Modern Day Picasso

With the boys being out of school this week, we have been trying to plan plenty of activities to fill our days. Yesterday I had some good friends over with their little ones for a play date and lunch. It's a rare thing for us all to be able to get together, so I was very excited to see everyone. Since we had picked up (way too many) blackberries and peaches from Hubers the other day, I planned our lunch menu around that. We had chicken salad with peaches, blackberry corn muffins, tomato and cucumber salad (fresh from my tiny garden), and fresh fruit. We also had some Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets and mac & cheese for the kids.
The chicken salad was so good that it would just be wrong not to include the recipe. I got it from the June 2009 ed. of Southern Living Magazine.

Party Chicken Salad
1 Cup chopped pecans
1/2 Cup Mayo
1/4 cup minced sweet onion
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
4 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
4 small fresh, firm, ripe peaches, peeled and diced

1. Stir together mayo and next four ingredients in a large bowl. Fold in pecans, chicken, and peaches; cover and chill for 2 hours

That's it. Easy and delicious. Try it for your next party and I guarantee it will disappear quickly!

After lunch we moved the kids outside to burn off some energy. Well, at least my boys needed to burn energy, the other kids were not nearly as wild as mine are. Which brings me to a different topic entirely; whats the deal with my boys being so wild? I mean, I know they are boys and that's just how boys are, but really? I see other moms that have 2 boys and they seem much more well behaved than mine are. I would love any input on this. But I digress....So we take the kids outside and give them paint and an easel, and they are as happy as can be.


Quite the little artists, aren't they? B5 calls both of these ladies his girlfriends.

Moving on to the water toys....

Two of the most well behaved kids I know playing nicely with each other. I didn't know that could happen. Mine play nicely for about two minutes and then start arguing over toys (or markers, or tape, or food, you fill in the blank). By the way, please ignore the huge belly in the corner of the picture, not my most flattering pose.

It was so refreshing to be able to spend some time with good friends. Sometimes that's all you need after a couple of rough days. Thanks girls!!

Emily