Some back to school picks for the week.
SUCH A GOOD BOOK!!! I can’t say what I want to say because if I say it then it might possibly ruin the book for you if you read it. So good.
I have not been to a Royals game in a very, very, very long time and now I remember why. We went last night to see our niece perform in the pre-game show. Well, me missed the pre-game show because there were a gazillion people waiting in line to get in. I didn’t think that was usually an issue at Royals games anymore. So, basically we missed the entire reason we went to the game. Anyways, we FINALLY got in and had to walk around forever to get to our horrible seats because the construction they are doing kept us from getting to our seats the way we should have been able to. Let’s get back to the horrible seats. I went to MANY Royals games in my youth and I have NEVER had such horrible seats, but they were the only seats available. Can you believe that? I also didn’t know that when you have horrible seats you also have horrible food. You only get good food when you are down closer to the field. I had no idea. The vendor guys don’t even walk around up where we were last night. So, I go and get our food and drinks, sit down and spill a drink all over the guy and girl in front of us. We recover from that though and the rest of the night goes smoothly other than that the way Colm’s little legs hang over the edge of his chair makes him keep kicking the gal in front of him (who is with the same group of people who got the drink spilled all over them). I felt like I was in the worst coach seating ever available on an any airplane ever. The game was boring and we finally left at the 8th inning, as did lots of other people. We then went to have some real food at Mimi’s. The thing that made this whole night even worse is that because we were going to watch our niece (who we didn’t end up getting to see at all) we didn’t get to go to Irish night at the Wizards game. Even if it hadn’t been Irish night the stadium is SO MUCH nicer, there are no bad seats and the food is way better. I think we will be going to sporting events in Kansas from now on.
Peanut Butter, Chocolate, & Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup Nutella or other chocolate spread
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 – 1 cup rolled oats
1/2 – 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, Nutella, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I am going to make some tomorrow. My dear friend Dana, who has had some, says they are delicioso!
Colm was off to school today. I dropped him off while he was still eating his cereal bar in true Colm fashion. 🙂
While Liam was up in his first grade classroom, Colm was downstairs meeting his teachers. He dug his heels in as soon as he hit the door…he was NOT going in! No crying, just very adamant. I did coax him in by having him help me sort his school supplies and then he was good to go. He noticed the rabbit named Coco, then they have a hamster named Jellybean, there are also tadpoles and a fishtank. What’s not to like? And let me tell you, as our visit wore on I almost cried happy tears for Colm. This classroom, the work they do and his teachers are perfect for him. I could not have picked a better classroom for him if I tried. We stayed there for over an hour doing puzzles, checking out the “pets”, finding his cubby and he just dug right into some of the work they had laid out for the kids to try out. Tomorrow he goes without me, but it’s only a half day. 
On a side note, one thing I love about this school is it’s age and history. One of the teachers was telling me that a very long time ago, before his classroom was a Montessori room, it was the tea room where the girls (it used to be girls only) would come to have their afternoon tea and snack. How quaint.
He was ready to go this morning complete with his 2008 Beijing Olympics backpack that his noni brought him back from China last summer. We saved it this whole year so he could use it for first grade. Today was only a half-day, but he came back with a positive report. He and some other first grade boys played Star Wars at recess…that’s a good way to start things as far as he is concerned.
I think Colm identifies with the main character in The Best Halloween of All. Ben has to endure some fairly awful Halloween costumes while playing sidekick to his older brother until one year he decides to take things into his own hands. The Great Gracie Chase is a cute book about a dog whose nice and quiet lifestyle comes to a screeching halt one day.
It was slim pickin’s at the Berry Patch today. Our total at checkout was $1.08 for ALL of our blueberries and ALL of our blackberries all together. Oh well, the boys had fun and they got a lot of exercise. (There was a lot of walking involved.) I also realized how citified my kids are, especially Liam. He was not fond of the bugs, weeds and general outdoorsiness of the whole experience. He survived though. I also realized that blueberry picking is A LOT easier than blackberry picking.
They’ve got their buckets and they are ready to go.
Colm showing me a blackberry he picked.