The SunnyDelight Mom

This weekend brought back some of my greatest memories of life with my kids when they were much younger.  Some of you will remember the orange drink called Sunny Delight.  In fact, I think it is still sold in stores.  But back in the early 90's when it came out, there were these great commercials for it where there was one kid on the block whose mom ALWAYS had the fridge filled with "Sunny D" and that house was the one that all the kids came to to hang out and play.  Well, where we lived, I was called the "Sunny D" mom and I wore this name like a badge of honor.  I LOVED having the neighborhood kids come to our house to play and to eat snacks.  I always had something for the kids whether it be homemade cookies, ice cream, popcorn, you name it, I had it.  And though I don't think I ever actually had much Sunny Delight in the house, my kids weren't to crazy about it, I always had some type of cool drink for the kids.  I shopped a lot at the health food stores and bought natural seltzer drinks with fruit juice in them, made my own lemonade and crazy stuff like that.  I was the weird mom who had all the strange things at her house, but the kids loved it anyway.  You didn't find sodas in my house but no one seemed to complain.  I would on occassion make Kool Aid, but the kids would always take that and set up a stand and sell it in front of our house. 

This weekend, I felt like that mom again.  I spent just about my entire weekend in the kitchen cooking, baking, washing dishes and starting all over again.  And I LOVED it.  Having one of my brothers and my niece here for the weekend, 2 of my sons at home and one of my other sons and his friends stopping by on both Friday night and tonight for dinner just made my weekend perfect.  My niece loved watching me cook and asked me questions about whether I have always loved to cook.  A few times she even called me amazing because of the things I was whipping up in the kitchen.  Not that what I was making was so unusual, but that I was making so much.  Breakfast was pancakes, bacon and sausage and my homemade Wine Berry Jam to put on the pancakes.  I make my pancakes from scratch with a recipe I have used for 20 years.  My dear niece was surprised I didn't pour the mix out of a box to make the pancakes.  As soon as I was done making breakfast, I started working on the homemade components of Reed's care package for college.  First up was Chocolate Chunk Cookies with dried cranberries and macadamia nuts.  My spin on the classic Toll  House Cookies.


Ingredients for a classic with a twist.

Once those were mixed up and baking in the oven, I moved onto Banana Walnut Muffins.  Those baked in one oven while the cookies baked in the other.


Nothing like homemade muffins to grab before you go off to class.

 I managed to make so many cookies that I was able to keep some for us, send a bag home with my brother and niece and give Reed and his roomate a whole bag of them to take back to school.  We didn't keep any of the muffins, Reed got all of those.

Once the baking was done, I started on the pasta salad for dinner and boiled a pound of whole wheat rotini.  Tonight's dinner was all about stuff that could be made ahead since I knew I would be having an early dinner for my boys and  brother and niece before they left and then a second seating when Reed and his friends stopped by on their way back to George Mason. 



Steaming hot whole wheat pasta.

I made a Caprese Salad with what may be, the last of the tomatos from the garden and a bunch of basil I picked this morning.  The house smelled so good from all of that basil.  I hope the basil makes it through the week and we don't have an early frost so that I can make up batches of Pesto and freeze them in ice cube trays. Then I will have pesto all winter long.


3 of my all time favorite foods.  Tomatos and Basil from my garden.

 Before we sat down to eat, we all went outside and the kids through the football.  Evan and Trevor were still wearing their pajama pants.  They didn't get back until 1:30 am from the football game they went to with their uncle and so today was a very lazy day for them.  These pictures show them being their typical crazy selves which in this case means they had fun with their wardrobe today.  I KNOW they will KILL me when they see I posted these pictures.  But they just make me laugh so hard and I am not sure my niece has ever laughed so hard.  She saw a side of her cousins this weekend I am not sure she has ever seen.





Before they left to go to Va. Tech for the football game on Saturday.



Outside for a little game of pass before dinner.



This is definitely a fashion statement in the making.



And not to be out done by his younger brother, Evan had to make a fashion statement too.



She may be a girl cousin, but she has a pretty good arm on her.





Working up an appetite.



Love the faces.



Finally it was time to come in and eat.  Burgers and Bratwursts were on the grill and the rest of the food was on the table.  Time to get down to some serious eating.


Pasta salad, Caprese Salad and grilled pineapple.

Everyone was happy to eat and once again I wish I had a video camera recording our time at the family meal table.  It is without a doubt my favorite time of any day.  There is so much laughter and fun conversation going on.  It has been a long time since I have seen my brother laugh as hard as he did this weekend at every meal he sat down with us to eat.  We probably don't exhibit the best of manners, but we sure have a good time together, and that's what it's all about. 

Two hours after we sat down to eat, Reed and his friends showed up for dinner.  Leftovers were put back on the table, more burgers and brats hit the grill and I sat back and smiled.  Listening to them talk about how great it was to eat home cooked food again made me smile ear to ear.  I don't know how often they will be back to eat, but I am happy to be the "Sunny D" mom for them anytime they want.  They may be using me for my food, but that is just fine with me:)



Reed and his friends fueling up before the final hour of their trip back to school.

So after their bellies were full, it was time to say good-bye.  I gave Reed all of his goodies I had gotten together for him and a few extras that I hadn't thought of earlier.  Hugs and kisses were handed out to all and a promise from all of them that they would come back again and eat.
 
A lump formed in my throat as I watched them pull out of the driveway and waved goodbye.  I don't know that it will ever get any easier to let my kids go and grow up.  I miss every minute of the past 20 years I have had with them.  If I could re-live each and everday with them I would.  But, at least I have the joy of knowing, that once again. I just may get to be the house that all the kids want to come to and let me be the "Sunny D Mom".