M.I.A.

Someone stole September right from under my nose. Have you seen it? Seems to have disappeared overnight. Between schoolwork and soccer and leading Brownies and volunteering at the school, I lost September somewhere. Oh wait - HERE are some bits and pieces of it:

No, we didn't all take off for another cruise, but we did get together around the dining table again, this time to celebrate this lady...

on her 65th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!! And of course, Miss Emily is always ready for a party!

Oh, and then there was this day, when I got together with Maria to lament the end of summer and our sweet cherubs' return to school. You'll never guess where we went....

Yeah, we went to Terrain - AGAIN. Really, I can't get enough of this place. And we hadn't been there since June. Whole different season.

How cool is this gazillion dollar piece of furniture?

And this is sweet Maria. It's probably time you met one of my partners in stimulating the economy ...

And we did eat there again, but alas, no pictures this time. We were too busy catching up with each other's summers and before I knew it the blueberry tangerine spritzer and the grilled scallops with polenta rounds were gone.

And then there was the weekend we got to reminisce with some old friends at Lisa's 40th. I hadn't seen some of them since we graduated from college! It was so nice to catch up, meet Lisa's precious children and have fun like in the 'ol days! And Keith and I got to have a little "getaway" time, while the kids spent the night with Aunt Cathy and Uncle Sam!

And then there have been our weekly trips around the world. Each week Noah and Emmy are learning about a different country on days there isn't much homework. From the library, I get books and CD's about the country we are studying and then on Fridays, we have a dinner from that country and the kids share with Keith what they have learned.... First we went to China:

For our dinner, we made Egg Drop Soup and then Keith picked up Sweet and Sour Chicken, Beef and Broccoli, eggrolls, rice and fortune cookies. We drank tea in my favorite expresso cups. This was my "fortune":

All of them?! Gosh, I hope not! How far back in my youth am I supposed to go? 'Cause I'm thinking Donny Osmond is a little too busy with Dancing With The Stars to marry me right now! And uh, not so sure how Keith would feel about that.

The next week the kids picked out Mexico from our basket of countries...

We made Chicken Mole, refried beans, rice, corn and guacamole. Yum. For dessert, we made a Flan.

This week, the kids picked out of the basket: The Southern USA. (I divided the USA into 4 parts). So we could go alot of different ways with our menu. Ribs, grits, andouille sausage, red beans and rice, pecan pie, butter... We could even do Mexican again! Since I have plans tomorrow night with my mom and sisters (part of mom's birthday present) we won't be having our Southern USA dinner til Sunday. So I've still got time to plan. Of course, my other "fortune" on our first week of "travelling" said:

Yeah, I never was a big fan of fortune cookies.