Five on Friday

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Happy Friday!  Another week has flown by and it’s crazy, but we are expecting more snow this morning and Saturday!  C’mon Mother Nature, it’s April!!!  I cannot wait for the warmer weather.  This week started with a snow day on a make-up snow day for the kids.  With all the holiday celebrations last weekend (see below) it was not a relaxing weekend.  Besides a couple of birthday parties that my son is going to, our weekend is pretty free.  I am looking forward to taking it easy and not having to do much! Here are five from this week:

1. Reading – I am half-way through Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone.  I am a huge Kristin Hannah fan and had been eagerly waiting for this book to come in from the library.  I haven’t had much reading time, but have enjoyed what I’ve read so far.

2. Family Fun – We recently gave our son this Pets Rock puzzle.  There are a bunch of different puzzles in the series and I think that they’re so cute! It’s only 550 pieces and I knew he could do it on his own.  However, we both enjoyed sitting together and working on it.  I had to force myself to stay away and only work on it when he was around.

3. Drinking – Angry Orchard Hard Cider Rose! I rarely drink, however, I do love a good hard cider.  Since Wednesday was our anniversary my husband and I cheered to 14 years and I got to try Angry Orchard’s new rose cider.  It’s not my favorite of their hard ciders, but it’s so pretty.  It will likely be very popular this summer!

4. Watching – Last weekend my husband and I watched Battle of the Sexes.  I like Emma Stone a lot and I thought she did a great job in this movie.  I had no idea who Bobby Riggs was before watching this and I always enjoy when I learn something new from a book or movie.

5. Celebrating  – There was LOTS of celebrating going on this week.  Saturday we celebrated Passover at my husband’s Aunt’s house.  Sunday we celebrated Easter and my daughter’s 12th birthday with both of our families.  And Wednesday was our anniversary.  It’s hard to believe that my husband and I have been married for 14 years! Since weeknight dinner dates are a bit difficult, we will hopefully get a chance to celebrate this weekend.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Monday I shared What’s Cooking?, our weekly meal plan.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

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Happy Friday!  It’s finally starting to feel like spring around here.  After all the winter storms, my kids lost the majority of their Spring break and only had yesterday and today off from school.  Altogether, they lost five days of their break and will be in school all of next week.  It’s a bit of a bummer since they were supposed to go visit my parents in Rhode Island, since my husband and I have to work.  My parents were really looking forward to spending time with the kids.  This weekend is busy and we will be celebrating both Passover and Easter.  Saturday we will celebrate Passover with my mother-in-law’s side of the family.  Then we will host Easter Sunday and also celebrate my daughter’s birthday with our parents and siblings.  I hope everyone has a Happy Passover or Easter, depending on which you celebrate.  Here are five from this week:

1. Reading –  I am almost finished reading The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn.  I think I already know what’s going on and am only 1/2 way through.  It has my interest peaked though to see if I’m correct but I’m not overly wowed by this one.

2. Watching – This past weekend I watched two movies.  My husband and I watched Get Out and Baby Driver.  I feel like Ansel Elgort has been in so many movies recently.  I had heard good things about Baby Driver but didn’t really have any idea of what it was about.  It’s an action adventure movie, which usually isn’t my thing.  I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the mix of music as well.  I knew they’d have a soundtrack for the movie and I’m curious as to which songs they put on it! Then there was the movie Get Out.  Again, this was another movie that I had no idea what it was about.  I put it on hold because it was nominated for many movie awards and won Best Original Screenplay.  It’s categorized as a horror/mystery/thriller film and I do NOT watch horror movies.  It wasn’t very scary, but wasn’t my thing.

3. Fixing – This was a very expensive week.  I mentioned my car troubles last week.  Luckily, it was just some valve and intake issues that required some new parts and labor but nothing outrageous.  When we were heading out to pick up the car over the weekend, my phone fell out of my coat pocket and fell on the driveway, face-down.  The screen did not crack, it shattered.  My husband was able to bring it to the Apple store this week and within an hour, the screen was replaced.  All for just $149!  Like I said, an expensive week.

4. Family Time – Last weekend we had our March family dinner.  We decided to go back to the alphabetical country list and we chose Belgium.  We made Mussels in white wine sauce and homemade frites.  For dessert, we made waffles.  We had to dust off our waffle maker and wasn’t even sure it still worked.  But, it did and made some delicious waffles.  Unfortunately, we have a single waffle maker, so it’s a little slow going to cook a bunch at a time. But, homemade waffles are so much better than the frozen kind!

5. Supper Club Dinner Out – This month our Supper Club went out to eat during Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, rather than cook.  We went to Brothers Fish & Chips, a local seafood restaurant.  This was the first time that my husband and I dined at the restaurant and everything was delicious!  Pictured is Wild Shrimp over Squid Ink Risotto.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

I brought back a weekly meal plan and Monday I shared What’s Cooking?

Wednesday I shared what was Rocking My Happy this week.

Thursday I posted Food Tries and Buys.

Linking up with Andrea, Katie and April!  Hope you have a great weekend!

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It’s finally spring……although you wouldn’t know it with the snow we got this week! The weather forecast made it sound like we were getting a foot of snow, when in fact, we barely got about 2 inches or so.  We had another snow day for nothing, but it’s better to be safe.  This has been a busy week, and I was actually happy for the day off.  This week ended on a not-so-great note when my car had engine problems on my way home from work last night.  Luckily, we have AAA and I got the car towed to a nearby auto repair shop.  I was also fortunate that my husband was able to leave work and come pick me up.  I’m really hoping it’s an easy (and cheap!) fix.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  We are going out to dinner tonight with Supper Club for Hudson Valley Restaurant Week (HVRW) to a new-to-me restaurant.  Otherwise, we have a pretty open weekend for now.  Here are five from this week:

Reading – I started reading The Silent Wife by Kerry Fisher this week.  It’s moving a little slow for me but I’m curious enough to finish it.

Watching – This past weekend I finished watching the first season of Big Little Lies. They did such a good job with this show!  I’m curious to see what season 2 will look like, since the first season followed the book.  I also started watching the new television series Rise on NBC.  I swear I was a theater nerd in another life.  I love watching musicals, although I can’t sing for the life of me!  Rise is a musical drama focusing on a high school production of Spring Awakening.  I actually saw Spring Awakening on Broadway, so it has me interested.

Eating – St. Patrick’s Day is not complete without a traditional corned beef dinner.  My husband cooked the corned beef in our Instant Pot and it was delicious!  I grew up with eating boiled potatoes and cabbage with our corned beef and I’m not a big fan.  So we did mashed potatoes (also in the Instant Pot!) and I sauteed the cabbage.  All the deliciousness was accompanied by my mom’s homemade Irish Soda Bread.

Family Fun – My son was one of the leads in his school play/musical.  He did a great job in both performances.  We didn’t get him flowers because he wanted sushi! And not any sushi, conveyor belt sushi.  So, Sunday we went out for lunch so he could have his fill of sushi!  Here’s a small sampling of some of the dishes.

Workout of the Week – I know exercise is so important for overall physical and mental health.  I also think it’s a big part of my self-care.  But I’m going to be real here.  I’ve fallen off the gym wagon.  With my son’s play practice these last few weeks going every night until 6 PM and/or meetings, getting to the gym was the last thing I wanted to do.  I’m debating whether to cancel my class membership and pay less money for just access to the machines.  This week I did a couple more True 30 Days of Yoga (from Yoga with Adriene) videos and I also did this POPSUGAR Fitness Barre Sculpting Workout.  I’m finding doing YouTube workouts fits better in my schedule since I can do them whenever I want and not work around a gym class schedule.  We’ll see how it goes.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Monday I shared Westchester County Staycation Fun.

Wednesday I shared what was Rocking My Happy this week.

Thursday I re-posted and updated a recipe for Egg Roll in a Bowl.

Sharing with Friday Favorites! Have a great weekend!

(This post contains affiliate links.  Please read our disclosure policy for more information.)

Happy Friday! This has been a super busy week.  The kids ended up having a snow day on Tuesday.  My son had his science fair.  I am super nervous excited because tonight and tomorrow my son is starring in his school’s 3rd and 4th grade school play.  They are doing a production of the Magic Tree House Knight at Dawn and he is Jack for the first half of the play/musical.  Our weekend will be filled with the play and seeing family who are coming to watch it.  And of course hopefully enjoying some corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day!  Here are five from this week:
Watching – We don’t get HBO.  But I recently discovered that season one of Big Little Lies was available from the library.  So, I’ve been binge watching this since it’s due back to the library on Monday!

Reading – This week I finished up Still Me by Jojo Moyes.  This was a great book and I really enjoyed reading more of Lou’s story.

Family Time – Much of our family time revolves around food!  Last weekend we drove to a town about 45 minutes away to go out for lunch.  We made two stops, one to a dumpling restaurant where we had two kinds of dumplings (the fried beef and onion are showed above and we also had steamed pork and seafood ones).  My kids LOVE dumplings and these were some of the best dumplings we’ve had.  Then we went to a Vietnamese restaurant, where we shared some pho, a bahn mi and some pork bun moc.  Both of these places were recommended to me by an Instagram follower who lives near me.

Mother-Son Date – Last weekend the movie A Wrinkle In Time came out.  Since we read the book together, the two of us went to go see it.  I cannot tell you the last time that I went to a movie on opening weekend!  The movie was alright.  It was a bit different from the book.  But I enjoyed the cast.

Ice Cream – Breyers Ice Cream Cake ice cream has become a recent favorite. If you like Carvel ice cream cake, you will most likely enjoy this ice cream flavor as much as I do.  It is vanilla and chocolate ice cream, but the chocolate ice cream has the little crunchies.  I may buy this ice cream and a flavor I don’t like, and don’t let the rest of the family eat my ice cream!

ICYI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I shared my February 2018 reads.

Wednesday I posted what was Rocking My Happy this week.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

March has truly come in like a lion.  We have had two major storms in less than a week.  The kids have not been in school since last Friday!  Goodbye spring break, since they’ve used all their snow days and then some!   March was supposed to be a super busy month for us, but many events have been cancelled or postponed.  Spring cannot come soon enough!  We have had sad news from various family members as well, making it a not-so-great week.  However, there have also been several happy moments as well which I shared in Wednesday’s Rocking My Happy post.  Here are five from this week:

Reading – I just finished reading Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan.  I’m not sure if I’m getting tired of the suspense genre or I’m just picking not-so-great-books.  But this was just an okay read for me.

Watching – Sunday we went to see Black Panther.  My son had been really wanting to see this movie.  While I almost passed on it, my husband convinced me to go and enjoy some time with the family.  I have to admit that I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would.  We also watched Wonder.  They did a great job turning the book into a movie.

Family Time – Last weekend we went out to lunch and then went duck pin bowling.  I’ll have a post up on the blog soon! But for those unfamiliar, duck pin bowling uses smaller pins and smaller balls.  I hadn’t been duck pin bowling since I was a child myself.  It was different and fun family experience.

Eating – Before we went bowling last weekend we stopped for lunch at JK’s Restaurant.  My husband ate here when he was a kid.  Since we were in the area bowling he suggested we have lunch here.  We enjoyed this delicious spread and shared some milkshakes.  Definitely not a healthy meal, but pretty tasty!

Listening – I found a new podcast that I’ve been enjoying.  Forever35 is hosted by Kate and Doree.  The two talk all things beauty, nutrition, and self-care.  It’s fun to listen while I commute to work.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

(This post contains affiliate links.  Please read our disclosure policy for more information.)

Yeah, it’s Friday!  Another week is in the books!  I cannot believe how quickly the week went by.  As I sit here writing this Thursday night, we are unsure if tomorrow will be a snow day.  As of now, the previous rain we thought we were getting has turned into a possible 6 -12 inches of snow!  It’s crazy after we had temps this weeks in the high 50’s!  I can’t believe we are already in the month of March.  This is a busy month for us, especially my son.  He has a class play, science fair, Cub Scout Pinewood Derby and he stars as one of the leads in the 3rd/4th grade musical.  It will be an exciting but busy month!  Here’s an update for those of you who read about the audio book CD fiasco in last week’s Five on Friday.  My husband took the CD player out of the car and was able to get the CD out. Phew!  However, he discovered the CD player itself is broken.  He’s going to replace it with another CD player.  In the meantime, I’m without a car stereo.  I’ve been listening to podcasts on my commute.  I just miss the clock and not knowing what time it is while I”m driving! Here are five from this week:

Reading – Yesterday I finished reading Before We Were Strangers by Renee Carlino.  This was such a great contemporary romance.  It was refreshing after all the suspense/thrillers I was reading and it was a very enjoyable read.

Supper Club – Last Saturday we had our monthly supper club get-together.  This month’s theme was red, in honor of Valentine’s Day.  I made a Roasted Red Pepper Soup and my husband made Strawberry Sorbet. Even though the kids don’t usually go to our supper club dinners, my daughter made brownie pops and red velvet cake pops for us to bring.  She had gotten a Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and was excited to put it to use.

Watching – Last weekend we watched the movie Dunkirk.  This war-movie was nominated for many awards. I didn’t realize that the whole movie was about the evacuation of Dunkirk during World War II. My husband is a big history fan and enjoys these types of movies.  However, I found the movie to be a bit slow and wasn’t the biggest fan.

Date Night – Last Friday night, my husband and I went out to dinner for an unplanned date night.  My daughter was at a Girl Scout event and my son was invited to a friend’s for a sleep over.  I realized that my husband and I were on our own for dinner.  So, we went to a local, new-to-us restaurant and enjoyed a quick dinner date.  We ordered wings, onion rings, nachos and milk shakes.  Definitely not the healthiest of meals, but it was delicious!

Mother-Son Date – Sunday my son and I went into NYC.  We had brunch at Charlie Palmer at the Knick and then went to see SpongeBob SquarePants the Broadway Musical.  You can read more about our day in this week’s post.  Brunch was delicious and even though I’m not a fan of the television show, the Broadway show was excellent!

Linking up with Andrea, Katie and April.

Hope you have a great weekend!  

Although this was a short week, it felt really long.  I am so happy that today is Friday!  This week the kids had Monday and Tuesday off from school for President’s Day.  Even though the kids in the school district I work for had off all week, since I work in the district office, I only had Monday off.  I’m fortunate that my husband has a flexible work schedule and can work from, which he had to do Tuesday.  Tuesday and Wednesday the temps rose to almost 70 degrees!  We were treated to an early taste of spring.  But then the temps dropped yesterday and my kids even had an early dismissal from school because of sleet and freezing rain. I know that I’ve previously  mentioned how I’m so over winter.  This weekend is looking busy with our monthly Supper Club gathering Saturday night and a trip to New York City for my son and I on Sunday.  Here are five from this week:

Reading: I’m currently finishing up The Butterfly Gardener by Dot Hutchinson.  This is definitely a dark, suspense-type of read and I am looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

Watching:  We have been super into watching the Olympics.  Although this is Team U.S.A.’s lowest Winter Games medal count in decades, we have enjoyed watching and cheering them on.

Eating:  Do you have a food bucket list of things that you want to try, whether they be local specialties or regional or international dishes?  Or is that just me?!!  Well, this Chickwich sandwich from Mason Sandwich Co. has been on my bucket list for awhile now.  We finally made a visit Monday for lunch and I was not disappointed!

Car Stereo Fiasco – Although I don’t have a long commute, I have started listening to books on CD during my drive.  This past week I finished up my first audio book.  When I hit the eject button to to get the CD out it started making a funny noise and an error message appeared.  Now, the CD is stuck in the car CD player.  Did I mention that this is an audio book borrowed from the interlibrary loan system?!!!  It’s not even from our own library.  My husband is going to try to take apart the CD player and get the CD out.  Otherwise, I’ll just have to pay the library for a new one.

Monthly Family Dinner – This week I posted about our new monthly family dinners.  Our first family dinner was Albanian-themed and delicious.  We skipped a B country this month because my son got The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook for Christmas and wanted us to make something from it.  We had our second monthly family dinner last weekend and made the Chicken and Ham Pie.  We chose the easy version and it was surprisingly tasty.   However, the directions were not very good and the food to book/movie connections is a stretch for many of the dishes.

Linking up with Andrea, Katie and April.  Have a great weekend!

I cannot believe how quickly the week flew by!  In case you want to celebrate, today is National Pizza Day. We are huge pizza lovers and enjoy our weekly homemade pizza! Wednesday we enjoyed another Snow Day and had a 2-hour delay yesterday.  While we all enjoyed the day off, I am so over winter.  The cold, the snow, shoveling……not a fan!  Here are five from this week:

Super Bowl Sunday – We went to a neighbor’s house for a Super Bowl party.  While I’m not a football fan, it was fun to see all the neighbors and enjoy good food and drinks.  Some of us adults were playing Cards Against Humanity while the kids played and some of the adults watched the game.  We stopped to see the half-time show and then headed out soon after because it was a school night.

Watching – Last weekend we watched the movie Miracle.  It was fun to see since the Winter Olympic Games are just starting and we visited Lake Placid this summer and saw the rink that the real game was played on!  Wednesday on the snow day we watched Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief.  Both my kids read the book and enjoyed it.  I didn’t even realize that there was a movie until I did a library catalog search.  Although I didn’t read this book, we all enjoyed the movie.  As for television, this week I watched the Super Bowl episode of This Is Us.  As usual, I was in tears.  I was happy to finally find out what happened to Jack.  I didn’t watch the Tuesday episode yet, since I was getting caught up on The Bachelor!

Reading – Since I’ve started working I haven’t had as much time to read.  I’m still working on Eleanor Oliphant, which I mentioned in last week’s Five on Friday.  I don’t have a long commute, but to get in some more reading time I’ve started listening to audio books.  I’m currently listening to Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner and it’s a good one!

Family Time -Last night we went out to dinner with my parents and brother. He is moving to Pennsylvania tomorrow, so this was a last get-together before he leaves.  We went out to Casa Rina, an Italian restaurant near my brother’s apartment.  We don’t have Italian very often so it was a nice treat.  I had lobster ravioli, a salad, eggplant rollatini and a chocolate cannoli.  It was delicious and I was stuffed!

Eating – Last weekend we went out to lunch.  At the request of my son we had Japanese.  Have I mentioned how much he loves sushi?  He hadn’t had sushi, “in sooo long” and enjoyed this sushi and sashimi platter.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted January 2018 Tween Reads.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!  I’m so happy that the weekend is here!  Monday I started my first day of work.  So far, everything is going well and we even got a surprise two-hour delay Tuesday morning.  However, we are still adjusting to me being back at work full-time again and this mom is TIRED!!!  My husband has been super helpful as we all adjust to this transition.  This weekend will include some movie watching, taking my son to a friend’s birthday party and a Super Bowl party.  The weather forecast is currently predicting snow Sunday evening into Monday.  I’m over winter and hope the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow today!  Here are five from this week:

Reading – I have just started reading Eleanor Olphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.  Many people have compared this book to Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove and I can already see why.  Eleanor is definitely a quirky character!

Eating –  Last Friday my husband and I enjoyed a last lunch date.  We went to a new-to-us burger restaurant, Burger Bistro & Bar in Thornwood.  I had the Truffle Burger and my husband had the Wellington Burger.  If you follow me on Instagram, you might have already seen my burger – it was topped with truffle aioli, balsamic portobello and brie on a black pepper brioche bun. They have over 25 different dipping sauces for your fries!

Watching – Who watches This Is Us?!!  And who is excited to see the next episode Sunday evening after the Super Bowl?  Well…..I actually won’t be up late enough to watch it Sunday.  But I will hopefully watch it Monday and finally find out what happened to Jack!

Family Fun – Last Saturday we went to a Westchester Knicks game with the Binghamton University Alumni.  Last year my husband started the Westchester County chapter.  This was the second annual family alumni event.  Although the Knicks ended up losing, it was a great game.

Link Love – My son loves sushi.  I saw this recipe and think this is doable…..totally my style!  A friend shared this article on Facebook.  As a parent of tweens, technology is scary.  We were fortunate to grow up in a time without cell phones and social media.  This read only helps me reinforce my stand on no cell-phones until 13.

ICYMI this week on the blog:


Saturday I posted 5 Inspirational Fitness Quotes.

Tuesday I shared 28 Days of February Family Fun.

Thursday I posted the 2018 Westchester County Valentine’s Day Dining Guide.

Linking up with Andrea, Katie and April!  Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!  It’s been a busy week around here.  Big changes are in store for our family because I am going back to work.  After being a stay-at-home mom for the past two years, I am starting a full-time job.  It’s been something that I’ve been considering for awhile. By the time I was in elementary school both my parents were working full-time.  So, I grew up with a working mother.  I’d like to be a role model for my children and show them that a woman can be a mom and work full-time.  I think it will also help them be more responsible.  My husband fortunately has a flexible work schedule and will be helping out tremendously these first few weeks as we all adjust to this new change. I am not returning to teaching. Those days are officially over.  I will be working in a school district’s human resources department.  Total career change that I am looking forward to!  Did I mention that I start the new job on Monday?!   I found out earlier this week that I had gotten the job so it’s been a rush these past few days trying to get everything in order.  Have no fear, I will still be blogging here  at NY Foodie Family!  Posts may not be as frequent though as I adjust to a new schedule.  Here are five from this week:

1. Watching –  My husband and I have always been fans of The Amazing Race.  Last season was the first time that the kids watched it with us.  They soon became big fans of the show as well and we cheered on Team Fun – Becca and Floyd (and even did a “Five Questions With…” interview with them).  We all look forward to watching episodes of the newest season (Season 30) together each week.  Last weekend we also watched Despicable Me 3.  It was a fun family movie but one that I’m glad we waited to see on DVD.

2. Supper Club – Last weekend we hosted our monthly supper club dinner.  This month’s theme was Japanese.  My husband made a shrimp curry and I made chicken yakisoba (pictured above).  There were homemade gyoza, Oyakaodon (chicken and egg rice bowl) some marinated veggie side dishes and a Soba-Cha Pudding (roasted buckwheat custard) for dessert. It was a delicious meal!

3. Reading – I recently started reading Fragments of the Lost by Megan Miranda.  I read one of her other books The Perfect Stranger and thought it was okay.  Fragments is a YA mystery that has started slow but has me curious.  This wee, my son and I finally finished reading The Lost Hero.  We’ve been reading this book together since November!  It was my first Rick Riordan book and I can see why his books are so popular with the tween age group.  The next book we’ve started reading is A Wrinkle In Time, since the movie is coming out in March.

4. Closet Clean Out – I’ve been living in jeans and “athleisure wear” (i.e. leggings and sweats) for the past two years.  Now that I have to dress for work, I decided to do a closet clean out.  I had to go through my dressier pants from years ago to see what fits, what is still in style and what I need to buy.   I haven’t gone crazy buying new clothes…..yet.  That will be coming soon!

5.  Drinking – (c/o Brooklyn Food & Beverage) I was recently sent samples of Brooklyn Crafted Ginger Beer.  Their ginger beer is made with real ginger and contains tiny ginger particles. Besides traditional ginger beer, it comes in fun flavors like Earl Grey, Lemon & Lime and Mango.  If you like ginger, these beers are for you. They are non-alcoholic, but make great mixers for cocktails and mocktails.  And, they are now available at BJ’s Wholesale Club.  While I’m not a big fan of ginger, my husband is.  He enjoys the variety of flavors, the simple ingredients and the small size (7 fl. oz glass bottles).  He also likes the distinct taste of ginger and thinks these are a nice treat.  I of course sampled them and have to say that they are for true ginger fans.  There’s a wallop of flavor in such a small bottle!

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Saturday I shared an Exercise Class A to Z Guide.

Tuesday I posted 6 Fun Games for Family Game Night (Tween Edition).

Linking up with Andrea, April and Katie.  Have a great weekend!