Fun Weekend

We had a pretty fun weekend, and just thought I would share. Feel free to admire the amazing timeliness of this post! Woohoo! Pictures weren't taken consistently, but I think they capture at least some of the fun of the weekend.

First on Saturday morning, we headed into downtown Durham to enjoy a visit with Popop and enjoy some breakfast treats at the Durham Farmer's Market. We sampled muffnuts and pigs-in-a-blanket from Scratch (doughnut muffins is the official term), an apple donut from Monuts Donuts and a delicious slice of breakfast pizza from the Pie Pushers food truck. Plus we got to hang out with Popop for a few minutes and enjoy the beautiful morning.

Next we headed up to the Arts Council for Eliza's very first ballet class. She was SO excited she could hardly stand it. She couldn't stop twitching and bouncing when we met up with Popop at the market. I was a bit worried she might be a little shy or hesitant as she often is with school, but Hayden walked her in to the class and she was ready to go.

the beaming ballerina before heading into class

paying close attention

watching the 'mice' dance around (she is part of the cat group)

Molly had a great time crawling around in the open gallery space

smiling proudly with Daddy after finishing her goodbye dance

 Hayden also had ballet class, her second session this fall, and enjoyed it thoroughly. During Hayden's class, I walked around with Molly and tried to get her to take a nap. Such a beautiful day for a walk! After dance class we headed home, so Daddy could head off to a soccer game. The next big event was DINNER.

For dinner, we decided to go out to Bandido's, one of our favorite Mexican places, that's just right around the corner practically. We were a little iffy on how dinner would go, since sometimes the girls are great, and sometimes they are really whiny and difficult in restaurants. Adding to the worries was the fact that only Molly napped in the afternoon. As it turned out we had a great evening. We got to sit outside. Our food was delicious. The girls were well behaved. But the BEST part was Molly and her enjoyment of the food. She ate almost the entire serving of black beans from my plate, plus rice, plus some quesadilla, plus some refried beans - and all of it with great gusto and messiness! Most people walking into the restaurant chuckled at her face, and even our server took a picture of her to put on Facebook.

This stuff is DELICIOUS! Can you make it like this, Mom?!

nom, nom, nom.

heh heh ahhh, I love black beans!

Eliza said, take a picture of me laughing [at Molly]!

A favorite part of Bandido's - ice cream comes with the kid meals!

Sunday was a little more quiet. No ballet classes or soccer games, just some household chores, Halloween decorating, and fighting with a snotty Molly to get her to take a nap. (She won, the nap did not.) The fun part came in the evening when we decided to have a Fry Fiesta with Grandma and Popop. We had done some frying last weekend (eggplant fries, fried pimento cheese balls, fried zucchini) and figured we could use the oil one more time. These two weekends were our first experience with deep frying (we only borrowed a deep fryer) so we wanted to make the most of it. So we fried potato chips and sweet potato chips, more zucchini, pickles, shrimp, and cheese sticks. And the piece de resistance - OREOS! (and we also tried a couple Reese's Cups too.)

potato and sweet potato chips - yummy way to eat CSA produce!

Fried Oreos and Reese's Cups- YUM

 I don't think we'll be borrowing the fryer any time in the near future but it was fun to try. Our fried Oreos were delicious, as good as ones we've had at fairs and festivals. The girls were very tolerant of the slow appearance of food on the table (frying all those different things is not quick!) and seemed pretty tickled by all our random frying - I think Eliza tried just about everything, but Hayden mainly stuck to the potatoes and oreos. (yes she had other non-fried things for dinner too!) Molly continued her love affair with fruit and spend most of dinner asking for banana (nananah, nanananah while pointing at the bananas) and eating the pear we offered (she had a banana for breakfast).

Hayden is smiling cuz she got to eat a whole oreo herself!

Eliza wants to know what else she can mooch

Molly wants to know why we didn't fry her a banana!

 All in all, it was a successful Frying Fiesta and a pretty fun weekend. Hope yours was good too!