Week in Review: Dressing Alike, Meals for Nine and Embarrassed TV Stars

Hey June!  Nice to see ya!  We've been going crazy over here, thanks for asking, with even more craziness to come.  I like to think I can mostly keep it all together, but then I have a slip-up that keeps me humble, like my latest gym faux pas.  I forgot to pack a towel (I shower at the gym when I workout on my lunch break) but found a shawl in the back of my car that I was going to drop off to goodwill, so I used that.  Turns out decorative shawls are not very absorbent:

Declan had his middle school History Fair...

*I think I forgot to mention that he went to his first middle school dance a few weeks ago.  He's still a little boy in my mind, so this was hard to wrap my head around.  When he came home, we asked him how the dance was, and he said "It was so fun, we played soccer the whole time!"  He's still my sweet little boy :)* 

... and reported on the Ancient Olympics and dressed like a greek god.  He was not allowed to dress like an ancient Olympian because did you know they participated in the nude?  Yikes!  Andrew, Eamon and I were able to swing by the school to see his presentation:

They don't always dress alike

He got an A, but more importantly did NOT place, which is the sweet spot of history and science fairs for our family.  Phil and I took him out to dinner (you may remember we had promised him a dinner out after we had to miss his NJHS Induction) and I told him he could order whatever his heart wanted, and his heart wanted the biggest Shirley Temple with three cherries.

I had seen a video for Chicken Parm Smashed Tacos and Phil basically tweaked this recipe to create the most delicious dinner of the week:

We're still on the hunt for the meatball recipe that tastes like our old one (which included a meatball mix that we can no longer find) and this one came pretty close but maybe we will omit the oregano next time:

This Street Corn Chicken Rice Bowl was so so so good, though we replaced thighs for breasts.  Most of the kids ate it without the delicious sauce on top because they do not appreciate taste.

Have you seen the viral Dot Cakes going around the interwebs right now?  We created our own version,  a Dot Ice Cream Cake, for the Cottage and it is *chef's kiss*:

Declan and Brendan served their first wedding, and made $20 each!  Phil and I ate out at the restaurant nearby while they were serving, and Father texted us to pull up by the fire escape and he would send them out:

Like a modern day Norman Rockwell

Brendan had his Fine Arts Night at school, where they sing some songs and display art work.  This is a mandatory event for K-5th graders and that means we only have ONE MORE YEAR to go!  Perhaps I'll be a bit more sentimental in a year, perhaps not.

Brendan on left in orange polo, not to be confused with his classmate in the exact same polo.

Phil and I were sitting out on our porch on Friday night, when I heard a car with a flat tire stop in front of our house.  Phil went out to ask the driver if he wanted to pull into our driveway to change the tire, and he did.  He was a young kid who clearly had no idea what to do, so Phil ended up working on the tire.  The (I never claimed to be a mechanic) "screws" were "stripped" or something and they couldn't get the last one off.  I sent Eamon out to help and then Phil got my dad to come out of his house, but even with all those amazing minds and strong muscles and tools galore, they just couldn't get the tire off after trying for over an hour.  The young driver's dad eventually came and they decided to drive home on the flat tire and get it fixed later.

Amateur golfers (Andrew + Eamon) gotta golf:

Declan has been inspired by his gym-going big bros to build some muscles over the summer, and I thought his written out workout plan, taped near the pullup bar, and complete with muscle man drawing, was just too cute:

Actually, it was:

Get it?

OK and now the biggest news... drumroll please...

We were filmed for the Chronicle tv show!

Chronicle was a show I grew up watching each night with my parents.  It's a show that travels to lovely places in New England and reports on heart-warming stories.  They saw our shop on social media and reached out to include us in an episode about ice cream shops.  Some of my family and our friends were able to come out and get on camera too!

We don't always dress alike

My parents, the OG ice cream shop owners of the family

The boys

My oldest brother, his wife and son with my parents

All Seven - They don't always dress alike

I'm going to be mortified watching this episode when it airs in a couple weeks, but I know it will be great for business!  The kids were told to do some funny things that they are already embarrassed about, but it should come out cute!

And *I can say this now that we are TV stars* that's a wrap!  Haha!  I hope you all have a wonderful June weekend.  We are feet deep in Maggie's senior events and people visiting, but that's a post for another day week.