The blanket continues to grow. I’m using the Knitted Patchwork Recipe for this blanket. You can see what it looked like last month here or the month before here.

This morning was chilly. It was below 40 degrees. It was damp. For some reason I was inspired to put the kids in the car and go for a hike.  I was about a layer short of comfortable, but the kids were fine. We walked the short loop and the kids played on tree stumps. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.

I hope your Sunday was as calm and relaxing as ours was.

Today we celebrated Elliot’s birthday with family. The big guy turned three on the 14th, so we gathered our families together to celebrate. I spent all of Friday preparing and I feel like I need a recovery day.

We have the party at my sister’s house (our house is a glorified tiny home). I’m lucky to have a sister that is willing to open her home for us to use as a party location.

We don’t throw fancy parties. There is egg bake, fruit, and cake (of course). The best part of the party is being with family. I am thankful that my kids are blessed with so many people who love them.

Elliot was very much a three-year-old at the party. At times adorable. At times screaming. One of my favorite parts of the party was when he stopped opening presents to clean up the mess with his new cleaning set (I never remember to dust, maybe he will?).

He wanted a red James cake (James is one of Thomas the Train’s friends). He wanted red cake and red frosting. I made a red velvet cake (recipe from Cooks Country, I highly recommend the recipe). Instead of subjecting our families to red frosting I put red edible glitter on the cake, which he was happy with. I topped the cake with a James train (an actual James, not the plain red train he had been calling James).

It was a great birthday party. I am happy we could celebrate Elliot. I’m also happy I don’t have to throw another birthday party for six months.

We eat a lot of grilled chicken breast in our house. Normally I use a marinade recipe from Cooks Illustrated, but occasionally we like to change it up (please note I’m saying “we” but that is a two-fold lie: John hates change and I’m the one who preps the food). This week we spiced up our chicken by trying skinnytaste Korean Grilled Chicken Breasts.

This chicken was a nice change from our usual chicken. I liked the flavor, but I think it could use more punch with a bit more ginger and garlic. This dish was better as leftovers, which was a pleasant surprise.

This week when I was planning our dinners (planning our dinners = vaguely thinking about what to cook this week) I asked John what he wanted to eat. He said pulled pork. I went to skinnytaste and found an easy crockpot pulled pork recipe (not that there are difficult crock pot pulled pork recipes…).

I also made her Kansas City style BBQ Sauce. It took less than 30 minutes to make and I think it is delicious. John thought it was pretty good, but not as good as his beloved Famous Dave’s Rich & Sassy (clearly named after the personality I will have once my ship comes in).

Fun fact: I was well into my 20s before I realized that there was more than one kind of BBQ sauce. I had only seen Kansas City style BBQ sauce, and now that I’ve tried a few other kinds I think that there is no reason to have any kind of sauce but Kansas City style BBQ sauce.

This pulled pork and BBQ sauce are making it into the regular menu rotation. I don’t think I’ll bother buying BBQ sauce again.