first day of school

Cassie started school Tuesday but had Wednesday off, Arnold started Tuesday also, but since he's a senior now he didn't have to be there until 12:25 for the first day orientation. Anyway, I wasn't able to take the traditional "first day of school" photo until AFTER school, but here it is. Cassie made us wait while she fixed her hair. Arnold was still "fixing" his hair in the photo...

pot luck!

Lolly wanted to have a pot luck at work yesterday for Cassie's last day (she's helped out at my work for most of the summer and we love having her there, but, sadly, she has to go to school today). I wanted to make the pecan-crusted chicken with spinach and cheese, but thought it too much work, so I made it into a casserole, and it was delicious! Here's the recipe:

Mix together
3 cups cooked rice
3 or 4 diced, cooked chicken breasts
1 bag of spinach, chopped up
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
4-6 ounches smoked peppercorn gouda cheese, shredded

put all that into a casserole dish

in the food processor, chop up
two really big handfuls of pecans with
about a teaspoon each of paprika, salt and pepper

top the chicken and rice with the pecans and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

it was really good. everybody at work liked it, and i'll make it again!

recycling

after the "not going away" party, i had empty margarita buckets. i thought the kids would enjoy using them on the playground because they have that handy spout on the side.

of course, kids never do what you expect them to do, and they do make lovely hard hats!

matchy matchy

Aren't we cute?

making money

There was a link to this website in the latest issue of Family Fun magazine. I thought it was cute.

Party Pics

Last year after the refinancing of the house went through, we had a "Not Going Away" party, and it was so much fun we decided to do it again.

Here's Cassie dishing up delicious chili. Mmmm. There was none left by the end of the party. There are still plenty of margaritas. Stop by and have some!

Coconut-lime cupcakes. Yum!

Arnold had difficulty staying out of the cupcakes before the party (I made three dozen), but there were enough leftover for breakfast this morning.

Cupcakes for breakfast? Oh yeah. It's a good thing.

Cassie, Justine and Arnold playing Guitar Hero. I had a turn on the drums earlier and Brooke was on guitar. Kent won't play but he likes to be in the pictures! I took a lot of pictures of our guests, but somebody is looking goofy in just about every one. Guess I need to work on my photography skills.

Just before the party my new front door was delivered! It's in the garage in a wooden crate. Can't wait to see it installed! Can you guess the next party theme?

"Come and knock on our door."