sunday funday....

We went to the Parade of Homes on Friday...8 houses, different builders and styles, all beautiful and luxurious. It was too much fun, the little girls just moved their little selves right into those houses.



Miss Cam says that if we had this shower, she would always always take one as soon as Mommy asked her to. I personally wondered why a family would need such a huge-o shower, one could fit at least five or six small children in there, and believe me, once upon a time not so long ago, it would have been wonderful to have such a shower, in those days of many children lining up for their turn...I also wondered why an average family would need a double wall oven, those huge six burner stoves, or the pot-filler spigot behind the stove. Or four full bathrooms. Or a complete movie theater in the basement, but hey, if you have the money, why not?


Irene, and Sonja.

So it was a nice outing, followed by a quick trip to Target to get some gifts for a few girls who are graduating from high school, and a few girls who are leaving for Norway for a year, because Emily was having a celebration at her house for these girls. We found really nice gifts really quickly, and the girls really liked them (scarves, nice water bottles, a beach towel for one of them, candy)...

We were extremely hungry, so we went through the McDonald's drivethrough...chicken nuggets are so good, I don't care what anyone says. I always think of the saying, "deep fried garbage on a sunny day", from Sesame Street (Oscar The Grouch), but I eat them anyways. I got an order of fries for the five girls to share, and home we went.

Yesterday morning, the fun began early. The younger kids were supposed to go on an end of the year activity club hike, but thunderstorms changed those plans...to a trip to the museum of play! Both of our minivans were needed, so there was some shuffling and planning, but the kids got to where they needed to be, and I got to where I needed to be, which was in the kitchen at church...I baked cookies...



I baked a huge cake. It was butter cake, three pounds of butter, because I double-quadrupled the recipe...and I don't know how to say that I 8-times-ed it.

Homemade buttercream frosting...

Topped with berries and whipped cream...and guess what? I ate some. It was SO good.

We washed and cubed 30 pounds of red potatoes, and nine pounds of sweet potatoes. Kim grilled the steak, we sliced it...22 pounds of it. We served coffee and iced tea and cold brew coffee and infused water, with platters of fruit and chocolate covered rasberries. (Snack/fruit with drinks, followed by lunch, then another snack, then dinner, then dessert...)

We left there at 8:30 pm, and oh dear I was a hurting unit.

When I hobbled out of bed this morning, I felt like I had done an extreme workout. I walked down the driveway to get the morning paper, Duke and I were a matching set...old dog, old lady. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, to spend an entire day preparing food, cleaning up in between, doing dishes, making more food...

This was our crew...Evelyn over there in the corner, Emily, our friend Irene in the back, Sonja K. with the cookie in her mouth, me...in the morning, Kim was there, and in the afternoon, Patty joined us.

Anyway. Today is a nice relaxing day. Paul is at a landscaping fundraiser with Kathryn and Evelyn. Joseph is working hard on an online video game art piece that is due this week. The little girls are still poring over the pamphlets they got from the Parade of Homes...reading the Sunday comics...Sonja is coloring, Suzanne is helping me delete photos from my phone. Jonathan is still in bed. It is indeed a wonderful Sunday. Suzanne wants to bring chocolate chip cookies to one of her teachers tomorrow...so that means my time to sit here is over...