"Wooden Spoon" salad

Back when Bryan was in middle school and even into high school (when he wasn't working), most nights Mike and him shared home made blizzards.

I would fill my grocery cart every week with snickers, butterfingers, milky ways, m&m's and anything else I could think of to make awesome "homemade" blizzards.

This was something that they shared just the two of them. I am not much of an ice cream eater.

Most of the time they made them together, but sometimes Bryan would pick his choice and Mike would be the one in the kitchen making them using my blender and spatula.

Mike comes out one night with a huge M&M blizzard for Bryan. His go to flavor back then. Surprise!!
As Bryan commences to eat it he bites down into something - not an M&M. Mike had used my wooden spoon instead of my spatula and got it chewed up in the blender blades. "I thought I got out all the pieces." The "wooden spoon" blizzard was born.
A story that we still tell and laugh about  today.
Last night I made Chicken Caesar salads for us for dinner.
I needed to jazz them up so I added hard boiled eggs, black olives, and to mine Heart of Palm and mushrooms.
Only thing is I was adding the mushrooms to Mikes, Oh Crap! He does NOT like mushrooms.

I picked out the pieces I could see, added more chicken (it's white too) tossed the rest of the salad all together and gave it to him to eat.
I call it the "Wooden Spoon" salad.

He ate it, He told me it was delicious. And no I did not tell him about the mushrooms.

Golfing Around

Mike and I still enjoy golfing. Together even, if you can believe that.

We took our clubs along on 2 vacations this year and I got to thinking - how many states have we golfed in?

Spanning the 31 years of being together, we have golfed in 14 states together. Adding 3 just this summer. Missouri, Pennsylvania, New York.

We finally took our clubs along to visit Steve last week. There is a Beautiful course 15 minutes from his house. We will definitely return there.

Arizona - With Bobby and Sue. We golfed with Bobby a bunch of times when he lived here, but Sue didn't take up the sport till they moved to AZ
Colorado - With Uncle Al at the Colorado Air Force Base
Florida
Illinois
Iowa - we were memebers of a golf league that had a tournament there
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
New York
North Carolina
Ohio - we camped at the Kings Island Amusement park.  The kids went to the park and we went golfing.
Pennsylvania - We stopped for the night next to a Golf Course in PA on our way to Steve's last week.
South Carolina - Myrtle Beach, the Golf Capital of the World
Wisconsin - Some of the most beautiful courses we have golfed

We also dragged our clubs along on a cruise and golfed in Antigua and Martinique.

Our first vacation together golfing in Wisconsin.
The golf carts were pretty simple with no roof and nothing to hold on too. Pretty simple to fall out of. :)

1985 - so young

Monroe NY

It was time for our yearly visit to go see our good friend Steve. Who now lives in Monroe, NY not the big city. it's a small town about 50 minutes away.
He did take us into the city to another Broadway play. This year we saw the Lion King. I had no idea it was an animated play. Though that does make sense, since it's an animated movie. Duh...Really enjoyed it. It also gave me an opportunity to replace my I heart NY coffee mug - mine broke.

Steve has lived in Monroe about 3 1/2 years now and commutes everyday by train.
I understand his attachment to his home.
He clearly has put his heart, and a good portion of his pocket book, into this house and it shows.  It's a quiet place to come home to after a hectic day. His pets (3 cats, 3 dogs) have a yard to play in and his new addition this summer, His patio, is over the top welcoming.
He had a "come see my new patio" party while we were there, but it was 96 degrees out so Not to many people hung out there. I really enjoyed meeting his NY friends. Love his boss!

This place is like a home away from home. I'm sure if he lived closer He would see more of us.
 I do love our yearly visit and just hanging out with him.
Thanks Steve. Thanks for letting me invade your kitchen space, move your furniture around, leave my stuff out on the kitchen table, close the drapes (he likes them all open), hog the frig with my vege's, turn the volume down on the TV , and just laying back and doing nothing.
Thanks for having us.
Love YOU!

Fun Filled Weekend

Warning: long post with lots of pictures

Last Friday, after Roger's kindergarten physical,  Mike and I picked up Roger and Luke for a long weekend visit.
Daddy had told them that I used to take him to a park with a BIG rocket ship slide when he was little. We get into the car and that's all they wanted to talk about. Well, except for "Are we getting off the highway now?" and Are we there yet?"
"Can we got to the rocket slide park?"
 This is now the rocket slide park. Big disappointment. I kept telling them it got old and was gone, but they had to see it.

Those of you familiar - that's wing park now. 

So we took them to the McDonald's with the slide inside and had lunch and they played there.

After seeing and playing with all of Papa's new legos for an hour it was time to go in the forest. 

Luke: "The lions are all sleeping now, right?" He's convinced our woods have lions.

They climbed over trees, hiked in the woods, threw rocks and stick in the pond.

I look at my phone and see it's only 1:15 - felt like 4:30.

Then I had a brilliant idea. I went to the basement and dragged out one of Bryan's old toy box. We have 5.

I found the one with a bunch of trucks (including Grandpa Flory's old Tonkas), Rambo's village, and the best things of all his Mask toys. I'm saving the Simpson toys and the GI Joes for when they get a little older. 

They play so good together

That kept them busy. Whew...

A little legos before bed and the first day is over.

Saturday we surprised them with the kids workshop at the Home Depot.

The boys LOVED it. They built skate board pencil holders.

Before they even open their projects they were having fun. "We get to sit on buckets!"

Painting the tops

Mike guided Luke and to no ones surprise Roger needed no help. He looked at the instructions - I told him it was just like legos only with wood and he put it together all by himself. 

He did ask me to put his glue on. "It's glue for grown ups."  Ok, couldn't argue with him on that one.

They give them aprons and when they are done they get a certificate and a pin to put on it to show everybody what they made. Couldn't help but think of Mike's old boy scout vest hanging in the basement with his badges all over it.

getting their reward

Last night at bedtime it was difficult for the boys to find a book they liked. It appears that we needed fresh books. We head on over to our little library to replenish our supply. In our defense I gave all of Bryan's books to them along with his bookcase.

 Boys each picked out 2 books and then headed on over to the toys. Mike and I found about 15 more - That should hold us. 

We promised them a park with bigger slides so from the library we head on up to Randall Oaks.

Luke: "Now were talking."

Big enough for Mike to join them

They both picked out hats from Papa's collection to wear.

Break time

 Every Mother has that one fear.
Mine, when Bryan was little, was him choking on something.
Mary shared with me that hers was them getting hit by a car in a parking lot.
Walking back to the car (the park is down a trail in the woods) of course the boys run ahead of us. We catch up to them and this is what we see. Mary has to be so proud. They just sat down in the shade and waited for us.

We had to stop at the $ store for supplies. We were having a surprise belated birthday party for Bryan when they came to pick the boys up on Sunday afternoon. Imagine a 3 yr old and a 5 yr old in a $ store. Yeah, what was I thinking.

Roger and I made signs for the yard. Luke didn't want to help - He wanted to play with the balloons. 

The story goes - Pokemon had invaded our house and stole all of Daddy's presents. He left a note in our mail box of the area of where they were and Daddy had to go find them. That wasn't oo hard - the boys were more than happy to help him. Me and the boys hid them.

Luke had chosen to throw his in the little tree out front.

Roger put his on top of Papa's truck. 

We hid 2 in the backyard and the last Pokemon was wrapped around the cupcakes in the cupboard in the kitchen. Owen was happy to see that one.

Finally - Roger's numerous questions got answered. 

I saved all the parts to all the toys, but had no idea what went with what. "Wait and ask Daddy." was our go to answer.

Daddy showed him how all the toys went together.

Who do you think is having more fun?