There are more pictures of food than people in this post.

Thursday evening was our Sola Gratia end of season party – wahoo!!  We have this tradition where we put together a fancy spread of coordinating dishes (like, from Southern Living or something).  This means I have to buy and make things I never would otherwise.

I couldn’t hold the recipe quite far enough from the camera, so Joanna held it for me – she’s so helpful!  (Though, now that I’ve cropped it, you totally can’t tell that anyone was holding it.)  Anyway…

I was planning to wait until naptime to put it together, but the children started to play blissfully sweetly at about 1:00, so I jumped on it!

I am soooooooo thankful for my new knife, which I used to chop everything.

All put together, minus the feta, which was added right before serving.

Matt liked it and the kids even ate a bit, but I actually didn’t try it.  It is soooooo NOT my kind of food.  :)

At the party I got busy taking pictures of all the other yummy dishes.

The cucumber was hollowed out like a little bowl and filled with some kind of fantastic cream cheese mixture.  They were kind of hard to eat, but I still managed to have two.  :)

Quiche – yummo!!

These little beauties were Pilsbury biscuit dough in muffin tins topped with brie cheese and some mango chutney.  YUM.

A lot of the dishes had duplicates (we’re hungry people!); here’s the other biscuity one, although it tasted a little different.  (Yup, I sampled ‘em both!)

A beautiful salad that I did not eat because of the wide variety of vegetables that I do not like.  But did I mention it was beautiful?

My salad!

And the pita chips it was to be served with:

Here’s the other Greek chicken salad.  I didn’t taste it either, but it sure is pretty!

Yummy cheese and crackers:

Some herbed pecans – mmmmmm…

Sausages wrapped in bacon and deliciousness:

Some goooooood fruit:

Such a lovely spread!

Mmmmm…

And in the other room, some desserts:

And twenty-five pictures into this post – some people!  I tried to take pictures of everybody, but if I missed someone it was probably because they were moving around.   A lot of the pictures are poorly shot, but I couldn’t stand around taking picture after picture of people like I did with the food.  (They had lots of talking to do!)

Donna and Theresa:

Kendra and Kelly:

Beth and Amanda:

Elisa, Carol, and Emily:

Susie and Linda:

Stacia and Sue:

Jamie, Cyndy, and Irma:

Mary and Lori:

Meredith, our esteemed director, was moving around at picture time, but I got a shot of her later on.

I just love love singing in this group.  I’m sad we don’t meet in the summer, but I guess it’s good to have a break.

The Brady Bunch

Our friends Kimberly and Scott had their third sweet baby boy yesterday!!

Theresa and I couldn’t wait to go see him, so we met up at the hospital this morning.  One of us went to see the baby while the other one watched SIX kiddos!

It was my turn first to watch the herd.  Here are the big kids:

Joanna (5), Aidan (almost 6), Natalie (3), and Logan (3) – he wasn’t really grumpy, but I did get the impression he didn’t want to have his picture made.  :)

Sweet baby Lily is about 4 months old.

And my Jamesie boy (19 months).  I brought my double stroller, so I could put James and Lily in it.  Surprisingly, James did not whine to be let out – yay!!

{Side note: we got there at just after 9:30, which I consider to be quite amazing since James slept in until 9:00!!!!  Hallelujah for little boys making up their sleep deficit!  I think that’s one reason he was so cheerful!}

The big kids played on the little bridge/rock/stream part in the middle of the plaza area for a while, but the babies were getting kind of restless so we went walking.  These four found a big fish tank to look at in this waiting room.  They’re so cute. :)

I pulled Lily out of her seat when she started to fuss (and also because I like to snuggle little babies.)  Then I sat all the rest of the kiddos down at a table and fed them snacks to make them stay.  It is what I do.  While we were sitting there, a group at a nearby table sent a representative to ask if they were all mine!  Ha! HA HA HA!!  Um, no.  Kimberly pointed out later that I could actually have had both James and Lily (wow!), but obviously the others are much too close.  Six under six!  Even thirty minutes of that was enough for me, thank you.  :)

The title of this post is from the man who walked past, did a double-take, and said “Brady Bunch?”

Anyway… Theresa came back and it was my turn to leave the big ol’ rotten kids and hold Baby Eli!

He looks just like his brothers.  I think Kimberly has posted baby pictures of the boys, but I can’t remember.  I think he looks just like them now.  I sure would know where to return this baby if I found him lying around somewhere.  (Not that I’m implying that would happen.)

Oooohhhhh – don’t you want to just squeeze those baby’s cheeks?!!  And doesn’t Kimberly look amazing?!  Um, yeah, she had a baby like 18 hours before this.

Thanks for letting us stop by to love on sweet Eli!  I already can’t wait to hold him some more!

From Tuesday: Friends and Fish

Tuesday morning Lisa invited some friends over to play.

Looks kind of like a clubhouse:

A couple of Joanna’s school buddies – Kaydee and Anna:

Pink parasol  :)

Logan playing some t-ball:

More parasol shots  :)

Natalie seesawing very carefully with baby Soren (I’m not totally sure that’s how his name is spelled.)

Surfer girl!

That evening was enchilada night!!

James was feeling a fiesta theme I guess.  :)

My Aunt Gail and Uncle Steve were in town from Illinois and they brought their grandson Sean (again, not sure about the name spelling here) with them.

David brought his fishing pole, and Joanna and Sean had fun watching/”helping” by the pond.

He was using a bass lure and consequently caught lots of…

bass.

I love this shot of Sean looking at the fish.

Joanna helped David toss this one back in the water.

Sean helped reel the next one in.

Checking it out:

Helping David hold the pole.

It was time to leave – one more shot:

Those fish pictures were one instance where I really wished I could zoom out a little.  I couldn’t get far enough away with my 50mm on that little dock to get the pictures I wanted.  A zoom lens is on my list.  :)