Weekend Update: Celebrating Spring

Jay and I had another wonderful weekend at home. It started Friday afternoon when we met up with Ryan for lunch at Pita Jungle. He had such a great time with us that he spent the rest of the afternoon with Jay and let us (Jay) cook him dinner! I had to work and then got my hair cut (like my summer "do"?), so the guys made sure dinner was ready when I got home. What a treat! 

On the menu - Pioneer Woman's Macaroni & Cheese. The only words I can describe this dish is a piece of heaven. And the fact that I didn't have to cook it? Priceless.

It was so nice having our special dinner guest. Especially since he's now living so far away in Jersey. He's not in this neck of the woods very much anymore. 

You know what's weird about him though? He puts ketchup on everything. Even on PW's Macaroni & Cheese. But that's ok. We still love him.

I can't believe we almost ate the whole thing!

Saturday morning we headed to downtown Chandler to attend the city's 1st annual "Barbeque Throwdown". It was the perfect day to be outside and we were both anxious to taste some award winning barbeque. There were all sorts of set-ups from "Big Green Eggs" to huge smokers like this team below:

I stayed "green" and held onto my fork. It ended up being a good thing because forks (and eventually samples) were hard to find as the day progressed! I think all of the vendors were surprised at the attendance & weren't quite prepared for it.

We both got more sun than we had expected! Jay got a red neck (hehe) & I got a little burn on my chest. Next time we won't let that morning breeze trick us into thinking it would be "not too hot" out.

One of the coolest parts of the day was that we ran into Myla who was there with a bunch her friends!! It was such a treat - she lives on the complete other side of town, so to see her there was a very happy but unexpected surprise! We ended up spending most of our time with them (and Jay took stroller duty for her friend Jerilyn and baby Talon (sp?).

After we had our fill, we headed to El Zocalo for some drinks & basketball. I had a delicious margarita and Jay had a beer. It really hit the spot soooo.......you remember our last update where I called us old? Yeah, well, look at what we did the remainder of Saturday afternoon:

And of course, we had to get this delivered later on to round it all off:

Ahhh just like the good ol' days! I guess I spoke too soon about the getting old thing. :) It really was such a blast. We watched basketball, I did laundry (I will admit - the beers made it not so bad), and we just had a nice time at home!

Sunday morning after mass, there was a group from Bethlehem selling carvings in the courtyard. They come every year or so & I've always wanted to purchase a nativity scene from them. Well this year, we finally caved and brought this home with us: 

It is hand-carved from genuine olive wood in the Holy Land. The group of Christians that sell these pieces are able to stay living in Bethlehem by selling these carvings throughout the year. I just love it & look forward to bringing it out during Advent later this year.

Once again we headed to the farmer's market after church to get some veggies for the week. Here's our bounty: 

We made a delicious bruschetta for dinner with the tomatoes (and basil from our new plant!) and a salad with those fresh greens in the back. Jay also made a yummy tangelo vinaigrette to top it off! So fresh & of course it felt great to know we were eating from (and supporting) local farmers! Later this week we're going to make one of our favorite sides by roasting the beets, carrots & turnips.

Phew! Once again we packed in so much fun stuff into just a few days! Spring is definitely in the air! 

Hope you have a great week!

xoxo