Family Fun on Easter Weekend, Part 1.

Jace and I started our weekend with our three hour trip to my parents' home on Friday evening. We played all "B's" on the Ipod: started with Ben Folds/Ben Folds Five for the first hour, then on to Billy Joel's greatest hits volumes one and two, Ben Harper, and finishing up with a little Beyonce and finishing up with Britney's newest tunes. I'm educating Jace on old and new music - he knows as many Billy Joel songs as Britney, which is how it should be.

We have had a great visit; in addition to being home for the Easter holiday, we also had a baby shower for sister Tara. She's due with baby boy Isaac on June 13, which is very quickly approaching. Here are a few pics from yesterday:



Tara and Luke came down for the shower, along with Luke's mother and sister-in-law. Five of Tara's high school and college friends were also in attendance. But although Tara was of course the guest of honor, she had a little competition from little Miss Eva, our newest niece, pictured above on her mom Michele's lap.

Tara is definitely "showing", but has gained just a little weight - less than 20 pounds. We had a good laugh reminiscing about my outfit for my baby shower with Jace, almost 11 years ago- I wore a lovely flowered outfit, a sort of maternity shorts/jumper. Thankfully things are a little more stylish now.

We did get some pictures outside after the shower, all of us sisters, and s-in-law Michele (l to right - Michele, Ann, Tara, me and Susan). There were some boys in attendance as well, with Dad-to-be Luke entertaining Eva. Rob and Sam posed for a pic for me, with Sam looking like a real bruiser. He had an accident last week, ran into the gas meter in their back yard. His mom is hoping the black eye goes away fairly quickly, since they have family pictures scheduled for next week.

We had a quiet evening, after I fixed dinner, which was the surprise of the weekend, apparently. If you know me, you know I'm not much of a cook. Ok, not a cook at all. The family likes to tease me that my most well-known meal is frozen pizza and applesauce, and unfortunately, they're somewhat accurate. I can make breakfast- eggs, sausage, pancakes, french toast, etc. But when it comes to real dinners, I've just not done much. Poor Jace, he gets breakfast a couple nights a week, and then often chicken, and just a few of his other favorites. Luckily Dave is a cook, so we do eat healthy and yummy when he cooks.

I made Dave's spaghetti sauce last night, and although I am sure it was not exactly like his, it was a hit. It involved boiling three different kinds of bell peppers and onions in beer, and adding sauteed mushrooms, sliced links of sweet italian sausage, ground beef and a few other secret ingredients into store-bought spaghetti sauce. I made a salad with spinach, sliced strawberries and kiwi, honey-roasted almonds and raspberry viniagrette dressing.


And, of course, a little bit of this:


Now it is Sunday morning, and we're all hanging out in the kitchen enjoying coffee and a little breakfast. The kids have all enjoyed their bounty from the Easter Bunny, and now we're getting ready to go to church for Easter service. The posting will continue later tonight, after we wrap up our visit.