Basement Birthday, MCC & Ree Makes 3: Part II

 This is continued from Post I.  Live Writer seemed to think I had TOO many photos for just one post.  {It’s true}

I got to go meet the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond on Thursday! I couldn’t share it with you all Friday, because of Weekend Potluck, so I bumped it to today! Thus, the MEGA full post! I went with my best friend, Kasey and of course, I took my camera to photograph the whole thing. 🙂

My notebooks of Tasty Kitchen print-offs ready to be signed….

“We are going to meet PIONEER WOMAN!!!!” {Squeeeeeeeeeeee!}

Crazy Driver, oops! I meant, The Driver.

  I don’t know HOW we got lost and had to drive all over creation to find the theatre. I mean, I gave SUCH good instructions. I am pretty sure Kasey has laughed until she has cried several times over my notes. Well, I thought I listened to Dale VERY Carefully. I don’t drive in Wichita and apparently that makes a difference in the kind of notes you take?!?!?!?!?

Despite some squealing tires and hair pin turns, we still made it on time (with ONE MINUTE TO SPARE) to get seats at the back of the theatre. Good thing we had great tickets, numbers 203-204.

 

Ticket numbers 500 and up, had to stand outside in a line around the building. Highest ticket number we heard?

1500!!!!!!

After an hour of waiting, she came on stage!

Ree Drummond!!!!!

  She gave the CUTEST slide show presentation about her life and start of her blog. This presentation included ugly food photos, cowboy butts, photos of her babies and of course, Charlie. The Charlie portion including a lovely song. She seriously had us cracking up!!!!!

They had her come sit at a desk right in front of where we were seated and began to call ticket numbers, starting 1-25.

Cowboy Josh was there, and quite a hit with the ladies.

We waited another 2 hours until they called our ticket numbers. Can you imagine how long number 1500 waited?!?!?!?!

Then, the big moment…..IT WAS OUR TURN! The ladies that worked up there almost didn’t let me go through! Saying TWICE, that they were just SURE I had already been through once. One even checked my books out to be sure they weren’t signed. {I think they thought I was you, Jamie Wyatt!} 🙂

Once I got through the Bookstore Body Guards, our 30 seconds sure went fast, and I am not sure I can remember what all was said. Honestly, the only thing I can remember was teasing her that her cheeks must hurt from smiling so much, so we all massaged our faces a bit before this mini photo session. Poor thing was soo sweet, but you could tell she was exhausted! And still had ticket numbers 250-1500 to go!

Thanks to a HUGE surprise from Kasey’s sweet Momma, Pam, I had a REAL cookbook for Ree to sign in addition to my two “homemade” ones. {Squeee!!!!}

We headed to Newport Grill for supper at 9, exhausted but thrilled with our fun “Mom’s Night Out”. The first one in a long time with no nursing babies waiting for us at home!

ROCK SHRIMP CIGARS melted leeks, pineapple, fresno chili

BABY ARUGULA SALAD: shaved fennel, celery, Belgian endive, pomegranate, goat cheese, apple, sherry vinaigrette

Served with Artisan Bread with sweet salted butter

Smoked potato “tater tots”

The waiter made Kasey do a blind taste test. Hysterical! {She nailed it!}

HAWAIIAN AHI TUNA hazelnut brown butter, crispy brussels sprouts, quinoa & tart cherries

It was SO GOOD!

Dessert with Banana Bread Pudding with caramel and ice cream. But alas, I was too busy eating and did not get a shot! 🙂

We started driving home at 10, full and yawning, no longer used to being out so late! Does that mean we are getting old, or does that mean we have 7 young children between us?

Let’s go with the second option…..

Welp, that’s all folks. Thanks for letting me share ALLLL my photos with you! 🙂

Happy Monday,

~T

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Basement Birthday, MCC & Ree Makes 3: Part I

  This is a fully loaded blog post title if I ever saw one!!!!  And talk about photo-laden. Phew! Brace yourself people!

   We had a FABULOUS and crazy weekend! First up, the MCC Sale, which Dale and I have gone to every year since we were kids.  We both remember hanging out under the stage by the lake all day with our friends and can’t BELIEVE we don’t remember meeting.   The relief sale is so fun, and all proceeds go to help those in need across the globe…..I talked more about all of that last year.  We are always looking for fun places to go walk around as a family!

   And let’s not forget eating that yummy food! We don’t eat supper there, but do pack a few things to have snack time with their oh-so famous Cheese Curds and New Years Cookies!

  Destiny’s 2nd cousin, Brooklyn, got to join us.  Here are the photos from our evening:

Freshly made Whoopie Pies. OH MY YUMMY GOODNESS……

I’ve apparently raised Paxton right, to have SUCH appreciation for these sorts of things……

But no, I wouldn’t let him have any. Come on now, he had already had a New Years Cookie!

Check out these 8 years olds, talking on the Brooklyn’s toy cell phone, like a bunch of teenagers…oh boy!

“Me too, Momma.  Take my picture while I do it just like big brother.”

  We had a picnic snack in the grassy area by the lake and stage, and the girls put on an AMAZING dance and singing show!

Playing with the zoom on my new lens….Guess it’s Ty’s turn for the toy cell phone?

Still playing with my lens. I present to you, “The many faces of Dale.”

Time to go, it’s getting late and our rule is “Always leave while everyone is still happy!”  🙂

Dale celebrated the big 3-1 on Saturday, and of course I made him his FAVORITE, Lemon Pudding Dessert!  That old post made me giggle when I re-read it.  (Might have been the image of me chasing a fox down the driveway in robe and slippers.)  AND, I couldn’t believe how much Paxton has changed, or my dessert photo!

  We partied it up down in the basement of my Uncle’s office, since there were HORRIBLE storms all through the mid-west, and we don’t have a storm shelter or basement!

This article, shared on facebook Saturday afternoon says:

“In an unusual move, national weather forecaster have issued an early warning, that conditions are ripe for violent tornadoes to rip through the Midwest this weekend. The expected weekend storms will stretch from Texas to Minnesota and could be a “high-end, life threatening event”. 

This is only the second time in history that the Storm Prediction Center issued a high-risk warning more than 24 hours in advance…….

The worst weather is expected to develop late Saturday afternoon between Oklahoma City and Salina, Kan., Other areas also could see severe storms with baseball-sized hail and winds of up to 70 mph, forecasters told the AP.”

Have you every tried to pack 6 people for an unknown amount of hours to go to a location with no toys or beds? This is what it looks like.

Plus a big bag of water and snacks. And a bean bag. And a trike. And the dog and cat. 

Ok, not the dog or cat, but the kids would’ve loved that. Oh, and in the end no bean bag or trike either. We quickly ran out of room in the Tahoe.

  While we were there with family, we went ahead and made the best of it, and had a mini celebration for Dale’s birthday!

We played Monkey in the Middle on the stairs and other games, too…..

The kids got to watch a movie, and I got some crafty stuff done.

 We were in that office basement from 5:30 to almost 10. At the time, 50 tornadoes had been sighted all around us, but all seemed to calm down after that, so we decided to head home.  Paxton snored the whole way, and as soon as we got there, Tylan crashed on the living room floor. Poor sleepy babies!  10:00 bedtime is A LOT different from the norm!

  Just as we unpacked the very full car, and had gotten all the kids down, a whole new batch of storms fired up SW of us.  At one point they thought they were coming to our town……GREAT, and we just got home, too!  We decided to keep an eye on things and just use our play closet for shelter if something changed.  Praise God, nothing happened!  {YAWN} That was a short night and a LOT of weather-channel watching!!!!! 

  The God we serve is such an AWESOME God!! Hearing reports of how tornadoes lifted just in time to miss entire towns…wow!  He hears our prayers and works in mysterious and wonderful ways!!  Now, while we are talking about praying, let’s pray we don’t have another night like that for a long time! Phew!  Over 100 tornadoes touched down all around us, over the course of the night and early hours of the morning. A nearby county reports an estimated total of $280 million in damage.  😦

   Windows Live Writer won’t let me post anymore, so the “Ree Makes 3” part of this post will be have to be continued…….

In the next post! 🙂

~T