Thursday, August 07, 2008

Only once every four years!

Well, it only happens every four years!
What?
The summer Olympics and celebrating two special birthdays!
Mary Alice's 4th birthday AND Marigny Caroline B. was born on 08-08-08!! ("Mallie" as her parents are calling her...or "the unsinkable Mallie Brown" as Uncle Ricci is already calling her!)
Isn't she gorgeous?!?
So Friday afternoon we headed off to the hospital to meet the adorable new one, and then the girls and I got busy planning our fun evening to celebrate the 2008 Summer Olympics' Opening Ceremonies in Beijing! We had some dear friends over (that are also nuts for watching the Olympics like we do), and it was a fun evening! We bought the fellas some Tsingtao beer...tastes a lot like Blue Moon to me! Tressie pulled out her panda bears (even her panda bear soap!); we bought some Chinese to-go boxes to box up some of our Amaretto butter cookies (recipe's below...oooh, they're so good!) for party favors; and the girls dressed up in the beautiful dresses that Aunt Jan & Uncle Eddie brought them back as a gift from their trip to China.
We enjoyed a dinner of Mandarin Chicken (recipe's also below...a good recipe cooked in the crock-pot for a busy day!), white rice, green beans with toasted almonds, and a spinach/mandarin orange/almond salad....and of course fortune (I mean, blessing) cookies! Oh yeah...on their way home from work, the sweet fellas picked us up some yummy eggrolls, crab rangoons, etc. We cracked up about their hitting a Chinese restaurant on their way home, but ooh, it was all so good!
Dinner was yummy, and Eric set up the DVD projector, so we all sat in awe of the opening ceremonies....wasn't it incredible? And we also took turns playing this fun game to see every one's geographical knowledge....um, now y'all know why I'm home-schooling...so that I can re-learn what I supposedly learned way-back-when! It is a fun game to do, if you have a minute!

Mandarin Chicken
(This is a really great crock-pot recipe that I originally found in a Kraft magazine, but I may have adapted it somewhat!)
1/2 cup Barbecue Sauce
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup orange marmalade
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. grated ginger
6-8 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
Stir barbecue sauce and flour in small bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Add all remaining ingredients except chicken; mix well.
Pour sauce mixture evenly over chicken in slow cooker. (Do not stir.) Cover with lid.
Cook on LOW for 3 to 5 hours. Serve chicken topped with the sauce.

Amaretto Butter Cookies
1 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. white sugar
2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. amaretto
White sugar to dip cookies
Beat together butter and sugar until creamy in large bowl.
Add flour, salt and almond extract, stir well.
Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pinch about 1 tablespoon of dough and roll in 1 inch ball.
Flatten in crisscross pattern using fork dipped in sugar.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove while warm dip into white sugar.
Cool.

Speaking of cooling, the weather outside has been so wonderful! It does feel like Fall is around the corner (although the weatherman says this won't last!), so Saturday was the most wonderful day to celebrate our dear friends Mike and Bridget's little girl's 4th birthday! She is so precious, and that party was quite a party! They served the yummiest bbq, slaw, baked beans, cake and ice-cream, and then the gifts...I've never seen so many gifts! What a fun day it was!

5 comments:

Laura said...

Thanks so much for allowing us to celebrate the Olympics with you! We all had such a wonderful time....and I will DEFINITELY be making some Mandarin Chicken soon!

Off to watch the Olympics!

Life with the DixieChirps said...

We always have fun with y'all!
Phelps is going on possible 14 Olympic medals! And counting!

Laura, we've gotta get us some of that lipstick that lasts on those gals during all of these swim competitions and interviews! And I can't keep my earrings on when I swim...what kind of earrings are they wearing?!?

Life with the DixieChirps said...

Oh...here's another great website for fun stuff for the kids! http://www.learningtreasures.com/olympic_math.htm

Anonymous said...

That Mallie is adorable- the cutest baby I've seen! Oh yea...she's mine!!!

Anonymous said...

What a fun time celebrating the Olympics in that way. Your children's memories are getting so filled up with fun remembrances of growing up.