Valentines -Part 1

Happy Valentines! I hope you had a fun day celebrating love with the special people in your life. We have a tradition on valentines celebrating with the Young's. Our restaurant of choice is WA Frost. We have mixed it up with Forepaughs and that is where we headed this year. We almost missed our valentines dinner - I ended up with a horrible cold last week. It was so horrible that it really took me down! So we canceled. So sad. The time Saturday rolled around and I had been in indoor bound for 4 days. I needed to get out. Thankfully my sister did not change the reservation and we joined them for dinner. Here are pics of our lovely dinner..

Off to dinner - can you see Tyler in the background


Rachel and Brian


Dinner at Forepaughs

Spanglish Egg Sandwhich

Have you ever seen the movie Spanglish? Great movie! And in the movie he eats a yummy egg sandwich! I have not had an egg sandwich forever! So i decided to put it on our menu for dinner a few weeks ago.
Oh boy was it YUMMMMYYYY! And easy!

There is really no recipe to follow for you to make this. All you need is:

Good bread toasted
Cooked Egg - over easy
Bacon
Tomato
Lettuce
Cheddar Cheese
Avacado and of course some Siracha sauce
A little mayo

I toasted my bread, then added the cheese put in the broiler for a few minutes to melt. Make this how you want - its really up to you. And you can decide if you want to have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or maybe even a snack!

Happy 14th Birthday Tyler!

Happy Birthday to my Tyler! I cannot believe that you are 14?! Where did 14 years go? You were just this little (actually you have never been little - you are a Buckman) chubby, cuddly guy, didn't say much but smiled lots!
Now you are taller than me, almost as tall as your dad, weigh more than me,you eat more than me! I think you need to get a job just to pay for our grocery bill! You are ready to have a cell phone, girls like you, you like girls, you joined the basketball team. You are still a man of few words but will get your point across when need be! You love to hang out with your sister but then you want to beat her up at the same time. You love to spend time with your cousins on both sides especially Devante and Ian! You love love basketball - it's in your blood. You love to go to Kiara's game and watch her play! It's so sweet!
I love that you love Indian food ( I sure did not at your age) the hotter the better for you! In fact you have a wonderful palette and make me feel as though I'm the best chef every night with your compliments!

We cannot express how much we love you and how proud we are of you!

Happy Birthday Tylerman!

We love you!

Lion King

We were very fortunate to receive Lion King's tickets from one of Ron's stops on his route. The woman who gave us the tickets was generous and gave us four tickets to the production which was five rows from the stage! i guess there are a few perks with being a UPS driver. Let me say we were all pretty excited! We had a blast it was such a fun way to spend the day as a family. What a treat! The play was AMAZING - the kids actually sat through the two and half hours with no problem.
We went to the production and then enjoyed dinner at the St. Paul Grill. Mira defiantly was living in luxury when we went to the St.Paul Hotel. She was just amazed at how beautiful and fancy it was! We had a little fun posing in the powder room after dinner!

In the lobby at the Orpheum:



Waiting for the play to start:








Dinner at the St.Paul Grill





Ron's steak - it was as big as the plate


Mira and I posing in the fancy powder room:

Avocado Quinoa Salad

I found this recipe on pinterest - just love that sight. Let me say this Quinoa dish was DELISH!! I made this for lunch the other day. It was packed with flavor, veggies and lots of goodness. What a healthy lunch or side dish. I added some tomatoes to this dish. I could not find tahini so I substituted greek yogurt. The dressing was still very tasty! Enjoy!


1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1 cup water

pinch of salt

1 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/2 red onion, diced

1 avocado, diced

In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa and water until boiling. Reduce heat to low/medium and simmer until the quinoa has absorbed the water fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Drain any extra water and set aside to cool.

Make the dressing while the quinoa is cooking.

Toss the cooked quinoa, cilantro, red onion, bell pepper, and half of the dressing. Add more dressing to taste. Toss the avocado in last.

Tahini Dressing


Recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks
2 tbsp tahini

1 tbsp minced garlic (about 1 clove)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

pinch of salt

Directions

Whisk together the garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. Add the hot water to thin it out a bit and then the salt.

Set aside until the salad is ready to be tossed.

Source: Fat Girl in a Skinny Body

Buckman = Basketball

I knew this day would come - it just came too quick. Tyler mentioned playing basketball last year - we discussed it and thought it would be best for him to wait one more year. I was "hoping " that maybe he would forget about it. Oh no, he did not. He brought home the forms that needed to be signed and requested that he get in for a physical now. Way to take iniative Tyler!
Tyler has not joined an adaptive team - he joined the 8th Grade basketball team at his school! That is why mama bear is having a slight heart attack. Let me be clear I'm so happy that he joined. I just was having a little freak out wondering how he would do on his own.
I'm not really sure what I was freaking out about. I picked him up last Wednesday from his first day of practice - asked him how it was he answered AWESOME! He is loving it! When I pick him up everyday he is so happy and excited to be part of the team. It's hard work but he is enjoying it and that is what counts! He might not start or even play in any of the games. But I know that he is proud of himself and happy to be part of a team.
No matter what I guess it's in the Buckman blood!
We are so proud of you Tyler!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I am so behind on blogging. I guess this happens once the kids are home on Christmas break and you are so busy being occupied with them.
Where to begin? I can say we had a wonderful Christmas season. It is so bittersweet to me it just goes by so fast. You build up all this anticipation getting your house ready with beautiful decorations, finding the perfect gifts for your children, finding the perfect Christmas photo to use as your Christmas card, listening to Christmas music 24 /7, spending days at Target for weeks! And then it's over!
We celebrated the holidays with both sides of the families - we hosted Ron's family at our house the Sunday before Christmas and we celebrated with my family on Christmas eve at Rachel's house. Always have a great time with my family good food and lots of laughs. This year my parents were in India so we Skyped with them at the Young's, Liza and Brian spent the weekend at the farm. We were home on actual Christmas and it was wonderful. The kids slept in, we opened gifts, made a big brunch, a had a quick visit with our dear friends Sarah and Brian. We then had a wonderful dinner of prime rib - it's great to eat your dinner in your PJ's. All in all we had a wonderful Christmas spending time with family but also the four of us spending time together!


Here are some pictures of our festivities:

The Buckman Christmas:

Devante and Tyler


Tyler got a new jackets from his grandparents


Tyler and his Grandma:


Oreo Cake with oreo buttercream frosting:


Christmas at the Young's:

Before we went to the Young's


Almost have everyone looking at the camera:


Opening gifts:


Christmas Day: