Happy Friday of Memorial Day weekend everybody! This weekend always makes it feel like summer has officially started. Growing up on Cape Cod, the population would increase so much from Memorial Day to Labor Day and while those visitors were our bread and butter, it sure made the bridge traffic unbearable. I love living on this side of the bridge now, in a beautiful coastal town where we can afford to raise our family. I still love to visit the Cape though :)
I also love to visit Newport, Rhode Island and that's what we did for our anniversary date on Friday. It was a beautiful day and we went to Pasta Beach for an early dinner where we filled up on (too expensive) dinners. Phil's bowl of pasta was $23. That's cuckoo, right?
Even when we reserve seats at restaurants, we always seem to get thee worst table available. It's a running joke at this point. This table was right by the employee/delivery door and I had to keep getting out of my seat to let deliveries in.
We walked around the town, stopped by an Irish pub, walked some more and then drove back home while listening to our wedding song ("It's Your Love" by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill) and I played "22" by Taylor Swift even though I am the opposite of a Swiftie (a Slowie?) but it did fit the 22 year anniversary theme.
Of course we had some ice cream from the Cottage to end the night. This is our new special flavor - Candy Shoppe. Vanilla ice cream with mini M&Ms, snickers and KitKats.
The problem with eating all those carbs is that I just want to continue eating carbs all weekend and after dropping Maggie off for her track meet on Saturday morning, I went and picked up some New York Bagels, always a treat!
I tried something new from Aldi's this week - Chili Lime Chicken Skewers - and Phil grilled them with some zucchini and they were sooooo good. Not the zucchini though, that texture is just too slimy for 100% of the family.
We are going through groceries like crazy now that the college guys are home and the little guys are only getting bigger by the day. Shopping at Aldi's helps, cooking at home helps, but I would love to figure out how else to cut costs while still providing healthy meals. We believe in lots of protein around here, so I won't just cook some cheap pasta and skimp that way, these kids need their proteins! But maybe I could cook some protein pasta and use less meat in the sauce? Tips like that I need to know.
Declan (front row on right) went on a field trip to the Boston Museum of Science this week, which makes me so happy to be bringing back field trips after these kiddos had these experiences closed to them for so long.
Maggie was inducted into the National Honor Society this week. She was asked to crown Mary:
And I had a flashback to when she was chosen to crown Mary back in 2nd grade:
May you always be like Our Lady, my girl!
Eamon is the current Treasurer of the NHS and he had to do a reading.
Maggie received her certificate and pin from the officers and her and Eamon shared a sweet laugh.
The Maggie's being all coastal granddaughter-y, Maggie borrowed that dress from Andrew's girlfriend...so nice to have "sisters" like that:
Eamon and his girlfriend, Ellie, who is also an NHS officer:
And then yesterday, that same cutie patootie boy of ours was hit by a car running a red light.
Everybody is fine.
His car's airbags deployed and got a lot of damage, so we are waiting to hear back from the insurance company but it's totaled. Eamon was driving the blue Honda and the other guy was driving the red car. A nice lady was driving behind Eamon, saw the whole thing and waited with him to give a statement to the police. The lights have cameras, so it will be very easy to determine that the other guy was 100% at fault. He knew it, but kept saying "I thought it was green". Phil drove to the scene and handled everything with Eamon, and when they got home I gave him the biggest hug and asked him if he thanked his guardian angel and he said he thanked God right away that everyone was okay. I love that boy so much!
Guess we are going car shopping soon as Maggie will be getting her license in a couple weeks, so we are now down to three cars with soon-to-be six drivers at home. Never a dull moment around here :)
Have a wonderful long Memorial Day weekend everybody! Hug your loved ones extra tight!!
My goodness, I am so happy Eamon (and everyone) involved in the accident are alright! How frightening! But the car shopping ! Ugh! On the other hand, Maggie crowning Mary was certainly a bright spot in your week! Prayers that car shopping will be tolerable!
ReplyDeleteThank you - he was very lucky!
DeleteOh, I'm glad he's okay! First accidents are hard, but I glad he handled it with grace. And a witness who stays around is always a blessing! Sorry about the car- they're so expensive right now. I hope you can find something to suit!
ReplyDeleteThey are sooooo expensive :(
DeleteUh that seat sounds terrible! Glad you have good humor about it all - and man that ice cream looks delicious! Do you guys wait in line at the cottage or just go in the back and get it yourself? owners privileges and all!
ReplyDeleteOMG how scary! So glad everyone is ok and that the witness stuck around. I'll never forget when I got in one in h/s and I was so shaken up, I didn't know what to do. and the guy who hit me kept trying to talk to me and a witness intervened and said "do not talk to her, she needs space!" and he said to me "ill stay until your dad and the police get here ok?" and he stood outside my car. i think of him every so often.
What a nice guy! I'm so glad for the witness that made Eamon feel comfortable right away. We do typically wait in line if we bring the little kids down. But usually we just ask the big kids to bring us home something :)
DeleteYikes! Praise God no one was hurt; accidents are so scary.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary.
I cannot imagine feeding so many people! I feel like both the cost and time involved with feeding our little family of four is a lot. But you seem very creative with your food choices with lots of variety. It always looks delicious!!
Oh thank you but I obviously only post pics and recipes for the good stuff...otherwise we are eating the same old, same old :)
DeleteI am so glad no one was hurt! Aieee. What an experience.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, I am living in a really touristy town now, and it really does change in the season. In Calgary, the traffic would get exponentially better in the summer as everyone went on vacation - to Kelowna! Lol, not everyone of course, but it is a destination for Albertans. And so it's funny to see tourist season start to ramp up - it really doesn't get going until late June here, but already I've been warned about the grocery store on Lakeshore, the bridge traffic, etc. It's a whole new experience for me!
With regards to eating out - it's crazy. I went for lunch with my girlfriends a few weeks ago - LUNCH - and I had a salad and a club soda, and with tax and tip it was $37. The salad was sub par in my opinion, to add insult to injury. It's just so expensive these days.
In terms of low-cost protein, it doesn't get better than tofu. I use it a couple times a week, mostly sauteed for stir-fries or things like that.
OK I've never eaten tofu sooooooo maybe I could try it. Will the kids and husband revolt? Probably!
DeleteSo scary about the car accident, but so very glad everyone is OK. I died laughing at you sitting by the delivery door. What on earth? Coach proposed to me at a table that was right outside the kitchen door and the door kept flying open and it was so distracting. When other patrons turned to look at him when he got down on his knee, I thought they were all looking at the commotion going on in the kitchen. It was so funny. I hear you on feeding your people. How are we already out of milk? Tonight I picked the rest of chicken off of two Costco chickens, threw them on some soft taco shells with cheese and called it cheese and chicken quesadillas. Garnish as you see fit.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, he proposed in front of the kitchen door! I'm dead! Just an introduction to the chaotic life you two would make together I suppose :)
DeleteSo glad everyone is okay!!! I've seen those skewers at Aldi and wondered if they were any good! Thanks for the tip. Aldi is my favorite. Wish I could help with protein tips. Dan and I are doing high protein low carb and it's just so expensive. I threw two large frozen chicken breasts in a crock pot with 1/2 a brick of cream cheese, one Ranch dressing packet, and 4 TBS of butter and let it cook on low all day while I was at work. It was delicious!!!! I know you probably have a million chicken recipes but that's the one protein we seem to keep going back to on this diet. Everything seems so expensive at the grocery stores these days so maybe high protein pasta is the way to go for you guys. Also, have you seen the viral cottage cheese bread recipe where you use cottage cheese to make bread for a wrap? It looks intriguing but I haven't tried it yet.
ReplyDelete