Weekend Fun

J and I had a great weekend and I'm just now getting the chance to post. After my wonderful trip to HL I went and babysat some of my favorite children. Ella and I had quite the girl's night after the two youngest ones went to bed, complete with an Easy Bake Oven cake, makeovers, and Snow White. We had a great time, although I'm beginning to wonder at what age will she be too cool to hang out with her Aunt Jessica.

Saturday was a little crazy with me having to go to work for a few hours to help give tours of the new hospital to the community. It was packed and I never expected that many people to come thru so I definitely stayed busy. The hsopital is beautiful and well designed and I'm excited for us to open!

We had our first experience entertaining Saturday night when we hosted game night at our place. Our plan was to play the SceneIt 80s game that he got for Christmas (guys vs. girls) but it didn't take long for us ladies to realize we were way out of our league. Which makes sense since we are all so young and could hardly be expected to remember that decade. Ok, maybe we're not that young, but it's my story and we're gonna go with what makes me feel better. We quickly moved on to a fun game called last word where I unfortunately demonstrated my lack of spelling skills and understanding of anatomy when I listed Amy Grant as a male singer and stated that orangutan started with the letter "A". Yes, people, I have a Masters degree. Scary, isn't it. Tara and Jenn made me promise to never homeschool my children. Steve and Jenn then went on to kick J and I's tail in Wii tennis. I think they play a lot more than we do. Especially seeing as how 've tried to avoid it ever since J brought home Wii fit and convinced me to try it out. I was a little down about putting on a few pounds after the wedding and he was trying to help. It was all well and good until I stepped onto the board where it weighed me and then proceeded to have my character blow up like a Macys Thanksgiving day balloon. Not helpful. Needless to say, I don't play with the Wii very often.
Overall we had a great night of fellowship and food and I'm thankful for such wonderful friends. I am going to try and be better about taking pictures to post on here for your visual enjoyment and to enhance my storytelling....I'll work on it.

I made a baked sweet onion dip (which my husband loves even though he hates onions....I just told him it was a "cheese dip") and an easy black bean and corn salsa. I first made the dip for my sister-in-law's bridal shower and it was devoured in about 5 minutes. I've since taken it to a bunch of other parties cause it's so easy to make and everyone loves it. It's from tasty kitchen:

Baked Sweet Onion Dip

8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese (Very Softened)
1 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese (I use the cheap powder kind and it works just fine)
1 cup Minced Sweet Onion
1 Tablespoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Crusty Bread, Crackers
*I've also been known to add in shredded swiss cheese. I had to add it the first time I made it because I was short on the parmesan and it was great, so now I just add a handful or so.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, place softened cream cheese. The cream cheese must be very, very, soft (like spreadable butter) to allow all ingredients to blend evenly together (you can put in the microwave for a few seconds if you need to). Add mayo, Parmesan cheese, onions and fresh cracked black pepper to soft cream cheese till everything is mixed thoroughly. Place mixture in ramekins or any oven-safe dishes. Bake slowly, for about 30-45 minutes for all ingredients to cook together. When the top crust is brown, almost burnt-looking, then the dip is ready. The darker brown the crust of the dip becomes, the better the flavors are cooked. I usually end up having to cook it for about 50-60 minutes.
Serve with your favorite bread (mini baguettes or crackers)

Hope you all had a great weekend!