a little girl in pigtails?

It's time to call it a day . . .

Note to family: I don't have a fun foofy red dress, though.

Tonight was the b-day party for Tracy, the new "me" at church.  We had 11 people (plus two little people), which was the perfect number for our house.  With the potluck we had banana bread, a veggie appetizer pizza, crab pasta salad, taquitos, chips and salsa, a cracker/cheese/prosciutto platter, and then my contributions.

I'll have to post the recipe soon, but I made cinnamon chips and fruit salsa.  The fruit salsa was a yummy combo of crushed pineapple, chopped peaches and kiwi, coconut, cashew nuts (you're supposed to use macadamia nuts), and a little brown sugar.  The cinnamon chips (they were supposed to be ginger, but guess what I was out of?) were 8 inch tortillas, sprinkled with water and then a cinnamon/sugar mix, cut into wedges, and baked for 5-8 minutes.  It took more like 8 minutes to get them crispy in my oven.  I think the oven temp was 400 degrees.

The birthday cake was a cheesecake topped with kiwi fruit, mandarin oranges, and strawberries.  It was quite festive looking!  I remember my party hostess guru, Marci, having these long, skinny candles on a bday cake once, so I used some of those and it was kind of fun and different.  I forgot to get any pictures, though.

For drinks, I served water, lemonade, and Tiger Tea.  It was nice to use some of my glass wedding present pitchers, since they're not often put to use.  I did cheat on the lemonade, using Country Time, but I sliced up a lemon (the one from which I grated peel for the cheesecake) and floated the slices in the lemonade overnight.  Not only did it boost the flavor, but it looked oh-so-summery in the glass pitcher. 

Tiger tea is a favorite summer drink.  I try not to make it very often because it's sugary. To make it, you bring one quart of water to a boil.  Remove from heat and steep 6 bags of tea in the water for 5 minutes.  Discard the tea bags.  Then you dissolve a cup of sugar (see why I don't make it very often?) in the hot tea and add 2 quarts of cold water, half a container of frozen lemonade concentrate and half a container of frozen oj concentrate.  Chill for at least several hours and serve over ice.  I like to use decaf tea.  This makes a bit over 3 quarts and is very yummy.  An additional plus is substituting frozen strawberries for ice cubes when serving.

We had fun tonight.  Dave took the two older boys back to the church where we visited on Sunday for their Thursday night kids' program.  Annemarie passed from person to person at the party.  Joel had been left behind by Daddy and at first he was eating his hot dog supper in the basement, but I guess he got lonely because we heard someone pounding on the basement door.  He came right over and made himself comfortable on the couch and partook of our party food.  He's a great kid.  In the middle of a game he just said, for all to hear, "I love you, Mommy." :~)  I think I'll keep that one.

Friend Amy and Tracy stayed behind and did the dishes for me while I attended to a little one's needs and we had fun chatting afterwards.  Tracy just fits right in like she's always been here.  We're excited to have them here.  Oh, and they have two very adorable little children.  Two little fairy-like girls, ages 3 and 1.  The older one wore her foofy princess dress to the picnic at the park last weekend. 

Tomorrow I am planning to relax!  Today was kind of intense, but everything got done according to schedule. 

P.S.  Is "additional plus" redundant?