Babies! and Anniversaries! and Weddings, oh my!

Yes, I’m just going to roll all of this into one post…so hang on to your britches, it’s going to be a long’un.

The month of March has just flown by for us but it has been filled with wonderful, wonderful things. 

BABIES: We started the month out babysitting my friend Jodi’s precious twin boys, Jensen and Noah. It took some convincing on my part to get Lane to babysit with me, but once we were there, I’m pretty sure he loved it!

The boys were napping when we arrived and Jodi said that they were both feeling bad, so we were a little worried that we would be with sad, crying babies all night. It was actually quite the opposite. Those little boys were just as sweet as they could be. We fed them, loved on them, played with them and had so much fun!

(sorry for the crappy cell phone pics)

We watched the boys play bumper cars and thoroughly enjoyed it!Jensen is stealthy in his walker! He would follow Lane to and from the kitchen without hitting a single wall.

Jensen and Lane became best buddies!

Sick little Noah just needed some love from both of us!

Anniversary: The following weekend, we celebrated our second wedding anniversary! I’m conflicted because, while it feels like yesterday that we were just walking down the aisle, it also feels like the two years should actually be ten.

We were able to celebrate this year with a STAYcation. Thanks to a generous birthday gift from my best friend, Mary C., we spent the night in a suite at the wonderful Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas. It also included dinner at their fabulous restaurant, Bolla. We checked in and had crazy good drinks and snacks on the patio.

On the patio at the Stoneleigh.

 

Duck confit spring rolls and pomme frites.

We went back to our room and got ready for dinner. It was fun to get dressed up and know that we’d  have a nice dinner coming our way. It was a great weekend. We fall more in love every single day. I didn’t know that my heart could get much bigger! I am so thankful to have an amazing partner, best friend and boyfriend all rolled into one! Here’s to another 60 years!

Weddings: Finally, the month of March is coming to a conclusion and there was no better way I can think to spend it, than in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico celebrating the wedding of our dear friends Ashleigh and Raymond.

When we first heard that the wedding was going to be in Cabo, we almost certainly knew we wouldn’t be able to go. We’ve really had to tighten our purse strings this year and a vacation to Mexico was certainly not in the budget. Fortunately, we both have unbelievably wonderful parents and they were able to bless us with opportunity to go. Lane hated the thought of missing his best friend’s wedding, and I hated the thought of Lane going on a vacation without me, so we are truly forever grateful for our parents intervening. It is beyond me how generous those four people can be. We are so lucky and hope to one day be as generous as they are.

The weather was perfect and there’s nothing like waking up to the sights, sounds and smells of the ocean. We stayed at the Riu Palace in Cabo. Neither of us have ever been to an All-Inclusive resort so we loved the idea of free drinks anytime we wanted!

When we arrived, we were able to spend a little time on the beach with the whole group.

The view of half of the resort from the lobby bar.

The view from our beach…the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula.

Sweet baby Jack. Raymond and Ashleigh’s son.

 

Boy time on the beach.

That night, we got ready and attended Ray and Ashleigh’s rehearsal dinner. It was held a Mexican restaurant on property. We were greeted at the door with Margaritas…what else could be better?

 

Obligatory shot before dinner. This view will never get old.

 

The next day we woke up, went to the pool and then got ready for the wedding. It was a HOT day, but perfectly sunny and beautiful. The ceremony was set up on the beach with the archway looking directly at the Baja tip.

The wedding was beautiful. The bride was beautiful. The ceremony was beautiful. It was a really special moment that definitely left a few tears in my eyes. The officiant  had a great message. It particularly stuck out to me when he was talking about the rings. He said that the ring is something to be so proud of. Because that ring is an outward symbol that says you are someone’s husband or wife. It says that you are proud to be a spouse and that someone is proud to call you their spouse. He said it a little more eloquently, obviously, but I loved it. I always like looking at Lane’s hand with his wedding ring on it. It makes me feel great knowing that when other people see him, they know, because of the ring he’s wearing, that he’s proud to be called a husband and that he’s proud that I’m his wife.

The ceremony was short and sweet (just how we Baptists like it!) There were lots of onlookers and they cheered when the happy couple kissed!

After the wedding, we put our swimsuits back on and enjoyed a day in the sun!! Thank you Raymond and Ashleigh for including us in your big day!

Our last full day in Cabo, we decided to go deep sea fishing. It’s something that Lane loves to do and I’ve never done before. We’ve always heard that the fishing in Cabo is supposed to be amazing, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

I’ll fast forward through all of the gritty details and say that we were highly disappointed in the captain and the charter. They were too lazy to take us out to fish for marlin or tuna and ended up only fishing for mackerel just off the shore line. We caught one fish. One. If it weren’t for the other sea life we saw, I would probably have thrown a fit. But, it was all made worth it for three reasons…Whales, dolphins and sea lions (seals…what’s the difference?). We saw some seals/sea lions as we were leaving the marina, but the best part came when we were, what felt like, surrounded by GIANT whales. We saw a baby and a mama that were probably 20 feet from our boat.

At one point, there were dolphins chasing our boat!

And, as we were coming back into the harbor, a little old man sea lion/seal (still don’t know the difference even after googling it) hopped up on the back of our boat and wanted to take the extra bait off of our hands. He was precious. I really wanted to pet him and possibly take him home with me. He and Knox would be best buds, I’m sure of it.

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Oh, and here’s our one measly fish that the guide caught and let Lane reel in.

A few pictures from the boat:

Pretending to fish.

Lane’s friend David came all the way from Baghdad for the wedding.

Early morning on the boat.

The bait that we drove an hour for….

Amy and Aaron, who we were so glad to spend time with.

We returned to the resort in time to hang out. After a long nap by the pool, we decided that we need a little something different than what the hotel buffet had to offer us. Amy and Aaron researched a local restaurant that had great reviews on TripAdvisor.com and we decided to tag along with them. We were so glad we  did! It ended up being one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time. The restaurant was called Pancho’s, but never fear, there is no flag to raise here. It is known for its wide variety of tequila. Lane and Aaron sampled some tequila, which I’m learning is similar to wine in the way that it’s aged and processed. It was served in what looked like champagne glasses and they sipped on it for the flavor. Amy and I had a bacon wrapped tuna steak that looked like a nice baseball cut of filet mignon. It was MUY DELIICOUSO. The “special pepper sauce” that it was served with should be served in that same tequila sipping glass because I could drink it all. night. long.

The waiter pouring the very special tequila.

While we were sad to leave the beautiful view from our hotel, we were happy to be home in our own bed with our buddy. I came home with some awesome cankles. I mean, we’re talking elephant sized feet and ankles. Apparently I had a bad reaction to the sun (fell asleep on the boat while we were fishing) and it caused my legs to swell up! Who knew! Oh well, it’s given me an excuse to down some benadryl and keep my feet propped up. Live and learn!

whew. I literally just sighed out loud. This post is over. If you’re still reading, I salute you.  Time really does fly when you’re having fun. We are so thankful for the friends and family we are surrounded by that have provided us such amazing opportunities. This was definitely a March to remember.

New to the rotation..

I’m always looking for something new to add to our dinner rotations. We really try to stick to ground turkey, organic chicken breasts and fish during the week. Sometimes, though, I feel like I’ve run out of options for those three proteins. So, of course, when I need inspiration, I look to Annie’s Eats. It’s my g0-to food blog and I haven’t made a single thing from her blog that isn’t fabulous. I came across this recipe and knew it would for us. I had all of the ingredients on hand and so it seems like the stars just aligned for this recipe.

I didn’t change anything, so here’s the link to the recipe. No need for me to re-post.

Chicken with Artichokes in a White Wine Sauce from Annie's Eats

Sew Sweet

I bought the candy molds a loooonnnng time ago. I was waiting for the perfect occasion to make the precious little button candies. Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. If these things were going to get used, then I was going to have to make it happen. It worked out that it was my turn to host Cocktails and Cupcakes, so I couldn’t think of a better time than then! The theme would be Sew Sweet and we would all wear our cute Anthropolgie aprons! (I had high hopes of setting up my sewing machine and having the girls sew something, but, alas, time got away from me.)

Of course, it was a wonderful night. We were sad to miss Erin and Mary C., but Jovi and Macee K. were able to fill the void. We ordered pizza from our FAVORITE LA Gourmet Pizza. (Shout out to Rafic, the precious delivery driver who drove out of the way to deliver to us because he recognized our names from when we used to live down there. He’s the best!)

I decided to make Red Velvet cupcakes. I felt like they were classic and festive enough for the occasion. They were delicious and oohhhh SEW cute!

I couldn’t have such a cute themed party and not decorate just a little bit! Thanks to knitting needles, yarn and some different sized hurricanes, it turned out pretty cute!

 

Jill found some really cute chalkboard wine glasses, that were perfect for C&C! We came up with some great nicknames for the night!

We had a great night, as usual. I am amazingly blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Finally, the recipe!
Red Velvet Cupcakes from Annie’s Eats

Ingredients:
For the cake:
2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cocoa powder (I would increase to 2-3 T. I think they needed a little more cocoa flavor.)
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil (I used half vegetable, half canola, only because I ran out of vegetable oil! Couldn’t tell a difference!)
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring *
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting:*
8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. * Be careful with the food coloring. It will stain everything it touches!

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. (I used a large, unlabeled star tip to frost these cupcakes.)

This is Annie’s hint, and I followed it. Definitely plan on making extra if you’re going to pipe the frosting.*If you are big on frosting as I am, you may want to increase the quantities by 50%.  That is what I typically do for a batch of 24 cupcakes.  I usually end up with some left over, but I would rather have too much frosting than not enough!

Tuna Salad…the fancy kind

No, I’m not talking about the stinky tuna in a can that you mix with mayo and relish (although, I’ll be honest…I still kind of like that because it reminds me of my childhood). I’m talking about seared tuna with the most amazing combination of ingredients possible.

I love the restaurant Houston’s here in Dallas. I like the atmosphere and their smoked salmon appetizer is to die for. But I really go there for their Ahi Tuna salad. It’s divine.

We  try to eat fish at least once a week, except I don’t really like tilapia and Lane doesn’t really like salmon, so that cuts out the two most readily available, inexpensive fish. We do both, however,  love tuna so when I can find it on sale I buy it. We’re always looking for new ways to prepare it and, when I bought it last week, my beloved salad from Houston’s popped into my head.

Tuna Salad with Avocado, Mango and Almonds inspired by Houston’s 

(all amounts are approximate since I never measure anything. sorry. bad blogger.)

1 lb. tuna, cut into two steaks

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 c. spinach

1 large mango, cubed

1 large avocado, cubed

1/2 c. slivered almonds

Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Generously season tuna steaks with salt and pepper. Sear tuna in pan, about 3 minutes per side, or until your liking.

Place spinach, tuna, mango avocado and almonds in your serving bowl and enjoy! How simply amazing is that! (And wonderfully healthy too!)

Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette 

(Seriously, I didn’t measure a single bit of this, but it’s soooo good, so I’ll try to be as exact as possible.)

1/4 c. Low-Sodium Soy Sauce

1/4 c. Olive oil

2-3 T. Red Wine Vinegar (more if needed)

2 T. Honey

2 t. Ground Ginger

Pinch of pepper

Mix all ingredients well and serve with salad.

Honey.Lavender.Vanilla.Bean.Ice.Cream.

Yes, yes, that’s what I said. Honey Lavender Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. We first tried it at our favorite restaurant, Hibiscus, but I was always intimidated to use lavender to cook with. Well, this Christmas, I made lavender sachets and lavender bath scrubs for my mom and Lane’s mom and had some of the lovely flower left over. I had no excuse to not try the ice cream!  It was made easy by my mom’s ice cream maker.

I will definitely have one of these babies on my wish list as summer rolls around. Speaking of summer….Can it come soon, please?

Anyway, I’ve only made one ice cream before and it was really easy. This one seemed a little bit more laborious, but still relatively easy.

As far as taste goes, it was definitely lavender-y. I think next time, I would use less lavender and more honey. It was a little bitter because of the lavender. Maybe I let it steep for too long. Not sure. We served it, however, with the Sour Cream Apple Pie which is plenty sweet and it worked really well with that. It’s not an ice cream that you would sit in front of the TV and have a bowl of, but served with the right thing, it works well.

The mixture in the saucepan ready to steep.

Honey Lavender Vanilla Bean Ice Cream adapted from Martha Stewart

2 cups whole milk

1/4 cup dried lavender (I purchased in the Bulk section of my Central Market)

1 whole vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/3 cup honey

5 large egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1. In a medium saucepan, combine milk, lavender, vanilla bean and honey. Bring to a gentle boil, cover, and remove from heat. Let steep for 5 minutes. Strain mixture, reserving milk and discarding lavender.
2. Combine egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until very thick and pale yellow, 3 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, return milk to a medium saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat.
3. Add half the milk to egg-yolk mixture, and whisk until blended. Stir mixture into remaining milk, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
4. Remove from heat, and immediately stir in cream. Strain mixture into a medium mixing bowl set in an ice-water bath, and let stand until chilled, stirring from time to time. Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Store in an airtight plastic container up to 2 weeks.

Christmas Dinner with Sheriff John, the Mrs. and, of course, Jax

This Christmas I was able to spend 10 days with my parents. Most people might grumble about that, but I absolutely loved it! I have amazing parents who are fun and thoughtful and loving and oh so very generous. Lane joined us for 5 of the 10 days, and we had a wonderful time filled with lots of food, wine and laughter. My mom and I planned out a menu the weekend before Christmas and wanted something special for Christmas eve dinner. We almost always do beef tenderloin on special occasions, so we wanted to try something different, and prime rib fit the bill! Of course, we made Lane cook it. He often gets volun-told to cook, but I think he likes it! We found a basic prime rib recipe online and added our own little touches. It was delicious and really so easy. The meal was fabulous, as always!

Prime Rib slightly adapted from Simply Recipes
(The link has GREAT pictures to go with the recipe)
Ingredients

• One standing rib roast, 3 to 7 ribs (estimate serving 2 people per rib), bones cut away from the roast and tied back to the roast with kitchen string (ask your butcher to prepare the roast this way)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Rosemary springs

Directions

Remove roast from the refrigerator, loosely wrapped, 3 hours before cooking. Roasts should always be brought close to room temperature first, before they go in the oven.

Cookbooks often call for the excess fat to be removed. By "excess" fat they mean any fat more than an inch thick. The fat is what provides the flavor and what you are paying for with prime rib, so you want to leave it on. Your butcher should have removed any excess fat.

If your butcher hasn't already done so, cut the bones away from the roast and tie them back on to the roast with kitchen string. This will make it much easier to carve the roast, while still allowing you to stand the roast on the rib bones while cooking. Basically, you cut the ribs away then tie them right back on. It helps provide the flavor, but makes it easier to carve when you’re ready to serve.

Preheat your oven to 500°F, or the highest it will go (our oven goes up to 700°F, which is too hot). Generously sprinkle salt, garlic powder and pepper all over the roast. Cut slits in the top of the roast and insert small springs of rosemary.

Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast, making sure it doesn't touch a bone. (Some meat thermometers require that you poke a hole first with a skewer, and then insert the thermometer.) Place the roast, fat side up, rib side down in a roasting pan in the oven.

After 15 minutes on 500°F, reduce the heat to 325°F. To figure out the total cooking time, allow about 13-15 minutes per pound for rare and 15-17 minutes per pound for medium rare. The actual cooking time will depend on the shape of the roast and your particular oven. A flatter roast will cook more quickly than a thicker one. So make sure to use a meat thermometer. This is not a roast to "wing it". Error on the rare side.

Roast in oven until thermometer registers 115°-120°F for rare or 125°-130°F for medium.
Check the temperature of the roast using a meat thermometer a half hour before you expect the roast to be done. For example, with a 10 pound roast, you would expect 2 1/2 hours of total cooking time (15 minutes at 500° and 2 1/4 hours at 325°). In this case, check after 2 hours of total cooking time, or 1 hour 45 minutes after you lowered the oven temp to 325°.

Once the roast has reached the desired internal temperature, remove it from oven and let rest 20 minutes, covered with aluminum foil, before carving. The roast will continue to cook while it is resting.  (I think we let it rest a little too long, so just watch your temp. We prefer it to be on the more rare side.)

With a knife or scissors, cut the strings which attach the meat to the bones. Remove the bones (save for making stock for soup. Then, using a sharp carving knife, slice meat across the grain for serving, making the slices about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.

DELICIOUSO and oh so easy. It takes some advance thought, but the actual preparation is really easy. Just make sure you have a great (and accurate) meat thermometer that you can constantly watch the temperature on.

Here’s Jax wondering what happened to his portion of prime rib, but then settling with a bowl of bacon bits. (No, we didn’t actually give him the bacon.)

We served the prime rib with a wedge salad, baked potato and sourdough bread. For dessert, we had apple pie and honey lavender vanilla bean ice cream (recipe to come).

Oh, and the wine. Let’s not forget the wine. Several years ago, my dad said to my mom and me, “Well, if I die, you can sell all of the wine.” Mom and I looked at each other, paused, and at the same time said, “We won’t sell it…we’re going to drink it!!!”

So, from then on, my dad realized that if he wanted in on his own wine, then he should start opening it now! We’ve convinced him to open even more by saying that we’ll just have to go back to Napa to get more. Whatever the thought is behind the decision to open more wine makes no difference to me…I’m just glad I get to partake!

On Christmas eve, we opened two bottles…A 2003 Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet and a 2004 Sullivan Vineyards Cabernet. These are my two FAVORITE wines. Not only are they wonderful to taste, but since I’ve been to both vineyards, drinking them brings back such wonderful memories.

Silver Oak has been a long time favorite of my parents and, therefore has become a favorite of me and Lane. The last time we went, part of their property had burned and we tasted in a portable building. They were in the process of rebuilding so I can’t wait to go back and see their new facility.

Sullivan is actually right across the street from Silver Oak and we first went in on a whim because my dad had a good friend whose last name is Sullivan. We thought it would be fun to get him a bottle of it, not knowing what we were tasting. That was in 2001. When we walked up to the barn (because there was no tasting room) Mr. Sullivan, with his handlebar mustache, greeted us and immediately treated us like family….and the wine, well it just happened to be FANTASTIC. I’ve never forgotten that experience. When we went back in 2008, Mr. Sullivan had since passed away and they had an official tasting room, but we still had the same experience…greeted by the old, white faced golden retriever and Mr. Sullivan’s son inviting us into their family home. Can’t wait to go back.

It was a wonderful Christmas and I’m so thankful for my parents. They have created an amazing example of what marriage should be and we are forever grateful to them for that.

And, just because I promised and I know you’re on pins and needles waiting for pictures of cute puppies…here you go!

Jax in his monster sweater.


Sleepy Lane and Jax on Christmas day. (Jax now sporting his cable knit fisherman’s sweater)



Reindeer Knox


Poor baby Jax had a toenail ripped off and had to have a little bandage put on. It also couldn’t get wet so we had to wrap a baggie around it when he went outside. I told him I wouldn’t put the picture on the internet, but oh well. Sorry King! Don’t banish me!

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes and Cocktails!

(So, I have so many things to post about from Christmas, but I’m waiting on some pictures taken with my mom’s camera. So, stay tuned for vanilla bean lavender ice cream, chocolate icebox pie, prime rib and, of course, pictures of dogs wearing clothes!!)

We had our monthly (well, sometimes it goes more than a month) Cupcakes and Cocktails at Melanie’s house last week. We were just planning to have a laid back party, so I thought these cupcakes would be perfect. They were easy to make and who doesn’t love cookies and cream?

I think I over-baked them because they were pretty dense, which is not my preference when it comes to cupcakes. I just couldn’t get the center to set enough to get a toothpick to come out clean. I ended up baking them for about 22 minutes. They weren’t my favorite that I’ve made, but everyone really seemed to like them. I might try again, but I will reduce the baking time to 18 minutes and go from there.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes from Annie’s Eats

Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached (I used an entire box of Oreos for the whole recipe)
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I just put them in a bag and beat them with the handle of a knife to get large chunks.)

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used 8T. butter)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. heavy cream (I would cut this down to 1T. next time. The icing was a tid bit runny, even after refrigerating for a while.)

For garnish:
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves (I, for the life of me, couldn’t cut the Oreos in half and make them not crack. I tried everything. Hence, some of them looking really gnarly!)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.  Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up. (I would not do this next time. It was just kind of weird to me, but again, everyone else loved them.) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.  Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

And, I can’t talk about a C&C and not post pics!

Caroline joined in the fun!

My favorite girls! (Erin, we miss you!!)