Red, white, and blue weekend

There’s nothing I love more than a long weekend.

Things are getting easier.  Pinch me.  Did I just say that?  I have the bet behaved kids of all time, so I feel like I could never complain.  They are sweethearts, but they still test my limits because, duh, they are babies.  But these days, they are able to play together(ish) and she is so close to being a big girl.  And he loves playing with her.  And she looks up to him like whoa.  And gosh it’s amazing.  I went to the zoo yesterday and she was out of the stroller 80% of the time, walking around exploring but not wandering off all over the world trying to eat tanbark.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still w o r k being their teacher/referee/cheerleader/support, and I totally fished a cigarette out of V’s mouth a few days ago while we were playing at the train station (grossssss)….but I feel a shift.

Weekends are family time though, and it’s my favorite.  Three days!?!  God Bless America.

Picked another bag full to ripen in a brown bag.  Have I talked about our nectarine tree on the blog yet?  I think I mentioned it…it’s our first year getting fruit.  Totally awesome, right?

I gave a bag to my parents and a bag to my bestie.  Still have >100 on the tree.  Jam and pies are comin’ atcha soon.

Kyle and I went on a date night on Friday (the 1st).  Rabbit rabbit July.

This was our first time leaving the kiddos with a babysitter!!!  Weeee!!!  Such a big deal for us.  Yes, we have had family watch them, but never anyone not related to us.

Since this was the first time, we fed the kids, bathed them and put them down ourselves before leaving.  Then left went to Grange in Sac.

Kyle drove so I could imbibe.  😉

Cherry mule.  Because I can’t turn down anything with ginger.  Obvs.

We got the figs to share first.

Kyle got the special…some lobster thing that sounded pretty legit, but definitely doused in dairy.

Those succulents were edible. Ha!

I got the zabuton.  Gorgeous and delicious. I shared a couple bites with my man because his portion wasn’t super big.  I actually ate a few of those peppers!  The dish was incredible.  It’s nice to order fancy things that I couldn’t make on my own (and get a break from cooking!) because I make 100% of our dinners.

We stopped on the way home for dessert.  Kyle got ice cream, but I chose fancy chocolate.

The next am we had no agenda because swimming was cancelled due to the holiday.

I made an egg frittata for Kyle, and pancakes for me and the wee ones.  Once we were caffeinated and fed, we went to farmer’s market, per usual.

Nothing extraordinary to report from the day.  Our plans were cancelled because half of P’s friends have strep throat right now.

Kyle grilled for dinner.

P and I shared this breast (truth, he ate the majority).  I also remembered how much I love Bush’s baked beans.  Back in my broke college days, I ate them cold from the can at least twice a week.  Also, canned peas.  So weird.

Sunday morning was mellow.  We walked to a park and played.  Simple pleasures.

Kyle grilled again for dinner (another reason I love summer weekends – he does so much of the cooking!).

I made the marinade for this flank steak early in the day using this recipe (it’s the first thing that pops up when you google flank steak marinade). I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and omitted the garlic.  Then after Kyle put it on the grill I took the marinade and simmered it on the stove until it reduced to this heavenly rich sauce.  Ohhhhh man was it good.

Paired with Caesar salad.

The next day was the 4th of July!

Per tradition, we went downtown to watch the bike races.  This time we rode our bikes there.

First!  Breakfast with my parents and some friends!

At the one and only, Crepeville, of course.

I brought a muffin for P but ordered a fruit plate for him too.  As you can see, it was the treat of all treats.  🙂

I got a strawberry chocolate chip muffin (no photo!?!?!) AND the midtown benedict.  Both, yup.  The muffin was the best.  I’ve gotten it before, so I knew what I was in for.  it’s massive and they toast it and it gets crispy and brown on the top and wow is it good.

V nibbled off my plate and the fruit plate.

Then we all walked a block over for the parade!!  Let’s be real, P saw the marching band and the rest was history.

After that we watched more bike races and hung out with friends until the kids hit their limit.

Since we had to ride home still, it was the game of the century trying to keep them from passing out in the chariot that I was pulling them in.  We barely managed with P, and only kinda sorta kept V up.  Meh.  Can’t fight the zzzzzzs in that one.

These were on sale (buy one get one free) at WF so I went for it.

Verdict: winners!  Salty and a good texture, without any weird fillers/crap.

I made potato salad to go with it.  Classic American fare for the 4th, right?

We also had leftover slaw that I made the week before from this recipe.

Unpictured: booze and chocolate and all that…

Happy times.  Happy birthday America.