the man party

this weekend was larry's birthday.

in the past we haven't been very good about celebrating each others birthday's.

i'm not really sure why this is. i think it might have something to do with the fact that we tend to be out of town on our birthday's.

or it could be that as a kid my parents didn't really celebrate theirs.

anyway, i decided that it's time for that to change!

so i tried to quickly organize a man party for larry.

and no man party is complete without a "manly" cake.

our friend stacey is such a cake genius!

she only had a couple days notice and this was what she was able to put together

larry loved it of course.

the trophy pose

the entire cake was edible so we couldn't resist

getting some silly shots of the disassembled body parts

the only pictures i got guest wise were the two dans

dan h. enjoying an ear

dan r. chomping on an antler

and even though it was a "man" party, i couldn't leave the kids out

when the cake was so awesome!

bella chowing on.... i'm not even really sure what that is

after cake the men went off to see sherlock holmes and had a good ol time.

all in all, i would consider the first man party a success.

of course without the rocking cake it would have been lacking so thanks stac for taking an idea and bringing it to life! you are the best!!

evolution of a self portrait

hmmm...... not quite
closer but still lacking

perfect - especially the cheeto smile

larry and brendan spent last weekend hunting. the results of the big hunt.... nadda. but they did have a lot of fabulous father son time and that counts for a lot.

rockies game and camping

awesome time enjoying the game together.

last week brendan and larry were able to get in a lot of "manly" time. first brendan's 5th grade class went on a field trip to the rockies game and larry went along and chaperoned. they had an awesome time enjoying the game together.

the field trip started with watching bating practice which brendan said was "way cool mom". larry even caught a ball as a memento of the day.

i'm not really sure what this pose is all about but it's cute - i mean it's very tough looking so i wanted to post it. (cute is for babies and girls according to my son)

some of the kids from his class with their teacher. sadly larry didn't get any pictures of him and brendan together.

to finish off the week they went to the father\son campout together and had yet another great time. brendan looks forward to the campout every year and always comes home with some wild stories. i'm glad that he and larry share a love of camping and the outdoors.

as for me and the girls, never fear we kept ourselves entertained. i worked on some projects that i've been wanting to do for awhile. and friday night we had some girl friends over for dessert and movie time. the girls are always begging for sleepovers so their friends wore pajamas over and watched movies in their room. all the stuff you do at a sleepover, except at bedtime their friends went home. they had a great time and the "big" girls (big as in age not as in weight ;) ) had fun too! all in all it was a great weekend.

pheasant - the new chicken!!

larry went pheasant hunting on saturday. to be honest with you i just thought he was going to have a good time and relieve a little stress. i didn't actually think we were expected to eat what he brought home! so imagine my surprise when he walked in with a beautiful pheasant, they are truly pretty birds, and announced that he was going to go and remove the breasts so we could eat them. seriously?!? we are going to eat it?? i questioned in my best supportive yet alarmed tone. you betcha was his reply - and off we went with kids in tow to clean it. one of the most surprising parts to me is that the kids watched the whole process and thought it was cool. when the tail feathers are dry bella wants to hang them in her room. one word comes to mind here - Gross!! but i have to wonder - are the girls going to be into hunting as well?? a whole little family of hunters? minus me of course

so last night we had said bird in one of our favorite family meals (mixed with chicken because we needed more meat) and it was really good. taste wise there was almost no difference between the two. maybe this wild game eating thing won't be so bad after all.....

here is the recipe i used. i got it years ago from my friend emma and it has become a family staple in the winter. it's really simple and yummy.

chicken and rice

3-4 chicken breasts (can be frozen)
1 1\2 c instant rice
1 can cream of chicken, cream of celery and cheddar cheese soup
2 c water + 1 1\2 soup cans water
salt and pepper to taste

place chicken in 9x13 pan. pour rice and 2 c water over top. in a medium sized bowl mix the soups and 1 1\2 soup cans water together until blended. pour over chicken and stir a little bit to mix. cover with foil and bake for 2 hours at 350. it will look a little soupy when you take it out but as you stir it will thicken.