Tapanga's Mess!

August 12
Tyler had gotten in trouble and was grounded to his room for the night and Tapanga decided to go visit. They were up there for awhile, when Tyler comes out...of course we start telling him to go back in his room...and he's like Tapanga colored on the floor.
"What?"
"Tapanga colored on the floor."
How can Tapanga color on the floor, they don't have any crayons up there, do they?
When I got upstairs this what I saw, Tapanga sitting on Tylers bed looking at books together. This is what was on the floor! It seems that the Pirate books that my mother in law bought for the kids still had the crayons in them. These crayons were extra soft and spread very well on the floor as you can see.

Never fear, a carpet cleaner works wonder! The crayon marks came out, thankfully, because I thought my mother would kill me! Up to this point I have been pretty lucky, knock on wood, the kids haven't made to many big messes. I have many friends whose kids have made some disasters!

Ugly Dress Bunco Night

July 27

For about a year we have been playing the game of Bunco once a month, a group of us girls will get together and play. It started out as being mostly CPOM members, but has ended up a whole assortment.

July was Joy's month to host and she wanted a theme, so she chose ugly dress night. Her and I even went to Goodwill to find our ugly dresses.
Here is mom, Diann, and I in our ugly dresses. Diann actually wore a dress that belonged to her mother and was being used as a dress up at the daycare.Toyna and Laura in their dresses. Kelley and Lisa...dressed to the nines!Me in my gorgeous pink dress and special Bunco hat.Melissa won the Bunco hat...she didn't dress up.

Becky won the ugliest dress of the night prize.

Tapangas Actual Birthday

August 11

Today was the first full day of school so I couldn't take the day off to spend with Tapanga. We did have plans for afterwards...special birthday dinner, cake, ice cream and presents!

For Tapanga's special birthday dinner we went to El Bracero, our favorite Mexican restaurant. Here Tapanga had chicken nuggets, rice and french fries.

Tyler celebrating Tapanga's 2nd birthday.

Tanner's not here...just kidding...also celebrating. After dinner the waiters came out with the big sombrero and sang Happy Birthday to Tapanga...which she didn't like very much!

But, she did like the fried ice cream they brought with them.

After dinner we went back to the house for cake and presents. Tapanga loved seeing presents with princess paper on them!

The brothers really wanted to be of help to their little sister.Tapanga got a horse! And her own tricycle! Cake time...of course, a princess cake! Tapanga loves her princesses!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Tapanga, happy birthday to you! Make a wish.Its a family affair.

Tapanga enjoyed trying bits and pieces of cake along the way...stick a finger in and get a taste.

Daddy and Tanner cooked us dinner

August 4

After leaving the Opryland Hotel on Sunday, Thomas and I decided to go to Costco. We were given an invitation at the food festival to visit, so we went to check it out. While there we sampled some hot dogs that were actually chicken with sun dried tomatoes and other spices, which Tanner loved! He begged us to buy some and so we did, then he and Thomas made us dinner! Got to read the directions first...make sure you know what you are doing. Making the noodles.

Grandma brought a present for Tanner...cucumbers! Time to get the dogs ready.

Putting the dogs on the grill...Cooked dogs

Everyone enjoying dinner...Grandma and Papa, Grammie and Grandpa, and the 5 T's.

Food and Wine Festival at Opryland Hotel

July 31 - August 2

Thomas was reading an email I got from Opryland Hotel and saw an advertisement for the Food and Wine Festival. As part of this special weekend, you get room accommodations, tickets to the exhibit hall, celebrity chef cooking seminars, and special meet and greet appearances. He really wanted to go...so why not?We left after work on Friday, which is also the day we had tickets to see our celebrity chefs cook. Our tickets were to see Jamie and Bobby Dean. The Dean brothers are the sons of the famous Paula Dean.

Here Thomas and I are waiting for the seminar to begin.

The seminar started a few minutes late. What surprised me first, was that they weren't really dressed the way I thought they would have been. But they came out talking, seeming like they were looking ready to have a good time, even though they had a couple glitches along the way. Jaime said something about his suitcase that got to fly here, but he had to drive from Atlanta, sounded to me like he had some plane issues and ended up having to drive which caused them to start late??? Anyways, they talked about all kinds of things. They talked about how Paula Dean got her start, about how they went door to door selling her bag lunches and about how even though they may be famous, when they are home they still work in the restaurant in Savannah.

They talked so much, that they got behind in doing the cooking part of the show, which was funny to watch. All of a sudden Jaime starts digging around in the fridge rustling for the ingredients and such. Then when he pulls out the ingredients, each one he is smelling and tasting trying to see how fresh it turns out to be. They continue to talk the whole time and rush around to cook their selected recipes of the night.

Here is a Tilapia Slider, with homemade slaw. We had a table right up front and were able to get one of the first six sandwiches. The sandwich wasn't that bad, this is coming from someone who doesn't like fish or tomatoes.

They also made another type of slider sandwich, sweet potato fries, and peach cobbler. None of which we got to sample.

After the cooking seminar, we had tickets to the celebrity meet and greet. Here we got to meet and talk with the Dean brothers. They seemed very nice and were extremely friendly, we talked about their weekend plans and whether they were going to see any sights while in Nashville. Jamie Dean was going to go to the zoo and Rainforest Cafe with his wife and son.

On Saturday morning, Thomas and I got up and went to find breakfast. After which we walked around the hotel just enjoying our time together. After walking around the hotel, it was time for us to use our tickets to the exhibit hall. Here there were many vendors set up handing out samples and trying to sell their products. Also in the exhibit hall was a place for cooking demonstrations and a kid section.Here Thomas and I get the secret to Bush's Baked Beans. They had a sample of recipes with the beans and freebies! I saw this women with a sticker that said "I was shot with food." I had thought I had read something about these food shots, but it really ended up being a food photographer taking pictures of people with food. Here I am in a pot. Thomas and I sat and watched a demonstration by the head chef of the steak house at the Opryland Hotel...we learned a couple things about butter, cooking a steak, and creme brulee (spelling?).

Thomas and I went back to the room for awhile after sitting through the cooking demonstration to relax before the kids arrived. Since we booked the package that included two nights at the hotel we had decided ask one of the parents to bring the kids up Saturday afternoon, then they could spend the night and enjoy the hotel. After, the kids got there we took them to the exhibit hall, where Thomas got "shot with food"...

as did Tanner...

and Tyler!

Then we took them to the kids area where they made cupcakes, sushi rolls, cookie pizzas, and ice cream sundaes...they could have also made s'mores, but enough was enough.

Tapanga was more into eating the candy than making the items.

The sushi roll was really pretty neat...you take a fruit roll up, rice crispy (flatter than normal), chocolate syrup and a gummy work and then roll it up like sushi.

Tanner was the only one to make an ice cream sundae, which he took two bites of an was done.

Tanner with his goodies.

Tyler with his.

Taking a break and trying the goodies...we ended up tasting and then taking them back to the room, where they didn't get eaten...but the kids had fun making them!

We then walked around a bit and the Farmers Market gave Tanner a cucumber...which became his baby.

Sunday morning when we got up we took the kids swimming, which they love doing. The water was a little chilly, but they didn't notice.

We had a great weekend, some alone time just Thomas and I, then some family time as the 5 T's!