Great Weekend

Friday was DD's 26th birthday, so we offered to keep Brayden overnight and all day Saturday. What a wonderful time we had! Since we had so much rain on Friday, DH and Brayden went out and played in the giant puddle at the end of our driveway, and he had so much fun splashing and dancing! He came inside absolutely soaked, got some clean clothes and we had dinner. We played with his cars for a bit, then read him his favorite books and gave him a bath. By 8:30 he was sound asleep without any fussing at all.

On Saturday Brayden didn't wake up until 8:30 (!), and woke up full of "squeeze hugs" and smiles. What a joy that child is. We had breakfast, then he and DH went outside to fix "the turtle" -- our fountain in the front yard that has water coming out of a turtle's mouth. Brayden was a great help -- he dumped buckets of water and handed Jeff paper towels. Although we can't understand what he's saying yet, you can understand that he was giving some good solid advice through the whole thing! Cute as a button.

Next we headed to the local library where he picked out 3 books, and helped DH carry videos. He loved going into the adult section of the library and started counting books and running his hands along their spines. I can only hope he grows up to the library as much as I do.

From there we went yard sale-ing for a bit. Brayden picked out a .25 truck and we bought him a Sit-and-Spin for $1. Haven't introduced him to the Sit and Spin yet, but it was one of my kids' favorite toys so I think he'll enjoy it. Then it was on to the local public park and playground, Keehner Park. Although it was a hot, humid day (mid to high 80's), the playground is in the woods and it was cool and comfortable. Brayden climbed through his first tunnel (that I know of) and had a ball sliding and on the swings.

We headed home about 2pm and did whatever we needed to to keep Brayden awake until we got home. Poor little guy was pooped! He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and he slept until 4:30. Shortly after that I took him home. I almost hated to give him back but both DH and I were worn out!

Today, Sunday, we were up early and decided to go to Turtle Creek flea market just to see what we could find. I did purchase some thread, a stuffed monkey for Brayden (he needs something to cuddle with when he stays overnight here), and some fresh tomatoes and green peppers. On the way home we stopped to buy some bacon to have BLT's for dinner, but DH decided he wanted ribs, so we bought those and had them for dinner. BLT's will be tomorrow night. The ribs came out PERFECT - so tender and juicy. I steamed them with dried rosemary at 250 degrees for four hours, then popped them in Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce. We also had baked sweet potatoes (we shared one potatoe), homemade coleslaw and homemade cornbread.

While we watched the Brickyard 400 (yay Tony!!!) , I sewed about a dozen yoyo's to go on a new quilt, and cooked our dinner during commercials. Everything was really delicious! Here's my really easy recipe for cole slaw:

COLESLAW

1 bag of pre-shredded coleslaw (for our 2 servings, I used about 1/4 of the bag)

1/2 cup mayo (I use Hellman's Canola Oil mayo)

1 tbsp Splenda (you can use sugar)

1 tbsp white vinegar

1/4 tsp celery salt

Mix the mayo, splenda, white vinegar and celery salt and adjust the vinegar and splenda to taste. Pour this over the shredded colesaw and mix thoroughly. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for at least one hour.