weekend of gluttony

One of Thomas's birthday gifts this year was a cassoulet kit. Cassoulet is a French dish, basically a stew of beans and meat and sausage, and it is one of Thomas's most favorite foods. His dad ordered him a kit that came with basically everything required to make it: duck confit legs, sausages, pork belly, 3 pounds of beans, rendered duck fat, etc... The kit makes an enormous amount of food, so we decided to invite friends over to share it, and eventually it evolved into a French-themed dinner party. In addition to the cassoulet, we made a salad and had a cheeseboard, and my friend Mandy brought homemade French baguettes. Sadly there are no pictures of dessert, but Mandy also brought a French chocolate tart, I made a berry clafoutis, our friends Jordan & Nicole brought macarons, and we also put out Le Petit Écolier cookies. It was an amazing meal, and by the end, we were all so full that none of us could move. 

Thomas made sure to document the entire cooking process. It was an all-day affair.

We may have dressed up a little.

 

Jordan and Nicole, Brittany, moi, Mandy and Klayton. not pictured: Thomas (oops, we should have gotten a picture with him!), and five little ones busy wreaking havoc 

too full even to sit up!

Perhaps foolishly, we scheduled this party for the night before the Super Bowl. Mandy and Klayton had a big Super Bowl party the next day with even more absurd amounts of food. Fortunately they made it a pajama party, so at least our waists were comfortable. :) We had a blast (kind of) watching (parts of) the game, playing games, and eating ourselves silly once again.

 

The tower fell a split second later.

 

 
 
 

Ending the night with a little karaoke.

It was such a fun weekend, but we definitely overdid a little bit!! Monday night, as we were eating leftovers for dinner, Jamie looked at his plate of cassoulet for a minute and quietly asked for more salad. That is completely unlike him, but I think he (and the rest of us) knew our poor tummies had been a bit overwhelmed! We learned our lesson: Our next cassoulet party will not be the same weekend as the Super Bowl or any other day of gluttony!

January extras

Now that we're a week into March, maybe it's time to finish up the January blogging... Here's what's left that didn't make it onto any other posts.

January 1: New Year's Day

Jacob celebrating the new year. I miss his hair!!!

Thomas and Jamie made a garden. This was part of a more elaborate game that I no longer remember.

Jamie made dinner from the garden for Peter Rabbit and stacked up books so he could sit at the table.

 January 5: We went to see Sherlock: The Abominable Bride with our friends Mandy and Klayton

I stole this picture from Mandy's fb :)

January 12: cute playtime pictures

Jakie-wan Kenobi

 

 

January 15:

Jamie made this "pirate ship." He incorporates so many little details when he plays like this. My favorite is that he has toy meat hanging off the edge of the ship "so it can be preserved by the salt spray from the ocean." Seriously, he is the best.

train boy!

 My friend Mandy & I went to a Harry Potter evening that a weird little shop in Knoxville put on. It turned out to be more of a "come look at our store" event than anything else, but they did have some interesting artwork and we got butterbeer and wands and saw a fire breather. So that's something. :)

 

January 17:

January 18:

I cannot let Jacob out of my sight for one second!

Jamie snuggled up reading a book. I love love love it when I find him like this!!

 January 24: Mommy & her boys

January 27: Thomas & I saw Guster in concert. They were awesome and we had so much fun!!

January 28: I took Jamie to a "Very Young People's Concert" at the Tennessee Theatre. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra played music and told stories to engage children in the symphony. They ended with Peter and the Wolf, which is one of Jamie's favorites. Afterwards we went out to lunch together. It was a great little Mommy-Jamie date. :)

 
 

later at home... not sure what this was supposed to be, but it was cute.

Also in January:

• Thomas started a new D&D group (as if he has time for that!).
• I joined a new book club. 
• Thomas had his first phone interview!! He has since had 2 additional Skype interviews, and he's currently on his way to his first on-campus interview! He also has another Skype interview next week. He's still applying for more jobs and next year is still very much up in the air, but it has been so great to see hiring committees taking interest in him!

weekend in Atlanta

My brother Benj recently had jaw surgery and had some time off of work. During that time he found some absurdly cheap plane tickets to Atlanta, so he flew out to visit Mark & Sarah, and we headed down to see everyone too! It also happened to coincide with Christine's 3rd birthday, so we got to join the celebration. Sarah was pregnant with Christine when they first moved to Atlanta, so we have really gotten to watch her grow up. She's such a cute, sweet girl! It was so fun to celebrate her birthday and to spend time with family that weekend!

The weekend started off with Christine's super cute Snow White-themed birthday party.

birthday girl!

 

Thomas's favorite activity at Mark & Sarah's

Benj & Savannah

It was a beautiful weekend, so there was a lot of outdoor playtime.

lots of baby time too!

We couldn't find Jacob's pajamas one night, so he got to borrow Christine's. Even though she is 14 months older than he is, they are about the same size. :)

Jacob & Uncle Benj. . .and Jacob is actually wearing Christine's pants here too, ha ha! The ones we took for him to wear to church turned out to be too big. It's nice to be able to borrow your cousin's clothes! ;)

siblings!