anniversary

March is always a busy month with an anniversary and two birthdays. They can get overlooked because March also means standardized testing, curriculum maps, and more for me. By the time Spring Break rolls around I want to do nothing, and too frequently my body decides that's a good week to get sick.

But Grandma and Papa didn't let us overlook this special month. They came down last night with some steaks, strawberries, asparagus, salad, and a St. Patrick's cake! Mark grilled the steaks, and even though it was the first grill of the year, he did a fantastic job. We discovered our new favorite way to cook asparagus: wrap the asparagus in foil, dot the asparagus with butter, drizzle about 2 T of water into the foil packet, wrap up, and grill beside your meat. The vegetables were tenderly delicious about 20 minutes later--and that's coming from someone who is typically averse to vegetables in general. Meanwhile, I baked french fries, one of my new favorite ways to make potatoes (and more healthy than frying). We had a great meal.

While we cooked, Papa and Miah assembled her new shelf of bins (thank you!) and started the process of reorganizing her toys. She is amazing when it comes to helping build things. While Papa went to the garage to find tools, she competently unwrapped all the parts.

Miah helped blow out the candles for our birthday cake before bed. As Mark said, it was a lot like Christmas. We all got a present, ate well, and then played games. (We still can't believe that Grandma and Papa won Settlers of Catan the first time they played). Just like on our wedding, we celebrated our marriage with family and good friends. It doesn't get better than that.