Celebration Weekend

This our new Mommy & Daddy shot to send to Thailand. Our referral letter asks us to send a photo album of ourselves and home and family. I already sent 2 of them with Wacap last November, but what the heck, I'll send another. Can't hurt, I guess. 

We are still reeling from our good news! Have had a great time sharing it with our friends and family. Everyone is really happy for us. Lots of calls and emails and comments have been coming in, too, and THANK YOU cause it sure means a lot to us!

Much to celebrate right now! May and June are a busy time for us with lots of birthdays. We celebrated my Dad's on May 8th, our nephew Anthony's a few weeks ago, my dear friends Kimi and Tammy last week, my sister in law, Melissa yesterday, and our nephew, Ryan's is next week. Then Thursday we will be in FL celebrating my friend Jen's 40th and my brother Jason's is in June.  

So we have quite the social schedule this weekend and coming up. We were at my brother's yesterday to celebrate both Melissa and Ryan's birthday and at our neighbors for a BBQ today. Tomorrow we have friends coming for a cook out and Tuesday I think I am going to need to go on a serious diet! Aaah, summer. What can you do? We are having fun and we might as well do all this socializing now. Speaking of diet - or lack there-of - I came up with a new appetizer to take to parties. Came up with it myself with what was in fridge one day and to my surprise it turned out pretty good. Thought I would share...

Blue Cheese Portabella Mushrooms

Portabella Mushrooms (medium size - not the real big ones)

Crumbled Blue Cheese

Crumbled Goat cheese

Red onion diced

Pine nuts crushed

Herbs de Provence

Pepper

Oregano

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar (I used a fig balsamic vinegar this time and it was real yummy!)

So take out the stem and fill half way with olive oil.

Heat oven on broil.

Make a mixture of the cheeses, onion, and pine nuts then add the herbs. Don't add salt. Blue cheese is salty enough. 

Spoon mixture into mushroom caps and drizzle balsamic vinegar.

Broil for 5-10 minutes. Be sure to watch them cause it cooks fast and you can burn the cheese.

You can drizzle a tad more vinegar before serving if it cooked out. Enjoy!

(and FYI, really easy but looks impressive. My kind of recipe!)

A few shots from our recent celebrations:

Dad's birthday dinner at our house. Chloe in the background still recovering from paw surgery.

Birthday lunch in NYC with friends Tammy, Kimi, and Jenn (for Tammy & Kimi's birthday).

My brother Jason, Ryan, and Melissa (the birthday girl!)

Ryan with his presents.

Birthday boy Ryan with blue Carvel ice cream cake goo on his finger. He actually wanted to share it with me and can I just say I am ready to be a mom cause he was so cute I licked the goo he offered me off his finger. YUCK! 

My brother Jason racing his son. Ryan made us all do it a couple times. Look at him running like he's going for the gold medal. I love his face in this and also my brother's proud smile.

Here is Jeff's go at it.  Love this shot. Jeff's gonna be a great Daddy!

Mom and son blowing out the candles. He said, come on, Mommy, we are going to blow the candles out together! So sweet.

Jeff and our friend Bill at his house today. 

...and one with all the guys hanging out.

Jeff is still over there hanging, but I am pooped! Enjoying a little quiet time and staring at my sweet baby's picture again. Oh, how lucky we are!