Picnic, Playground, and Pirates!

Arrrrrrr!!! We've had a fun week and I have quite a few things to check off my list.

21. Enjoy a Mom’s Night Out 4 times (3/4)
I met up with a few of my Mommy friends at La Rancherita for some yummy Mexican food and adult conversation! We talked about pacifiers, potty training and other fun stuff. We all were amazed at how big our toddlers are!

60. Mail out 10 thank you notes (2/10)
Caleb (via Mommy) mailed out 2 thank you notes to our family in NJ for some Easter presents!

61. Have ten date nights (5/10)
Glen & I went out to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" last night. We went to North Hills, bought our tickets and walked around for a bit. The movie was really good & it was nice to have a movie night - our last one was 5 months ago!

62. Do something out of the ordinary for Glen 4 times (1/4)
I made Glen a photo collage with lots of our self taken photos. I put a quote at the top from Dr. Seuss - "We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." Glen LOVED it and was really surprised at a spontaneous present. Yay!

84. Take Caleb to a park 50 times (40/50)
This week we played at Baileywick Park with Caleb's friends Liam & Autumn. Then we went to Spring Forest Road Park with Daddy.

91. Enjoy a family picnic
On Thursday night we packed a bag with drinks, plates & napkins; grabbed a Little Caesar's Pizza and spent the evening at the park. It was a ton of fun! There was a little league baseball game next to the park & Caleb thought that was fascinating.



95. Write to 25 companies & request coupons (7/25)
This week I wrote to 7 companies and asked for coupons for products. Several of them already responded no, but others are mailing me coupons. I'm excited to see what appears in our mail box!

16. Read 50 books (11/50)
I finished reading "Dearly Devoted Dexter" today. It was a good read, but not a huge page turner. I have the next book in the series and I'm hoping its a better story.

77. Have 10 "at home" date nights (2/10)
Glen & I kicked back one night this week with the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and some rum:)

Chicken Stuffed Shells

18. Try 25 new recipes (11/25)

A few weeks ago my sister mentioned Chicken Stuffed Shells. Chicken? Pasta? Stuffing? Yum. Downside? It created a lot of dirty pots. The most challenging part was stuffing the shells, which is easy peasy.

I would make this again! It made a ton of shells. I filled a 9x13 pan and a small 6x6 pan. We ate dinner, made 3 lunches and froze the small pan.

Original recipe linked above, below is with my changes.

Chicken Stuffed Shells
Ingredients

1 (6 ounce) package dry bread stuffing mix
1 (12 ounce) package jumbo pasta shells
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups chicken broth
pepper to taste
2 cans chicken

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare the stuffing according to package directions.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place pasta shells in the pot, cook 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
In a saucepan, mix the cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, and chicken broth. Season pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, or until heated through.
In a bowl, mix the chicken and prepared stuffing. Fill the cooked pasta shells with the chicken mixture, and arrange in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour the soup mixture over the stuffed shells. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil.
Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly.

63. Have 3 baby-free weekends (3/3)

Complete! Yea! Glen & I had an epic weekend together. Here is the rundown!

Friday - We headed out of Raleigh after Glen got off work, and drove out to my parents' house. Spent some time playing in the yard with all the kiddos, had a yummy dinner, followed by even yummier ice cream cake and then headed home sans Caleb!

Saturday - slept in, wandered around some yard sales, ate at Biscuitville (yum) and enjoyed an afternoon movie. Then we got all dressed up and went to Chapel Hill for a wedding. Danced and drank the night away. Best.wedding.ever.

Sunday - slept in, recovered:), met the parents at the flea market where we reclaimed our baby, enjoyed a late lunch at the local Mexican joint.

Epic. Maybe I left out the epic part. Maybe the "epicness" of our weekend occurred during our drunken stupor in which we enjoyed a lot of fun. LOL. For anyone that really knows us, you know how much we needed this weekend. And it was perfect.

67. Have a baby-free date with Beth!!

Yay! Beth & I had a date night! We've actually gone out a few times in the last few months. A shopping trip to the mall, a coffee at Barnes & Noble, wandering through Trader Joe's, bargain shopping at Target. Each time I'm with my sister is an adventure. She is my best friend, and we both get a little nutty when we don't see each other enough! (Well...we're always a little nutty!)

Last week, her family spent 2 nights at our house while Daniel had some doctor appointments at Duke/UNC. We left all 5 kiddos with our husbands one night, and did a little shopping at Kohl's. Then we splurged on dessert & drinks at the Cheesecake Factory. Actually, I had an appletini, she had water. My big sister is oh so innocent. :)

So, I'm marking this as completed a few times over. Can't wait for the next date with my big sis!

(I also visited the park 2x with Caleb this week! Yay!)

Playing at the Park!

84. Take him to a park 50 times (36/50)
Caleb & I have visited the park a lot lately. Let's see if I can remember them all. We met Andrea & Nathan at Baileywick and played in the sand. We met Daddy for lunch at the airport playground. We went with our playgroup to Brier Creek Tot Park (which I think he's outgrown). We met our friends at Marsh Creek and spent lots of time playing in the warm sun. I took Caleb to Kids Together Park in Cary. So that would be 5 times. :)

When we went to Kids Together, Caleb asked to go to a "tall purple park." I thought this was the perfect answer. Here are some pictures from our time there!





16. Read 50 books (10/50)
I also finished the 2 remaining books from Peter & the Starcatchers Series. Highly recommend those. To keep on my Peter Pan kick, I read the original Peter Pan book. Eh, it was really hard for me to get into. I had to force myself to finish it. I'm glad I read it though.