project 365 {79-85}

Day 79

{March 20th}

Jake received 'a letter' for hockey at the end of the season banquet.

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Day 80

{March 21st}

Drew's clay penguin he made in school art class.

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Day 81

{March 22nd}

New shoes for Drew.

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Day 82

{March 23rd}

A sonic treat for me: a diet vanilla coke. Yum!!

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Day 83

{March 24th}

A pre-vacation pedicure.

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Day 84

{March 25th}

Packing.

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Day 85

{March 26th}

Day of travel.

chicken fried steak

A night one weekend not too long ago, I asked my hubby what he would like for dinner. He could choose. We had a clear schedule for the day (a rarity) and I was in the mood for cooking. He didn't know what to say as I am usually the one that does the menu planning.

The first thing he came up with is 'maybe we could grill some chicken'.

Ummm... I was thinking of something a little more elaborate...

So I responded with: "It can be anything....

Him: Maybe some lasagna....

Me: "Ok, now we are getting somewhere... and it can be something I have never made before."

I proceeded to pull out some cookbooks and he quickly flipped through about 4 of them...
until I pulled out the Pioneer Woman cookbook....

And then, he looked at every page very slowly... and found many recipes (pictures) that looked very good... and finally narrowed it down to....

Chicken Fried Steak with mashed potatoes.

The recipe for both of these can be found in the Pioneer Woman cookbook.
The chicken fried steak recipe can also be found here on her website.
And the creamy mashed potato recipe can be found here.

So I went out to the grocery store to get the necessary ingredients.

And then started cooking away.

First, measuring ingredients.

coating the cube steak

frying the meat

making the gravy

The finished product of chicken fried steak, served with mashed potatoes,

and Trader Joe's Blackened Corn.

The boys thought the chicken fried steak was wonderful and that it is definitely a recipe I should make again!!

I tried a bite of the steak and a bite of the mashed potatoes with gravy but I opted for a lighter (less fried) meal of a salad and a sandwich thin with Laughing Cow cheese. :) 

We were all happy!

licensed to drive

16 years ago,

 I was buckling my middle boy

Jake into a car seat.

Around 3 years old he was riding 3 wheels.

On his 4th birthday he received his first little bike... with training wheels.

At age 5, he learned to ride on just 2 wheels.

And yesterday, my boy went for his driver's license.

And he passed!!

And now

 

I am watching him drive off in the car

 

all

alone!!!

 

A whole new set of worries!! :)

an Easter Birthday

With a day off from school on Friday, Easter/birthday weekend started early!

Jake celebrated with his friends on Thursday night with a "sleepover", pizza, pop, ice cream cake, shinny hockey, movies, video games...

A fun tradition we started in our family years ago is to let the birthday person choose a special dinner, either going out or one cooked at home.

Because Jake's birthday was on Easter this year, we celebrated his birthday dinner a day early and he chose take-out from Buffalo Wild Wings.

This year we were lucky enough to host Easter dinner at our house.

I spent much of the weekend in my kitchen cooking and baking (and channelling the Pioneer Woman wearing my PW t-shirt). I made some little bunny cakes that turned out pretty cute. I haven't done too much cake decorating in the past few years, so it was kind of fun to pull out my decorating supplies and do some creating.

Easter morning the boys were up at the crack of...10am. And that was only because the birthday boy had set his alarm. (And yes, the bunny still brings baskets to my big boys! :)

Making the Gruyere-fennel potatoes.

And a birthday cake.

{Jake's request was his favorite 'Jello Poke Cake'.}

Easter dinner buffet: ham, potatoes, asparagus, green bean casserole, salad, raspberry jello salad and rolls.

A birthday song and cake.

Me and my sister's kids: ages 19 all the way down to 3 months old. :)

A family Easter picture.

One of my favorite Easter memories from childhood is watching Wizard of Oz. This movie was only on once a year- on Easter. (And this was the time before DVR or DVD or even VHS, so if you missed the movie you would have to wait an entire year for the chance to watch it again.) 

Our whole family would settle in front of the TV with our Easter baskets and watch the movie.

I remember looking forward to this for weeks, so I was so excited to see that it was on this year on Easter!
(And yes, I even got a surprise basket this year which had some great treats in it like an Itunes gift card, a Starbucks gift card, and my favorite Cadbury eggs!)

It was a great Easter and a very special Easter 16th birthday for my Jake!

happy birthday, Jake

Happy 16th Birthday, Jake!!

It doesn't seem that long ago that you were riding your trike around our driveway

and now you are ready to get your Driver's License...

and drive a real car...

all on your own!!

Time goes way too fast!

happy Easter

John 11:25-26

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

baby box

A "baby box"

is the name our family has called a storage container filled with baby and childhood memorabilia. And a few nights ago, Jake said he wanted to get his 'baby box' down from his shelf in his closet  and look through it. Melt my heart!

Jake, Pete and I spent some time looking through this treasured box of memories.

It was so touching to see my big 'almost 16 year old' boy, going though his mementos from his very early years, and so enjoying every minute of it!!

Jake really enjoyed looking through the newspaper(especially the sports section) from the day he was born.

Items kept in the 'baby box' include: First Year Calendar, special cards, special baby gifts, baby book,
first shoes, baptism candle, hand prints, birth announcement, party hats from first three birthdays,
and so much more!

The best part was Jake thanking me for putting his 'baby box' together for him!
Melt my heart!!!

And this all seemed so very appropriate since Jake has his big 16th birthday coming up in just a couple of days.