Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Grilled pineapple chicken kabab packs  [these were really good, although I divided the ingredients among 6 packets so they were a little small]

Tuesday:  Grilled Cuban pork chops with brown rice and veggies

Wednesday:  Hamburgers on the grill, roasted cauliflower

Thursday:  Black bean and corn quesadillas

Friday:  Pizza

Update on my "Unhappy with a Tulip product" post

A week ago I wrote a post telling about my disappointment with a Tulip dye product the girls used to make tie-dye shirts at Sophia's birthday party. The red dye separated into a red and yellow component at the edges of the red dye field.

I sent an email to the company explaining what happened and received a prompt reply from a CSR. We exchanged several friendly emails, then she said she'd send me a replacement packet of dye.

Today I received this in the mail:

I received a new packet of dye, a handwritten note, and a $20 package of five bottles of dye, which includes a refill packet for each bottle.  I think Caroline and Elizabeth may be having a tie-dye birthday party some time in the future. 

I'm very happy with the solution to the problem.

Kevin's mystery photo 4

Hmm.  I wonder what this is?  Maybe a prototype of a tithing savings box for a child's dresser?

Busy, busy day!

Camp Laffalotta's theme this week is cooking and baking.  Last night I got out our children's cook books and had the girls each choose two recipes they want to make this week, then write me a shopping list for her recipes.  I got some writing in that way--sneaky, huh?

Since the cleaning ladies come on Thursdays I always try to have that be a field trip day of some sort for the girls.  Everyone feels more relaxed when the girls are out of the house during cleaning day.  We started at the library where the girls signed up for the summer reading program and each checked out two books.

Next we stopped by to return Season 2 of Downton Abby to our friend.

Then we went to Hobby Lobby to return the three unused t-shirts from Sophia's birthday party.  I didn't know how many girls were coming and figured I'd better buy more and return them than buy too few and regret it.

Last, we had a shopping list from the girls' recipes and headed to the new Neighborhood Market about 3 miles from home, but relatively on the way home from Hobby Lobby.

It's amazing how fast the bill adds up when you're not shopping the sales or using coupons.  I'm not accustomed to buying pricey specialty ingredients, but since it was for the girls for Camp Laffalotta I just did it.

Here is the first recipe which happened to be the only dinner recipe chosen.  It's Steak and French Fries Salad.  Really.  And it was really good.

Elizabeth's sewing project

Elizabeth is the first one to finish her Camp Laffalotta sewing project.

His name is Troy, although I was thinking "Justin" with those long bangs. :-)

The face was sewn by hand and the construction of the pillow was sewn by machine.

Camp Laffalotta 2013

I'm tentatively dipping my toe in again this summer.  The girls are out of school and I want to give a little structure to the summer.  It works best for us to have our week go Thursday to Wednesday, so for this half week, we are doing some sewing.

Only Elizabeth has done any sewing, so they are making little pillows with funny faces on them.  I had some quilted material from the edges of my most recent quilt.  It was the extra fabric that extended past the edges of the top when it was machine quilted.  So the girls are using a lightly printed muslin with batting quilted to it--very nice, actually.

They got the basics of the faces hand-sewn on today.  Tomorrow they'll add the decorations such as fringe, "hair," bows, and so forth, then I'll show them how to use the sewing machine to sew on the backs.  A little stuffing from Elizabeth's Christmas sewing project and they'll each have a cute little pillow.

This is the life!

I want this life!

They're waiting for a delicious bbq dinner that is on the grill.  Ribs, Hebrew National hot dogs, corn on the cob, potato salad, YUM.

Unhappy with a Tulip product

Since I wanted red, white, and blue tie-dyed shirts for Sophia's birthday party, I bought white shirts and single color packages of red and blue.  The blue turned out a really nice, deep blue.  The red, however, was a different story.  It separated into red with seepage of yellow on the white shirts.  They turned out to be more of a primary-colored shirt with red, blue, and yellow.  Not ugly or anything, but not what I was hoping for.

Tonight I wrote an email to the Tulip company's customer service telling them what happened.  I'll update when I hear back from them.

June 1 update is in this post.

Party for Sophia!

We invited Sophia's friends for a tie-dye party and told them to wear old clothes!  Here is Sophia with her self-portrait pinata. 

The day was hot but not bad on the patio.  I had red and blue dye along with white shirts so the girls could make red-white-and-blue shirts for the patriotic holidays this summer.  They were just getting started here.  There was a LOT of dye here and there before it was over. :-)

Bill is getting ready to hoist the pinata.

Getting the spoils . . . .

See you next year when Sophia hits the double digits!

We had a birthday this week!

Sophia is nine!

We had David and Alicia over for cake and Alicia brought Sophia a squidlet she crocheted.

 Sophia in her candle-lit glory.

Four of the ladies.  We sure do love having family in town.  In total we have three family households in our city now.

Bill and I are very happy to have had Sophia for nine years.  We sure do love her.