40 years of marriage

Cheers to 40 years!

My parents have been exemplary role models for marriage so it makes perfect sense that my siblings and I would throw them a party to celebrate.  The number of people who RSVP-ed yes blew us away!  Traveling from near and far to show their love and support for our awesome parents.  🙂

My G-ma had a fun time seeing the kids.  It’s been almost 6 months.

I spent the morning with my sisters setting up and getting organized so that by 4:30 we were all ready for the fun to begin.

Lunch necessities 🙂

The salad is the “matcha chicken avo bowl” from Home Grown and the juice is the “greens 3” from Pressed Juicery (both are in Danville where my sister lives), but I actually saved the salad for the next day because my gut was acting up.  The juice was great though.  I love pressed juicery.  🙂

Dinner was catered by El Charro (aka “the big hat”) – a restaurant we grew up going to all the time. It has a massive sombrero on the side of the building so we called it that as kids and the name stuck.  🙂

Chris and Kyle were party photographers, although Kyle was doing double duty with the kids as well.  P fell asleep on the way to the party so we let him crash on the guest bed upstairs for the first part of the party which turned out to be a bad idea because he was completely groggy and grumpy when he woke up.  It wasn’t until half way through dinner that his blood sugar spiked enough for his mood to turn around.

After that, though, the kids were pure entertainment.

Cake!

P took all the decorations he could get his hands on and “re-decorated” the cake that I had baked.

And then they put the rest in a box and walked around passing them out to every guest as a “surprise”!!

It was dark by the time we left (which meant it was wayyyyy past bedtimes) but shockingly the bath routine wasn’t too terrible.

They both fell asleep nearly instantly, which was a relief since the day before (when we were all in the same room) V was up chatting in my face until MIDNIGHT.  Where do they get the energy???

We spent the next morning watching the World Cup final, lounging by the pool, and reminiscing on the previous night’s fun.  It was the perfect post-party relaxation.

I made myself eggs with kale and avo for breakfast and then had the leftover salad from Home Grown for lunch.

We didn’t head back to Davis until the late afternoon, so by the time we got home and unpacked it was time to get going with dinner.

As lazy as I was feeling I knew I wanted something healthy after all the desserts and eating out.  Soooo…I took stock of the fridge, freezer and pantry and got to work.

First things first, I had butternut squash “noodles” to use up.  They were from a WF trip a while ago and I had already cooked them so their “dead by” date was ticking on down.  But I didn’t have enough for the whole fam, so I grabbed wheat pasta to make too.  Only problem was…the house was 85 degrees.  And turning on the oven sounded like hell.  Literally.

Instant pot!!!

I used the multi-grain setting and it worked like a charm!  Hands off.  Didn’t add heat to the kitchen scene.  Winning!!

For protein I used frozen shrimp.  For veggies I used arugula (and squash).  For sauce I opted for the Cibo organic sundried tomato pesto with basil (it’s so gooooood!).

I simmered the shrimp, then assembled the bowls.

I added parmesan cheese to Kyle’s, but swapped raw walnuts in for mine and the kids’s portions.

Holy moly, this was so good, ESPECIALLY for a meal that was unplanned and came together in under 30 minutes.

Pretty gourmet, huh??

Of course I added a handful of fresh cherry tomatoes at the last minute because our plant is going crazy.

It’s almost time to pick nectarines too!

I grabbed some to test readiness, so they are ripening on the counter for now…but we have at least 200 on the tree.

We have big tomatoes too!  What should I do with them??  Kinda regretting not planting zucchini now, but I guess there’s still time.  Summer gardening is always such a treat.