What a day!

The sun was shining, the temperature was warm, it was a great day. Andy spent the afternoon helping the neighbor build a huge jungle gym. And the kids had their own fun.

Zander had his own kind of fun after a very long nap. He needed the nap, but I felt bad because he missed the best part of the day while he snoozed on.

Abigail had a special kind of fun today, compliments of our neighbors. We really love our big backyard...






And before the safety police go crazy, let me assure you that this was not a "real four-wheeler, but a Power Wheels, that is very fun, but safely slow and sure for little people.

And while Andy was bust helping construct the monstrosity (which still isn't finished btw), I spent the afternoon putzing around the house and getting it ready for Sunday Company Dinner. Tonight's dinner was a wow 'em sort of dinner. And oh did it wow.

And I am sorry, because the picture really doesn't do them justice. But Fall Off The Bone Baby Back Ribs did indeed meet it's expectations. Another recipe from Fresh Every Day by Sara Foster, this was FANTASTIC! And extremely simple. And we even cheated a little. Our local butcher sells excellent baby back ribs in three different ways. Plain, St. Louis style seasoning, and already sauced in BBQ sauce. For today's adventure we picked up the pre-seasoned St. Louis style, and they are wonderful. We will have many more of these racks to come, I'm afraid. Sara's method is crazy simple. Th first step is to use a knife to help strip the membrane off the bone side of the ribs. Next, you slice a large onion and place it in the bottom of a roasting pan. Lay your baby back ribs on top of this, bone side down. I had to cut each rack into two pieces to get it to fit into my roasting pan (we had 3 racks today). Next, you pour one bottle of beer over the top of the ribs. In this case, I used O'Douls Amber, because the other beers in the house were pretty intense. Cover tightly with foil, and bake in a 325º oven for 2 hours. After the two hours, throw the ribs on a grill to sauce and finish the cooking process. And that's it. Our favorite BBQ sauce at the moment is Sweet Baby Ray's Original sauce. It's not cloyingly sweet like many of the commercial sauces are, and it's not too spicy, which is great for kids. While Andy does prefer my homemade sauce, this one is very acceptable, and nice for me because it's easy. :-)

Well, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow I am hosting another Pampered Chef show, so I'm not sure I'll have much of a post tomorrow. A friend of mine has decided to start her own PC business, so I offered to do one of her practice shows for her. My only concern is attendance...I want to have a good turnout for her, but so far I only have 3 people coming...hopefully it will still be fun, and hey it will be a good expereience for her to do a show for just a few people-right? Have a great night everyone, I'm off to find a book to read and get my mind off of eating something sweet and yummy.