Friends

 

We were invited over to friends' house Saturday evening for dinner.  The weather was perfect, and we were able to enjoy dinner outside on their patio.  The kids played and we visited, had pizza, (grown up drinks) and my friend made this awesome buffalo chicken dip....I need to get her recipe!  Later, we had a campfire and the kids made smores and caught lightning bugs.  Just good old FUN!

 As I get older, I'm definately more appreciative of my "easy" friendships (I've heard this term a few times recently.. and I love it!) and how important these friends are to me.  It's a double blessing when you and your spouse both enjoy hanging out with another couple.  It's also nice if the kids get along...but I've learned this is not always the case and hopefully this is not a deal breaker...beacause kids have a mind of their own and a right to choose their own friends, right?!  For now, our children get along...so all is good!

 With everyone's busy schedule it's often hard to make time for get togethers, but when we do, I am reminded that we (as women, especially) need to maintain our friendships.  I recently read an article about  these studies that show when it comes to women and stress, friendships apparently hold the key to how we manage it.    The article said that when women are stressed, we experience a surge of oxytocin, the "bonding" hormone.  It's the same hormone secreted when we are connecting with our babies.  The study also found that the more friends women had, the less likely they were to develop physical impairments as they aged, and the more likely they were to be leading a joyful life.  I wonder if there have been any studies done yet about women and their blogging friends?!  Hmmmmm?!

I made cheeseburgers and french fries for dessert on Saturday...............

No baking involved with these cookies.  Vanilla wafters, grasshopper cookies, red, yellow and green tube frosting, and a little egg white on top to hold the sesame seeds.  Done.  Super easy!
The fries were something new I tried.  They are just slices of pound cake.  They looked more like slices of pound cake steak fries to me!  I sprinkled sugar on them for salt.  Maybe next time I will try cutting peanut butter fudge into strips and then they might resemble french fries more than the pound cake.  I think the cookies would look fun in one of those plastic red or yellow hamburger baskets that I've seen before...maybe with a sheet of wax paper!

Usually the person doing the "hosting" gets the gift...but not this time!  My friend gave me these for watching her little girl one day this week (for only 2hrs!) while she went to the doctor.  She's so thoughtful....and knows me so well!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE paper napkins!  I have an entire drawer in the kitchen  just for napkins!  These are from Target....they have the best ones!  The planter she got from her sister who was selling it in her garage sale for 50 cents!  I'm going to get a little plant for it this week.   Isn't it so cute?!

 

The better part of ones life consists of his/her friendships.

-Abraham Lincoln