Making Memories Weekend!

Hey everyone!  From what I've been seeing, this past weekend was a wonderful one for many -- celebrating and remembering our own fallen heroes and the ones we are lucky enough to still have with us, and making new family memories.  For our family, it was all about spending as much time as possible with our "soon-to-be-moving" son and family.  We had wonderful times and created some wonderful memories, and I tried to record as much of it as I could.  The children were pretty indulgent of Nana and her camera, but they got goofy here and there, but I was perfectly okay with them just being themselves.  Hope you don't mind if I share some of the sweetness.

Friday Nite Neighborhood Pizza Party!

Michael built a pizza oven in his backyard and has been the Pizza Man for many neighborhood parties.  He has always been very patient about allowing his children to help in the kitchen (from a very young age) and learn the correct way to do things.  Here are his older children, Parker & Phoebe, helping make the sauce for the pizzas.

Uh oh, Boppa is a horsey!

Chef Phoebe -- that rascally brother is up to something!

Hmmm.......Parker, the "Macho" chef!

Sunday was a barbecue at our house!

We went to the park and then to the pool!

The water was so refreshing!

Monkey see, monkey do!  I could wallpaper a room with this one -- I love it that much!

Memorial Day -- Chili and cornbread at our son's home.

Everyone was really humoring Nana's request for pictures for fear she might burst into tears 

at any moment!

Dad and his crew!  

This makes me so happy!  It will probably also make me cry, but for now, it makes me happy!

Just "chillaxing" after a fun, but very busy weekend.

Our son left early Tuesday morning and began his new job today.  Cannot wait to hear all about it!

Hope y'all are having a great week!

No, No, Not the Lemon!

Hey everyone and Happy Early Memorial Day Weekend!  We are off to a little party tonight and I made this recipe for Lemon Brownies and wanted to share.  They are so good and super-easy!  I think the reason they are called brownies is because they are kind of dense like a chocolate brownie.

The original source for this recipe is Rita May at Rita's Recipes.  I actually tripled the recipe, because there will be quite a crowd at this party.  The only thing I did differently was add just a pinch of salt to both the brownie batter and then also to the glaze.  I just think anything this sweet is enhanced with just a bit of salt.  I used a 12 x 16 cake pan (remember, I tripled the recipe) and lined it with parchment paper.  I didn't need to grease the pan or the paper and was able to simply lift the entire thing out of the pan when cool, glaze it and then cut into squares.

Just look at all that lemony goodness!

I hope everyone is having wonderful weather (ours is a tad warm but not too bad) and gearing up for great family memories this weekend.  Be safe, y'all, and remember what this holiday is all about.

California Cruising!

Hey everyone!  I'm back and feeling much better after a bit of a get-away with my sweetie.  We did a bit of "California Cruising" in the form of a road trip.  We only made one reservation ahead of time and that was for our first night.  We wanted to stay in Carpinteria, and it did not disappoint on the "cute and quaint" scale.  It's only about 15,000 population, but goes the extra mile in making your stay memorable and making you want to go back.

We typically look for Best Westerns, because they are generally clean and pretty well cared for, but this was definitely not your typical Best Western.  From the minute we entered to check in, we were made to feel so special and this place was oozing in charm.  We quickly booked another night!