BBQ on Memorial Day

Tai and I held a Memorial Day bbq this year. It was my first bbq that included more than two families. In fact, I think we had close to 8 families in attendance, and with every family contributing at least once child...well, we were busy! It was so exciting to have so many friends from church come to our bbq!

I had received McCormicks GrillMates from Crowdtap and wanted to give everyone the opportunity to try them, so I set up a table where people could choose from marinades, spices, rubs, and bbq sauce for their meat. Oh, did I mention it was a bring-your-own-meat party? We're so not in a position to buy steaks and chicken for everyone, luckily our church friends were so understanding and brought not only their own meat, but also sides and desserts to share! We had a huge feast and a lot of fun.

The favorites of the party were definately the Molasses Bacon seasoning and the Bourbon Brown Sugar BBQ sauce. In fact, just tonight I mixed the Molasses Bacon seasoning with panko bread crumbs (about half and half), dipped chicken tenderloins in egg, then the panko mixture, and cooked at 450 degrees for 18 minutes. It made super crunchy and taste chicken strips! And yes, I dipped them in the bourbon brown sugar bbq sauce. Not to be a walking commercial, but I'm sort of in love with the bbq sauce. Move over Sweet Baby Rays! 

Aubrey and her friend playing in the sandbox. They had such a good time and got along really well. I think we need a playdate with these two! And yes, I'm such a good mom that I forgot sunscreen. She had blisters on her shoulders that night!

Josy teaching Aubrey how to use a baseball bat. :)

So here I thought I was being all creative and brought strawberry and blueberry fruit salad with whipped cream, and someone totally one-uped me and brought angel food cake to be topped with strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. How can I beat cake?! It was super yummy, too. Tai made cupcakes and used little Americana toppers from the Dollar Spot at Target. We love Target. We had such festive desserts!

Here's Karen and Joe Spencer. Karen lives in Tai's apartment complex and she had a ton of fun toys for the kids to play with (i.e. all the sand stuff Aubrey was hoarding). Fun fact (or small world)...I knew Joe during my freshman year at college. He was friends with my roommate and we hung out quite a bit. Who knew we'd move to Albuquerque and within a few blocks of him?!

Jeremiah pretending to be a better bbq-er than me. We all know I'm queen of the grill (right???) but he did a great job managing everyone's steaks, pork chops, hamburgers, chicken, and hot dogs. And it was nice that he did that while I chatted up everyone who came!

Aubrey eating a cookie. I'm 90% sure she did not eat lunch. Just cookies and cupcakes. I'm not even sure that was her cookie. She's a finders-keepers sort of girl.

See the chicken on a stick? That's ours :) Apparently I didn't thaw chicken breasts, I thawed chicken tenders...so in order to keep them from falling through the grates I put them on skewers. And Zach teased me endlessly about how ghetto I was. I thought any food on a stick was more fun!

There's Hayden! He was off playing soccer with some of the other kids and I saw him maybe a total of 5 seconds..just long enough to take a picture and prove he was there.

Danielle and her mini-me daughter getting soda. I love Danielle's hair color. I want it!

The Taylor's brought a bubble machine that had the kids super excited.

The Mannings were smart and ate in the shade. It was in the high 80s on Memorial Day. I'll bet their girls didn't get burned and blistered like Aubrey!

Josy showing us her black (literally) hot dog her dad grilled for her. He tried to get her to eat it by telling her it was chocolate!

Tai and Kristen with their babies. And bubbles.

More grill masters...except Zach (in the grey)...remember the "chocolate" hot dog?!

Forget my earlier comment that Aubrey ate only cookies and cupcakes. Here she is eating the strawberries and blueberries and shunning everything else. She has priorities.

And here's my other child that made a brief appearance in between soccer games.

Tai and I were so impressed with our dollar store decorations and plates. And then there's Aubrey's random My Little Pony to the right.

Tai even found blankets for everyone to sit on and picnic with!

We had such a blast at our barbeque. I got to know more people from our church and eat some delicious food. I've added new spices and bbq sauce to my pantry. The kids got to play with new friends. The weather was perfect. The whole barbeque went really well!

Hayden's turn to be awesome

So this is Hayden's third year at soccer, but the first year that he actually really got it. I've loved seeing him grow in the sport, from dogpiling the children who had the ball to playing in the grass to cheering for the wrong team...he's now figured out whose team he's on and what the rules are. His favorite position is the goalie but he'd play just about anywhere just to be in the game.

His newest life endeavor: play soccer for the US Olympic Team. Every evening after dinner he takes the soccer ball outside and says he needs to practice. It's hard to argue with his comment, "Mom, how will I make it into the Olympics if I don't practice every day!"

Could Jeremiah be any prouder? Probably not. Soccer runs in his blood.

Hayden's games were every Saturday for 8 weeks. I'm glad they're over and we can get back to normal Saturdays, but I miss cheering him on. His team went undefeated this year and he was so proud of that.

Aubrey likes to pose for pictures lately. She has a Ring Pop in her mouth and is dancing for me.

Roman actually found Hayden's games boring. He really wanted to play but wasn't old enough this year to be on Hayden's team.

Hayden taking a break at his game. They got snacks during half time and at the end of the game. Another reason Aubrey and Roman didn't like Hayden's games...he always got good food!

Hayden is the second kid there chasing after the ball. And yes, it's pink.

At his favorite post - goalie. He wore special gloves and loved kicking the ball as far as he could away from the goalie. He only let 2 or 3 balls in the whole season.

And yes, because his team was so good, there were several times during a game that this is what he was doing. Just hanging out.

At the end of each game the parents from both sides would make a tunnel for the kids to run through, I rarely got to do it because I had the other two kids and Jeremiah had already gone back to work, or I was taking pictures of the other parents being super cool.

I didn't feel like spending $12 for a team photo, so I got my own :) There were two girls on the team but I'm telling you, they were awesome.

The after-season party was at Chuck E. Cheese. I got the kids a few tokens to use because I was still feeling cheap :)

My gambler :)

Hayden with two of his teammates.

Cool trophy, right? It's a bobblehead. I love it.

I'm really proud of Hayden this year. He was such a good sport and would help the other team if they fell down. He'd give them a high five at the end of the game and say good job. He didn't care if he had to sit out for a bit and, instead of playing around like he used to, he insisted on sitting by his coach to cheer on his team. He may not be the best yet, and he might not ever be, but he finally found a sport he loves.

Bend it like Roman

Two years ago, we signed Roman up for soccer. After two games, we pulled him out and asked for a refund. Not that we were giving up on him, but when he insisted on holding the coach's hand throughout the entire game and would cry and run off the field if the coach insisted he "give it a try", we knew it wasn't the right time. My poor, shy, little boy.

This year, luckily, he's grown out of his shell quite a bit. I credit his amazing kindergarten teacher with this. She really pushed for him to make friends and to give him opportunities to do something out of his comfort zone. So when soccer started, he was a little shy for all of ten minutes. After his first practice, his coach (who by the way always had a red face) told me that he was worried at first that Roman wouldn't play much, but he warmed up so quick and was after the ball the whole time. He had huge confidence and (luckily) did not ask to hold the coach's hand. He didn't even care if I watched or not. He was just in it for the game. And I'm glad that I didn't need to watch his every move, because I had two other children who wanted to play on the toys...who cared that Roman was playing beautifully? Not these guys!

Check this out! Hayden learned to swing all by himself. Now when I'm at the park with the kids I have so much free time I don't know what to do with myself (because, of course, Aubrey is afraid of the swings and Roman finds them "boring".)

Roman is in the center-ish area with a blue shirt and tan shorts. I know, not soccer apparel, but it was one of "those" days for me where I didn't realize it was soccer practice day until 5 minutes before we had to be there. At least I got him there, right? He has soccer shoes, so I didn't completely strike out.

So I'm really kind of bummed that the coach's red face didn't show up that well. He's on the far left side with the kiddo in yellow. Roman's soccer class was just that, a class. They scrimmaged together but didn't play other teams. I think he's learned enough to start playing on a team next season. At least the thinks so, and that's all that matters.

Monkeys at the Circus

Wow. It has been a LONG time since I've posted! We're still trying to juggle work and family and by the time the kids are in bed Jeremiah and I have enough energy to half-watch, half-sleep through a tv show before we both crash for the night. Both of our jobs are draining and our energy is reserved for our little monkeys....

Speaking of monkeys....

I took the kids and their friend Logan to the Shriner's Circus in February (yup, that's how far behind I am!). Jeremiah was finishing up studying for the bar and I needed a break from my grumpy, overstressed hubs.

The boys had free tickets to the circus from their school, and I may or may not have asked them to snag two more for Logan and Aubrey. Then, as I was standing in line to buy my ticket, a nice old lady gave me her ticket. She must have thought all four kids were mine and that I needed that financial miracle :)

Herding four kids was a bit of a challenge, but we found decent seats - to be fair, none of the seats were "decent" unless you pulled out a loan for the front and center seats.

These are those talented ladies that swing on ropes. One girl twirled around hanging by her toes, while another twirled around in circles with only her teeth to keep her up. And there was no safety net. I know, right? Brave girls! I loved the performance.

These were the clowns, and I was so excited to see them, but they were lame. Their performance was meant more for the mature audience, something about losing weight, but the kids were really bored.

Aubrey, Logan, Roman, and Hayden. Logan is 9 months older than Hayden but you wouldn't know that by his height. My kids are unnaturally short. Logan's dad is kinda tall.

At intermission they brought out all sorts of great activities....that cost money. You can see they are blowing up the slide on the left. You could take a picture with the basalisk from Harry Potter (at least that's what it looked like) or a bear (with a nice sheet of safety glass to protect you) or an elephant. You could actually RIDE the elephant. I was tempted.

We went down to look at the elephants.

Aubrey's started this new thing where she "poses" for pictures. A lot of hip action going on.

Logan's mom gave him money that I think was supposed to be used for snacks, but he bought a light up thingy that Aubrey was in love with, especially when it turned "poo-ple", her favorite color.

Since intermission was incredibly long (they had to make sure everyone spent all their money!), the boys played tag in the ghetto zone underneath the bleachers.

The highlight for the kiddos was the dirt bikes - not sure when dirt bikes became circus material, but they were sure awesome. They did a LOT of stunts and luckily no one died.

Another highlight was the man (aka tiny red dot) that was shot out of a cannon and landed safely in the net. Hayden wondered why THAT wasn't offered during intermission!

And if getting into the circus free wasn't enough, Hayden found a bag of cotton candy on the ground next to the snack stand on our way out. He handed it to the cashier to give it back to her and she thought he was such a gentleman (insert my surprised look here) and gave him the back. So the kids got some cotton candy to keep them happy during the cold walk back to the car.

Note to self: Shriners Circus is really great.....when it's free. :)