Early October Happenings and a Card

We ventured down to Hens & Honey again with the intention of trying the Affogato Flight I had seen advertised along with our lunch.  It's such a busy place we almost didn't get to sit down to enjoy our meal, but luckily, just as we were ordering, a high topper table opened up and we grabbed it. We also almost didn't get to try the affogato because the owner had forgotten to turn on the ice cream machine, but when I mentioned that it was disappointing because I had convinced him to drive an hour and a half to get there after I paid for our order, she must have felt bad and told me that if I still wanted to order it, it would only take about 20 mins. to get the machine going while we ate our lunch so I said yes.

These pictures are out of order and I just didn't feel like fighting with it today.  So you'll see the flight first.  The two on the ends are espresso - the left with chocolate fudge on the bottom with the chocolate wafers, and the right end with a coffee flavored bon bon.  You pour the espresso over the ice cream/custard and you're supposed to eat it before it melts, but I think the machine could have used a little more time because it was a little liquidy already before we poured the espresso over.  The second from the left was chai with a stroopwaffle and caramel, and the third one was matcha with powdered macha sprinkled on top.   We didn't pour the entire cup of liquid in all at once, just some to be able to eat the ice cream.  We then poured the melted ice cream back into the cup with the leftover liquid and drank from the cup which may be entirely the wrong way to partake of this, but it was a lot easier than trying to spoon liquid out of those dishes.  The espresso was a little too strong for me and I didn't particularly care for the matcha but I loved the chai.  HWNSNBP really liked the matcha which surprised the heck out of me (Clinton Kelly says matcha is like eating grass clippings and I somewhat agree).  It was a nice little indulgence, but I'm good with not having it again.

The gourmet toast on the other hand is quite enjoyable.  I had the prairie sun again which had chicken salad, green apples, cranberries, walnuts, and balsamic dressing.

He had (I forgot the name) egg salad and like it a lot.

You can see a little of how they have decorated it with the pumpkin arch at the door and the "photo" area on the side.  Coincidentally, the couple we had met on our first visit there came in with a friend as we were eating and we would have offered them seats but we were at a table for two this time and they had to wait a bit for a table to become empty.  We chatted for a brief minute before we left and I saw later on IG that they had taken advantage of the photo area and had some cute pictures of the three of them.

We met some friends who were in from out-of-town now at the Chimney Rock Inn and they had a special for Pierogi Day so we shared the pierogi appetizer and then the five of us..............

............split this 28" pizza.  The beer mug is there for size reference.  Two slices went uneaten but came home with us for HWNSNBP to enjoy at another time.  It's always a good time with these friends.

It took 3 tries to actually get the pumpkin frostee that Wendy's has this month.  It is quite enjoyable and looks a little solid here because I had put it in the freezer for a while so I didn't need a straw just a spoon.  That spoon by the way is a long-handled spoon I got from Temu - there's something about a round bowl that I like and I definitely like the long handle and have several other "ice tea" spoons I prefer to use.  I'm not a fan of soup spoons with the bigger bowl, but eating soup with a teaspoon isn't really that efficient, still I gravitate to them.  Do you have a special spoon you prefer?

Our daughter and her family came to the condo for the weekend and we had recently retrieved this lock game that we made for GS1 as he's outgrown it.  The locks have shapes on them and the key tags have pictures of things that have shapes along with the key to open the lock it matches.  GS2 was quite proud of himself opening those locks but need a little help closing them back up to "do it again".  We're going to hold onto this at our place so those locks don't become projectiles with the baby around.

Papa and GS1 made it to the little bay beach on Friday afternoon and the water was still warm enough to enjoy running around in (no pictures).  This is them on Saturday returning from "chasing the seagulls" in the parking lot across the street.  We were supposed to go the the Kite Festival that morning but it was overcast and no wind so we found some other things to keep him busy.  

The wind did kick up in the evening and the temperature dropped enough for me to have to put on a jacket while trying to capture the sunset out the back window.

It was a bit more blustery on Sunday but we did make it up to the island - picture taken on our friend's deck overlooking the dune and ocean.  HWNSNBP and I stayed back at the house with the baby while Rachel, Ryan and GS2 went onto the beach to see the kites and to fly the little kite that he had gotten in his Easter basket.  I understand that it did get up in the air, but didn't last long before it broke... which happens some times.  

I forgot my camera this trip and had to rely on a few quick snaps with my phone.  There weren't as many kites up as there had been in previous years, but it was early in the day and they might not have had the full force ready yet when we were there.

Our son and daughter-in-law celebrated their 11th anniversary this weekend also.  I used the sunflower die as a stencil to put the color in on this panel and then laid the diecut over it.

I'm still using Bermuda Bay on their anniversary cards leftover from the stash of it I had stocked up on when I made their wedding invitations.  We spent some time with them the previous weekend as they were getting their house ready to put on the market.  Yes, sadly they are moving to Tennessee soon.  We are very heartbroken over this but want them to be happy.  We've been spoiled, I guess, having them only an hour away, but we'll be able to visit back and forth, just not at a moment's notice.  

I've spent the better part of this week playing house dominos - going through things that have been in storage, deciding what to purge, what to donate, and what to keep, and then finding places to put the things that are being kept.  Some of the stuff had been in boxes since we did the floors years ago had been on the plant shelf I have in the full window next to the slider.  And in order to make room for what I wanted to keep, I had to reassess the plant situation.  Some of the orchids were yearning for attentyion and needed to be repotted, so HWNSNBP picked up the planting material and I ordered some plastic pot inserts and spent time repotting the ones that live on those shelves (8) there are still six on the sideboard that aren't doing so bad right now, but I'll need to get more planting material to do them so they can wait a bit.  I call it house dominos because you start with one thing that leads to another thing that needs to be done before you can go on, and so on and so forth.  But it was a good time to do this repotting as none of them on that shelf are blooming at the moment.  I shall have to remember Orchids in October for the future.  

Our flowers outside are looking quite tired at this time but haven't been frost bitten yet, so I will try to keep him from pulling them out until they are really done done.   The hummingbird feeder is coming down today - haven't seen the little ones in a few days and given the nighttime temps, I'm pretty sure they've moved on by now.  There are still some tomatoes out there, some red, mostly green cherry tomatos which I'm hoping he'll bring in before we do get that killing frost and make them mush.  

I must get up to the stamp cave this weekend to do the Jingle Belles challenge - it's Pink Christmas time.