Nerd Alert!

This past year Dennis' brother Dwayne and his wife Abby came over to watch Downton Abbey on Sunday nights. Sigh....Downton. Anyway, because sister in law is AWESOME she threw a Downton themed party. We dressed up, ate fancy food and had Downton names.  So for those that know that food matters, I give you the Menu:

Variety of Cheese & Crackers

Split Pea Soup with Creme Fraiche

Smoke Salmon with Dill Aioli

Turkey Brie & Apple Sandwiches

Lemony Dill Cream Cheese & and Cucumber Sandwiches

Nutella & Raspberry Sandwiches

Spring Pea & Bacon Salad

Individual Beef Wellingtons

Strawberry Tarts

Dark Chocolate Coated Truffles with Vanilla Filling
Beverages ~ Lemonade, Seltzer with Violet Syrup, White Wine Spritzers, Gin & Tonics 

Beach Day is Always a Good Day

My sister in law and I packed up 5 kids, leaving our littlest ones behind, and headed to the beach for the day on Friday. We were on the road by 6:35am and home before 11pm. We are rock stars. The beach is my happy place. She was kind to put up with my beach day idiosyncrasies and so were the kids. The weather was PERFECT, the kids behaved excellently and I didn't want to leave. The worst part is leaving. Carrying everything back to the car, across the sand, up the hill, waiting in line for the smelly fly ridden shower...blech.  But all the good that beach day is triumphantly trumps the the minuscule bad. I'm ready to go back!

The kids were catching all sorts of creatures like sand crabs and this jellyfish. While searching for a lost mask, my foot hit something hard. I freaked a little then reach down and grabbed it. I live on the edge. It was this huge seashell! In my 36 years of beach love I have never found anything like it before. A treasure indeed!