Ruh-roh

Never in my life have I ever stopped watching cartoons. Not in high school. Not in college. And not now. It's the part of me that refuses to grow up. And really a lot of the times, the best thing on TV is cartoons. As a kid I loved Scooby-Doo and now Cordelia loves it too. The other day she was watching it and ran up to me and said, "Oh no! Scooby is in trouble!" She really gets into it. While I still have a certain fondness for the original Scooby-Doo, especially the Scooby-Doo movies which featured guest stars like Batman and Robin, Don Knotts, and the Harlem Globetrotters, I still liked the new "What's New Scooby-Doo" series. But for some reason they stopped making that one and have now put on a new Scooby-Doo series called "Mystery Incorporated". I hated this show the first time I saw it. I was offended that they would screw around with the characters and develop a dating relationship between Shaggy and Velma. I'm still not crazy about the animation, but the series has grown on me. It's a cartoon, but it is definitely aimed at the parents too. There are so many jokes in each episode that only the parents are going to get. While Casey Kasem no longer provides the voice of Shaggy, he does provide the voice for his dad. There was also a Griswold vacation reference thrown in and a Beverly Hills 90210 one too. And I love that Fred is totally oblivious to how much Daphne likes him. A long time ago I had heard that the reason the gang always split up was so Daphne and Fred could have some alone time, if you know what I mean. This new series plays with some of the theories I've heard about the show. It's kind of fun. It's fun to watch Scooby with the kids. They watch it because it's a funny cartoon. I watch it because of the adult humor. It's great.

"Camping"

I feel like I'm still trying to recover from the past weekend. I started going at 8am on Saturday and didn't quit until late Sunday. But it sure was a fun weekend. On Saturday morning I got out by myself and participated in a Photowalk. We met up at Seratoma Park and had two hours to take pictures of whatever we liked. I got some great shots, but I wish I had a better camera for somethings. After the photowalk, I ran some errands, came home to put together some food and then packed entirely way too much stuff for one overnight camping stay. Camping is too much work for me.

We "camped" at my parent's house by the campfire. The kids loved sleeping in tents. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but next time I won't forget the air mattress. I didn't sleep the greatest even though it was really cozy. On Sunday I was trying to catch up on everything I didn't get done on Saturday. I also ended up doing some school shopping with Torii. We found him some new shoes for the fall. Poor Torii was so tired that he fell asleep between the mall and Wal-mart. He was surprised that we arrived at Wal-mart so quickly. Rion trying out his tent.
Our "campsite".

Ooey-gooey s'mores.

Fred made breakfast for everyone Sunday morning. It was so good.

The camping trip was fun. Rion did not want to leave the next day. We will have to try it again another weekend. The weather was perfect too. I'm not a camper, but I don't mind it when we're just down the hill from the house. I guess that doesn't really make me much of a camper.

Little Romeo

Last week Torii let me know he was going to give two flowers to two girls in school. First he was going to give them roses and then tulips. I asked him why and suddenly he got shy and wouldn't say anymore. Later he brought it up again, but wouldn't give any more information. Then just before bedtime he said he wanted to whisper something in my ear. He whispered, "The reason I want to give those girls flowers is because they are so beautiful." I giggled and he clammed up again, but I told him that was a really sweet thing to do and he felt better again. He brought the subject up again the next day and he said the girls had picked roses and he had picked tulips so that was the reason for the two kinds of flowers. Sometimes I wish I could be invisible so I could hang out with him and hear these conversations he has with girls.

On the 4th of July we enjoyed a nice evening at my parents' house. As the kids patiently waited for the sun to go down so we could do the really cool fireworks, we watched that night's amazing sunset. After the fireworks were done and we were getting in the car, Torii told me the sunset reminded him of one of the girls because it was beautiful like her.

In one of our many discussions on this flower topic and beautiful girls, he got self conscience about something he said, (I may have giggled again to make him feel that way), I told him he was really sweet and any girl would be so happy to hear things like that. On one hand, I'm nervous about what this little boy is going to be like once he hits puberty. On the other hand, I think he'll be a great boyfriend. That is as long as his daddy doesn't get to him. Hopefully, I can keep him in good boyfriend shape. What girl doesn't love getting flowers and hearing her boyfriend compare her to a sunset?

Chef Rion

I don't think Rion played the computer at all today. No video games either. Instead he was Chef Rion. I'm not sure why, but this morning he put on his chef's jacket that he's had forever, but never really played with, and pretended to be a chef. He was a chef that worked in a hotel restaurant. He pretended to be a chef all day. He has such a great imagination, but he doesn't use it as much as I wish he did. He spends too much time with the computer and video games. And he was so good today. I didn't have any bad moments with him today, which was nice for a change. He was also pretty good with Torii and Cordelia. Anyway, hoping to take advantage of Rion's pretending, I asked him if he wanted to cook something for real. He hesitated because he said he didn't know how to cook, but I told him I would help. First we did a simple strawberry smoothie. He read the recipe and I helped him measure things out. Actually, I told him how to measure it and then he did it. I taught him about fractions while measuring and my math wiz loved it. He had fun making the smoothies, which were very good by the way, so we made another recipe. I wanted to make some ham and cheese breakfast muffins for tomorrow so he helped with that. Tomorrow he wants to make something else that goes in the oven. Rion liked measuring the flour. While the muffins cooked he was practicing at measuring.

A weekend at the lake

We spent most of last weekend at Lake Tschida. The kids love it out there. Well, I do too. We also finally got Fred out there. He's never had weekends off before so this was his first time at the lake. I think he really enjoyed it and he'll be going out there again with us. He got to do a lot of fishing so he was happy. On Saturday we got as much swimming in as we could, but the weather did not cooperate in the evening and we were forced inside. It rained off and on, but a couple of times the rain was very heavy. But that was OK, because it's also nice to sit inside the cabin and listen to the rain. The boys as usual had a great time at the lake. It's amazing to see how much better they are at swimming a year later. They had lots of fun jumping into the lake and swimming into the bigger waves made by passing boats. Cordelia didn't do much swimming. She had more fun playing in the sand on the beach. The boys enjoying a pontoon ride around the lake after all the rain was done on Saturday.
Playing on the beach.

I tried to get a picture of Torii concentrating really hard to reel in a fish, but as I snapped it he turned to look at me. He looks like I'm disturbing him.

Sweet peaches

Years ago, Fred was on Marlboro's mailing list and they would send cool stuff every once in awhile. One of the things was a Cook like a Man cookbook, filled with BBQ and grilling recipes. Not only is it a visually appealing book, but it filled with awesome recipes. I don't think there is a single recipe that I don't want to try, although I've only tried a handful. I made these peaches the other night. I forgot to buy strawberry preserves so we had it without, but it was still awesome.

4 fresh peaches, halved, pitted or 8 canned peach halves, drained well
Large resealable plastic bag
1 cup honey
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp strawberry preserves, heated
Vanilla ice cream

Coat peaches by placing in bag with honey, vanilla, and cinnamon; refrigerate until ready to grill. Preheat grill to medium heat. Remove peaches from bag; reserving honey sauce. Place on grill and cook about 2 minutes per side. Remove from grill and spoon about 1 tablespoon strawberry preserves into center of each peach. Top with vanilla ice cream and reserved honey sauce.

Happy Summer!

I hope I don't jinx it, but I think summer is finally here. On Saturday we decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo. The kids love feeding the goats. Rion was also having a really good time and he kept posing for pictures by the goats. That's unusual for him. All three kids (and two goats) were posing really nice for the above picture, but as I snapped it, one of the goats moved which made Cordelia laugh and for some reason everyone, including the goat, is looking over to the one side. I think I like this one better than a posed picture anyway. We got our new membership on Saturday too so we got some train tickets. On the train ride Cordelia had a conversation with a little older boy. He must have been about three. It was so funny to listen to them. They understood each other and kept chatting.

For Father's Day we didn't do much. Torii and daddy went fishing in the morning. Then we basically hung around the house. I made steak for dinner and hot brownie sundaes for dessert, Fred's favorite. The kids did spend some time in the sprinkler on Sunday and then that evening we went rollerblading. There is a small hill at the end of our block that they like to go up so they can roll down. They must have done that 15 times, from our house to the end of the block. They went to sleep without a peep. Rion is trying really hard at rollerblading, but he just takes tiny steps to get to where he is going. Torii, on the other hand, is a man possessed on the blades. He is a pretty good rollerblader and he has a super serious and determined look on his face when he blades. Torii may be more of the athlete in our family. He likes sports and he has the coordination and the competitiveness. Poor Rion may have to suffer through Auntie Kelly syndrome, where everyone will ask him if he plays basketball because he is so tall.

Tonight we went rollerblading again, all the way to GG's house. Torii and Cordelia had fun while GG tried to water her flowers. Cordelia started out by helping hold the hose, but it wasn't long before she was trying to spray Torii and then herself. They got pretty wet, but they tried off quickly in the sun.

I hope it continues to be nice out because I am enjoying the time outside. And I am enjoying grilling season as well. I have a yummy recipe to share, but I'll leave you all in suspense and post it later.