First Foodie Exchange!

I joined this really cool group called Foodie Exchange. It is a group that lets you exchange food care packages with people from around the world! For my first exchange I paired up with Vasilis. He is a cook in a monastery in Greece. I was so excited when the package arrived the other day! Everything I have tried so far has been amazing. I am trying to keep some for when Chris gets home again but it is proving difficult! LOL Here's all of the stuff he sent save a giant bag of hand-picked chestnuts that I realized isn't in the picture when I was looking at it.

In the package was amazing homemade liquor, organic extra virgin olive oil, olives, pasta, halva with peanuts, crostinis, honey, instant coffee, turkish delight (the kids have gone all Edmund in Narnia over it!), dried pasta, homemade trahanas, dates, little treats made of quinoa and sesame, a microwave paella risotto that was out of this world, hard candies, gum, and (to my absolute delight) whole filament red saffron! 

I am having a blast trying all of the different foods and just hope my package of American and Japanese treats makes Vasilis just as happy. ☺

Kids are destructive

Yes, all parents know this, but what about manufacturers of military equipment. Oh yeah, they know too. Here is  the Lifetime guarantee for equipment for Pelican. Click it to enlarge.

Really? Yes, really. You can find it on the website for yourself. LOL

Thanksgiving 2010

This year, more than ever, I am so grateful for my family. It is just me and the kids right now because Chris is at sea. We miss him terribly and I miss being with all of you so much. I always try to explain our Thanksgiving to people but I think one really has to attend a Thanksgiving at Buto manor to truly understand. I was talking about the annual lawn football game one time and my friend said, "What are you? The Kennedys?" It made me laugh out loud. We are certainly a bunch of loud-mouthed Irish Catholics, eh? Good-looking bunch too!

Seriously though, I cherish how close we all are and how every year no matter what has transpired throughout the year, we all make our way to Dexter to have our meal, watch the Lions play football choke, help Uncle Santa pass out presents to all the kids, eat a million desserts, pass the talking stick, play Balderdash, shiver on the lawn to watch the game/ treat any injuries (mostly sustained by Auntie Kathleen), and just love each other.

Time machine!

Soooooo, I have decided to take the time to fill in the missing time from last September until now. We got really busy with our move and fell off the blogging wagon but I am resolved to hopping back on! I will try to keep up with the current too. Expect some post-dated new entries to pop up soon! Now that I've written it I'll hopefully feel obligated to follow through. LOL

Here is the current look of Clan Walsh: We have added to the ranks! More on that later. Stay tuned!

Rock & Roll!

Chris has been training for several months now for the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon. We wouldn't have missed it for the world, so on Friday the kids and I drove down to Dahlgren to pick him up and head for the coast. After a fairly uneventful drive save some heinous traffic right at the end we arrived at our hotel and checked in. We ordered a pizza for dinner and settled right in for the night. We got up bright and early and had a good hot breakfast (free!) and were on the beach by 0930. This afforded us a great spot right in front of the hotel.  

Declan enjoyed his time on the beach immensely.

 Especially crawling by the waves.

Christopher and Daddy built castles and dug moats...

Christopher loves sitting right in the water.

After this little incident...

Declan was happy just to chill out in his playard while I lounged and read magazines. Hooray!

After we finished up at the beach we went for a a quick shopping spree at the NEX before meeting up with our old HOWARD shipmate and good friend Bill.

After we got back to the hotel we turned in right away. I woke up before the dawn to see Chris off and then took a moment to enjoy the sunrise over the Atlantic.

After we had given Daddy a little head start, the boys and I headed down to the halfway point of the course to wait for him.

Jr just chilled in his stroller.

Deck rode in style in my obi.

It was amazing to see Chris come running up. Jr was extremely excited and dashed out to meet him!

Chris finished the race strong! I wish we had pictures but the way the barricades were set up coupled with the crowds and me being saddled with two kids made it impossible. We do have a low-res one from the race people though.

We didn't have much time after that to lollygag because checkout time was approaching fast. We hurried back to the hotel and packed up and drove over to the Westin. We had decided ahead of time we wanted something a little more restful after Chris' race and the Heavenly Bed ™ sounded like just the ticket. When we got there it wasn't quite check-in time yet so we went to The Cheesecake Factory and had lunch. After check-in Chris decided to lay down for a bit. He didn't wake up again until well after midnight. The kids and I watched movies, did bathtime and went to bed- Chris was so deep in sleep he didn't even snore, let alone stir.

We woke up early with the intention of heading back down to the beach for the morning but sadly this is what started just as we were approaching the beach...

We opted instead for breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House...

Followed by a dip in the amazing indoor pool at the hotel.

After that we had to check out and head back towards reality. We are so proud of Chris for taking on this challenge and finishing! 

Can you believe Declan is a year old?

Me either! We had a little celebration in the park for my beautiful boy. Here are a couple of snapshots to commemorate the event.

We had chicken nuggets...

A special cake just for the birthday boy...

and adorable Elmo cupcakes!

The candle was fascinating!

Christopher didn't seem to mind murdering his buddy Elmo at all.

All in all the party was a (cake) smashing success!

By the way, Christopher wore the same shirt for his second birthday! Whoa!

In a Daze...

So, I was in Michigan last weekend for Dexter Daze. Got a gorgeous olive wood rosary bracelet for only $4.00, saw a magic show, and drank way too much beer with some dear friends. Here are a couple pics from the infamous Dexter Daze "Social Tent". Yeah, some towns have ice cream socials, we have a beer social! Salute!

Top models in action!

All of the Buto sisters- Too bad Bridget and Crystal were caught up in their own picture! LOL Jenni and I are cute though.

Kelly and I with our cheesiest self-portrait grins

The crowd...

Me and the gorgeous Mrs Troczynski

I was a bit too inebriated to consider the camera anymore by the time we moved on to Katie's but had a great time

catching up with some more peeps there.

I would like to applaud my friend Jeff for driving me home

afterwards too. {{hugs}}

I can't wait for Dexter Daze 2013 when we come back to the states! Slainte!

Imports...

So I gathered up my older blog posts and imported them to here. :) They're oldies but goodies. I can't figure out how to grab my MySpace blogs though. Maybe I'll copy and paste them. Any suggestions?

My big boy!

Christopher turned three last Sunday! We didn't have a huge party like last year but lots of family fanfare and "Happy Birthday" choruses marked the day. We had chocolate chip pancakes at the crack of dawn. This was followed by a showing of "Littlefoot" AKA The Land Before Time.

Daddy took Christopher to the park and out to pick out a toy while I baked the cake. They returned victorious in their mission with a huge set of die cast mini Tonka™ trucks which have been an obsession ever since.

We topped the day with Christopher's favorite dinner, spaghetti, and a grand finale of chocolate cake with "free" candles. Christopher definitely approved.

St Paddy's Day!

The boys and I went grocery shopping on St Patrick's Day and we found one of those cool rocket carts! They both loved it. Declan sat up like a big boy with his brother.