happy 28, ralph!

It's been a whirlwind of a past three days! pardon the non posting. I have a lot to catch up on.

It all started Friday when Kent finished his day nice and early. We decided to have a little birthday eve celebration! we went shopping, put rugrats to bed- and ate an amazingly easy and most delicious fondue while catching up on missed project runway episodes.

My mom regifted me a fondue set last christmas and we finally decided to put it to use :) Although I'm sure you could just use the stovetop.

This has got to be the easiest and best recipe out there. I actually don't like Brie at all- but this stuff is divine. Brie can be a little pricey- but it must have been old (isn't cheese supposed to be old?) because we got ours for half price at Meijer.

We halved our recipe and I used skim milk instead of heavy cream. It was still so so good plus had 30+ plus fewer grams of fat!!

13 oz. ripe French Brie
1/4 cup butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup chicken
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh tarragon
salt freshly ground black pepper

Melt butter in fondue pot ( I have an electric fondue pot and made the whole thing in it.) over a low heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook gently for 10 minutes until softened. Sprinkle flour over and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring. Gradually add stock and continue to stir until mixture thickens. Simmer gently for 2-3 minutes.

Stir sliced Brie and cream into the fondue. Cook, stirring, until cheese has melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in tarragon and season with salt and pepper.

Kent's actual birthday was on Saturday. He is finally the same age as me again!

The entire day was booked and full of adventure. We actually woke up at eight and went running as a family. Afterwards we splurged and went to Tropical Smoothie Cafe. I think Kent misses good fruit smoothies more than just about anything from home! There's only one smoothie place in all of Toledo and it's pretty pricey.

I had a baby shower later on so Kent came home and put the kids down for naps while I was gone. Once I got home we drove up to Michigan to visit Farmer Charleys. I found super cheap admission tickets online and this week we've been studying the letter "F" so I thought a day at the farm couldn't be more perfect. Zeb was SOOOOOO excited to see cow's udders, piglets, and a combine. The kid has been watching combines harvest wheat on Youtube all week. He's obsessed.

They had little piglet races that were so funny. I think the little piglets looked so much like Ike. They also had some fun animals for kids to pet and chase around.












They also had all sorts of games and "toys" to play with. I think that Kent had almost as much fun as Zeb on a lot of the stuff.












Kent always talks about how badly he wants to be on wipeout - or american gladiators. Those obstacle courses and crazy contraptions look fun to him for some reason.

They had a giant corn maze in the shape of the wizard of oz characters. Zeb did not like to stay on the trails. he kept venturing into the corn rows.

We spent at least thirty minutes playing duck races with the water spigots.
And Ike loved the baby area.
Zeb rode the barrel train at least eight times. First with me- then with kent- then with kent and ike- then by himself a bunch of times. We even ran into friends at the farm and he went with them too.And he enjoyed the kids hay maze.After a couple hours at the farm we decided to head back to Toledo and EAT! We had all of our giftcards from the mall we got for free awhile back and decided to splurge! Kent did get a full FREE meal at Red robin for his birthday (just register online)- plus an ice cream sundae- but we got takeout "The great wall of chocolate" from P.F. Changs and had it late that night after kiddos went to bed. It was so good. So good in fact that I finished it off this morning for breakfast before church.


Kent's birthday is always so fun because it's like a giant party for all of us!! Happy Birthday, ralph. I love you buckets. I can't wait for next year!! 10-10-10. We'll have to do something CRAZy!!!!!!