Our weekend flew by of course! Please bring back Saturday. We packed our weekend full of a lot of fun, non-productive stuff. The best way to do it, right?
Friday night, Skylar stayed w/ Evie so Sammie & myself tried out our first class of parent/child Zumba at Silverlake while Creag & the boys were shopping at Jungle Jim's for our party on Saturday. We had a great time! I didn't realize that the kids actually do these type of classes during their school day & in Summer Camp so she really knew what she was doing & I was pleasantly surprised. She kept her energy level up most of the first half of class & then I could slowly start to see her getting tired & bored the second half. We had a lot of fun though & will definitely be going back. They have Zumba & Yoga for parent & child so I'm excited to try all of the classes & maybe take all of the kids the next time. After our exercise class we stopped by the Red Box to rent a few movies & then met the boys at home for an 8 o' clock dinner. It was late, so we were all starving! Creag surprised me w/ Chicago Style pizza from Chicago! He recently went for business & instead of bringing me back leftovers like I asked him to, he had the restaurant Lou Malnatti's deliver the pizza via UPS. It was delicious. We ate the pizza w/ a glass of red wine & watched the Red Box movies w/ the kiddos. We all passed out during the movie on the couch. Never fails! Happens.all.of.the.time.
Saturday morning, Creag left pretty early to get in his 12 mile run. He's training for his first full Marathon in May so Saturday's are usually his long run. I fed the kids their breakfast & let them watch their movies again.
While they were occupied, I started cleaning & decorating for our Mardi Gras party & then went to pick Creag up from the park & picked Skylar up from Evie's. When we got home I made a big pot of chili while Creag & Wyatt napped. The boys got woken up by Wyatt throwing up in our bed...poor kid. I put him in the bath & got ready to leave for my 2:00 hair appt. I was way overdue for a trim & my hair so needed it. After I was finished at the salon I stopped by the store to pick up the ingredients for a crab dip that I was making & the stuff to make Hurricane Cocktails:) Got home & it was crunch time to get ready for our 3rd Annual Mardi Gras Party!!
Yvonne & Dave got to our house just as I was preparing my Hot Crab Dip. They needed to come a little early to make their Oyster's Bienville. My parents arrived shortly after & my Mom decorated her version of a King Cake. A confetti bundt cake w/ regular icing and it turned out really cute!
While the crab dip baked we talked and had a few Hurricane cocktails which were very tasty...much better than the ones that about killed me the night before our wedding. The crab dip came out of the oven & we had a little bit of that while the Oyster's Bienville baked. I think Mica, Tyler, Ellery & Willis showed up while the oyster's were baking w/ chips & salsa which the non-seafood lovers appreciated very much! We munched on those until the oysters were done....let me just say that they turned out phenomenal!!
Oyster Bienville
Hank was a little nervous to try them, but ended up liking them a lot!
We really took our time to enjoy the appetizers & each other. It seems like we just don't see everyone nearly enough, so I was really enjoying it. My Dad's birthday was on the 13th and since we live so far away we were not able to celebrate it with him until Saturday.
The masks were brought out shortly after the beads and made for great photo opp's. I'm glad I invested the money for them becuase everyone seemed to enjoy them! By investing money, I mean dollar because I found them at the Dollar Tree! Can't beat that & we'll have them again for next year!
I snapped the above shot after he poured everything in:)
It definitely doesn't take long for the boil & be ready to dump! We were all so ready to see how it turned out...
It turned out amazing per usual. Creag really, really loves to cook and his food is always amazing! The crab claws were the favorite this year, along with the oyster's bienville! Some of us had seconds & even third's...I will not mention any names:). I also have to mention that the kids have come so far since last year & actually wanted to eat the shrimp. Last year we practically had to make them even try shrimp! I guess it paid off.
I don't know what separated this year from any of the other parties that we've had, but this year's was our best yet! The food was AMAZING, everyone was in a great mood & we had soooooooo much fun together. I'm already looking forward to next years party!! Let the good times roll:)
Yay what a fun recap of a great party! :) glad to see your blog rollin'
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