Mary Jo's

One of our "going away" parties was at Mary Jo's. It was just a few of our closer friends. The kids had fun laying on Mary Jo's water bed, watching a movie. Then Caleb moved on to play with the cat and enjoy some fudge. Yum, yum.

Happy Thanksgiving- a little late

I had little trouble posting to the blog the last few days. I was busy, and when I had a chance to sit down at the computer, the site wouldn't work for me.
The Orts came to spend Thanksgiving with us. On Wed night we had a meal with Asian food. The pictures aren't the best, but I think you can see what things are. There are pot stickers, egg rolls, Vietnamese ham, rice noodles (not pictured), and a Vietnamese chicken dish. I forget the name of it, but it had lemon grass and ginger root-- very yummy.
We were trying to do a Vietnamese meal, but it is hard to find everything to make some of the recipes. The pot stickers and egg rolls were from Schwan's, so were already prepared. The Vietnamese ham was from Kathleen's father. Emmy made the chicken dish from a recipe book that she has. The kids all enjoyed the meal, but they all liked different parts of it. It's a good thing we had some variety!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I have some more pictures of the kids that I will hopefully post before we leave for Havre tomorrow.

Mary Jo's Birthday

There is not much to do in Browning. Ask anyone who has lived here, or visited, or driven through... So we have to make our own entertainment. Any excuse for a get together will do. It can be an interview, get to know you party, a going away party, a holiday, a birthday, baby shower, etc. We just enjoy the chance to spend time together eating yummy food, talking and laughing.
Mary Jo loves to be a hostess, and lately many of our parties have been at her house. Everyone loves this because Mary Jo is a wonderful cook and makes lots and lots of food.
This time it was her turn! We had Mary Jo's birthday party last night at Peter & Alice's house. A bunch of friends and neighbors showed up with presents-- and of course food! We spent the evening eating and listening to funny stories everyone remembers from the hospital. Mary Jo has been working at the Hospital here for over 20 years! As you can imagine, she has quite a few stories. Happy Birthday, Mary Jo!

Kathleen's birthday

Today was Kathleen's 4th birthday. We had a few neighbors over for a birthday party. We had some kid friendly food for supper. Of course, the kids were all too excited to eat very much, but the adults got to eat chicken strips, French fries, and meatball subs. Jason (Kathleen's dad) also brought over a noodle dish (not sure of the name.)
I tried to find out what kind of cake she wanted. But she didn't want one. Instead of a cake, she wanted chocolate chip cookies and pink ice cream. At first she said she wanted princess ice cream, but I didn't think that could be located in Browning or Cut Bank. She decided pink would be OK. I found some Dora strawberry banana ice cream at Albertson's. Today she changed her mind, and said she wanted blue Cinderella ice cream. I was pretty sure that kind of ice cream does not exist!
I made lots of cookies. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday. Then when I was at the store, I saw some Cherry Chips, and thought I would do another batch of cookies with those. I wasn't paying close enough attention to the recipe and didn't realize that it made 10 dozen. By the time I thought, "Wow, this is a lot of ingredients" it was too late to 1/2 the recipe. I had to finish them after the party tonight. The hospital staff will be happy tomorrow! ;)
The balloon center piece has lots of candy all around. It was hard for Caleb to keep his hands off of it. That is until Kathleen started opening her presents. Then he was occupied helping her-- as were Ian and Isabelle.
My sister Martha sent presents for each of the kids, so they all had something to open. That kept everyone happy. Now everyone is busy sleeping off their sugar high, and I am soon off to join them... after I get that last batch of cookies put away.