Meal Planning Monday - the yes I am still blogging edition!

So I haven't blogged in a month. I've still been meal planning although I didn't on our week's holiday. Time has just ran out on me on turning my plan into a blog post.

Not this week. Hurrah, I hear you cry. Well, I can dream.

This week. There's only 5 days on the plan because we are going to a wedding in Devon on Saturday. And yes, we got back from Devon only 9 days ago. That's how it goes sometimes. Apart from that, it's a normal school week, peppered with swimming on Wednesdays after school now - I thought I'd got them in at exactly the same time, until Monkey went to his first class with the new teacher and she decided he was so good he has to move up again and now has a lesson straight after Missy. We're also now looking at secondary schools, although we don't have to apply until next year, but I think there are none to go see next week.

Here's the plan.

Monday - Quick prawn, tomato and coconut curry
Tuesday - Lentil shepherd's pie
Wednesday - Cheesy cannelloni
Thursday - sandwiches (it's traditional!)
Friday - Sticky sesame chicken wings with roasted mini corn cobs
Saturday - wedding
Sunday - travelling home

Don't forget that Mrs M has the Meal Planning Monday linky. Go see her, she's having a tough time right now and I'm sure a visit and a friendly comment will give her a bit of a boost.

Til next week. I hope!

What we did last weekend

So we went to a wedding and got all dressed up. 

Don't we look smart? 

(Don't tell anyone but Monkey got ketchup down his shirt later!)

It rained during the ceremony but afterwards, we managed to get

a few photos outside before it rained again and we ran back inside. 

(The bride is our cousin by the way)

And after a long time (too long for Monkey!) we finally got to eat!

Later, Missy Woo got to hold her newest cousin. 

Then, after a long day....

Monkey fell asleep on the bed watching Match of the Day.

Blogger Wedding Album - Five Fs stylee!

Often midweek, you'll find posts from me taking part in the Gallery. Well, there is none this week but you have to watch that Tara. She has a week off and then she opens the Blogger Wedding Album, so she gets us finding pictures from our wedding and sending them to her or blogging about them. As I have already used this picture once for The Gallery, I'll use it again and tell you a little bit more about the story behind the picture.

Our wedding took place in Key West in Florida. We wanted to get married abroad but research told me that trying to get married in Italy or Spain may have given me grey hairs with all the hoops you have to jump through, and extra cost. Some friends of ours had got married in Orlando but had honeymooned in Key West and sung its praises. As the paperwork required and the process to get a marriage licence was straightforward, we decided to go for it. We invited the family but offered to pay for our parents' flights. They were the only family members who did come to the wedding - but we liked it that way. We got married on the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor State Historic Park at sunset and it was lovely (even though it was trying to rain!).

Not having the rest of our family present for the wedding, we decided to have a wedding party after we returned to celebrate with them and our friends. We were lucky to get a really good venue - a local hotel which has a strange location but was actually lovely, the staff were great and they accommodated all our needs without charging the earth. They organised pretty much everything for us and all we had to do was bring a cake - which turned into a £9.99 personalised half sheet cake from Costco.

The party was a really fantastic occasion - it was a chance to wear my dress again, which I love (although actually, it's a top and skirt), catch up with family and friends all in one place without having to schlep all over the country to do so, and generally have a good time. The DJ did a fab job and the food was lovely. Not that I think I had a lot to eat. And then, someone - I forget who - took this picture of us cutting our very expensive Costco cake. And yes, it was in a corridor as they set the food up just outside the party room. Everything was perfect. I'd recommend the hotel to you all, but it got sold and then closed a few years later and lies empty. We tried to explain to the children its significance the other day, but they couldn't get the concept of us having a party without them. Bless.

So, there you go, Tara, that's my entry into your Blogger Wedding Album. Hope you like it.

The Gallery - Celebrations

No, no - not the chocolates... This week's theme for The Gallery at Sticky Fingers is Celebrations.  So, today, I show you the old me - before I became a mother, when I still had a waist, disposable income and reasonably gainful employment. For ages, it was my profile picture on Facebook as it is one of the photos of me that I quite like. Oh yes, it is a picture from our wedding celebrations. Not our actual wedding though.

We actually got married in Key West in Florida with only our parents present. So that everyone else didn't miss out, we had a party after we returned at a local hotel. It was slightly low key - the cake you can see us cutting was a £9.99 special from Costco. OK, so the dress maybe wasn't, but I loved it from the second I first put it on in the shop. Do you like it?

Why not pop over to The Gallery at Sticky Fingers and have a look at some of the other entries this week?

Dear So and So

There is only one letter I could really write this week. 

Dear sister and fiancé,

I found this and thought of you: 

Now you will feel no rain
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now each of you will feel no cold
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness for you
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons
But there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

Congratulations on the occasion of your wedding. 

Much love, 

All of us. x