Last night of Break

Aiden was up with Annie again. I was blissfully sleeping all night. I woke up off and on through the morning and eventually registered that I had been sleeping for a long time. It was 8:45 which is unheard of in my universe, usually.

Last night Aiden said he wanted to get the house clean and then spend the last day of break doing nothing at all. The first movie up was Tortilla Soup. It's a little known movie but it's pretty good. The best part is the food. I have never been able to watch it without craving reeeaaaallly good Mexican grub. Last time I tried to get Aiden to watch it he fell asleep (I guess I have a knack for choosing it when he's sleepy). This time he stayed awake and both of us salivated over the yummy food they show being cooked.

Eventually Aiden got over it, I thought, and decided we should have fried chicken for dinner. He had to run to the store and came back with stuff for dinner. We worked together and ended up making the best food we've made all break (Christmas dinner was kind of boring and almost GROSS compared to this stuff!). We had:

Mexican fried chicken. He cut it into chicken fingers and battered it with a mixture of stuff that would make the Colonel drool. And there was cheese in it. Yum!

Mashed Potatoes with bacon, green onion, and cheese in it. The potatoes from Christmas were unusually bland so I added butter and milk and then added some leftover garlic butter sauce from Papa John's before the extra stuff went in. These were NOT bland.

Mexican green beans. Garlic, diced onion, diced (drained) tomatoes, and the green beans. And some other stuff but Aiden made them and I don't know what else went in there. YUM!

Guacamole from scratch. Until I was with Aiden I thought guac had to be made with those packages you can buy. WRONG! All you need is some garlic powder and salt. And, of course, avocados. No "let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours" here. mix and EAT.

Fresh baked bread (from pre-made packaged dough).

The kids are stuffed, the grown ups are stuffed, Ashley is STILL eating, and it was good.

Since it was the last night of break we not only did "best part of your day" but then "best thing about break". Or at least something that you liked. Aiden and I liked seeing the family so much more (it's nice when the parents get the break, too!). Alex liked having Brandon over for Christmas and playing outside, Annie liked opening presents (duh!), and Ashley? She liked "having all that peace and quiet".

I asked if it's hard to come by at her age and she missed the patronizing tone altogether and solemnly nodded, "yes" complete with a sigh.

She cracks me up.

Aiden's mom used to sing "I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck. In my arms, I will keep you from all harms". We sing it to our kids now. It's even a library book we have checked out. Ashley started singing today "I love you, a bushel and a freck, a fushel and a freck and a hug around the neck OOOOOOOH, What do ya know? A fushel and a freck!"

Also, we went to Aiden's work Christmas party at one of the teacher's houses a couple weeks ago. The kids all ended up going upstairs and playing Rock Band (or something). I didn't know what they did up there, just that there were a lot of older kids playing and babysitting the younger ones and we got to have adult time without all the interruptions. Today Ashley and Annie have been running around singing "You are my dirty little secret". I couldn't figure out where they had learned that but they told me.

I sang the 3 lines that I know of the song and now Annie is convinced I know EVERYTHING. I am so the coolest mom.