A Springy Day

Happy Easter! 

I thought I'd take a few minutes and catch up with a few things on the ol' blog. There are quite a few pictures so I'll try to just commentate as we go and not get too long-winded (I know, funny, right?).

Yesterday us 3 sisters hosted a Spring Brunch for Mom, her 3 sisters, and Grandma. I don't know if I've mentioned it before (less than a million times) but I LOVE to bake and cook and try out recipes. Don't let me fool you into thinking that just because I love it, I'm a pro - I'm not even close. But I take any chance I can get to whip something up in the kitchen, so this was really kind of a selfish party because it meant I got to do lots of cooking. :)

Malia saved the day as far as the decorating went. Since I was putting together chicken pot pies and rolls and eclairs (which Dad turned out to be the hero with those little guys), Malia took care of the assembly of our little centerpieces, as well as lots of others things!

Our theme idea was "April Showers Bring May Flowers", which was brought to life when Nani and I were at Michael's and saw some super cute mini watering cans.

Before/during:

After:

Malia filled them with mini-Carnations and then each person got to take one home.

Meanwhile, I made an individual chicken pot pie for everyone, then threw together a big one for the rest of us to eat (which turned out splendid to have extra because my cousin made a surprise appearance, but we had plenty!!) What fun!

Does it look nice and Spring-ish?

How d'you like them rolls? And in the background are the eclair shells which Dad helped me learn how to make.

Come and get it!!

Altogether the menu consisted of:

An Italian Soda bar,

Green Salad with all the fixin's (and made perfect by being topped with Olive Garden's heaven-in-a-bottle salad dressing),

Fresh rolls with butter and jam,

a fruit bowl,

chicken pot pie,

and eclairs filled with pudding for dessert.

Warning: the following picture may or may not cause you to crave something sweet.

From top left to right we have:

cousin Jonna, Jana,

Aunt Judy, Aunt Etau (her actual name is Janis),

Grandma Jack (whose actual name is Janell), and Aunt Joni.

Clearly "J" is a popular letter in our family! :)

It was fun and there were some pretty great family stories that came up through out the afternoon that had us all laughing.

Now, one might think, "Wow, after cooking all morning, shopping for weeks, and decorating for this shin-dig, these guys probably cleaned up after lunch and spent a quiet evening at home with their feet up while eating left over eclairs and watching a good Jane Austen movie." Right? If only.

Actually, as the aunts were heading out the door, Kelani's "hair-stylist" (a friend from the ward) was coming in. What for? To get Nani ready for prom, which was in a couple of hours.

That's right, folks, it was also prom weekend.

But here's a little something to keep you from thinking that we're totally crazy to have so much going on in one day: Nani and Preston dressed up for prom, we took some fun pictures, and then...they changed clothes and went fishing.

Both of them agreed that they think prom itself is annoying and that the dancing and atmosphere there is just not quite their idea of a good time, so they did something they both like instead. Personally, I thought it was hilariously brilliant! And it gave me an opportunity to see them all dressed up and be lucky enough for Nani to ask me to take some pictures for them. Sweet!

They did pictures at a perfect time of day too, and the lighting was awesome!

Enjoy:   

 Her foot-poppin' moment doesn't seem to have been felt by Preston. :)

 Awwww..... :)

Just as we finished up, Preston's family all showed up and there was tons of "ooo-ing and aww-ing" over these two. One of Preston's sisters said, "Wait, I want to take a picture of you." And Preston, who was in a hurry to get fishing told her, "We already got a bunch of pictures." And his sister said, "No, not of you!" then started taking a bunch of Kelani. :) 

So they changed out of their prom attire, slipped into some fishing-wear and headed out to the lake with one of Preston's sisters and her friend. Nani had asked if I could make them some pigs-in-a-blanket to take, so they had a little camp stove that they heated those up on plus a couple bags of chips, a couple bags of donuts, and some apple beer. That sounds like my kind of dinner!! Yum!

 Probably one of the most glamorous fishing trips you'll ever hear about. :)

But I'd say at the end of the day, they made a good catch!