Bedtime Routine

Don't know if you remember my post a year ago about one of my daughters and her family moving to Washington. We were happy for their adventure but really dreaded them leaving us.  The move was needed and they were where they needed to be.

Now they are moving back!  Needless to say we are very happy about this. Family is important to us. While two of our daughters are still in Arizona that is much closer than Washington.  So we have our happy faces on now.  

My daughter came back early. She left the two kids in Kansas City to spend some time with their dad and other grandparents and she spent her time hanging out with Gary and I.

Well a couple of weeks ago Gary and I picked the grandkids up from their other grandparents and they have been staying with us.  Let me tell you how our last couple of weeks have been going. 

We have a new routine every night. The kids read me a bedtime story.

I love that my grandkids love to read. So each child picks a story book to read. These are books that their mother and aunts read when they were little. The reading is pretty dramatic. The kids always put such enthusiasm into their reading!  We have lots of laughter.  One night I was really tired and kept falling asleep as they were reading to me. They didn't enjoy that night as much.

 After reading me a story they alternate 'tucking me in'. The covers are tucked tightly in and I receive a kiss on the forehead before they tell me good night.  I love it!

Michael is back from Washington. The family is all together again in their own house. See their smiling faces.

We are excited to have this part of our family close again! And you can be sure that there will be lots of fun going on in the future.  

A tour of Italy

I've been kinda bad about keeping up with my blog lately.  I apologize and will try to do better. We are still having our New Food Night every week so I have some items I can use for inspiration (and to make your mouth water).  I hope you haven't been going hungry waiting to see what was on our menu so you could decide what you wanted to eat.

I swear I must be part Italian because I sure do love my pasta!  Yes - you guessed it - we had Italian.

Miss Annette made some spaghetti.

Doesn't this crock pot of spaghetti look yummy?  It was

Gary was going to make some creamed fennel. He ended up having to work late so I made the fennel.  I know this may surprise some of you since you know that Gary does the majority of our cooking. It's kind of a joke in our family about the fact that I don't cook very often. Gary's dad even asked me one time if I knew how to cook.  My brother has gone so far as to ask exactly what I do at the house.

Anyway, I felt I was up to the task.  Creamed, baked fennel.

You take the fennel bulb and slice it.

I tell you - when I sliced the top of the fennel off the smell was amazing!  It was very strong.  Not a bad smell just very strong. I wasn't expecting that.

You know if it has half & half and creme fraiche it's going to be good. We had to look to find the creme fraiche (fresh) but found it. I would describe it as a really creamy sweet sour cream type thing.

So I put some oil in a pan and kind of browned the fennel. Then I added the half & half and creme fraiche and stirred until it was thickened.

I then poured all into a greased pie plate and added grated Parmesan cheese and baked.

 It was mighty tasty!!

We had salad which Chris brought over.

 Some garlic toast from Mr. Rick.

 See my full plate?

Good stuff right there.

We have another contributor tonight to our meal.  K.C. and her family are moving back to Tulsa!  (We are very happy about that). K.C. is hanging out with us for a while until the full move is made by the entire family. She chose to make us --- Italian Cream Sodas!!

OH MY GOSH!  These are addictive!  Club soda, half & half, syrup of your choice  Top with whipped cream.

My Carnival glass tea glasses are the perfect glass to serve these in don't you think? 

She gave us the option of white chocolate cream soda or raspberry cream soda.  Most of us chose white chocolate raspberry.

My empty glass gives you a clue as to how good these are.

Gotta tell you - this has become a favorite of mine this summer!  In fact I am having one right now! K.C. and the kids just came back from swimming with Chris and K.C. made us all a little treat.

I'll try not to wait so long before my next blog.  Do you have anything you are wanting me to enlighten you on?  I'd be happy to give my thoughts on anything.

In the meantime, make yourself a cream soda and enjoy your night.