redeeming my honor

After that Peanut pasta pastas. I knew I had some redeeming to do.

All this time I've been married to my darling husband, I thought the only pasta he liked was angel hair. I knew he would tolerate other kinds but only when he felt it needed to be eaten out of respect for the host. While we were in London, at the grocery store, I learned that he likes Penne and spiral pasta. I was excited to learn this because it opened up a whole new category of foods to add to my repertoire. I searched allrecipes for some pasta dishes and I landed on this one Southwest Vegetarian Pasta .

We tried it last night for dinner and it turned out very good. We are going to finish off the leftovers for dinner tonight and I think it will taste even better tonight. It had chili powder and cumin in it and those seasonings always taste better the next day.

Here's the picture courtesy allrecipes!

you know you've had a long night

If you haven't read the previous post- start there first.
Emma woke up at 7am; Ryan awoke at 8:15 and Peter slept until 8:30am. I have emphasized with the parents, all morning, whose children are constantly over tired. It is not fun!

You know your two year old is tried when at 11:30 am he has a breakdown because you get a drop of water on his arm, he wants a kiss for it, takes a dish towel to wipe it off and then decides that it would just be better if he lays down on the kitchen floor with the dish towel and take a "nap".

At that point, I decided it wasn't worth trying to give him any lunch! It was nap time.

Peter and Emma made it through an early lunch and are both having a "closed eyed" nap that started at 12:30pm.

A late night is fun for every once in a while but it definitely won't become routine in our home.

Night at the DBAP

That stands for the Durham Bulls Athletic Park! Our family along with others from the church went to the Bulls game last night. I knew it would be a long night so I insisted that everyone have a "closed eyed nap" in preparation. After our first DB game two years ago we decided that the $2.00 it cost to park in the deck is beyond worth it! The walk in much shorter on the way home and there is practically no chance of getting lost.
The kids know that going to a Bulls game means- Snow cones. Again, the $4.00 price tag on the snow cone is beyond worth it! We had front row seats on the second level. So all the people selling food walked by us. Ryan learned pretty early how fun it was to yell, "Snow cones", "lemonade", and "cotton candy". He was helping the guys sell their products!
After much patience, we purchased our cones. The thing that is the best about snow cones is they take about an hour to eat and they are liquid so you don't have to buy a drink. It's the treat that keeps on going!
By the time the snow cones were finished, it was 9pm and the game was in the 7th inning. There were going to be fireworks at the end so we were motivated to stay. Within an unbelievably small number of breakdowns, we stayed for the entire game and fireworks. I think it was around 10:45 when we finally made it to the van.
Emma was the first to fall asleep followed shortly by Ryan. Peter was certain that he wasn't a "drop" tired and wouldn't fall asleep. About 15 minutes from Roxboro, he started to fall asleep. By this time, I was starving and agreed that I wanted to stop at McDonald's for a burger and fries. I told Peter if he stayed awake he could have a burger. That did the trick. At 11:45pm, we were going through the McD's drive through and Peter was wide awake. He hasn't mentioned anything today about that special late night treat so I wonder if he even remembers.

Failure

Failure would be one of the words I would use to describe dinner tonight. You see the "beginning of the month" comes for us on the 25th. That's pay day in other words. Since the 25th was on a Sunday, Monday was a holiday and Tuesday we were out of town until the evening, I haven't made it to the store yet. I guess I could have gone today but I wasn't ready. I didn't have any meals planned and I just wasn't in the grocery mind-set. So at 2:30pm I realized- dinner- oh no!! I searched allrecipes.com for something I could fix with what I have on hand. I decided on Chicken and Pasta with a peanut sauce. This is very very out of the box for me. I'm not (typically) an out of the box person. I am married to an incredibly out of the box person and well he's been rubbing off on me. So I thought, this is crazy but I'm going to try it. We all love peanuts and peanut butter maybe it will be great!

Not Great! Edible mostly but not good. I threw away the recipe and the left overs. I am now motivated to do some major menu planning. I imagine I will be fixing a rather large breakfast for us tomorrow!

Emma is 4

Today is Emma's birthday. My little girl is 4. I won't go into all the reminiscencing of her delivery, being shocked to have had a girl....It's been so fun to have a daughter. We went all out for her big day. The day actually started last night when we had a cookout with some old friends and my parents.Since we had cake last night, we had to have candles and sprinkles in her requested banana pancakes.
She was blessed to recieve several gifts this year. I am thankful that her summer closet is now fully stocked, she has some new toys (girly things), summer shoes and a swimsuit. Oh, and an umbrella- she's officially a big girl! As soon as we came home, she put all of her new things away. (With out me asking her to do it!)
Peter took this last picture-

Blackcaps

There is an undeveloped lot across the street from my parents' house. When we were in London, they discovered "blackcaps" growing. Peter talked nonstop about these berries. He thought it was just the coolest thing. I was glad to finally see what he had been describing.I would describe them more as wild blackberries.

Fun times

When we arrived on Sunday afternoon we immediately changed clothes and headed to the beach. I knew everyone would be a bit crabby because of the lack of a good nap. What better way to burn off some energy than go to the beach! The kids had been talking about swimming in the ocean and I choose not to discourage them. I figured they would find out soon enough that the water was really cold and not want to swim. I was WRONG.



Ryan and I stayed sand-side for the the hour or so we stayed at the beach. When it was time to go home, the kids were seriously shivering. Emma had a blue tint to her lips!

Beach side

Now with our vacation to London completed, we begin the rest of our summer vacation. Since Philip is a Pastor and his job requires weekend work we don't have the opportunity to see much of family during the school year. We like to take advantage of his summer schedule to make trips to the beach to see my parents and trips to Charlotte to see his. This weekend we'll leave following the worship service and head to the beach. We will only be able to stay until Tuesday afternoon b/c of a building committee meeting. The van is packed with suitcases, swimsuits, a trolling motor and bikes! I aways wondered about the cars I saw on I40 carrying bicycles. Did you really have to bring bikes? YES- bikes are great inventions. They burn off energy, allow for exploration, are fast and something you can do independently! We will be bringing ours everywhere.

Emma's birthday is on Tuesday and she's excited about spending it at the beach! I haven't gotten her a present yet so I better get prepared.

Birthay tribute

Someone taught Ryan how to sing Happy Birthday. Let's just say he's getting really good at it! I have a friend who works in the music industry in Nashville. Michelle- he's coming your way and I'll give you a good commission of whatever he makes!

Camera

Peter has been asking persistently for the last few weeks if he could have a camera for his birthday. Until yesterday, we did not allow the kids to use our camera. Recently, I noticed a friend of mine allowing her children to use her camera and it got me thinking, "why don't I let them use my camera?". So Philip and I decided that upon instruction and guidance, they could start using our camera. I believe they took about 60 pictures in the span of like 10 minutes.
I think we might need a little work on the technique side!!

School days

Emma has been very interested in having her own "school time" this week. I have tried to be receptive to that and spend some time with her reading and doing things. Yesterday I introduced the word "my" to her. Today we made a "My" book with animal stickers. She wrote the word "my" and I wrote the animal names. I put Ryan down for his nap and found these two at the school table. Emma was reading and Peter was writing a story. I guess we won't be taking a summer break!

A birthday tribute