Hannah's Weekend in five pictures

My weekend was filled with 2 big things: a 70th birthday party and canning!  My brother Derek is getting married next June and his future mother-in-law is turning 70 this coming Tuesday so her daughter Stacy (my brother's fiance) threw her a little surprise birthday party.  Stacy is originally from California and her mom just moved from California to Chicago to be closer to Stacy and Derek.  It was great for our two families to meet, my family to see Stacy's mom's beautiful new home in Chicago and just celebrate in general.  I've met Stacy's Mom and nephew many times before but this was our first time meeting her sisters who live in California so that was really cool!  Here's who everyone is: front row left to right is Stacy's sister, her mom in the middle and her other sister. Middle row from left to right is Stacy, myself and my mom.  Back row left to right is Stacy's nephew, my brother and my dad.  It was such a nice get-together on a beautiful day in the backyard of Stacy's mom's house.  It's like this beautiful oasis with tons of plants and cute decorations, etc.  I felt so relaxed...until picture #3 that is! 

Here is Stacy and her Mom.  She turns 70 on Tuesday, August 28 but I thought it was nice of Stacy to not put 70 candles on the cake.  That wouldn't have been very nice for her mom to have to blow them all out and I didn't want to have to wait that long for my piece of cake.  It was German chocolate cake which is one of my favorites! 

Remember above when I said I was so relaxed until picture #3?  Well here's picture #3...make sure you click to picture #2...that really shows my discomfort!  I was SO FULL I literally needed to take a break from eating my cake!  This is a big deal too since I love German chocolate cake.  I have a problem with eating though because I realized I eat like I'm never going to have that food again and then I end up getting so full I'm uncomfortable.  I just love food so much!  Everyone was laughing at me because I literally needed to take a break and they could tell. haha 

Ok so one half of my weekend was the big party down in Chicago and the other part was canning!!  I love to can my own jam, dilly beans, salsa, pickles, etc. so this weekend I did dilly beans and pickles.  Some came straight from my garden but I didn't have enough to make a whole batch so I did have to purchase some from a little stand in downtown Wind Lake.  

I have success every year with my dilly beans as my aunt shared with me an amazing recipe which you can find HERE.  I have yet to find a dill pickle recipe I love though.  This year I'm just going to try the recipe they provide on the box of canning salt, leave the little cucumbers whole and see how that goes.  If you have a good recipe or any tricks to canning amazing dill pickles, I'd love for you to share!!  You can send me a message to my Facebook page HERE.   

I can't believe I almost forgot about my quick trip to the store.  This is the Boston Store at Southridge Mall.  I got such a weird feeling when I walked in the door and saw the place pretty much empty except where they are trying to clear out their last few items.  Whenever my mom and I met at the mall we'd always meet in Boston Store so it's going to be so weird when they no longer exist.  It actually made me sad to see this photo.  You never want a company to go out of business.  Just so weird and sad.

Well that was my weekend! I hope you had a great one and as always thanks so much for checking out what I was up to!  


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content