Muffin Tin Monday

Well, here we are again. Monday. The dreaded day of the week. We're all exhausted here. We've been running with out of town trips and company for the past couple of weeks and now Max seems to be having a growth spurt and isn't sleeping well. What I wouldn't give for a few quiet hours alone in my house right now.

The first weekend of September, Vince's step-mother, two sisters, cousin, and I all loaded up in my car for a road trip to rural PA for Liz's bridal shower. That's right, Vince's baby brother Tony is engaged! Squee! We are so happy for both of them and they have asked Vince to be a groomsman and Max to be the ringbearer. Yay! I met the little flower girl that Max will be riding in the wagon with and she is adorable. The wedding is set for the end of December in Nashville. I've started getting Max's attire together, starting with a new pair of flame Vans. :)

While the girls were having fun at the shower in PA, Vince's dad was staying at our house. So before we left on our trip, I had to get our guest room and bathroom ready, stock the house with food, do laundry, clean, and all of the other stuff you do when overnight guests are coming. They had a great time! I was a little anxious since this was the first time I had left Max overnight but the guys' weekend turned out just fine. Max sure does love his Grandpa.

We had a little bit of a break until my mom came for a visit. She has been seriously ill since have complications from gall bladder surgery. She finally got the okay from her doctor to fly so I immediately booked a flight for her. It had been 6 months since I had seen her and couldn't wait for her to get here. It was the first time she was visiting our new house so we were out exploring every day! We went to the cool play area at the mall and rode the train and the carousel and had ice cream afterwards, we went to the Reston Zoo, the Leesburg Outlet mall, to Max's art class, the farmer's market, and we explored downtown Herndon. In our limited time at the house we managed to bake zucchini bread and chocolate no-bake cookies. Max helped Grandma make spaghetti and meatballs with homemade tomato sauce.

Needless to say, I haven't had much time to blog but I have been making new recipes like crazy. The only problem is that they typically get eaten before I have time to take any pictures. Oh well, such is life.

Max had a pretty good lunch today. It consisted of:
Snap pea crisps
Raspberry Jello
Juicy Juice 100% grape juice, 4oz box
Peanut butter & blackberry jelly on whole wheat squares (it is really hard to tell in the picture but the sandwich was cut using an Elmo imprint)
Green grapes
Oikos 0% fat blueberry Greek yogurt