Grandmammas drive down bumpy roads on golf carts with five kids….and scissors.
Or, better yet, just let the kids go by themselves. At least there are no scissors involved.
We had an awesome time with all of our cousins this past weekend…and no one got hurt!
When we were in Orange Beach a couple of weeks ago, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, The Point. They have live Bluegrass on the weekends, something that we used to sit far away from when Ali was a baby.
But now, she’s quite old enough to appreciate it.
Maybe a bit too much.
(Forgive the sideways video – this is B-Sides, and I’m lazy today)….
Her booty dancing turned into a bit more of a freestyle dance that fit the music SLIGHTLY better…
…but I’m still concerned as to where she’s learning how to dance.
Okay. So, as requested, you guys completely inundated me with movies to watch.
COMPLETELY.
INUNDATED.
So, to bring some semblance of order to the crazylong list (and because several of you asked me for the list), I laboriously went through all the comments and put the movies in my favorite contraption, my love, my Excel.
So here’s the geeky facts:
There were a total of 111movies suggested, and of those movies, I’ve (shamefully) only seen 40. Which means my work is cut out for me.
Far and away, the most often recommended movie was The Princess Bride, with 10 nods. As this is one of my favorites, I have the agree with the consensus and declare this movie to be THE most popular movie of the 80’s and 90’s. It’s a well-deserved ranking.
So, here are the list of movies you suggested from the 80’s, 90’s, and a few from the 00’s, broken down into what I have and haven’t seen (so that Chris can get to work on my Netflix Queue). I’m sure I’ll check back in with my reviews of movies that I watch…
Movies I have seen:
| Title | # Votes |
| The Princess Bride | 10 |
| Sweet Home Alabama | 4 |
| A League of Their Own | 3 |
| Dirty Dancing | 2 |
| Ferris Bueller's Day Off | 2 |
| How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days | 2 |
| Indiana Jones | 2 |
| Sleepless in Seattle | 2 |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | 2 |
| You've Got Mail | 2 |
| Back to the Future | 1 |
| Big | 1 |
| Castaway | 1 |
| Dances with Wolves | 1 |
| Driving Miss Daisy | 1 |
| Emma | 1 |
| Forrest Gump | 1 |
| Grease | 1 |
| Grumpy Old Men | 1 |
| Home Alone | 1 |
| Jurassic Park | 1 |
| Kate and Leopold | 1 |
| Much Ado About Nothing | 1 |
| My Big Fat Greek Wedding | 1 |
| Office Space | 1 |
| Pretty Woman | 1 |
| Rain Man | 1 |
| Remember the Titans | 1 |
| Runaway Bride | 1 |
| Sabrina | 1 |
| Sense and Sensibility | 1 |
| Star Trek: Generations | 1 |
| The Flight of the Navigator | 1 |
| The Wedding Planner | 1 |
| Top Gun | 1 |
| Uncle Buck | 1 |
| When Harry Met Sally | 1 |
| While You Were Sleeping | 1 |
| Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken | 1 |
Movies I Haven’t Seen:
| Title | # Votes |
| Sixteen Candles | 3 |
| The Breakfast Club | 3 |
| Apollo 13 | 2 |
| Braveheart | 2 |
| Footloose | 2 |
| Girls Just Want to Have Fun | 2 |
| Pretty in Pink | 2 |
| So I Married an Axe Murderer | 2 |
| Splash | 2 |
| St. Elmo's Fire | 2 |
| Stand By Me | 2 |
| That Thing You Do | 2 |
| The Dead Poet's Society | 2 |
| The Mask of Zorro | 2 |
| The Shawshank Redemption | 2 |
| A Few Good Men | 1 |
| American Beauty | 1 |
| An Officer and a Gentleman | 1 |
| BeetleJuice | 1 |
| Better Off Dead | 1 |
| Born on the Fourth of July | 1 |
| Cocktail | 1 |
| Dead Poets Society | 1 |
| Fame | 1 |
| Fargo | 1 |
| Flowers in the Attic | 1 |
| Fried Green Tomatoes | 1 |
| Goonies | 1 |
| Hairspray | 1 |
| History of the World, Part 1 | 1 |
| Hopscoth | 1 |
| Hunt for the Red October | 1 |
| License to Drive | 1 |
| Look Who's Talking | 1 |
| Man in the Moon | 1 |
| Mommy Dearest | 1 |
| Mystic Pizza | 1 |
| Nine to Five | 1 |
| October Sky | 1 |
| Pulp Fiction | 1 |
| Ransom | 1 |
| Risky Business | 1 |
| Robin Hood: Men in Tights | 1 |
| Rudy | 1 |
| Say anything | 1 |
| Schlindler's List | 1 |
| Shakespeare in Love | 1 |
| She's Having a Baby | 1 |
| Steel Magnolias | 1 |
| The Big Chill | 1 |
| The Burbs | 1 |
| The Dark Crystal | 1 |
| The Fifth Element | 1 |
| The Fugitive | 1 |
| The Hunt for the Red October | 1 |
| The Last of the Mohicans | 1 |
| The Life of Brian | 1 |
| The Man in the Iron Mask | 1 |
| The Matchmaker | 1 |
| The Meaning of Life | 1 |
| The Secret of my Success | 1 |
| The Sixth Sense | 1 |
| Titanic | 1 |
| To Catch a Thief | 1 |
| Tombstone | 1 |
| Tootsie | 1 |
| Tremors | 1 |
| Two Weeks Notice | 1 |
| White Men Can't Jump | 1 |
| Young Guns | 1 |
I’ve recently gotten lucky with a couple of Ali+Friends shots that have made me very happy:
1. Ali+AJ:
2. Ali+Luke (who very conveniently totally matched that day):
In between my very couchy days of late, we’ve had quite a bit of fun with friends.
On Memorial Day, AJ (and family) came over for a cookout and play time.
Ali and AJ went back and forth from the pool…
To the trampoline…
To the pool…
And back to the trampoline (where Tessa joined them)… 
If only there were a way to combine those two activities…without broken ankles or busted trampolines.
We also went to The McWane Center with AJ…
Where the water table smocks totally gave away how much they’ve grown since their first visit:
Oh, and the length of their hair.
Speaking of hair, the tornado really did their curls some favors:
And, apparently, AJ thought it made a great facial as well.
They then proceeded to tell about the Tornado on the weather channel:
But Ali’s FAVORITE friend lately has been Daddy, hands down.
She is completely and totally obsessed with Daddy right now, to the point that she did something unprecedented: she snuggled up to him at dinner and said, “Mommy, can you take a picture of us together?”
That child never wants her picture taken. The love of Daddy is strong with her right now. Very strong.
She and Daddy had fun making Dirt Cake. Most especially the crushing the Oreos part…Ali donned her Ninja headband, Chris armed her with a bowling pin, and set her to work.
None survived. Except for the one cookie that was saved as a reward for all the hard work.
Beach photos are my favorite. But since Beach Photos were somewhat out of the question, I managed to get a few pictures at the pool.
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I mentioned on Facebook that I made this last night, and a few people asked me for the recipe. I LOVED this meal growing up – I called it “Orange Chicken”. I modified the recipe a bit from my Mom’s, so this is my version. It may not be authentic Hungarian (I have no idea what Authentic Hungarian is), but it’s delicious.
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash
4-5 lbs. of Chicken, dark meat – skin.
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder – Sprinkle Liberally onto chicken.
3 tbsp Butter – melt in large frying pan, brown chicken in butter, then remove chicken.
2 Large Onions, cut in chunks
6-8 Carrots, sliced thinly
Cook Onions and Carrots in skillet for 5 minutes.
1 chicken bouillon cube, dissolved in 1 cup of water
LOTS of Paprika (Mom’s recipe calls for 1/4 tsp, but I’m almost positive it MUST have meant 14 tsp. I pour Paprika liberally in as if I were salting it.)
Stir bouillon and Paprika in, bring to a boil. Return chicken to pan, cover and cook over low for about 30 minutes. Take chicken off bone and return to pan. If too watery, add some corn starch mixed in water to the pan, heat and stir until thickened.
(I personally hate adding corn starch – I swear I can taste it. I’d just prefer it to be watery.)
16 oz Sour Cream – stir some of the hot broth into sour cream, continue adding more broth and stirring until sour cream is liquidy. Pour into pan and stir. Once sour cream is added, do not bring to a boil.
Serve over Egg Noodles.
If Ali wakes up before I finish my Bible Study in the mornings, I usually give her her bible and let her look at it in bed. But yesterday morning her bible was downstairs, so instead, I told her she could play in her room. I heard a lot of banging and drawer openings.
At one point, I warily called out, “Ali, are you okay??”
“Yes, Mommy!!”
When I finished, I went in to discover that she very thoroughly found every piece of jewelry in her room and put it all on, rapper-style..
Mental Note: Make sure her bible is upstairs tomorrow.
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