Baseball coaches BBQ

Our welcoming committee (Katie) was dressed and out waiting a good 15 minutes before guests were supposed to arrive!

I apparently don’t know how to make food for less than 30 people.

It was a BBQ so Tom did pulled pork (which requires cole slaw since we lived in North Carolina for eight years), baked beans, and cornbread. Then we added three flavors of smoked cream cheese with three types of crackers, pea and peanut salad, peanuts, cashews, fresh fruit and chips for the kiddos, and someone brought the veggie tray (and desserts which aren’t in the photo).

Katie is on major lockdown.

So we’ve been letting the kids go to both parks—the one across the street and the one on the other end of the neighborhood. I originally thought Katie was a little young to go by herself so I made her go with Owen a few times but eventually they want to do different stuff plus she wasn’t afraid to go by herself so I let her go alone. She has to take her watch and be home at a certain time. She might meet a friend there or just go to see who is there. No big deal.

Well today Owen was also at the park (her went before her) but he texted me from his friend’s phone to ask if it was okay to go to the friend’s house. Yep, thanks for texting and asking.

Fast forward to Tom coming home early to surprise me…and then noon when Katie was supposed to be home. And she wasn’t home. Hmmm. Okay. We’ll give her a few extra minutes.

And then…I got a text from a mom friend asking if Katie could come to the park to play. Um, what? She’s there. Or rather she most definitely SHOULD be there. They looked around and said she wasn’t.

CUE INSTANT PANIC.

Tom took off toward the park while I finished talking to the mom. I was about ready to get in the car to also head to the park when it hit me—she was probably with Owen at his friend’s house. Which would have been fine…except no one told me and she was supposed to be home at noon.

I texted the friend and Owen called me back immediately. Yes, she was there. Phew. So I told them they were both to leave immediately and meet us at the park. “But Mom you said I could stay here!” Change of plans, buddy.

Needless to say she got in big trouble. She got a stern talking to in the parking lot from both of us, she got her bike thrown in the car, plus she also had to see her friends at the park that she couldn’t play with because she didn’t follow the rules. Owen also got into some trouble because (long story short) he didn’t put his foot down and tell her no she couldn’t be there. (She actually bullies him into things by threatening to tattle on him for stuff he didn’t even do but he’s afraid of getting in trouble so he lets her get away with murder.) He did not want her there but since he let her, he was also kind of responsible for her and to let us know what was going on. (We also told him he could have called us when she wouldn’t listen and let us deal with it.)

It’s tough because they have both gone over before to swim in their pool and Katie ended up playing with one of the older daughters (like age 12) so she thinks she can just go over and play with them any time. She doesn’t really understand that they really only played with her that day because they were over on a play date with the brother and the boys went off and did their own thing and they were nice and hung out with her—and that a 12yo doesn’t really want to hang out with an 8yo.

So they both got a huge lecture about us needing to know where they are and if they can’t handle the responsibility they will no longer be able to go on their own. And Owen is the big brother so he needs to watch out for his sister.

Tom had to run somewhere before we could discuss her punishment so Katie got sent to her room—no music, no Alexa, no talking to Owen—until further notice. After a mere 15 minutes or so, she announces on Alexa that she doesn’t want to stay in her room. Hahahahahahahaha! She’s never really been punished before so she doesn’t get that I don’t really care and it’s not supposed to be fun. Then I didn’t hear this but it came across as a notification…

Tom and I eventually decided that she was locked down at home for two days, then for the next few days she could only go to the close park if Owen wanted to (because she had to stay with him), and then she could start going by herself but had to come home and check in at random times (like in 20 minutes or 10 minutes).

Owen’s punishment was having to take Katie with him. Haha.

Saturday Night Dinner!

Pre-dinner selfie.

Pre-dinner family selfie.

    

We loved that the three of them all crammed together on one side even though they didn’t need to. The boys were at the other table. 🙂

 

And I forgot to take a pic of the food (Slow Cooker Bacon Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes, Tangy and Creamy Macaroni Salad, and KFC’s Cole Slaw) and our group!

Friendsgiving!

We had one of our Saturday Night Dinners for our Thanksgiving this year. We thought we’d keep it simple—we’d do a turkey, mashed potatoes, instant stuffing, fresh bread, and mulled cider; one couple was bringing a sweet potato casserole; and one couple was bringing dessert. Easy, right? Well holy hell it was still a lot of work. Last minute stuff, really, and not hard, but still craziness. Especially at the last minute when I realized I had completely forgotten to start the gravy! (At least I already had the stock ready so it didn’t take long at all.)

2016-11-26-14-08-30

2016-11-26-18-09-06

2016-11-26-18-09-13

My very first use of a selfie stick!

2016-11-26-18-14-30

Saturday Night Dinner…with surprise guests!

Well, we knew about it ahead of time but the visit in general was a surprise this weekend! Roger and the girls were up visiting his other daughter Amanda for the weekend and she lives about an hour away…so they all came over for dinner! I haven’t seen them since we left Jacksonville in 2014!

Can’t you see us with a daughter this age?! We’d take her in a minute. 🙂 (We could have had one this age if we had a kid two years before we got married…or two years after we met.)

One of the best things to come out of tonight? Getting to recreate one of our favorite Virginia photos!

2004-2016 Tom Virginia Cake

The photo Virginia wanted to take—showcasing the two big guys that she can threaten boys with (a running joke for many, many years):

2016-05-28 tom-virginia-tom

And just for comparison, the same trio back in 2007:

2007-08-25 tom-virginia-tom

The Three Musketeers, together again!

2016-05-28 roger-tom-tom

2016-05-28 roger-tom-tom-silly

And a selfie for the road!

Saturday Night Gumbo Dinner

New friends (Nate, a co-worker of Tom’s I’d never met—and his wife), newbies to dinner (friends from T-ball, mutual friends, and now Owen’s first grade class), good food (gumbo, rice, homemade white bread and spaghetti bread), amazing desserts (peanut butter bars and carrot cake by Nate!), and great kids equals gumbo dinner party success!

Through a small comedy of errors, Allison spilled red wine on herself a mere five minutes after arriving…so I loaned her a shirt (same shirt, different color) and we were twins!

Saturday Night Dinner—Tom’s Birthday!

Tonight was our fifth Saturday night dinner—and it happened to be Tom’s birthday as well! We had two new families (and one couple who’ve been to a couple dinners) join us—and it was fun (and crazy—with 8 kids!)!

Also as usual, I didn’t even think to take pictures because we were so busy visiting and doing food prep…so the first picture I took was a quick birthday shot of Tom with the dessert he picked (a caramel tres leches cake from Costco…with Owen’s birthday balloon!):

And then a panoramic of the table at dessert time…where it took me more than a few minutes to realize there’s a bunch of panoramic artifacts—like Tom’s hands reappearing on the other side of Katie and a friend’s squished face!

And Katie enjoying the blue frosting on the cupcakes a guest brought for the kids:

As a sidenote, I posted the invite for the next dinner in six weeks (Tom’s work schedule prevented a 4-week plan) and all RSVPs were filled within 24 hours! 🙂

Saturday Night Dinner

I finally remembered to take a picture of our group at dinner. Tonight we had my good friend Ruth (and her daughter Emily) who came down from Maryland, Frank and Beth (and their two girls) who have attended before, and a t-ball mom Kate (and her daughter) that I befriended recently (unfortunately, her husband had to stay home with their three boys because their behavior had been lacking).

Owen was at our table because we had extra seats and the kids table was filled with four girls. 🙂

Of course, it had started storming terribly at the exact moment Tom needed to be out grilling, but I had the foresight to have him put up our old umbrella so he didn’t get completely soaked. 🙂

We all had an amazing time with lots of laughs and can’t wait to do it again!!

Saturday Night Spaghetti #2

Our second dinner went just as well as the first—even with a last-minute guest switch up! One family couldn’t come because of a sick kid, so we invited Owen’s coach and his family and they were excited to come! (They’ve recently moved here as well and understand how hard it is to make friends!)

Katie had a friend she knew and Owen made a new friend (only four years old but they got along great). 

Here, Tom was rescuing Lambie from the kids’ table so she didn’t get dunked in spaghetti sauce. 🙂

  

Our inaugural Saturday Night Spaghetti!

Some background…

I love having friends over for dinner. I like making new friends. So when I read this article last year—
Friday Night Meatballs: How to Change Your Life With Pasta (if you have the time to read it, please do!)—it hit a nerve and I immediately knew it was something I wanted to attempt. I promised myself that I would schedule something after the holiday season had settled down. Well, then life happens, and I didn’t actually get to schedule it until the end of January, with the dinner to be mid-February.

I posted the following invitation on Facebook and hoped for some responses:

Spaghetti Dinner - Photograph by Carina Romano
Spaghetti Dinner – Photograph by Carina Romano

[Photograph: Carina Romano]

facebookspaghettiinvite

Imagine my surprise when the RSVP slots were filled in less than 24 hours!! And lots more people LOVED the idea and promised future participation! 🙂

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play nice and we had to postpone a week, but the original attendees were all still able to come! And everything went awesome! Six guests (plus kids) was just right. (This house is big, but for a dinner party, six guests is about the limit of dining space. I wish we had more room, or even a good place for another table!) Everyone got along and had a good time talking, the kids were all awesome (Owen had a new Lego buddy and Katie had a friend), and everyone stayed much later than I anticipated (they all left about 9:30). One couple said it was a great idea and they are thinking about starting something similar! Yay! During the event, I even stopped Tom and told him that I was very happy. He agreed it was a good night. 🙂 We both can’t wait to do it again!

Even though it wasn’t BUSY or lots of work, we were both kept busy visiting and prepping and whatnot, so I didn’t take pictures! The only one I took was of the kids’ table:

kids table

And this one was snapped by a guest (everyone liked the aquarium but the girls loved it!):

girls at fish tank

I hope all future dinners go as smoothly as this one did! 🙂

And then, even though it was WAY past the kids’ bedtimes, we let them stay up to watch one TV show to let them calm down. And this happened:

2015-02-28 22.08.44