Our Busy Weekend

This is a little late, but I thought I'd blog about this past weekend. My girlfriend from high school came to visit with her daughter and husband. The boys left us and went to Alabama for a Penn State football game while Becky and I stayed in New Orleans with the kids. We had a great time. Becky and I met some of my other friends for mom's-night-out at this great Thai restaurant on Friday night. On Saturday, Becky and I took the kids to the French Quarter. It was super hot, but we had fun.

The best part of the weekend was watching the girls interact. Audrey is 4 months older than Elizabeth and Audrey is a little bruiser. She kept wanting to hug Elizabeth, and usually knocker her down in the process. Jack also had fun loving up the girls.

Somehow, I didn't get a picture of us girls together, but I do have a picture of our husbands with the kids.

Right now, my sister is here visiting, so I will be posting more fun stuff in the next day or so.

Jack The Carpenter Set's Up Shop

Jack has really been into, as my grandfather would say, "Car-penting." The only problem is that Bryan's workbench is obviously too high for Jack to work at. When he helps with projects, he has to stand on a stool. Since Bryan has a couple days off work, he and Jack went to Lowes and bought some lumber and came home and spent the rest of the day building Jack his own.

As you can see, Jack was very excited to have his own workbench. He has spent the last two days playing out there. You might also be able to see the tools. They are real (but kids) tools. Now Jack is busy planning all of the projects he wants to build.

I've been craving

Bagels! And not just any bagel, but real, homemade like bagels. We had this great little bagel and coffee shop around the corner from our house in Maryland, oh how I miss it (and everything else there). Try finding a good bagel in New Orleans. Perhaps there is a good bagel shop somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. It is very french down here, so you will find croissants. And actually, they are very good- not like anything I ever had up north. They are light and flaky. But I have been craving bagels, not croissants. I found a recipe online and decided to try it. It was quite easy and all of the ingredients were easy enough to find except "malt syrup." Thankfully, though, someone commented on the recipe that they used molasses instead. So that's what I did.

They have great texture. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. The flavor's pretty good too, but I did taste a little bit of that molasses, which is a little strange. I ate one warm, didn't toast it, and put some cream cheese on it. Craving fulfilled. And so much better than Lender's!

We love Veggie Tales

Jack's Geography Project

This month, the homeschool group that we belong to gave us the option to complete a geography project on a country. Jack decided to research Germany. We focused on using lots of pictures so Jack could present as much of the project as possible by himself. He had a lot of fun learning about the industry, culture, and animals.

He was the only little kid to actually talk and present his project. I am so proud of him! He really stole the show. Many of the other parents complemented him too. We also brought german potato salad and sweet and sour purple cabbage. Both dishes were a hit. When I brought the left overs home, Bryan attacked the cabbage. That is the best complement anyone could ever give me!

Handy Dandy Family

I have been on a crafty roll. I really like jewelry, but it is just too expensive, so I've decided to learn how to make my own creations. I found a free pattern on Michael's website, bought the supplies, and $13 and 3 hours later I had a new necklace. I like it, but I think it's a bit too big for me. I'll have to find a friend or family member who can pull off big necklaces.

Jack and Bryan were equally busy. Last weekend, the woman at Lowes gave us an extra builder kit to make a picture frame. So Jack and Bryan went out to the workbench, suited up for safety, and built a one-of-a-kind picture frame. (Jack must have learned how to wear his goggles from one of my past students. Why is that they never put them over their eyes???) Jack had so much fun and was so proud of himself.

Oh, and I don't have any pictures, but yesterday we went for a walk through the park (bayou) down the street. It was a beautiful day, the path is nicely shaded, and there was a great breeze. Jack had fun finding all sorts of plants, spiders, birds, and even THREE ALLIGATORS!!!! This freaked me out a little bit. They were literally a foot away from us in the water! Jack was amazed and just wanted to stand there and watch them for a little while, but mom was quite ready to keep on walking. Quietly and calmly. Even if I had the camera, I don't know that I would have had the nerve to stand there and take pictures of them.

My Crazy Kids

So Audrey has a new talent. She climbs Jack's ladder to his bunk bed!!! I don't know what she's trying to do to me, but given the looks on her face she definitely enjoys it. I can't turn my back on her. I walked into Jack's room yesterday and told her she was going to get hurt. Two seconds later, her foot slipped and she fell. She cried and cried, and then two minutes later was back on the ladder! Once she is up there (don't worry, I am by her side nearly touching her the entire time), she has a ball! She and Jack just think this is the best place to play.

If any of you know anything about me, you probably know how much I love to cook (not necessarily bake). Jack has picked this up from me and every once in a while, I loosen up enough to let him help me. This is a big step for me, given that I don't even really allow my husband to cook with me. And when he does cook, I have to leave the room so I don't "tell him how to do it right." :o) Jack has this wonderful kids cookbook (Disney's the Magic Kitchen Cook Book) that he likes to page through like it's the Sears Wish Book. He keeps telling me that he wants to make things and half the time we are missing at least one key ingredient. So this week, I was a good mom, and told him that he could choose two recipes to make this week and we'd buy the ingredients. Tonight he made the "Fiesta Taco Pizzas" with a little bit of help from me. He was so proud of his dinner and it was delicious!