Tickling the ivories

A little quality time for Daddy and Henry. Here the boys are playing the piano at Ni-ni's house on Thanksgiving day. Henry loves the piano and truly enjoyed sitting on Daddy's lap and making all of that music together. Too cute!! The other picture is of Paul playing with a new toy at Ni-ni's on the living room floor. Paul is very serious when it comes to figuring out something new. He'll make a great poker player!

I love pumpkin pie!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope everyone had a safe and yummy turkey day. We all have a lot to be thankful for. I am most thankful for my family, near and far. Love you all! Here is a picture of Paul enjoying his first piece of pumpkin pie (Jane Dimitri's pie recipe, and Mom's crust recipe). So,I wish you happy shopping today, on this Black Friday, and hope to see you all soon in the upcoming holiday season!

Hoosier Mama's Slammin' BBQ Sauce

"And the winning name is ......." I apologize for not telling you all what I named my BBQ sauce after I asked for suggestions, but the winning name is listed above. I sold more than half of the jars that I made for the Poland, Maine PTA craft fair last weekend, and everyone that tasted it thought that it was delicious and different. "A sweet, tangy beginning with a nice heat at the end." "...should be sold in stores.", and lots of other wonderful comments. Who knows what will become of this sauce??!! Maybe it will turn into a money-making venture. That would be cool! Can anyone say "college fund"? I haven't figured out shipping prices, but if anyone is interested in BBQ sauce for their family holiday parties/gifts, let me know. I am taking orders at lizadimitri@aol.com. Thanks!! Here is the label that I made for the sauce. I have also been making a "Hoosier Mama's Spice Rub" that I use on pork to make pulled pork sandwiches, along with the BBQ sauce. You can order the rub too. The sauce is $4.50 for 16 ounces, and the rub is a $1.00 a packet.

Here are your next American Idols....

Paul, Henry and I just got back from eating dinner and playing at my friend Karen's house. Shelly and Hannah Mogul were there too. We had a great time, and plan to make a monthly event while rotating from house to house! Karen has a four year old girl, Ella, pictured here with Paul. They had a lot of fun playing with this keyboard/microphone. We had tacos/grilled cheese for dinner, and the FIVE kids ranged in age from 1 to 4, were great!
P.S. I hope that everyone has a nice and safe Thanksgiving!

my little tree hugger

Happy Friday, folks. Thought that I would put in an older photo from this summer, but a good one. This is of Paul at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. He was giving the tree a hug. He knows his mommy was a SPEA major, I guess. : ) That park was so beautiful, and the Maine Dimitris plan on visiting again sometime in the future. We only had time to spend one day there, but it was worth it to see Old Faithful do her stuff. "WOW" is all I can say. A must see in your lifetime if you can do it.

Go, Paulie, Go!

Paul received this puzzle from (great) Uncle Pete Marczak for his 3rd birthday. Here Paul displays his life size Diego puzzle, by lying on the floor next to it. Paul loves to put this puzzle together, and occasionally has some some help from Henry. Henry likes to hand Paul the pieces, and then pat them down after they are in place. They are quite the duo!

Magic 101

It's been a few days since I last posted, so here goes. Henry received a rabbit puppet from Grandma Jane and Papa, and he loves it. Here he is trying to do a little trick for the "audience". Good job, Henry! Here is another one of Henry in pj's from god-mommy Lisa Dimitri. Looking forward to the 3 day weekend here, and enjoying some quality family time. Next post will be about P-diddy......stay tuned.

First time at Friday's!

Henry and I met my friends, Shelly and Karen, with their children, Hannah and Ethan, at TGI Friday's today for lunch. The three children were born a year ago only TEN days apart from each other. So, the ladies and I decided that we needed to do a little birthday celebration, that will hopefully turn into an annual event for the six of us.

A great time was had by all, and the kids ate grilled cheese with french fries. They were very well behaved, considering we were there for almost 90 minutes. There was barely a peep out of any of them. I'd say it was a success! Here is a picture of the three of them, Hannah, Ethan and my (not-so) little Henry. Happy 1st Birthday kids!

(The picture below is of the 6 of us right before Christmas. Karen with Ethan, Shelly with Hannah, and me with Henry. The kids were about 6 or 7 weeks old. How time flies.....)

Happy Friday!

Hello there, glad it's Friday. I have to give a "shout out" to my husband, Brian, who stayed up with our son, Henry, last night. What a man!! (Brian, that is.) Henry had been cranky the past 10 nights or so, and waking up a lot. So, Brian took one for the team, and gave me a break last night. Love him! Here is a new one of Henry...good thing he is cute!!

"Speed....I AM speed!"

I realize that I probably won't be able to keep up this "posting every day" rate that I am at right now, but we will see how it goes. We survived Halloween. We had about 90 trick or treaters come to the door, within only about an hour's time. The boys didn't dress up, because Paul said that he wanted to stay home and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters. He had a great time, and Henry checked it all out too. Here is a picture of the boys this morning after breakfast, playing in their "twinsies" pj's from the movie Cars. Paul loves this movie and it is one of two that he has seen. The other movie he has seen is "Finding Nemo". Happy November!