wheeee

dan walking heidi's baby around

It was a big, loud party.

Chicken divan:

chicken, approx six breasts, cooked and cut in little pieces
broccoli, two very big frozen bags, boiled for two minutes
cream of chicken soup, four large cans
miracle whip, half the biggest jar
shredded cheddar cheese, 2/3 of the big bag
onion, chopped
curry powder, two containers, probably 4-5 tablespoons.

First cook the chicken and boil the broccoli. Cut up the chicken and put both in a big pan.

Then mix up the rest of the ingredients and pour over the top.

Heat through.

Serve over rice. This much sauce creates the need for 21 cups of rice:

7 cups of rice, 14 cups of water. Cook as usual.

We also had watermelon and a couple salads Heidi made. One was a pasta salad, spicy with chilis from her neighbors, and the other tomatoes and cucumbers with Green Goddess dressing, pretty delicious. My mom brought watermelon and Special K bars with chocolate frosting. (It ended up being a feast.)

So what is it about kids and dirt?


And it was also nice and loud.


opening gifts






Dan and Alicia's dog is a sheltie, and she's crazy about wrapping paper. Lori had a sheltie too who was just this insane about leaves tossed into the air. He'd go nuts as long as we kept tossing them up, exactly like this dog.


Here Little Jay is showing him a book about Marie Curie. Okay, that's a weird book to find on the coffee table.


Lighting the candles--

First, Dan--


Here it's Heidi and her nephews getting ready to blow out candles--




And of course we've got this guy, full of big ideas.


When I told him this wasn't a class on how to scoop ice cream, as a chunk flew backward onto his shirt, he said, yes it was.


All in all, it was the same doggone party we have all the time.

Loud. Messy. Wild.

Today when I talked to my mom, I told her she should bring a dog along if she could find one.

She laughed. The neighbor dog was unavailable. Too bad too because it's a greyhound I see sleeping in the window. Probably it's very fast.

Dan and Heidi, happy birthday. Best wishes for the year ahead and all the years that follow.

We love you so, Mom and Dad