Crawfish Boil 2010

Ben's friend Mike works at fish hatchery in west Alabama and informed Ben one Thursday that he had caught a large amount of crawfish that needed cooking as soon as possible. Ben asks me the same Thursday if I would "think about" having a crawfish boil on Saturday, two whole days later. I politely declined but after more thought, I decided not to be Debbie Downer and host a last minute "Crawfish Berl." So we alerted the media and gathered as many people as possible to put away some crawdads. Unfortunately, only one cooler of three was consumed, but the remainder were cooked and frozen for future consumption (not by me though!). We really had a great time and I'm glad I gave in to some spontaneity. We enjoyed the food and the company well into Sunday morning!

Sipsey right after her nap learning about crawfish from Mike, who, by the way, she always pretends to speak to on the phone!



Three coolers of crawfish.



Some were quite ornery.



They reminded me of Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid who did not want to go into that pot of boiling water!



Sipsey helping wash out the pot.



Corn, potatoes, onions, lemons, celery, mushrooms, and of course, crawfish!



Dinner! We also had red beans and rice and boiled peanuts.



I can only imagine the conversation: "I swear the fish was THIS big!"



Meanwhile the kids played in the pool.



And they caught lightning bugs (and got EATEN ALIVE by mosquitoes despite the bug spray they were bathed in).



I don't know about other areas of Alabama, but we have tons of lightning bugs that come out every evening. I do not remember that many growing up in Dothan.



I think they were happy when the kids found something else to do!

Memorial Day 2010

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend! We started out by visiting the Pepper Place Saturday Market. It was a rainy day but we went anyway and came back with new potatoes, bush beans, eggplant, cucumbers, and tomatoes. After Sipsey's afternoon nap, we played outside with the neighbors in their pool. Then Ben, Anna, and Elle came for dinner. We had Pioneer Woman's Marinated Flank Steak (read about the marinade in Part 1 here), Pioneer Woman's Restaurant-Style Smashed Potatoes, Ben Beck's green beans, and Anna Barron's apple cobbler. Y'all, it was delicious. I haven't eaten that much in a long time. I would HIGHLY recommend the smashed potatoes. They were very easy and a crowd pleaser. I think the meal was the highlight of my weekend! We spent the rest of the weekend playing in the pool in the front yard, relaxing and remembering the reason we were able to take a day off from work!

The best picture I could get of these two sweet girls. I caught Sipsey on the tail end of her "Cheeth."



I couldn't resist a picture of that cute little hiney.







I had to throw in this photo of our french hydrangea. Our flowers are beautiful right now.



Sipsey and Elle got to take a bath together! They had so much fun!



I love this picture of these girls looking at each other.

After-church fun

One day after church, our Sunday School class met at Homewood Park for a picnic and playtime. Sipsey usually naps right after she eats, but we made an exception for playtime with friends. We packed sandwiches and chips from home (much more organized than I thought) and went straight to the park after early church and Sunday School. Sipsey lasted almost 2 hours and then it was definitely time to go home for a nap.

Sipsey purposely not looking at my camera.



Sipsey ALWAYS finds old candy, small pieces of trash, and even cigarette butts (why is it okay to toss cigarette butts?) on the ground. GROSS! We are actively trying to break this habit.



Homewood Park has a cool bridge to walk over to enter the park, and the creek running through the park was our last stop. Ben had to scout it out for our supper. :)



And what did we see coming to visit us?

Mr. Crawfish did not realize he was approaching someone who was not afraid to (carefully) pick him up! It was his lucky day though. We did not eat him for supper!