One Wedding Down...

B and I had a lovely time in upstate NY this weekend to attend Scarlet Lily's wedding. As many other dear bloggers will be posting wonderful little tidbits about the weekend, I will just tell you to read their posts because mine will just be a repetition. I will say, though, that I was a member of the 60s and 70s table, but I did not set the fire that occurred at our table. For more on that, see Ouiser's descriptions. I also will tell you that if you aren't married yet and you are a man, learn how to play the violin and then play for your bride as she walks down the aisle. Not a dry eye in the house. So wonderful.

It was great to catch up with the clan from Colgate and of course, to see my little niece again. I have to admit that I didn't get any terrific wedding shots because I was too far back for the ceremony and I am too short, but I took a boatload of L pics! You'll have to wait for those, though, because I left the battery charger in the hotel room and the battery is now dead. Oops.

J had a great time with his grandma this week. In fact, the only time he has cried at school was when she came with us to drop him off one day. He cried that he didn't want her to leave and was very excited when we returned to pick him up at the end of the day. We got some great pics of him made up as a little clown, which was about one of the cutest things I'd ever seen. 8 kids with little clown hats and painted faces popping bubbles as they waited for their parents to pick them up-- what fun!

There were peppers waiting for us when we got home! They were a little wilted because it's been so hot and I am afraid they have been a little underwatered with our two week triple digit temperatures, but we've had red and orange ones and they taste so good. They actually have a little bite to them, unlike the mass produced ones you get at the store. Our tomatoes are also turning red by the dozen and it's a race between us and the birds to see who gets to taste them first.

We received two wedding invitations in the mail yesterday. One of them was for B's stepbrother's wedding in Poland. I had to laugh when I opened it up because I don't know what I was expecting, but I couldn't read a word of it. I could get the gist that we were invited to their wedding on Aug. 9, but after that and the request for an email rsvp by some day in July, it was completely lost on me. I decided to find an online Polish-English dictionary so that I could read the rest of the invite. Since I didn't have a Polish keyboard and they use a lot of accent marks and letters we don't use on our English keyboard, I was only able to translate minor parts of it. My translation ended up being something like, "After the ceremony we will market blah blah blah (untranslatable Polish). We are needing volunteers for the flowers of the Ministry of Defense." Huh? I'll let you know if I ever find out what it really says. In the meantime, I think it's best that I don't volunteer for anything.

I'm off to make another batch of pesto. We have a double batch in the freezer, but the basil is looking like it's going to get bitter if I don't do something with it fast. It's going to be a real hardship to have more around the house!

Funny J comment right before bed, "Z is my best buddy. Not my best girl. K is my best girl." (He just saw K this week because they came down to visit from Dallas. If you asked J where she had been he would say, "Sleeping at her house.") So cute.

Negative Nillie

The new, unfabulous phrase of the day is....

I can't.

As in, "Please get out of your carseat, J."
"I can't get out of my carseat."

Please get out of the car.
I can't get out of the car.

I can't bounce my ball.
I can't make my vacuum make noise.
I can't get off the floor.
I can't eat my yogurt.
I can't eat peppers today.
I can't go to take a nap.

Luckily he decided to switch it up shortly after lunch and before his nap, so it sounded like this...
"You can't drink the water now. You have to sit at the table. You can't sit in that chair. "
"You can't put that there, Mommy. You can't put it here, you have to put it there. That is not correct."

Well, alrighty then.

"You can't type your fingers on your cup, Mommy. You can only type on computer. I will show you. Like this."

(May I also point out that what I was doing incorrectly was holding the plastic margarita glass that J filled with water for me, as well as one for himself. I couldn't drink out of it standing up because apparently, that is not how you drink out of these glasses. Do you think he picked up on something at the barbecue on Sunday?)

"You can't hug my ear (no idea what that meant- totally random). You can't hug my ear. You can't kiss my ear."
"You can kiss my ear. You can't say hug, hug hug, Mommy."

Well, I can tell you what this Mommy could do was shut off the light, close the door and get away from there as fast as she could! All of that was in about the span of an hour and a half. We can't wait for after naptime!

Dad's Day

Father's Day was pretty relaxing around here. Nothing says "I love you, Dad" better than a couple of pieces of bacon and the sports section delivered to your bedside after sleeping in until past 9. J gave B a tractor card. Actually, he gave it to him on Thursday when we brought it home from the store and he couldn't hold in his excitement as he shouted, "I bought you a card, Daddy. With a big TRACTOR! It's green! It's green Daddy! I bought it Daddy! For you!" Then as we gave B his present (a couple of cds) he said, "I will give Daddy his present. Maybe I can play with it. Probably it is a fire truck." I told him it wasn't a fire truck. "Yeah, probably it is a lollipop. I will eat it." I told him it wasn't a lollipop either. "Yeah, I will give the present to Daddy and I will play with it. It's not for J. Maybe I can play with it. Probably." Have you noticed how the word probably is used to exhibit his extreme confidence in whatever he is saying? It really is quite comical.

B sports the "tie" J made for him at school. He also gave him a picture frame that said, "I love my Daddy." All of this, of course, made Mommy weepy. Pathetic, but true.

We had a BBQ later in the day so the dads could celebrate Father's Day together. Our friend T commented at one point that he thought the service was so great-- lots of meat and margaritas served tableside-- that he was a little concerned that "you women might be expecting reciprocal treatment that I just can't come through with on Mother's Day." We told him not to worry; that's why jewelry is always appreciated.

I can block the carcinogens with one big sip from this margarita glass

The kids had a great time running around in the backyard, in the house, and at the park. At one point, they all decided to have a little exploratory trip to the garden. It's so funny because they still don't really play with each other that much yet, but when one person gets an idea, the others follow like it was the best plan all along. I did feel the need to apologize to J's teacher this morning because his dinner fare last night included a hot dog bun, some noodles, an ice cream sandwich, and blueberries. Then he didn't want to eat his breakfast this morning, so I can't imagine he will be full of too much energy today.

The evening ended with J, Z, and S taking a bath together and playing in the crib for just a few quick seconds. K and I read Z and J some bedtime stories and they were both indicating that they wanted to sleep in J's crib. So we put them in the crib, turned off the lights, and crying ensued immediately from both parties. We knew it was a longshot, but it would have been so nice if they actually had fallen asleep and let us parents hang out just a little bit longer after sundown. Maybe in a few years.

Rub a Dub Dub, Three Cuties in the Tub

Little School Boy

J started summer school today. No, he's not in need of remediation in playing with Play Dough or anything like that. B and I checked out a school down the street a few weeks ago for him to possibly start in the fall. J got to come with us for the tour. He liked it so much he wanted to stay the entire day and was crying when he had to leave (it could have had something to do with a tractor and a really cool lawn mower on the playground area). Anyway, they happened to have one slot open for the fall, so we signed him up. We think it will be good for him to be around other kids and to not necessarily be around me 24/7. I'll admit I have been a little conflicted about this because it means he is growing up way too fast, but we think it will work out well.

This was taken with my cell phone and emailed, so not the best quality. I know it looks like he is trying to hail a cab, but J is saying, "Hooray for school!"

Since J was so excited about his "school" I inquired about their summer program. The director told me that they were full, but he could be put on the wait list. I didn't think any more of it, but I got a call last week that a spot opened up and we could send him if we wanted to. I asked J if he wanted to go back to school and he was ready to go that day. When I told him he couldn't go until Monday, he told me, "I will wait there with the money!" I think it was the longest three days of his life waiting for Monday.

"I will show you my backpack!"

I was a little concerned that he would freak out once we got there and I left because his little school experience only involved playing outside for a few minutes and then "lining up" with Daddy. But when we got to his classroom, he said hello to his teacher, said, "Bye, bye Mommy" and went and played with a puzzle. He didn't even look back. I made no plans for the day because I honestly thought I would have to stay there part of the time, but it turned out that was unnecessary.

J was happy to see me when I picked him up, but I wouldn't exactly say he was overjoyed with enthusiasm. He was exhausted and he told me a little bit about the fun he had, but he was more interested in waving goodbye to all the other moms picking up their kids, and saying goodbye to the director of the school. He acted like he owned the place.



This morning when we arrived, he walked right into the director's office, gave her a hug, and said, "See you later. I will have fun!" She was blown away by his confidence. So much for the novelty wearing off on the second day.



What did I do with my free time? I actually took my time at the gym today. I took this new kickboxing/weight class called Strike and it totally whooped my behind. Which is a good thing because my behind (and my hips and thighs) need a really good whooping. I am already sore. Next it's off to do some ironing for B who has a meeting tonight. Then I am off to tackle the bathroom shower. Then it should be time to pick up J. I guess we'll save the sipping lattes and reading a book for another day.

Commitment

Today B and I made a commitment. We bought art. It's the first time we bought art that was not in the form of a poster with a frame from Michael's around it!

We spent Sunday morning at the Art in the Park festival in a town north of Austin. I really enjoyed it because it wasn't a festival that included lots of art sold around a bunch of smelly incense, which can be common to find at art festivals around here. Here are a few pics of what we purchased:

These are all works by the same artist under a collection called, "Dancing in the Paint." The set of three don't come in the frames shown and they are matted with black around the picture with a black matte and gold and black frame. The last picture is on canvas and doesn't need a frame.

We also picked up a pair of copper and bronze garden spinners (decorative pinwheels? not sure what to call them) so that I can better keep the birds away from my veggies. Oh, and the veggies-- zucchini and squash are still in large abundance, as are the tomatoes, but they are all refusing to turn red (I think it's because of the extreme heat we've been having). We have been fortunate to have had three really great batches of pesto from our basil. I just froze the last batch for fear that we will gain twenty pounds overnight if we dip it with any more bread or eat another meal of pesto pasta, chicken, and tomatoes.

I made a great recipe from the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook for dessert last night. Peach and Bluberry Crumble. Yum! I halved the butter and halved the sugar because I had really ripe peaches and didn't think they needed to be sweetened much more. Then I just broiled the topping for the last few minutes so that it browned a bit more. You really should go make some and add whatever fruit you have laying around in the fridge. I had some blackberries and raspberries lingering, so they went in as well. J didn't want any. He didn't know what he was missing. I planned to post the recipe, but can't find it anywhere online, so if you want it, let me know.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Any thoughts on the decision to give Michigan and Florida half votes at the convention?