Awesome!

That describes Maisie’s first day of school.  When I picked her up she was super animated and couldn’t stop talking about her day, her classes, her teacher Miss Lisa, the other students and about how she had her own desk and gets to keep her folders, pencils, pencil sharpener and books under the wooden top!!  She told me that they worked on math, Spanish, English, phonics and reading and that they also got to visit and check out the second, third and fourth grade class rooms and sit at their big desks!  I think my girl is desk obsessed but if it makes her happy and want to be in school and learn, I say good for her!  As soon as we got home Maisie sat at the counter and showed me her work from the day and then proceeded to do all her homework.  She’s my little star!!

After a popsicle treat and some gymnastics around the house we headed off for her 3-hour practice.  She did great at practice but I could tell that it had been a big and long day for her.  We arrived home at 7PM, she ate her dinner, got washed up and was in bed at 7:35 and sound asleep by 7:45.  I’m hoping that she sleeps through the night, my sweet little bear!!

I’m backtracking a bit here in this post as I didn’t have time over the weekend to blog and yesterday I wanted to document Maisie’s first day of first grade, so here’s what’s been going on.

Friday morning Maisie and I met up with Tracy and Emerson for a fun little play date at a local children’s play gym followed by Chinese food for lunch.  Little Eme put Maisie to shame in the eating department as she is one great little eater and hopefully someday Maisie will do as well.  The girls had fun together at the gym jumping on the trampolines, climbing the little rock walls, using the slides, balance beam, foam pit and numerous other things.  At the restaurant the little girls were quite well behaved, playing with our iPhones and with Tracy’s camera, giving Tracy and I time to chat without chasing them around the gym.  It was nice to be able to spend time with them especially as they now live so close to us.  Hard to believe but I didn’t get one decent or usable photo of the two cutie girls but I’ll do better next time.

Saturday morning we attended Claire’s fourth birthday party at an inflatable place and I will say that Maisie no longer dreads nor fears these places, just look at that face!!Two inflatable bouncy place birthday parties in two weeks!!  So happy that she now enjoys the slides.

After an hour plus of sliding and jumping, Maisie decided to cool off in front of a blower.

Birthday girl Claire, a happy little four year old!

Maisie and Chani.

Happy birthday Claire and thank you for inviting us to your party, it was great fun!!

Saturday afternoon we headed next door to Anne & Steve’s house to a little dinner party they were hosting.  I brought along three appetizers and I’m sure glad that Anne, Steve and their friends are adventurous eaters.  So how was the octopus you ask?  Well I bbq it and it was totally awesome!!  It didn’t last long, disappearing quickly as everyone just couldn’t get enough of it! 

I have added the bbq octopus recipe to my Cook Lisa Cook blog so check it out.

We had an (to use the word again) awesome dinner with everyone but that’s par for the course as it’s always good times and great food when we’re together.

The second appetizer that I made were these Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies with jalapenos fresh from our garden.  Totally delicious and also a huge hit, disappearing almost as quickly as the octopus!

My third appetizer was I think my personal favorite.   I know that they don’t look like much but the flavors worked so well together, I just couldn’t stop eating them!  There’s no real recipe as I just made it up as I went along based on what I had in the house.  They are Jimmy Nardello peppers from our garden filled with a mixture of cream cheese, minced figs picked fresh from Anne & Steve’s tree, some ground toasted walnuts and a bit of vanilla bean paste, then baked at 375F for about 15 minutes until the tops started to brown.  We all decided that we really liked them hot but LOVED them once they cooled to room temperature. 

All these appetizers plus Anne’s homemade guacamole was followed by a great dinner that Anne had put together.  Apple brined pork chops, a feta, vegetable and mint orzo and roasted vegetables.  Even after a lot of after dinner lounging and game playing we still ended up waddling home with full bellies.  I love that Anne enjoys cooking as much as I do and that they are adventurous eaters so it’s always a fun feast when we’re together and they’ll happily taste and eat anything I make…gotta love it! 

Good times, fun parties, wonderful food, great friends and well behaved children who can’t get enough of one another and love being together along with my very happy little Maisie Miao Miao…Awesome good days.  Life is good!