Memorial Day Thanks, Entertaining, Decorating - Oh my!

April and May have seen a whirlwind of activity here at Sans Souci! Dance recitals, Honors Night, Spring Formals, Memorial Day Military Parades, belated birthday sleepovers, redecorating, more house construction - you get it!

Life is pretty good, all things considered. Not a day passes that I don't thank my lucky stars I live in a a country where so many freedoms are readily available and vigilantly protected. Steve and I have had the great honor to participate in several events lately which honor our military and the sacrifices they and their families have made.

We have also had the honor of hosting friends and our children's friends, sharing meals, cooking together, and visiting the town.

 Pot Stickers prepared by our fabulous guests!

Couscouse with butter, dates, fresh basil, and feta

Caprese Salad 

 Spinach Salad with orange, chayote squash, minced fresh ginger, and crumbled bacon

Baked cayenne salmon with peach, cucumber, tomato, red onion, and basil salsa

The house has been overflowing with flowers!

Our new favorite meat to prepare is lamb. For some reason, our local grocery store has had several different cuts every time we go in. The leg of lamb was delicious as was this lamb shepherd's pie. 

We've learned how to make a delicious Portuguese dessert: Pao de Lo (Portuguese Sponge Cake) with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream. Steve said growing up in Bermuda, he loved the Portuguese bakeries. That was my task this year: to create a Portuguese pastry. I found this amazing recipe, and it was a hit!

And we have been working hard on getting the house up to speed!

As you might have guessed, we needed more shelves in the library...

We're working on it!

 We've also added more pantry space to the kitchen. We found this great cabinet at Hobby Lobby!

And our final dream come true lately was an upstairs mini-kitchen! We now have fruit, cheese, snacks, hot tea, soda, water, and a bar at our finger-tips!

We are so grateful to be able to work hard and make the most we can of this life, provide for our children, have the freedom of expression, and pursue happiness.

Thanks for stopping by,

Andrea, Steve, & kids