Busy, dance competitiony, junk fooding eating/ Superbowl watching weekend

February 09, 2016

Busy, dance competitiony, junk fooding eating/ Superbowl watching weekend

We packed quite a bit into our weekend (figuratively and literally). Some of us were heavier than we were at the beginning of the weekend thanks to loads of high carb/ high fat foods we ate while watching the Super Bowl.

Friday night I had a nightmare that the four over ripe bananas sitting on my kitchen counter led to the hugest fruit fly infestation I had ever seen (and unfortunately, I've seen some fairly bad ones). In my dream, the kitchen didn't look like my kitchen but it was my kitchen nevertheless (if that makes sense). I had been planning on making banana bread or muffins on Saturday morning (which was why too ripe fruit was on my counter to begin with), and must have had a nascent fear that I'd have a fruit fly invasion before I could use the bananas which made its way into a dream. Thankfully, when I woke up Saturday morning and walked into "my" kitchen, there was nary a fruit fly to be seen. Alyssa helped me make banana (+ chocolate chips :)) muffins that turned out yummy.

My fruit fly free kitchen was where I spent a couple of hours on Saturday. I prepped for a variety of food that I planned on serving for the Super Bowl. I made teriyaki marinade for chicken wings, made (but didn't bake) sausage rolls, made cookie dough (but didn't bake) and made pretzel Rolo candy.

Abby had a short dance practice late Saturday morning. Jacob and Alyssa both had soccer practice on Saturday evening. Abby had her first "real" babysitting job on Saturday evening. She'd baby sat for very short time periods before- like 45 minutes or so, but prior to Saturday, had never baby sat for more than an hour at a time. She babysat for three hours on Saturday evening and loved every second of it. Well, maybe she didn't love every second of it, but she did enjoy herself quite a bit with the two kids that she sat and she loved getting paid at the end of the evening.

Early Sunday morning, Abby and I headed to Indianapolis for a dance competition. She was just competing her solo routine. Abby won a scholarship at a dance intensive last fall to the dance competition so we didn't have to pay the entry fee. No one else from her studio competed so it was just the two of us who went to Indianapolis. Abby performed her solo so well. Her score was a little disappointing; I thought it would be higher. She won her category but didn't place in the overall. I know she was disappointed in that but she took it in stride. We made the trip in just under two hours each way. The competition was held at a huge high school, Warren Central, which is conveniently located on the "right side" of Indy (for us), travel wise. We were gone from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm so that took up a decent portion of our day.

While Abby and I were gone (while the cats are away, the mice always play (which generally includes skipping church if Abby and I are gone on a Sunday morning)), the others saw the Star Wars movie again! I'm not complaining that they saw it- it's rare the activity that a 15 year old boy will participate in with his 10 year old sister and I'm glad they have liking Star Wars in common. What I also liked was the popcorn box that Donnie brought home that was 3/4's filled. Popcorn refills at the move theater are the best!! Abby and I ate that popcorn when we arrived home from Indy like we weren't going to eat for a week when in fact, we'd be eating a lot in just a few hours because the Super Bowl was just a few hours away...

After ~~snarfing down~~ eating copious amounts of popcorn, it was time to get down to the serious business of food prep for the Bowl. I baked the cookie dough, baked the sausage balls, broiled the chicken wings which had been in the crock pot most of the day, cut up some veggies (shout out to the three baby carrots and four pieces of bell pepper that were consumed during the evening!), put the queso in the small crock pot, and opened bags of chips. Donnie made Skyline Chili dip- not my cup of tea but most enjoyed it.

We had one guest over for the big game, Uncle Doug. I would have invited more people over but knowing that I was going to be gone a good portion of Sunday, I knew I'd stress a lot more if a lot of people were coming over. Having Uncle Doug over to watch the game with us made watching the Super Bowl a lot more festive and we loved how the game turned out, too :).

That was our weekend; Monday morning came much too soon :(.

Saturday morning- bananas that had seen less ripe days!

When life hands you too ripe to eat bananas, enlist the help of your favorite carb lover and make banana muffins...

Sunday morning in Indy- Abby stretches before performing...

She multi- tasked and stretched while also face timing a dance buddy, Audrey, who was back home in Ohio.

With stretching complete, she was ready to head back stage. The competition didn't allow pictures to be taken during routines.

After she performed her routine and before the awards, Abby had a snack, looked annoyed at me for my picture taking, and face time another dance friend, Hanna.