Success

Last night, we had a friend of DHs over for dinner with her family. They are moving here in a few weeks as she is joining DH's department.

Slowly, over the past few weeks, I've been working on getting the house put together so it's neat, properly decorated (a visit to my sister's house does this to me all the time). So, as a result we didn't have a ton of cleaning to do, but still more than I managed. The good news is that my ILs are due in sometime in the next few weeks and I'm that much ahead.

DH knew that when he told me one key piece of information, he knew I was going to be thrilled. A and her 2 y.o. daughter are vegetarians! Her husband was, as A put it, a carnivore. So, I planned this lovely menu to meet everyone eating desires (and that my girls would not complain too much about whatever they had to eat).

The menu was:

* veggie kabobs of zucchini, onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes marinated in a french vinaigrette
* flank steak marinated in my special marinade
* grilled potato wedges
* green beans
* artisan bread
* rustic peach pie w/ vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream

Well, at 4:30 (they were due sometime after 5:00), I still hadn't made a pie crust so the rustic peach pie turned to a peach crisp. Still wonderful.

As I was cooking the veggies on the (newly cleaned) grill, I noticed that the flame wasn't very high. One peak at the gas indicator showed that I was about out of gas. So, the steak was grilled in the broiler.

Dinner was wonderful, conversation was fun, the two year old was a little out of sorts but was completely darling (and we know what it's like to travel with a out of sorts kid so we managed fine.

Syd was in her element - she was able to play big sister to the little girl. She was teaching her to color, gave her a princess crown, and a bob the builder ball.

We had a great time. I look forward to them moving here. And I'm not completely sorry to no longer be traveling with a cranky 2 y.o., no matter how cute.