A Special Dinner

Something really great happened today! I decided to make a special dinner for my family to celebrate. Imagine my let down when no one in my family noticed the two hours I spent making a special meal and setting the table with goblets and soda (for goodness sakes:-)I don't know if this says something about me or them. Granted I have been known to make special dinners with full candlelight for my family on a fairly regular basis (Friday Night Dinners, anyone). But, I've also barely had time to get us all down to eat at the same time the past 3 months with the 5 practices and 4 soccer games I've been running kids to every week.

Anyway, I made tri-tip, asparagus, and roasted potatoes with cheese fondue. All of which happen to be Darin's favorite! Darin was the only one in on the special dinner because it was to celebrate his special news!

He handed over the announcement for his Dad to read. Darin was nominated by his Science teacher to receive the "Knight Pride" award. Here is what it said, "Knight Pride is an honor bestowed on students that exemplify strong work ethic and a determined attitude in their classes. Each teacher only gets to nominate one student for Knight Pride, so to be nominated is quite an honor."

I would say so, Darin was chosen out of the 160+ kids his science teacher teaches. That's pretty darn awesome! Add to that, the fact that Darin is taking all Pre-AP classes, so I know that his classes are full of really great high-achieving students. It means a lot!Something this awesome calls for not only soda at dinner, but the full spread of his favorite foods! And thankfully with soccer season ending for the most part I was able to whip that up for my boy.

Darin's siblings were pretty darn happy with him and congratulated him a bunch!

And they especially loved all the yummy food.
I stuffed those kids, and myself in the process.

Or maybe not, Nathan had to eat a few more slices past a full tummy, which I was more then happy to oblige. He loved dipping the tri-tip in the juices, it was delicious!
After dinner it was onto the cake. I made a rich chocolate cake, then slathered on a dark chocolate ganache.
Topped it with homemade whip cream.
And added some chocolate shavings. Yum-OH!
Darin loved it! He isn't into frosting but it likes whipped cream and especially loves dark chocolate.
And for FHE instead of a "boring lesson from Dad" we watched the cartoon version of Robin Hood. Ken used to love it when he was a kid. Last week he brought home the DVD for the "kids". Supposedly. Either way they have all loved watching it together!
Me and my Darin! I am so proud of this boy. Awards like this get me super giddy. I love them more then the A Honor Roll ones. Because in our family we only care about them doing their best, we really don't care about the grades. Although grades can reflect their effort level.

Ironically the teacher that awarded Darin with this Honor is not the one teaching his 3 classes where he has a 100% + this grading period. (Don't even get me started on the + part of that because it annoys me)
This girls needed to get in on the action of taking a special picture with mom. Rose was fine with all the congratulating and special stuff for Darin all night, but she could not handle me and Darin getting a picture by ourselves. She was also super tired and crashed like 10 minutes later. But she was super happy for Darin all night.