2 Flashbacks

1st flashback: Last week.

Mom drove me home from the airport and stayed. It’s always such a treat to have her here. She loves her grand babies

… and will probably be a tad perturbed that I posted a picture of her without makeup. Speaking of makeup, like most grandmothers, she has a hard time saying no. On more than one occasion I’d be quite surprised by Paige’s appearance; bright red lips, rosy red cheeks, and she always smelled of “night cream”.

We made some cookies last week… good sugar cookies. It’s always such a mess but I love little hands in the kitchen with me. {most of the time} Thank you, Stephanie {in AZ} for our princess cookie cutters… we love them!!

The cookie recipe came from my friend Tami and may actually be Martha’s but it is perfect for rolling and cutting. It makes a dense, not too sweet cookie, that is perfect for icing with a very simple icing.

• 4.5 C flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter {room temp}
• 2 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Mix dry ingredients together. Add vanilla to milk. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk mixture to the creamed butter and sugar mixture until well incorporated.

Scrape dough from bowl and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Divide into 4 sections, roll one section at a time and cut shapes. Place cut out cookies on parchment {I never bake without parchment!} lined baking sheets and bake for 8 to 10 mins.  Let cool.

Icing:

Mix powdered sugar with a little bit of milk and vanilla extract until you reach the consistency of Elmer’s glue, add food coloring if you like and frost cookies.

 I don’t have any pictures of the iced cookies because by then I had lost my patience. 🙂

John Martin also got his hair cut. It was a little too out of control and it looked like he had “ear warmers”…. he seems pleased with his new ‘do.

I could eat his face off.

2nd flashback: 1985.

4 of our friends are moving away. To bid them farewell, we sent them off with a totally rockin’ 1980’s themed going away party. {That’s Justin in the jams.}

Since Mom was in town we had a built in babysitter which also allowed me time to shop alone at the thrift store Friday pre-party {and enough time to wash and dry what I bought}. I was so tickled in there, people were staring at me as I laughed and laughed. I called Justin and asked if he wanted black acid washed jeans or jams… he quickly answered “jams”. I found an equally impressive outfit for myself and while checking out I mentioned to the clerk I was getting ready for a party. She told me how cute my shoes were and how cute my skirt was. I thought she couldn’t be serious, but she was, so I just thanked her for the compliment and told her what a great deal they were.

Our kids thought we looked awesome. “Mommy, you look like a bootiful pwincess!” Paige would say. Then she’d touch my hair. Paige is the queen of compliments, if you’re ever not feeling good about yourself you can hang around her and she’ll tell you how “pwetty” you look. My skirt is by My Michelle, let me know if you want to borrow it or my shoes. I also had the pleasure of styling Justin’s hair. It had so much hairspray in it that it could have also served as a helmet.

All of the girls pretty much looked the same: hot pink nails, big earrings, blue eyeshadow, big hair {or bad wigs}, capri leggings, short skirts, off the shoulder tops… and how cool is the splatter paint backdrop?

Belinda Carlisle, Michael Jackson, Poison, B52s, Journey, Tiffany… you name it, we heard it and we sang it… karaoke style! Most came as rockin’ couples.

Others came as preps.

 Tim and Jill came as the conservative couple… how ’bout those 1980’s Mom jeans with a tight roll!? Aren’t they awesome!??

Seriously, I’ve not laughed as hard as I did that night in a long time. It was so much fun, I think we should do it once a month. I love these people a LOT! More hilarious pictures in Flickr… just click on any of the above pictures, they’ll take you there.

Happy Monday!!