Lucy You've Got Some Splaining to Do!!

This afternoon I left Lucy in the backyard while I ran the boys home. Well, after dropping the boys off at their house I ran to our grocery store, where it never fails I run into someone I know. Sure enough, my friend/neighbor down the road was there and invited me over for a beer. Heck, its Monday - Sure! Friends of ours were just finishing up moving into the house behind him so I wanted to congratulate them along with the checking out the renovations on their house. Okay so hopefully you can see where I am going when my I'm only going to be gone for 15 minutes turned into an hour and half later / phone call from Wes - Where are you?

Right so back to Lucy ... well while I was gone, she felt the need to dig some holes. And dig she did ... apparently she was trying to reach China during my absence. Oops.

So after dinner she ended up in the tub for bath and pedicure. She was looking good - her white spots on toes - very white and pretty. That is until Wes decided to put her BACK outside for about 20 minutes with no adult supervision.

Guess who ended back in the tub for round two?

Happy Birthday Andrew!

The Little Brother turned the big 2-0 today ! We decided to have a little get together at our house to celebrate. Andrew wanted ribs for his birthday dinner, so we had ribs, four racks of ribs.

We also steamed a half of bushel and shucked oysters in the backyard. It was fabulous. My parents have just been bitten by the oyster shucking bug and love it. It was such a beautiful day outside - the perfect Sunday afternoon! Even our neighbor next door joined in on the fun.

And by all this "we steamed" and "we smoked" ribs ... Wes did it all. The rest of the family enjoyed his hard work.

All ready to go! Wait a minute .... we are missing something ....

There we go. Much better. However we are missing one person in this photo - Brother Nicky. He had to head back to Charleston before the ribs were finished cooking, so he missed out on the deliciousness.

Birthday Menu:

BBQ Spare Ribs (prepped with a dry rub and smoked to perfection)

Cornbread Casserole (the healthiest ingredient in this recipe is the low fat sour cream)

Firehouse Baked Beans

Pav's Special Coleslaw

And as we attempted to push ourselves away from the table it was time for a Goodberry's Ice Cream Cake. Andrew insisted he wanted an ice cream birthday cake and no one was complaining after sinking their teeth into their slices of heaven.

Happy Birthday Little Brother! ! !

Welcome to my Big Fat Italian Family

We are back from NEW YORK! We landed this morning and the air never smelled so good. It is fabulous to back where sweet tea and biscuits are staples and driving slow is mandatory. I love going to NY - but by day three - I can't handle it. With this being said - I am talking about the city. Once you drive out of the city is rolling hills and fresh air - my kind of style.

This trip was more about visiting the family then sight seeing. We visited cousins on my mom's side and great aunt and aunts on my father's side. I would have to say for both Wes and I the highlight was visiting with my great Aunt Rosie. This is my grandfather's little sister. She lives in Howard Beach, which is located in Queens. Howard Beach is known for one of the great Mob Bosses - John Gotti - his wife lives one block over from great Aunt. Nice place - very unpretentious minus the video cameras.

Okay let me set the stage for this visit. We had just driven into Jamaica, Queens for Chinese food. (This will be another post because this ridiculous food outing must be shared.) So we just got done eating a ridiculous amount of food - like everyone unbutton their pants - amount of food. We arrive at Aunt Rosies promptly at 7:00 pm, because, one we eat dinner 5:40 pm and two Aunt Rosie had to go to mass at 6:00 pm. Rather then go to the living room we are immediately ushered into the kitchen (this is following a kissing / hugging / more kissing greeting).

Aunt Rosie to us: Are you hungry?

Wes: Oh, no thank you. We just had a huge dinner.

Aunt Rosie: Oh okay, that's alright, let me get some snacks.

I just look at him - mouth to him "Go with it" - and we proceed to eat "snacks" over the next three hours.

In the process of catching up about the family, things tended to get a bit confusing. Why you may ask? Oh because every male on my fathers side is named Nick. I'm not joking. My Great Grandfather, Nick; my grand father, Nick; my father, Nick; my older brother, Nick. My great Aunt Rosie, she married a Nick - Uncle Nick; their son, Nick, and his son, wait for it - Nick.

Talk about living the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.