Fifty-Eight Enchiladas

Our second-born, Joey, turned 18 this month.  Don't ask me how that happened. I asked him about it in the car the other day, and he said, 'Well, Mom, I grew up. I'm a man now.' I think I turned and looked out the window, so he wouldn't see his Mama's misty eyes.
He is a really great young man.  He loves Jesus, and he loves people, and he is obedient and hard-working and innovative and wise.  And on top of all that, he's really cute.
For his birthday, he usually has one family over for dinner and games (our family tradition), but this year, we have a bigger home.  And he's 18.  And he's thinking of heading to music school in Kansas City this fall.  So we decided to go for it.

We all had a fabulous time.  He invited a lot of older friends and some of their fathers. He said, 'Mom, I'm not a boy anymore.  I want some fathers to be at my party.' Cool.
We prayed for him, and the men headed down to the man cave for a 4 hour long foosball and pool tournament.  We had prizes like chocolate and cheese puffs and Starbucks for the champs.  Guess who won the coffee?  Yep.  Joey and his Dad. The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree.

The Group.  Joey is lying across the guys in the front.

Danny and Friends

Hannah and an old friend, Beth, getting reaquainted

While the guys were competing and yelling downstairs, I was in the kitchen with an old friend of mine, getting the food ready for the soon-to-be-starving hoards.  And if you've never cooked for a group of hungry young men, let me tell you this.  When you hear them starting to ascend the stairs, you had better have the meal ready. Like NOW.

And hence the title of this post.  Fifty-Eight Enchiladas.  Oh yes I did.  Five pound of ground beef, a pound of rice, four and a half bags of tortillas, 2 1/2 pounds of beans, three pounds of cheese, three heads of Romaine, six tomatoes, two English cucumbers, a Costco bag of tortilla chips, 13 two-liters of soda, twenty pounds of ice, four half-gallons of ice-cream, Hershey's syrup, a box of cookies, six Heath bars, caramel sauce, various other condiments and toppings, and a large bowl of homemade whipped cream. Phew.  I think we'll be eating bread and gravy for the rest of the week. But it was worth it to make these guys happy.