Grad Party Food Review

I LOVE that Ben is a teacher and gets invited to graduation parties every year! It means I usually get a break from planning and preparing meals for a day or two. Food is almost the best thing about grad parties, so let me give you a review of the food selection today.

Party #1 The Athletic Director's daughter

Pasta Bar with fruit and green salad and breadsticks
A candy bar and lemon and strawberry cupcakes

I was not expecting pasta at a graduation party! It was pretty awesome because it was really cool and a little blustery. They had fettuccine and a choice of marinara or alfredo.

I had a lemon cupcake and it was SO good. Russell really liked the candy and pretty much only ate the candy.

Party #2 The A+ student

Sloppy Joes and various salads

The best part was that they had a slightly different version of frog-eye salad and pasta salad. Other than that it was pretty ho-hum normal. But they had after dinner mints, which I love. And, apparently so does Meghan because she quit squawking after I gave her one. Oh, and Doritos and Cheetos. Yum!

Party #3 Boy from Church

Taco Salad Bar
A candy bar with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes
A popcorn machine

I was really hoping for Mexican specifically walking tacos because since moving here they are what I expect to have a graduation parties. They are amazingly delicious! But, this Mexican food was good, too. I should have had more, but I didn't want to look like a pig :( The candy selection was a little bigger than at the first party, including more chocolate candy. Once again, Russell only wanted the candy, but he likes Mexican foods so I managed to get him to eat some bites. He was also pretty excited because he had friends at this party.

The last two parties both had this oreo cookie salad stuff. It's pretty good, but is probably more of a dessert. I'll have to find the recipe somewhere.

So we got lots of food today, and I only made breakfast. We have one more party in a couple weeks, so I'm hoping I get to have a walking taco. If not, we might need to make them for dinner ourselves one night.

Memorial Day and Ben's Birthday

We were graciously invited to spend Memorial Day weekend in Fond du Lac with Ben, Shannon, and girls. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing FdL.

Saturday we went to a place called Monkey Joe's that has a whole bunch of inflatables. Russell hated it, so he spent his time with this. And, playing the basketball arcade game.

 Meghan walked all over the place. She is now officially a walker instead of a crawler.

 Then we went to check out Lake Winnebago and play at the awesome park on it's shores. Ben and I both really loved the lake and the park, which is conveniently only a couple blocks from Ben and Shannon's house.

Lake Winnebago

 We spent about an hour playing at the park. It had exercise equipment along the jogging path, and all us adults took a turn trying some out.

Uncle Ben was pretty popular, especially with Holly.

And pushing the merry-go-round thing.

 Ben had to warm up to blow his candles out. The girls were impressed by all the smoke. Too bad there were only about half the candles on his cake. It would have been a lot more smoke if all 36 candles on it.

 Monday we went downtown and watched the Memorial Day parade. Everyone enjoyed it.

 Russell really liked all of the cars and trucks that drove by, and yelled out what each one was. He was impressed by the big fire trucks.

 I got in good driving practice in preparation for our big summer trip.

Transportation Fair

A couple weeks ago a friend called and told me about a transportation fair at the fairgrounds. I asked Russell if he wanted to go see some diggers and he said no. We stopped by the fairgrounds after running errands, and I asked if he wanted to get out. No again. I would have forced him, but he was about to cry and I didn't want to deal with it.

So, this Saturday we decided to head to yet another transportation fair in town hoping for better results. Russell loved it!

The excavator

By the big scoop

The tow truck. He even got to honk the horn!

 

There were some he refused, but I'm sure next year it will be more exciting for him.

Afternoon at the park

Russell's birthday celebration

After last year's debacle with our crazy tenant, I really wanted Russell to not have any unusual circumstance happen on his birthday. Luckily, we did some of his most favorite things today. We enjoyed breakfast with Dad before he went to school. Then we puttered around, Russell played cars, watched some Curious George. All the students at school wanted to sing "Happy Birthday" to Russell, so Ben's biology and chemistry classes skyped us and sang to Russell. We also had to run some quick errands including going to the library really quickly to return some books and Russell could walk over the little bridge they have and see the fish.

 Russell's birthday dinner of hot dogs, veggies and watermelon. It was a hit with everyone (I managed to actually eat TWO hot dogs!)

 Russell has been telling me he wants a car cake. So I looked around on pinterest and found one that looked relatively easy. The hardest part was Russell wouldn't leave me alone while I was making it.

 Some of our friends from the ward who live close came over and had cake and ice cream with us. Good things because two cars ended up being more cake than just the four of us could eat.

Russell was thrilled with his presents. He has been wanting those trains for weeks and weeks and kept telling me he needed the big trains to add to his train collection. When he opened the first one he squealed and twirled around in circles while staring longingly at it. I was worried he wouldn't open up his diggers. He also had to have his trains watch over him when he went to bed.

Three Years of Russell

When he was born. I will never get tired of this picture.

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

These three years have been a blast (minus the Fussy Russy stage). He has grown so much and has such a fun personality. He is a good big brother for Meghan.  We love him and are happy he is in our family.