14th Annual Cookie Party

Back: Jen S, Liz, Jen Z, KC, Joann, Janet, Rachelle, Connie, Mary, Margaret
Front: Halle, Jill J, Emily, Consuelo, Christine, Jill D., Rachel
Not in photo: Jess, Sara

This weekend, I hosted my annual cookie party. I didn’t have a party in the Covid year (2020) and last year I kept the party really small because we weren’t out of the Covid woods yet. This was my first year back at a big party. There were lots of newbs at the party because over the past couple of years I’ve made a lot of new friends through Makai’s school and in our neighborhood! Like last year, I decided no kids at the party because I wanted to just enjoy my friends and not worry about the kids! Halle came with Jill, which is fine because she is older and Scarlet came with Joann, which was also fine because she’s only 4 months old!

Everything Bagel Cheeseball & Appetizer MixIn addition to the sweets, I made a dill dip with a veggie tray, two charcuterie boards, and a  cheese ball. The cheese ball was the Wind and Willow brand that I’ve been loving since I had a cheeseball made with it at Jess’s baby shower! Everyone is obsessed with is (Everything Bagel flavor!)

Last year for drinks I did not make hot apple cider or jingle juice and people missed them! So back to what works this year.

KC trying to sniff out some treats!

These were all the tasty treats we sampled:

  • Gochujang Caramel Cookies – Jen S.
  • Peppermint Pretzels – Rachelle
  • Chocolate Cherry Thumbprints and Cream Cheese Cherry Thumbprints – Connie
  • Mini Pistachio Bundt Cakes – Janet
  • Sugar Cookies – Jill J and Halle
  • Date-Walnut Bars – Rachel
  • Oreo Balls – Jen Z.
  • Frosted and Unfrosted Gingerbread – Jill J and Halle
  • Dark Chocolate Peppermint Macadamia Nut Shortbread – Rachelle
  • Lemon Ricotta Cookies – Emily
  • Gingerbread – Rachel
  • Rice Krispies Wreaths – Jill D
  • Oat-Chocolate + Peanut Butter No Bake “Reindeer Drops” – Margaret
  • Ginger Molasses Latte Cookies – Liz
  • Cookies + Cream Cookies – Christine
  • Pillsbury Peanut Butter and Sugar Cookies – Consuelo
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzels – Rachelle
  • Buddy the Elf Cookies – Mary
  • Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – Joann

As for the voting, for several years in a row there have been ties! Even 3-way ties. This year we had a tie again between Joann’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and Rachel’s Date-Walnut Bars. In a tie-breaking vote, Joann’s cookies won by just 2 votes! As part of her winning gift, I cross stitched a gingerbread ornament!

 

Celebrating July 4 in Park Ridge

Adam and Christine (and Arthur and Isaac) recently moved from Chicago to Park Ridge and invited us over to see their new house and celebrate the Fourth of July. Their house is gorgeous, of course. It was a fun and relaxing time. We went early and Adam and Dallas took the kids swimming at the local pool while Christine and I got a drink at a local bar/restaurant. Later on JP and Rita came over with Isla, Everett and Sienna. Hadn’t seen them for so long!

Christine’s charcuterie board was amazing!

I made cookies.

Spring Break in Washington

Our niece, Lilinoe, was born at the end of 2019, so we booked a trip to see her in the spring of 2020. That trip got canceled + we’re finally using our credits to visit. Lilinoe is already 2 years old! Happy to meet her + see Liz, Jordan + Mahealani, who we haven’t seen for almost 3 years.

Leaving Chicago

Touchdown in Seattle

Breakfast our first morning at Jordan + Liz’s house.

Me + Lili

Mahea + Makai

Mahea + Lili

Makai and his cousins Mahealani + Lilinoe. And meeting their puppy, Betty!

And speaking of Betty…

Makai and I totally fell for this pup and wanted to take her home!

She is a Boston Terrier that Liz got for Jordan for his birthday, making her only a few months old!

We arrived in Seattle on a Thursday night, got our rental car and drove up to Everett, Washington, where we had a hotel room. Since it was late we went right to bed. The next morning we went to Jordan and LIz’s house for breakfast (see photos above) and then spontaneously decided to take a ferry somewhere.

Makai had never been on a ferry up here (he has been on an NYC ferry).

We drove to Edmonds and took the ferry across to Kingston where we had lunch at Westside Pizza + ice cream + played in the Port of Kingston Kiwanis Park before taking the ferry back across.

On the way home from the ferry, we stopped at the Funko Headquarters store in Everett. We’d told Makai about this before the trip and he was SOO excited.
Aside from all the figures for sale, they had a lot of fun displays of the characters they sell. Me with Batman and Robin.

Ironman!

Really cool Harry Potter display!

Disney princess castle.c

Captain America and Stan Lee.

Star Wars

Godzilla

I don’t know how each of these kids finally decided on one figure each! There were THOUSANDS to choose from! Mahea looked at every cat in the store: Mewtwo from Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Crookshanks from Harry Potter, the Cheshire Cat, etc.

Makai chose Captain America, Mahea got Chester Cheetah and Mahea got Hello Kitty.

This is Liz and Jordan’s second house in Lake Stevens. Dallas had visited them at their first place, but I never had been there. We were curious about the actual lake that Lake Stevens was named for, so Jordan took us to Lundeen Park and drove us around the whole lake.

Swimming at the Snohomish (neighboring town) aquatics center. It was SO nice for a public pool! Makai went down a big water slide about 10 times! Liz and Jordan took Mahea, Makai and Lili in. I stayed on the side.

After swimming the kids were soo hungry so we went to Blazing Onion. Liz and Lili went home and Dallas brought his parents to meet us.

Jordan and Liz had a barbecue and some of their friends and Liz’s family came over. I don’t know why I don’t have any photos except this one of Makai picking up McFurry. He was squirming around and Makai yelled “OW, MY NUTS!!!” in front of the whole BBQ. Luckily no one seemed to hear!

Liz and Jordan also have 3 goats that they rescued: Marley, Fig and Peso! Makai LOVED them. Every day he visited them in the barn and fed them different plants to see what they would eat.


Makai liked to ride around on this motorized tractor. He called it his “Joe Deer” and because he can never be wrong, referred to it as that for the whole trip.

Liz took us for a walk by their house.

That same day there was a random freak hail storm that was super localized today! Liz and Kathy were at a store not far away and there was no hail at all! Kind of fun since it wasn’t big enough to do damage.

WHO COULD IT BE??

Jordan and Dallas went to the casino for a while at night. Since Easter was around the corner, the rest of us decided to dye some eggs. Liz and Kathy dumped the leftover dye in the yard and the next day we found an egg out there too!

Dallas and I took Makai in to Seattle to show Makai some of the common tourist sites. It was fun to explore. I hadn’t been to Seattle for a very long time.

The first thing we did was get lunch at The Athenian. Chowder! Oysters! Fish + Chips! (Makai loves fish + chips now. We just had to tell him it was “fish sticks” like he has at school!) We ate very light because we knew there would be a lot of good things to eat at the market!

We walked through Pike Place Market where the vendors were selling all their wares. We saw the flying fishes being thrown and then we walked out through the gum alley and the gum wall! Dallas was SO grossed out!

We next visited the Seattle Aquarium where Makai’s favorite exhibits were the ones with the otters (both river and sea otters). He also told a volunteer “Me and my dad are from Hawaii” and talked about the tropical exhibit and the Hawaiian species there.

Dallas REFUSED to go on The Seattle Great Wheel and instead opted to sit at a bar in the market and drink a beer! Makai was scared, but in a fun way, he said.

Before we left, we stopped at Beecher’s and split a grilled cheese and some mac n cheese, which were both amazing. Jordan and Liz highly recommended Beecher’s and it did not disappoint. They also recommended Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery. We got two pastries to bring to dinner.

For dinner we visited Tandy and Chris on Mercer Island. They were moving literally in a couple days (just down the street), but were still nice enough to have us over and order pizza. Makai and Dallas met up with Tandy recently in Chicago when she was visiting for work, but the last time any of us had seen Chris or the kids was when I was pregnant and we visited them in Japan! Makai instantly made two new friends! Kanoa and Makai are close in age and have the same silly, punny sense of humor!

Jordan took us to Katsu Burger in Lake Stevens. We all really liked it. I had the Fried Chicken Katsu Curry which had curry powder, American cheese, tonkatsu sauce and curry.

After lunch, Jordan took Makai, Dallas and I to BobaKhan Toys. The store is packed with comics, toys and collectibles! They were all loving it! Makai was so overwhelmed when we asked him to pick something. He ended up getting an Avengers graphic novel, a Captain America pin and a magnet by ClockworkArt (Captain America reimagined as a cat).

Makai spent most nights sleeping in Grandma + Grandpa C’s room at Jordan and Liz’s house, while Dallas and I slept in a hotel room in Everett Hampton Inn, which was about a 10 minute drive away. Only on the first and last night did Makai stay with us. ^ Dallas’s parents went to Florida with Caroline’s family and got makai the NASA Cat in the Hat stuffie. The otter is from the Seattle Aquarium and the teddy bear from home.

It was nice in the morning to walk around Everett and do some exploring and to have some time to ourselves. We visited Narrative Coffee, but our favorite quickly became Choux Choux Bakery. It was very close to our hotel, had a daily rotating selection of bread and pastries, the coffee was good and the staff was really friendly.

This mural was near our hotel in Everett. It’s Breonna Taylor and Jatarius Tolbert, a local teen who was murdered.

On our last day of vacation, we decided to go into Seattle and hang out for a few hours, since it’s closer to the airport. Mark the Space Needle off the bucket list.

The Space Needle was fun, especially since there was no line! No photos of Makai because he was too afraid to go by the glass wall or in the rotating glass floor.

We ventured over to Belltown for lunch at Karaage Setsuna, a Japanese/Hawaiian restaurant. Makai asked to try the egg and spam maki then pounded the entire roll plus some fries and karaage chicken! Loved the restaurant and the neighborhood!

Our last activity in Seattle before heading to the airport was the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit. Dale Chihuly is from Tacoma and famous for his glass sculptures. I was so excited that we could now see his work while visiting Seattle – last time it was only in Tacoma. Everything was so gorgeous, I took sooo many photos!

Onion Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball

I made this cheeseball for Aunty Laura’s Thanksgiving dinner. The photos do not look great – I forgot to take photos when I made it and only took photos at the party. I loved how it turned out. Really sweet with savory and nutty.

Onion Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball
From: Real House Moms

  • 8 oz. cream cheese softened
  • 2 cups sharp white cheddar shredded
  • 1 cup Craisins
  • 1/2 cup green onions chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 1 cup pecans chopped and toasted and cooled completely

  1. stir together the cream cheese and cheddar until it’s evenly combined
  2. mix in the Craisins, green onions, and parsley
  3. spread toasted pecans onto a baking sheet
  4. form the cheese into a ball shape
  5. roll the cheese ball around on the pecans to completely coat the outside of the ball
  6. completely cover with plastic wrap and store overnight or at least 4 hours to allow the flavors to mix

Logan Square Farmers Market + La Boulangerie

I don’t know why but I haven’t been to the Logan Square Farmers Market for probably more than a year. I mean. I know why. Makai has swimming on Sunday mornings and Dallas uses the car to take him. But I could have figured out a way to visit. Nice to be back. Saw several people that I know and made a haul both at the market and “the new” La Boulangerie cafe.