Weekend Report

I did not take one single pic this weekend.  It was a blur of getting the house ready for 2 friends and 5 children to descend Saturday morning and then taking one of those families with us to the BG's game which was played at 2 pm instead of the regular Friday night schedule.   I was so deeply asleep on the couch before 8 pm that I have no recollection of a little boy and a big boy asking me questions (as they claim they did)!

Yesterday, we went to church, to the grocery store, and to lunch....and then I'm not exactly sure where the day went but it involved several episodes of Homeland (since we don't get movie channels, I'm just now watching the second season through Netflix), a trip to the local playground to meet up with a kindergarten friend of B's, and some pizza-making for dinner.   I fell asleep on the couch again just before the premiere of The Good Wife so I got up early this morning to watch that episode.  (Loved it!)

Oh, by the way, the game Saturday was awesome: a 54-22 victory and a very happy coach.   The team photographers haven't uploaded photos from that game yet but I found this shot from an earlier one.  Love to see him doing his thing!

ANK-SHENT Legos (Flashback Friday Edition)

Two points arise from just the blog post title:

1)  I have long been teased by my maternal figure for pronouncing "ancient" that way.  How do you pronounce it?

2)  What about the 2nd word?  I am currently aghast that my dear brother says "Lay-gos" because WHY?  It is obviously "leg-os"

Speaking of legos and dear brothers, check out this pic:

Ah, 1990.  Permed hair, floral sweater, and tapered pants.  You were awesome.

Afternoon Activities

B's bus usually gets back to our street at 3:25 PM or so, which is round about when I get Miss C out of her room after a nap.  (We took off the front of her crib awhile back but she still never tries to leave, which is pretty much fabulous.)

I was watching TV downstairs around 3:00 yesterday when I heard quite a few noises coming from her bedroom upstairs.  When I went in to get her, I found that she'd added a tutu and a "floppy hat" to her shirt and pants combo.  She also insisted on taking her baby stroller out to wait for her brother:

The latest neighborhood fun is for the other 3 elementary kids on the street to come play on the BG's awesome rope swing after getting off the bus.  They love it!

B has swim lessons at 7 pm on Wednesdays and it's just easier for me to take C rather than hope that the BG will get home in time for us to leave her and still get to the pool before class starts.  I didn't really feel like messing with dinner last night so we went out for a really gourmet meal....and some cute smiles:

Stocking Up

It was like the grocery store was reading the BG's mind....or perhaps his stomach.  This past week's big "stock-up sale" featured all 3 components of his lunch:  Coke, Crackers, Clif Bars.  (And yes, those three items are all he eats for lunch every day.  I have no idea how it makes it all the way to 7 pm.)

The 30 cokes (buy 5 six-packs for $10!) might have crowded the cart but Miss C was still smiling after our trip through the aisles yesterday!  'Course, that might have had to do with that cookie....!!

Be-Bopping

Apparently, B's Kindergarten class has been working on building "Read-to-Self Stamina" by increasing the amount of silent reading time by one minute per day.  When they get to 20 minutes, they are going to have a 5-minute dance party.

I think he's practicing!

Sunny Sunday

We've been attending a church service that gets out around 10:15 and have for several weeks gone from there to make a quick grocery store stop and then get some lunch.  Yesterday, however, there was no need to do Part A which made it a bit early to find a restaurant for Part B.  We decided to drive over to the nearest commercial mecca and ended up enjoying perfect weather for an al fresco meal at a very yummy place open early because they served brunch (although the whole menu was available, making this already-ate-breakfast person very happy)!

It was quite sunny!

 And, for even more light, there was a giant firepit directly over B's head!

 

 Hmmmmm.........

Yup, that's how THAT ended up:

And.....because I haven't had a food pic on here in awhile:

The top was the special that the BG got.  Pork "barbecued" with a blueberry sauce with two sunny-side up eggs, cornbread (hiding under the eggs), and cheese grits.  It was amazing.   The pizza on the bottom was also scrumptious.  I give HUGE props for places that offer variety-- it's kinda hard to tell since apparently I was in the mood for cured meats and greens, but the right side is prosciutto, fig, and gorgonzola, and the left side is Italian ham, arugula, and pesto.

PS:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREETINGS to one of the most loyal readers of the blog, the BG's pappy aka BIG D!

Colorful Artistry

Not only in terms of the basket o' produce I just found on my doorstep (how cool is it that the items are 100% unique from last week since even the overlapping onions, peppers, tomatoes, and apples are different varieties?!):

...But also in terms of this spirited performance:


HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Jamming

Accessorized with a purse and two bracelets, Miss C feels the music in her soul:

PS:  Uncle Geoff and Aunt Nicki, she has been asking to wear this shirt forever!  I've been trying to put her off until next spring but finally relented.  She LOVES it!

Feeling Blue...

...SKIES, that is!

We are having the most glorious weather this week.  I think it maybe got up to 72 degrees yesterday with the most brilliant blue skies.  After B got home from school, we headed to the nearby park to soak it up.

She could swing FOREVER:

(too bad she requires pushing! Ha!)

I actually took the above pic from the top of a side-by-side slide-- here we are before zooming down:

I did no color editing to this photo.  Just amazing.

Game Two Report

The rained-out game from Thursday night was played last night. (Couldn't be Fri or Sat because of Yom Kippur.)   This opponent is a perennial powerhouse so it wasn't too much of a shock to come in on the losing end.  We still managed to have fun cheering on the Rams....and we'll be right back there on Friday eve for Game Three!

A really non-clear pre-game indoor self-portrait:

A slightly better outdoor one!

A snippet from Take Two of the outdoor shot.  It's like she's SO excited to find her thumb!

The B-man got to see his friend Bella AND the Ram!

Snuggled up with our awesome neighbor (no Texas heat up here...thank goodness!):

"Tunes and Treats"

Ruby's parents invited us to come celebrate her 2nd birthday Saturday morning and, with a high of 70 degrees and all kinds of sunshine, it was the most glorious day!

The birthday girl:

Pretty sure these bigger kids scared her off the tire swing!

The colorful spread:

The coolest xylophone cake ever:

The B-man was the oldest kid there and, as you can see, he made himself right at home!

With the birthday girl's mama.  Alison was a year ahead of me at Baylor although we didn't meet until we both lived up here.  Fun fact:  her husband, David, (pictured in our lenses--ha!) lived on the same hall freshman year as my brother!

New Adventures in Produce

I've really been missing doing a CSA.  We've now gone two summers without supporting a farm (and receiving its bounty) and, while I told myself that it actually made more $$ sense because I could now go to Farmer's Markets at my leisure and buy only what I wanted-- it's actually made me not very adventurous in the produce department.   I think I've been to a Farmer's Market only three times this summer and actually counting money out of my wallet had the effect of me NOT buying as much, versus paying a lump sum in advance.

I was really excited, therefore, when I saw a daily discount deal recently for 4 weeks of fresh farm delivery to my very doorstep!!   I imagine we won't be able to keep it going past the 4 weeks since the deal was highly discounted but scoring such a price break is just icing on the cake of getting more produce.  (Hmm-- maybe not icing on the cake.  Hummus on the carrots?)

This morning was our first delivery.  They say they'll drop it off between midnight and  7 AM.  I turned on the light by the garage to help them see but then learned at 5:08 this morning that the BG had turned off the light before he went to bed.  I padded out to the front door to check the status and, sure enough, it was already there!

(Disclosure:  I fiddled around on the internet for an hour until a slightly less dark photo-taking time! ;-)

Behold the bounty!  Graffiti eggplant, apples, beets, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, onions, and peaches!

Let the cooking/eating commence!!

What's kinda funny about this timing is just the other day--for the FIRST time this entire summer--our backyard neighbor appeared with a bunch of fresh figs off his trees.  I come from a line of fig-lovers but didn't think there were enough to mess with preserve-making like Opa does every year.  Did a quick google search, checked our ingredient supply, and made the most yummy little treats the other night:

I cut the figs lengthwise, squirted a drop of honey on each half, scooped a little bit of cream cheese on top, added a shake of salt and pepper, wrapped in a half-piece of bacon and baked for almost 20 minutes at 350.

DELICIOUS.

--
In football news, all of this week's games were scheduled to be played last night due to Yom Kippur starting today at sundown and lasting through tomorrow.  Unfortunately, we had quite the cold front-induced storm system yesterday afternoon and most of the games were postponed.  We will be spending quite a bit of time at the stadium next week with the rescheduled game on Monday evening and the next home game on Friday evening!

Happy Shirt

Vistaprint had a deal last week for a personalized shirt for $6 shipped.  Obviously I couldn't let that one pass me by.  I decided the little miss was in need of some home-designed couture but I had a hard time deciding on a sartorial direction since a short-sleeved white T doesn't really lend itself to our fall/winter weather in terms of making a holiday shirt of some sort.

So I just went with a classic throwback pic boasting a healthy message!   :-)

Tweet Tweet

The little miss started 2-year-old preschool yesterday.  Just like B did at that age, she'll go Tues/Thurs mornings from 9:15-11:45.   As a member of the Birds class, she likes to tell you that birdies say TWEET!

(This preschool, where B went last year, does not allow backpacks/bags so there can't be the typical kid-with-a-backpack pic!)

----
I am the Queen of Nostalgia and was recently remembering that I once described our original meaning for September 11th.  I can't believe it's been 4 years since I wrote this post!!   Where does the time go????

Brand Loyalty? Your Turn!

As has been written here many times before, I adore grocery shopping.  Wandering the aisles, looking for sales, noticing new products-- it just makes me happy.   Over the last 12+ years of regular shopping, I've come to grips with the fact that I don't have very much brand loyalty.  I think it has much to do with the fact that Wegmans has really top-notch store-brand products which made me take a chance on many others.  (Trader Joe's game of "who really made this product?" also helped me realize there just aren't that many differences across brands!)  I think dairy products were the first to be converted straight to me buying whatever is on sale but, really, I don't much care who packed my pinto beans, either, you know?!

Miss C and I were enjoying an aisle-by-aisle trip through Target yesterday when I finally remembered (and I hit up grocery stores 2-3 times/week, mostly because of our love of perishables) that there was a particular item in our kitchen that needed to be replaced.  I hunted it down, took note of the store brand version right next door that was 1/2 the price, and.....couldn't do it.   Apparently, even though 90% of the time, I just buy whatever version is cheapest, I can NOT buy anything other than:

I'd say that marshmallows are another product I stick to one brand (Kraft) but that's not even true because I have a bags of Weggies 'mallows right now.   I've tended to shy away from generic cereal but even on that front, I'm far less strict than I used to be. 

So TELL ME-- what products, if any, do you always buy a specific brand??!!    Can't wait to hear!!

A Great Weekend It Was

I took the kids with me to the BG's game Friday night not really knowing how they would do.  We made it to halftime and the team was down 12-0 but the kids were hanging in so we stayed.  Then the other team quickly took it to 25-0 and I was considering packing it in.  But then.....but then...... we went on an absolute rampage and won the game 40-38!!!!!   Many experienced football-watching types have said it was the most exciting game they'd ever seen!  It.Was.Awesome!!!!!!!!

After that high (and a bedtime of 10 PM!!!!!!), I decided we'd enjoy the fabulous weather and take a little drive Saturday morning to one of our favorite Main Street locales while the BG had practice celebrated the win with donuts and watched film. The wee ones loved the various bridges/overlooks:

They also visited with a Jedi Master:

As you can see, they (and their unpictured mama) were appropriately spirited for college game day.   A guy actually stopped us on the street to talk green and gold-- turns out he's recently moved up this way after just finishing an eMBA at Baylor!

We ended up meeting the BG for a yummy Mexican lunch but first hit up a playground while we waited to hear from him.   She's a funny munchkin:


And that wasn't her only transportation experience of the weekend-- check out the "Jeep" she played in after church yesterday!

First Football Friday (Flashback)

Season kicks off tonight.  May this guy lead the Rams to victory!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

On Her Own

As Uncle Geoff pointed out in his comment yesterday, the B-man hasn't made a blog appearance in several days.  You know why?  Because he's not home anymore!!   I figure, however, that he had 3 years of posts all to himself so it's probably okay if his little sister makes some solo appearances, right?!

Without him around, she is really stepping up her game.  First with the "reading":

And then with the recycling, too!

I'm loving our errand-running/shopping that we get to do now.  I noticed in one store yesterday that she was oh-so-casually moving to the beat; of course, as soon as I started videoing, the music changed and she got a little less entertaining, but it's fun to see her personality grow as she does:

Stuck On You

Reason 87 that we love Trader Joe's:  they give out stickers to the kiddies and they change more often than the seasons!  Yesterday's batch was a Back-to-School theme.

Miss C decided not to change up her usual placement, however....aka all over herself!

Wee Baby Memories

There's an empty wall in C's room that has been calling out to me for awhile and I finally buckled down and filled it with a little something.   Promo code for an 11x14 photo collage plus 50% off Michaels coupon for the frame?  Bargain decor, indeed!

(Now about all our other blank walls.....eh, give me another year!)

Would Michael Scott Approve?

 I tried to get this shirt for the BG when we were in Austin but they didn't have his size.  Turns out that Chuy's, as fun and hip as it is, has not yet embraced an online store so the procurement of this T as a (belated) birthday present involved me trading phone calls and emails with the marketing department!!  Totally worth the effort-- how fun is this, fellow fans of The Office?