Memorial Day weekend

This weekend started off really nice with a family trip to the Dallas Farmer's Market Saturday morning. Though we have had good experiences at the market in the past, it takes some advance planning to attend. I wish I thought of it more often and am glad we did this weekend.

Among the many local items we procured at the market were fresh Texas-grown tomatoes, peaches, blackberries, hydroponic lettuce, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, sweet caramel, hand-made pasta and a ton of grass-fed beef and pork. Scott purchased New York Strips which were completely divine, as was the brisket he smoked on Sunday. We still have some leftovers that I am very much looking forward to enjoying.

On Sunday we had some friends over for Scott's delicious barbeque. Scott smoked pork shoulder and also a beef brisket, labors of love that took 12+ hours of his time Saturday evening and Sunday morning to prepare. I think he cooked over 10 pounds of meat and it was all completely delicious! I made a sundried tomato brushetta and cheese plate for an appetizer and the following sides to go with the barbeque for dinner: tomato and cucumber salad, sweet coleslaw, and Birmingham salad. Homemade Texas-blackberry and peach cobbler for dessert with ice cream (of course!). We threw in as many farmer's market ingredients as we could and had a lot of fun with it all.

But all those hours of cooking require activites to keep the children occupied and happy. Thankfully they enjoyed water-color painting Sunday afternoon while we finished the final preparations.

I now have some lovely new artwork decorating my refrigerator!

Below are John and Amelia with our friend John Hammil. Can you tell our John is completely comfortable with John H.?!? Love the relaxed pose. I think they were all staring at the TV to get the Wii set up for some serious fun gaming.

Svetlana captured this cute photo of the children on the deck before the Wii gaming began. Amelia and John's hair is wet from time spent on the water slide before dinner. I have no idea why they look so serious here though I see a hint of a smile on Amelia's face.

Last but not least, Scott took the kids shopping today and (big surprise here) bought them some new toys "as a treat". John got Nerf swords and Amelia got a new DSI game. The children were pleased with this, of course. John in particular really enjoyed fighting with his new swords, as you can tell from the photos below.