Cheers to Skippy!

 

This past weekend was absolutely amazing, as we planned a surprise party for my Dad's birthday.  All of my siblings and I flew in and he was completely surprised.  

Considering none of us are really that great at keeping secrets from one another, I don't know how we kept it from him - but somehow, it happened.

The weekend was full of great company and great food, and my only complaint is that it ended too soon.

Somehow I failed to take even a single picture, so you'll just have to imagine how amazing it was.

So here's to my fabulous Dad - and the many, many more birthdays to come!

via apartment 34

never too late to celebrate

Meghan and Erin and I have been brainstorming a name for an upcoming business venture of one of Meghan's friends.

Erin has easily come up with the best name so far (kept under wraps) utilizing some basic French.

After making sure we were conjugating the words correctly, I was reminded that I completely failed to blog about Bastille Day.

Fortunately, Court summed it up stellarly, but, being the only (semi-) French speaker of the clan, I feel it's necessary to at least put up my pictures...

The adorable crêperie in Charlottesville, the flat.Lily waited so patiently... And while we waited, she told me about the table Skip bought them...
And then she enjoyed...

Cooking with Skippy

My dad is easily one of the most precise people I've ever met. He measures spaces before he buys furniture for them, he researches products, he tests paint colors...

And all of this creates a stark contrast to my mom and me.

So, when my dad and I decided to host a little HGC cooking show, it was bound to be entertaining. While he suggested I look at the recipe, measure, and test before taking action, I was more into the idea of just dumping in the ingredients and seeing how it all turned out.

However, while I may be impulsive, I'm not afraid to admit his accuracy typically leads to him being correct. So, I let him play chef while I played sous.

First, we made Court's Dried Fruit and Nut Clusters and, for the second batch, we tweaked the recipe by adding peanut butter and vanilla, switching out a few of the fruits, and turning the whole shabang into a dessert.

The actual rolling of the clusters was up to me and the combination of my patience and disliking of sticky hands led to the little guys looking a funny (compare them to Ashley's gems if you dare). But they still tasted decent and we got to take the old Cuisinart for a nice spin. And, of course, it was a lovely activity Skip.