Mother's Day in Oklahoma

Hi guys, how was your weekend? After Tony got off work Friday, we drove up to Shawnee, Oklahoma to surprise my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. Tony called her when we got to Ft. Worth to tell her we were on our way (we didn't want to just show up at midnight and scare the crap out of her) and she was so happy she started crying. She hadn't seen her grandbabies since Thanksgiving so she was really pleased to spend time with them. She and Jackson are great buddies.

On Saturday, she and my sister-in-law Janet were nice enough to watch the babies so Tony could take me on a Mother's Day date, just the two of us. We never get to do this, so it was pretty awesome. I love my kiddos, but I also love a few hours without potty assists and diaper changes! Tony took me down to Norman, where I went to college. We walked around for awhile, seeing how things have changed and also stayed the same. It's been a couple years since I last visited. Then we ate at my favorite restaurant, Pepe Delgado's. I left my camera at the house, but if I had a picture of the experience, it would show me grinning like a lunatic as I devoured the Plato Vegetariano (veggie fajitas.) For all of Austin's Mexican restaurants, I don't think there are any that compare to Pepe's.

On Sunday, I awoke to this Mother's Day surprise from Tony.

A gift card for yoga! This is the studio I used to go and I really liked it, so I'm super excited to start going back this week. Tony did good.

The rest of the day was spent playing outside with the kids and cooking out. They got so filthy that I had to hose them down before bringing them back into the house! But they had the best time.

I've never seen Olivia so worn out! She fell asleep sitting up on my lap.

I went grocery shopping before we left town, so when we got back I was able to make this Tamarind BBQ Tempeh and Sweet Potatoes from Appetite for Reduction.

A note of warning if you haven't used tamarind paste before -- I don't know if all brands are like this, but mine (made by Seasoned Pioneers) had hard seeds in it, the size of peanuts. I tried to pick them all out before serving, but I still ended up crunching down on one. Ouch! Also, my sweet potatoes didn't get very tender. I put in another tray of sweet potatoes alongside the BBQ, just to have roasted sweet potatoes to snack on, and they cooked up fine. But the ones that I cooked with the tempeh were still on the hard side. So you may need to bake longer than the recipe states.

The tempeh turned out really nice, however. I liked the sweet, gingery flavor of this BBQ sauce. I picked out the tempeh pieces and ate them on a ciabatta roll with pickle, and I microwaved the sweet potatoes until they were more tender, and ate them on the side.

Today I am going to assemble the water table we bought for the kids. They are both total water babies, they love to splash and play in the bath, so I think they will like it. Hope you're having a good day!