My brother and his family were in town the week of the fourth. They live in New York and we don’t get to see them very often, so the time we do spend with them is very special. We had a lot of fun with them while they were town. We went to at least a couple of Mexican restaurants (they don’t have any where they live), watched fireworks, went swimming a couple of times, went putt-putting and just hung out and enjoyed each others’ company. The boys had a great time playing with their cousins, too. Colm is still asking about “those girls”. 🙂
Monday- Farewell Dinner with the Tepesch/Paterson Clan
Tuesday-Cabbage Rolls and Cantaloupe
Wednesday-Farewell Dinner for John
Thursday-BLT Rigatoni
Friday-Date Night
Saturday-End of Season T-Ball Party
Sunday-T-Ball Team to the the T-Bones Game
It doesn’t look like I will be cooking much this week.
I have been meaning to make strawberry freezer jam for a while now and just hadn’t gotten around to it. So today I added all the necessary items to my grocery list so I wouldn’t have any more excuses and because if I didn’t do it soon strawberry season would be over. I made the first batch and I don’t think I mashed up the strawberries enough and it called for A LOT of sugar. A LOT. I don’t think I would have made it if I would have realized how much sugar was going to go into it. So, I ran back to the store and bought the goods to make another batch with a different recipe. Both batches are now setting up in the frig and will be transferred to the freezer tomorrow. I hope at least one of the batches is edible.
There was no yelling or screaming today. He did it! I was so proud of him. They even took X-rays. As long as I held his hand, he was fine. At one point he did have one little tear running down the side of his face, but he let them do what they needed to do and no one got bit. 🙂 The big news, however, is that we discovered that Colm has a LOOSE TOOTH!!!! He is SO excited! He is such a big kid, it kind of makes my heart ache a little.
He did such a good job, he got to put his handprint up on the wall. That’s a big deal, folks.
One thing I will never understand is how Colm got through having an appliance in his mouth without much trouble, but he would pitch a royal fit when it came time to have his teeth cleaned. I would MUCH rather have my teeth cleaned than have to get metal brackets cemented to my teeth and then have them stick wires in my mouth that have to be tightened. But that’s just me. To each their own, I guess. 😉
Sunday-Mijas with potatoes, onion and bacon, watermelon
Monday-Pasta with swiss chard, chicken, garlic, basil, onion and tomatoes
Tuesday-Stir-fry with tofu, swiss chard, garlic and hot pepper flakes
Wednesday-Eggs, Sausage, Blueberry Pancakes
Thursday-Chicken, Roasted Potatoes, Tomatoes with salt and pepper
Friday-Salmons, Green Beans, Bread and Butter
Saturday-Independence Day dinner with the family
I saw these in a shop today and fell in love, but they aren’t cheap. There are SOOOO many things you can do with them…different metals, sizes, beads, etc, etc, etc.
Example #1 We were at the grocery store today. I turn around and Colm is eating a cookie. I asked him where he got the cookie and he informs me that he “found” it. When I asked him where he found it he pointed to the grocery store shelf. Deep breath while extracting the possibly tainted cookie from his little grasp. (The cookie had just been out in the open sitting on the grocery store shelf for goodness knows how long and where it had been before it was on the shelf is anybody’s guess.)
Example #2 Liam is not capable of talking and doing anything else at the same time. I was in his room while he was supposed to be getting ready for bed tonight, but he just had too much he wanted to tell me and he was making zero progress in the getting ready for bed department. So, I told him I was going to leave and while I was gone he was to brush his teeth. I left for about ten minutes, came back, and asked him if he’d brushed his teeth. He looked puzzled and then informed me that he had not brushed his teeth in the ten minutes that I had been gone.
See what I mean??? It is truly a miracle that I have any hair left on my head.
The boys had their first art class at the Nelson today. Liam’s class learned about dragons and Colm’s class learned about fish. They both loved it which is good because they’re going to a week long camp there in August. 🙂 Sean and I liked it because while they were at class we went to the Apple store and then went to a coffee shop we have wanted to go to for months and had some coffee, a baguette and some yummy jam.
I snuck a picture of Colm while they were still painting towards the end of class. Not a very good picture, but he was so cute in his little paint smock. Notice all the boys in his class.
FInished product…a dragon mask
Finished product…a painting of an electric eel. They also made some cute fish out of tissue paper, buttons, small sea shells and recycled water bottles, but I didn’t snap a picture of those.
It was a hot one out there today. The boys enjoyed it, but they didn’t last too long. It helped that we went with some friends and then saw some other friends from church along the way. They also had to take a couple of refreshing drink breaks. They had fun though and it will all be worth it when we are enjoying blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins this week.
The FIRST drink break 🙂
Tractor ride…can you tell how sweaty they are?
I could probably count on my fingers the number of times the boys have used their shower/bath since we have lived in this house and we have lived here for a year and a half. So, I have decided to reclaim our bathroom; I am tired of sharing our bathroom with the boys. I don’t mind sharing, but I am tired of stepping over all of their stinkin’ toys every morning. We have a fairly complete set of Star Wars toys in our shower complete with one of more spaceships on any given day. Not to mention the action figures. So, today Liam and I went to Target and I let him pick out a shower curtain. I had him clean out all the “baby toys” out of their tub and I hung up the shower curtain (after having to make a second trip to Target to get a shower curtain holder that actually worked). Then, to make the transition complete, I hung up two towel holder ring things in each of their bathrooms. We still have one more thing to do though…we still have toys in our shower. Tomorrow the boys are going to get all of their junk out of our bathroom and transfer it into theirs and then they can have their inaugural showers. It’s silly how much I am looking forward to it.