some shots of the two of us ...
Notice the arm continues to move in front of my face ...

xoxo,

Mechanical bulls and dinosaurs

Allen and I had a quiet day today. The boys (minus Allen) went to play golf today. It was Brian's first time. He had a blast. He didn't play that well, but he had a blast. And it was his first time, so his score was pretty good considering.

We met the boys at Barefoot Landing for dinner. A decided to ride the mechanical bull ...


I think he lasted almost a minute.

We stopped the Toy Store while waiting for our table and bought Allen two planes and a set of four dinosaurs (since he is so smitted with A's). Allen decided to spear his hot dog roll with the one dinosaur's tail ...

And here we all are at TBonz for dinner. It was a yummy dinner and we had a lovely evening.


xoxo,

All about fish

Allen's cough was pretty bad today, so he and I stayed home. With a note on the shop door that we were open by appointment today, Allen and I were able to snuggle in Mommy's bed and watch Finding Nemo ... four times. At least. I lost count.

We stayed in our pajamas for most of the day, until just before Daddy got home. Then we got all pretty/handsome for Dad, and decided to go out to eat (since I hadn't been downstairs much, I hadn't taken anything out for dinner). We went to a restaurant that we've been driving by for two years now, but I've never eaten at. It's called Gilligans, and it's probably going to be a regular place for us ... primarily because there are fish tanks next to all the booths. So we got to eat with Nemo and Marlin ...
Here's a lousy picture (stupid camera phone) of Allen eating his corn with no hands.

And here is a short video of Allen "eating" his corn. Just before I started recording, he told us he was "trying to sing the corn song."

And then there were ...

So, we lost another fish tonight before dinner. We were so perplexed. Until we went to Wal-Mart and found out that we were feeding the fish the wrong food and not treating the water correctly. That's the bad thing about being given free fish and not asking what kind they were before being sent out to purchase all of the necessities.

After this brief, Wal-Mart quality, education on fish we decided to purchase a few new ones along with a new tank and lid. Here they are ...
As we were checking out tonight I pointed to the orange fish and said to Allen, "What should we name that one?" And he said, "Orange Paul." At least this time they're all different colors ....

xoxo,

Say cheese

We got takeout tonight, and Allen wanted "macky and cheese." He decided to feed himself, and it was, well, interesting to say the least. Why I don't let Allen tell you about it ...

And just in case you couldn't see how cheesy his face really was here's a close-up in better light and with a cheesy expression to go along with his face ...

xoxo,

Driving tips, news

We went to dinner tonight at Wren -- an awesome kind-of-new restaurant in town. Loved the decor, ambiance, and the food. And we were thrilled to finally get in. The place has been booked solid since it opened!

Anyway ... on the way to dinner, Allen was telling us about the traffic lights that he saw. We've been teaching him what red, yellow, and green mean, so he gets very excited as he sees each light. He'll say, "here comes another one!"

Well, tonight, he deciding to help Papa out with his driving ... when we approached a red light, Allen would say, "Watch Wahyen! It's wed!!" ("Wahyen" is how Allen says Papa's name -- Warren). Or he would yell, "Stop, Wahyen!" It was absolutely classic (and sounds just like his Nana).

In other news, I'm happy to announce that my husband got a job!!! He starts right after we get back from Disney World. Yay Brian!!!

xoxo,

I love meatballs!

The video pretty much says it all. Thanks Gigi ... this is the most he's eaten in months!

xoxo,

Makeover, Sweetness

So, everyone, what do you think? Do you like my new blog? I've spent the majority of my free time today (and some time last night) scouring the web for a free template that I like, and I finally found this one. I think that I really do like it. But of course, I would like your thoughts, so please let me know what you think.

We had to get up very early this morning to take Nana to the airport (she and Papa are having a rendez vous in Grand Cayman). Allen has definitely entered the "terrible twos" because he burst into tears (and screamed and cried for a good 10 minutes) over the fact that Daddy didn't turn the car in the direction that he wanted. He also cried after we left Camp Green Dog because he wanted to stay with the cats (dear me ... could there be a pet cat in my future???).

Then I was off to work this afternoon, so I left Allen doing what else, but watching Cars and playing with his Cars under Daddy's watchful eye. The boys picked me up and we were off to an early dinner. Allen sat with me in the booth, and was extremely affectionate with me the entire time. Overall he was pretty good -- Mommy and Daddy were told to draw certain cast members from the Cars movie, and of course we obeyed.

He was just so sweet for the whole meal. He kept standing up so he could put his arm around me and hug me. And he would just suddenly lean over and hug me or put his head on my shoulder. It was lovely. When the bus boy came and took our plates away, he got upset and screamed, "Mommy's dinner!" because he thought I wasn't finished, but once we showed him that we had it boxed up he was OK.

Some other cute things he said or did today:

• Learned how to say, "on purpose"
• Put his arm around me and said, "my mommy" (I'm tearing up as I write that)
• Told me I was doing a "good job" eating my dinner (after I told him the same thing)
• Tried to jump in a huge puddle in the parking lot of the restaurant (I mean like a small pond-sized puddle)
• Played with all the dogs and cats at Camp Green Dog

I'm sure there is more to write, and I know I have pictures to post, but I'm exhausted from all this makeover stuff. So, goodnight my friends.

XOXO,

P.S. We are ... Penn State! Congrats to the Lions for beating Ohio State for the first time in 30 years. Go Joe Pa!! Now, let's go Phillies!!!