I’m struggling a little bit to write my intro this week, it’s been a long day of parenting. So instead of sweating it out I’m going to keep it short and sweet.
It was a great week- I got to spend time with my friends and I posted some really good recipes! Here are 5 more things that made me grateful this week:
Love Letters
The other day I stopped at our mailbox to get the mail for the day (read week). When I hopped back in the car Kyle said “do I have any cards in the mail?”. Of course he didn’t. Writing letters and sending cards is definitely a lost art. Not to mention when this happened it was the end of January when NOTHING is happening and there was no reason for him to receive any mail. I said “Well, no buddy, the best way to receive mail is to send mail.”. So we decided he would send a card to his little friend in Arizona, we’ll call her P.
Kyle went to the dollar store and picked out the cutest Valentine card that had a little mouse on the front. He said I think P will really like this little mouse! My heart melts!
Kyle is just 5 so he is not reading yet and cannot spell, except for his name. He knows his letters, but they are written out in a very shaky and nonuniform way. I sat down with him to write out the card and it could not have been cuter! He accidentally wrote Kyle first instead of Love.. so the end of the card said Kyle Love. HA! Then he drew the sweetest picture of him and P at the top of the card. He sealed the card and placed the stamp with pride.
My heart was filled with SO MUCH gratitude as I got to sit with Kyle and help him write this little love letter to P. I loved seeing how proud he was of the letters he could write.
Daddy Daughter Dance
This past weekend was the big Daddy Daughter Dance. It’s a night where the Dads take their daughters out to a fun dinner and then go to a big dance. The girls get to dance with their friends, eat desserts, take pictures in a fun photo booth, and dance with their Dads.
Maddie gets so excited to get dressed up. She gets to wear a fancy dress, heels, and a little make up. Her favorite part is that she gets to have her hair straightened, usually she’s a curly girl. This year she told John he could not wear his “work clothes” and that she expected him to be wearing a full suit. John of course abided by the new rules and wore his black pinstriped suit. They looked so handsome!
I love that John is a willing participant in this night. It makes me so happy that he can be the one to show her how she should be treated on a date.
An Afternoon on the Slopes
It finally snowed here in KC. We get very little snow in the winter. And when we do it never seems like enough to play in, make snowmen, or go sledding. On Sunday they were calling for a dusting of snow… which usually ends up being no snow because the weather system breaks up or moves north or south. This time it was a direct hit for about 4 hours. It only accumulated to about 1.5 inches. But, to us that was enough to warrant a day in the snow! Seize the day!
We made our way to a park nearby that has a little hill separating the neighborhood homes from the park. We pushed the kids down the hill, and even joined them on a few runs. It was pure family fun, freezing, but fun! Not to mention we came home and capped it off with a family game of Go Fish (with adult cards : ).
Today I was so grateful for the snow and the opportunity to go sledding with the kids.
Super Buffet Sunday
Have you ever had a day of eating that made you so happy? You know I have! I love food, I have a food web site for goodness sakes!
On Super Bowl Sunday we had planned to eat yummy, bad-for-you, food all day and it did not disappoint! We spread the feasting out perfectly over the course of the day so we could enjoy all the things without getting stuffed. Here was our perfect day of eating:
- In the late afternoon my family ate an entire bag of Doritos in one sitting! We don’t have Doritos very often so when we get a bag they are devoured.
- A little later John whipped up some boneless hot wings. Finger lickin’ good!
- Then we dug into a bag of tortilla chips and dipped them into fresh salsa and homemade guacamole.
- For dinner we had my Classic Chili with crackers.
- Maddie had made brownies earlier in the day. So we ended our Super Buffet Sunday with a little Justin Timberlake Halftime Show and Ice Cream Brownie Sundaes.
Food makes me happy!
I was so grateful for this day of perfect eating and snacking (without feeling guilty). YUM!
Picture Perfect
One part of my food blog that I absolutely love is doing food photography. It hard, wonderful, fun, and frustrating all at the same time. It is the one part that I had no experience with when I started Mom’s Dinner.
In the beginning I was taking pictures with my cell phone. After about 6 months I finally decided it was time to buy a fancy camera. I decided on a Canon. Now I just needed to learn how to use it! The manual may as well have been written in Chinese. In July I took the Pinch of Yum photography workshop in Minneapolis. I learned how to use my camera in manual mode and all the tips and trick of food photography.
I have come a long way in the past 9 months since I first bought my camera. Now I am taking photos that I am super proud of and this past week I got validation that they are pretty darn good!
Over the past year I have tried to submit photos to a web site called Foodgawker a few times. It is not a site that just anyone can post to, your photos have to be approved and accepted for publishing. All my photos submissions have been rejected until this past week. I had 4 photos approved for their site!!! FOUR!!!! I was so super excited!
I loved this moment of realizing how far I have come and knowing that all my hard work is starting to pay off.
This week I was so proud and grateful to be able to put the Foodgawker Icon on my home page!
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