Easter at the Pritchetts'

Our buds, the Pritchetts, invited The Three of We over for  Easter dinner.  What a lovely gesture!  Days prior to the event, Chris related a conversation (which I'm paraprasing):

Beth: You know, when I was growing up, my family always made every one put on some sort of show before dinner.  Sort of a "sing for your supper" type thing.

Chris: I did know that.

Beth: We should adopt that for Easter.  Every has to perform before dinner.

Alex (the 8-year-old daughter): Oh my!  What will Garry do?

Hahaha!

There was a slightly sad, yet slightly funny, turn of events, though, that'll I'll share just so that it'll be in my "album" and we won't forget it.

When we arrived, Kate (the 3-year-old) was napping.  She woke up, climbed into dad Chris's arms.  Chris said, "Say hello to the boys, hon."  Kate said (sleepily) "Hello boys."  Then up-chucked.  It flowed all over her, dad, the floor. So she was hustled back upstairs and cleaned up.  Then we had our visit.  As we were leaving, they were all lined up at the door waving to us.  Chris said, "Say bye to the boys, hon."  Kate said, "Bye, boys."  Then hurled again!  Yup...that's our effect on people.  Aw, the poor dear.

But on to the party itself.  We had lovely appetizers, plenty of wine, told lots of stories, shared much laughter.  Then Beth announced it was time for dinner which meant: Show Time!

Kate kicked off the performances by doing 10 pushups.

Alex demonstrated her Kung-Fu broadsword work (there's a sword in the blur, there)

Chris performed some of his Kung-Fu form work.  Alex jumped in to practice as well.

Beth shared a belly-dancing routine.

Russell used the iPad (that he never uses...uh-huh) to look up the lyrics
to one of his songs, then sang it to us.  My Barricuda!

Damian performed a card trick in which 4 cards were chosen.

Then their backs changed from blue, to orange, then green, then yellow.

Then then entire deck changed to red!

Garry recited the names and powers of his three favorite

Pokemon monsters.

 Dinner was served!  The "mystery meat" was spectacular, as were all the vegetable dishes.  More wine was enjoyed, and more laughter.  It was a fantastic meal and Beth really outdid herself!

Then, all too soon, it was time to leave.  We packed up, headed out the door.  Kate gave her last performance, and off we went.

We had a great time and enjoyed our visit to the fullest.  Thanks, Pritchetts!

Brazilian Steakhouse Follies

Crazy Bo is in town for a while so we thought it would be fun to take him and Granison (and Garry) to a Brazilian Steakhouse.  I Googled around and found Fogo de Chao down in the Inner Harbor.  I set up a reservation and off we went.

For those who don't know, a Brazilian Steakhouse is a place where, once you're seated, you find on your table a block of wood, or a card, or some similar token.  One side is red, one side is green.  So you sit and the token's red side is up.  Nothing happens.  Turn it over so that green is up, however, and waiters appear at your side with huge skewers bearing different cuts of meat.  Get a slice or two...or three.. then turn the token to red.  Eat away.  Turn it back to green....and here comes more meat!  All you can eat.

So we did and it was delicious.

Russ enjoying a full plate from the salad bar---before the meat arrives!

Bo starts the main act...

Granison is apparently worried that someone will come by and steal his food,

so he keeps meat in both fists and alternates between them.

Really, I have no caption for this...

So we had a good time.  Then the bill arrived.  <GASP!>  Considerably more than I had anticipated!  But it was great.  Everyone was full and Garry's belly hurt.

Birthday Tidbits

March 31st was Damian's birthday.  We didn't do much, so kept it pretty low-key.  The boys got me cards.  Russ bought me a nice bouquet of flowers.  Russ then had a special gift of a fountain for the lanai.

It's not in place, yet, but it'll be nifty when it's set up and finalized.

In other news, Russ hasn't finished the kitchen yet, so he missed that deadline.  <sigh>  But he's working on it.  Here's a picture of him sawing a piece of plywood for the base of the counter top.  Yes...one end of the plywood is on the counter...then other end on another counter, and he's sawing through the middle section.....that he's sitting on....with the power saw....

Apparently, he never paid attention to those Wile E. Coyote cartoons....

He survived that adventure and went out to make dinner on his Christmas grill.

It was yummy!