Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Tap

A's dance class did a performance at Music Hall of Fair Park. The Dallas Council of North Texas organized the program called Sir Tap-A-Lot. Different tap groups performed before the summer musical, Spam-A-Lot.



They also did the Shim Sham with Buster Cooper but she was in the way back and you couldn't see her.

It was fun to watch her dance again.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Sunday afternoon at the ballpark

DH bought a small season ticket package this year. Because of whole world series thing, it was the only way to get opening day tickets. Since opening day (where our seats weren't actually the seats we got in the package) he has sold all of the tickets attempting to make a profit on the "investment."

Yesterday we went to a game and used our seats for the first time. They are great seats for watching a game on the first base line in the outfield. Except on a Sunday afternoon in June when it feels more like July!

It was darn hot. We were in the direct sun. I burnt the back of my leg on a seat rivet. It took 20 minutes of absorbing the searing heat from the seat before it was comfortable to sit. Kids were sweltering. The game started off at 93 degrees, and quickly turned to 94 then 95. I started documenting.

Photobucket


(Pretend that "3:20" is actually a "96". The glare was so bad I didn't realize I got the time instead of the temp.) We were lucky it never broke 100.

B still managed a smile.

Photobucket

A said she was melting.

Photobucket

J wouldn't even look at the camera.

Photobucket

Since we saw him at the t-ball game on Sat, I took a picture of Adrian

Photobucket


We learned a few things at this game. Bring 5 wet towels in the cooler not 2. Bring dry towels to sit on to help with the hot seats. Lots of water is very good. Finally, no more afternoon games for the summer.

The seats are on the west side of the stadium and we had a bit of shade by the 9th inning. Those seats will be in the shade by 7pm. We will catch a few more games this year, but they will definitely be at night.

PSA: Always be watchful at a baseball game! Last time S#5 got hit with a ball. This time a lady 3 rows in front of us got hit in the face. I don't think she saw it coming either. She had on sunglasses that hopefully deflected some of the blow, but it was a hard hit ball and she was in a lot of pain. Rumor from the usher, she broke her cheekbone and some teeth.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

end of t-ball

Yesterday B has his last t-ball game. He is so serious while playing t-ball. I love to watch his face.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


He got a trophy and a cupcake at the end of the game. He was happy.

At some point in the game I noticed a bunch of the boy siblings running over to the other teams' side, standing around and running back. I asked around and found out that Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers 3rd baseman, was at the game watching his son play. He was kind enough to sign gloves and balls. The other team's coach told the dads on our team so I guess he doesn't mind too much.

Photobucket


Such an exciting brush with fame. He seemed so low-key and nice to the kids. So different from the Dallas Cowboys star logo on the field of B's first soccer game.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Delicious!

Photobucket


And it tasted as good as it looks! I have at least 4 more big slicing tomatoes almost ready for harvest. Yum!

Treasure Hunters

Last fall the boys started watching the Meteorite Men on TV. J was fascinated. He started digging in our backyard and found "meteorites" (more like rock chips with lots of iron in them) using a magnet. He wanted to do more so he asked for a metal detector for Christmas. He's had fun with it but he has exhausted the backyard looking for stuff.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the park for some digging. It was a frustrating lesson in patience without much reward.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


J learned to slow down, not give up, dig carefully and not throw dirt clods. Plus he learned all about pull tabs from the 70's/80's.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Purple Cow

A's camp does fundraising every year. This year they are donating money to the people affected by tornadoes in Joplin and Alabama. Tuesday was Purple Cow day. The students dressed up in purple and there was a costume contest. In the evening you're suppose to go eat at the Purple Cow. The restaurant donated some of the proceeds of the night back to DECATS.

A was all over the costume contest. A quick trip to Joann's for a remnant and an hour of sewing and she looked like this.

Photobucket

Photobucket


Tuesday afternoon I asked if she won the contest, she replied no, she came in 4th and she was robbed. She said the other costumes were really, really lame.

That night I took A & B to the Purple Cow for dinner. The two girls who came in 2nd & 3rd came in also. They had scribbled some white t-shirts with purple markers and won?? A definitely was robbed. I decided that her costume looked too good, like a parent has made it, not a kid. Maybe next year!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day food


It was all delicious. Especially the steak and the ice cream. Everyone was iffy on the green beans but Dad and I liked them. I wanted to use green beans from our garden but the 100+ temps have scorched the plants. I did use tomatoes and they were yummy.

Photobucket

The Golf Sweater

DH went out last night to a concert with a guy he works with. I stayed home with the kids. After getting children to bed and a long phone call with my friend Shannon in Austin, I sat down to watch a little HGTV and look on the computer.

I started with the blog Young House Love. It is a blog that I like to follow but have never added to my reader. Sort of live Smitten Kitchen, I like to look it up every now and then and have a lot of posts to read. Yesterday's was on HGTV and Emily Henderson. YHL led me to Emily Henderson's blog and that led to Hommemaker. I almost shouted when I read this post. He's showing off his golf sweater. He's wearing my sweater! Mine has doesn't have the green collar and trim and the golfer is in red instead of yellow but it's the same.

Way back in 1991 or maybe 1992, my roommate in college, Ida, got a package from her grandmother. She was very excited because her grandmother usually sent good packages. This time it was the golf sweater. There were other things in it but the golf sweater was the prize. Ida called her mom and figured out that the packages had been switched and the sweater was suppose to go to her dad. Somehow they agreed that her father would never wear it and I ended up with the sweater.

It was a fabulous sweater. Remember, I was going to school in South Bend, IN. It was mighty cold up there. The sweater was made from a heavy wool and lined in flannel. It was mighty warm. Plus the golf theme just added to my quirky style, which was just plain ugly according to my BIL. I work Birks & wool socks in the snow. I wore galoshes 20 years before hunter boots became popular. I had a fabulous Guatamalan hat and poncho. And the golf sweater. I was stylin'.

A graciously agreed to model it for me.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


Now that I'm grown up and have become a knitter, I appreciate this part of the sweater most of all!
Photobucket


Thanks so much for your post, Orlando. So many college memories are coming back all from a fabulous golf sweater.

Happy Father's Day

It's Father's Day. We woke up Daddy at 8:15 this morning with breakfast in bed and presents.

Breakfast was Egg Sandwich with Spinach, Brie and Bacon. The recipe is from Framed, my favorite food blog. He followed a link off my blog back in February and immediately told me that I had to make the recipe for Father's Day. I remembered and he didn't, but he loved it anyway. A was even adventurous to try it and she liked it. The boys had egg and "square cheese" on an english muffin.

For presents, the kids made him cards and picked out a new golf shirt.

Photobucket


He got a toilet seat from me. The toilet seat in the boys' bathroom is nasty and rusting and impossible to clean. I asked for a new toilet seat forever. I got fed up cleaning bathrooms this week so I got him one for Father's Day. Just what every Father dreams of, yes?


Photobucket

Pop-pop is coming over this afternoon. We're feasting on steaks and twice baked potatoes and using some tomatoes fresh picked this morning. Hopefully all dads will have a great day.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Bouncy balls

I have problems keeping J entertained during the summer. He's not much of a reader, he can't sit and watch tv all day. He needs something to do. Normally in June, it wouldn't be too much of a problem. I could send him outside and he would entertain himself. However, this summer has been a hot one. 6 days in a row of 100+ temperatures and almost 4 weeks of above average temps. It's been hot.

J's been begging for something to do so I found directions to make bouncy balls. Plus, I'm making the effort to say yes instead of no again.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


B measured his own ingredients on his first attempt. It was a colossal failure, pic #4. The others turned out fine. What we have discovered that it is more like silly putty than a bouncy ball. If it sits for any length of time, it falls flat. You can still roll it back into a ball and bounce it but it wasn't what J was expecting.

J did have fun making it and thinks we should come up with something once a week. I told him that might be possible.

VBS 2011

The boys spent the week at VBS. No bible pirates this year, instead it was Pandamania.

J went reluctantly. He thought he was too old to do it this year. The VBS program was expanded from pk-3rd to pk-5th. The big kids (2nd - 5th) were in group led by kids from the youth ministry group from the church. The crafts and games were geared toward the older kids. He ended up having lots of fun, not that he would admit it to me!

B had a fabulous time, as always.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


The VBS program is put on by the women's group at church. We had a few growing pains at the beginning of the week. It was a big jump from 100 to 180 kids. In the end, it all worked out. I'm giving up my job of handling shirts and moving to registration next year. We're learning from a few mistakes and hopefully it will be fabulous next year too!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Hanging with Dirk

As you all should know, the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Championship this week. The whole city has gone crazy, the Mavs Nation is proud. Today was the big parade in celebration of their win. DH and some guys planned to go downtown to join the festivities. This morning we woke to to the news that thousands of people were already downtown waiting along the parade route. The other guys backed out and DH decided not to go. Other friends with tickets to sit in the AAC called and he took off for downtown.

He was a lucky guy in the right place and the right time.

Photobucket

Photobucket


He got a high-five from Dirk Nowitzki. He also got one from Jason Terry and touched the championship trophy being held by Mark Cuban. Not a bad afternoon!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

In-N-Out

Today A & I had the Girl Scout Bronze award and Bridging ceremony. After long hours of work, the girls finished up their bronze award project on the last day of school. I'm very proud of all of them. So far, they all say they are going to continue as cadettes. After their bridging, we went to the pool to swim.

DH took the boys and kept them busy. Part of keeping busy was driving to Frisco to pick up a supra key for work. The bribe for driving to Frisco was lunch at In-N-Out Burger.

Photobucket

(Notice the boys are in their Dirk jerseys. Go Mavs!)


The first In-N-Out locations opened up just over a month ago. DH said the drive-thru was crazy so they went inside. The line was 100 ft out of the door. It took 10 minutes to get inside, another 5 minutes to get to the counter, another 10 minutes to get their food. Not bad considering the number of people who were there. DH found 2 stools for the boys to sit and he had to stand behind them.

Last week we were driving home and spied a sign for a new In-N-Out coming soon. Its at Midway & 635. Within days they had torn down the old Denny's/China King Buffet and started construction. I'm happy that it will be close but I can't imagine how they will handle the traffic at that location. At least in Frisco they have an empty lot to put extra cars and the overflow drive-thru traffic. It's still crazy busy after a month of being open. I'll just avoid that area for a month or two after it has opened.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Friday

My Friday started off bad. Lots of things went wrong. Luckily it got better.

J finished golf camp. He got the MVP of his group.

Photobucket


We went to see the dinosaur auction exhibit.

Trriceratops
Photobucket

Brian & Megalodon
Photobucket

Giant Sloth - seriously giant, it was about 12 feet tall!
Photobucket

Fighting Stegasaurus & Allosaurus
Photobucket

Tiny stegasaurus head
Photobucket

Boys & triceratops
Photobucket


It was a cool exhibit, open free to the public. In addition to the dinosaur bones they have all kinds of meteorites, even some found by the Meteorite Men, beautiful gems and fluorescent rocks. If I weren't so busy tomorrow, I would be tempted to go down and check out the actual auction. It would be cool to have an apatasaurus leg standing in my front room.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

first tooth

I took the kids to the dentist a few months ago. You could see on B's x-ray that he was going to lose his first tooth. The dentist thought it would be at the end of summer or beginning of school. B didn't want to wait that long.

He's been wiggling that tooth every chance he could. I keep telling him to leave it alone because I'm not ready for my baby to lose his first tooth. Yesterday in the store he told me to feel how wiggly his tooth was. He opened his mouth to show me and I saw the new tooth poking out behind the baby tooth. I guess that runs in the family. I told B he had to start wiggling good so he wouldn't have to have it pulled like J.

Tonight right when I was in the middle of cooking potatoes for dinner, B had to show me his wiggly tooth. I tried to pull it thinking it would come out easy and he wouldn't know it was coming. B caught on. I told him it was about to come out and since we were having corn on the cob, I thought it would be out before we finished dinner. Nope, B wasn't going to wait for corn on the cob. Less then a minute later, he had it out.

Really, he pulled his first tooth. So different from the other two. A lost her pre-blog but it was very similar to J's first tooth. Amazing how different they all can be

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


He's very excited and has been dancing around the house singing, "I'm getting money! I'm getting money!" Unless of course the tooth fairy forgets!

more bugs

A grasshopper has been eating the insides of my gerbera daisies. Just chomping the middle right out. Sunday, J & B captured the grasshopper and stuck him in a glass jar for a couple of days. They let him go after a day or two. We got pictures of him hanging out with the boys. He must have been fed up because when we put him on B he wouldn't sit still.

Photobucket

Photobucket


I think he got the idea that eating my daisies isn't a good thing because he hasn't been back yet.

When you are the mother of boys . . .

you hear your 5 year old say, "I want a gun birthday party. That would be so cool. All of my friends could come over and we could shoot at each other. Wouldn't that be the best party ever. A gun party, come one let's shoot!"

Sunday, June 5, 2011

what to do

Friday night, we came home from our day long adventure and DH went to play poker. I can't complain because he won first place money and he's taking us out dinner with his winnings, even if he doesn't know it yet!

After a long day, I was looking forward to a quiet evening. Children should have been tired and ready to just relax and go to bed early, say 7:15. Yes, I dream.

Instead the boys started whining as soon as DH walked out the door. They didn't know what to do. Wasn't there something they could do. Since scrubbing the baseboards in the bathrooms was turned down, I had to come up with something to do. I had butter sitting at room temperature, perfect for making cookies. Baking it was.

Unfortunately, two steps into the process I discovered we were out of brown sugar.

I love Joy the Baker. She came to the rescue.

Photobucket


Notice the 16oz can of Miller Lite behind the molasses. That was my tonic for the evening. I even called DH at poker to yell at him for leaving me with the old cans of beer and taking the bottles to his game!

Photobucket


Joy the Baker used a mixer. I used little boy hands. It is much more fun to smoosh molasses into sugar with your fingers, even if it didn't smell good.

Photobucket


Now I have brown sugar and know exactly what to do next time I'm in a pinch.