Happy Birthday party for Kennedy

Welcome to our newest Follower, Rex Kusler.  I checked out your blog, Rex, and found it an interesting read.  Rex is an author, and his current Las Vegas Mystery Series has two books published with the third in the series due out soon.  I love mysteries, and will be checking his out on Amazon.com.  He is currently writing his ninth novel.  Welcome aboard, Rex!  I'm glad you are following along with Katie and me! :)

On January 16, my eldest granddaughter had a birthday - she's 9!  The following Saturday was her Birthday Party, which was held at Dave and Busters.  If you don't know that place, it's kind of like a Chuckee Cheese, but for kids who are a bit older and adults.  I had never been there before, and had a great time.  We had a long table, food and drinks were brought out, and each child received a "credit card" that had a set amount of money on it to play all the games.

 Kennedy's beautiful chocolate cake.

 Waiting to blow out the candles - Make a Wish!

 Brother Gavin, enjoying the food and games!

 Brother Graydin, race car driver!

See the blur where his hands are?  He's driving fast!

Kennedy with Dad and Mom - Happy Birthday!

Everyone had a great time, the kids love those games and won tons of tickets which they turned in for prizes. I was tired and left to go back to tom's house and rest right after the cake was served, so I didn't see what the prizes were, but I'm sure they loved what they got.

Tomorrow I'm getting my old Escape SUV back to use while I'm here in Santee.  My son is bringing it down to the RV park, and I'll drive him back to work.  He has a car there he wants to bring home, so everyone will get what they need.  I have two medical appointments (annual checks) on Wednesday, so it will be nice to have a car to drive.

I am making a mystery dish in my slow cooker tonight.   This is the first time I've used this slow cooker.  I cut a filet mignon into three slices and seared them in the frying pan.  Then I put some olive oil in the bottom of the cooker, added the meat slices, put half an envelope of onion soup on top of that, poured in some Marsala wine, water, added marinated artichokes on top, and topped it all off with sliced apples.

I'm cooking it on high for 4 or 5 hours, then I'm going to add some sour cream to make a rich sauce, and put the whole thing over rice.

I think this might be delicious if the meat was chicken, but I didn't have any chicken defrosted, so I decided to use the meat.  This is a round filet mignon that was wrapped with bacon that was in a 3-pack from Costco.  I love filet mignon, but I didn't like this meat, so I decided to try something different.  Even if I don't like the meat, I figure the artichokes hearts and apple slices might be good side dishes, and hopefully I'll have a nice sauce for my rice.

I'll let you know if it was a HIT or a MISS.  Usually my mystery dishes are HITS, but I'm not betting on this one.

UPDATE:  I ate dinner before I published this post, and it was delicious - except the meat.  It was still tasteless and tough.  I won't be buying that at Costco again, but the apples and artichokes, in their thick wine/onion/sour cream sauce over rice was really, really good.  Second helpings good.  I think next time I'll try a chicken breast and throw in some baby carrots; that would complete the dish and give me a couple of leftover meals, too.

Yesterday afternoon, and then again in the early evening, Katie and I took a walk to the closest lake and walked along for a bit.  The sun was down, and the sky was so pretty.  The ducks were still swimming around, they seemed to be coming to the edge of the lake where they could sit by the reeds.  I wonder where they sleep?

 Sunset - Santee Lakes

 

The Palms at Santee Lakes

Time to get that second helping, and then take Katie out for our last walk of the day.  It's overcast this evening, no sunset shots today.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Monday evening, everyone!  :)