Kiss the cooker

So I don't know French, but Babblefish does. At least, I assume it translated butterscotch cookies and the rest. Most of the menu was from a few nights ago. However we did indulge in Ben's butterscotch cookies after we ate our lettuce gondolas (wraps that look like boats), homemade pita and baba ganoush. Alex mixed up some pink lemonade. And according to him, it wasn't just pink...it was supreme. The girls dressed for the culinary occasion and helped dry bowls, pots and pans.


And one little girl was a expert taste tester. And from her sweet praise, I am a "good cooker". If only it were so.

Fashionistas

My little girls have disappeared like the leaves on the tree.

Backwards Night

My Sparky looking devastatingly cute for backwards night.



Awana theme nights are always fun!

I spy a long-legged duck

While my bird identifying husband was at work, I saw a remarkable bird paddling in our swimming pool. At first I wondered how a duck got there, but upon closer look I realized it was a multi-colored iridescent bird I had never seen before. When the outdoor cat got menacingly close, the bird flew into our living room window and landed with a bump on the windowsill. The cat circled around the pool and crept onto the patio trying once again to capture this flying oddity. The bird recovered from its daze and flew into a tree in our yard. Between the foliage of the tree and the bird's movement I only got a poor image of its beauty.



When Ben returned home, he helped me ID it.

Thanks to the internet, here is a better picture. Today I learned what a Purple Gallinule is.

My smooth operator

There is something very funny about my second son. He knows how to do nothing and still achieve a lot. Let me rephrase that, he can sit on his hands and still get the job done. It is a remarkable talent for one not yet 9. How does he do it? He has discovered the benefits of child labor, his sisters. On several occasions when I have asked him to clean his closet, he hired Jane to clean it for him. He agreed to pay her a penny when the job was done satisfactorily. Emily heard wind of this generous remuneration and enlisted in his next cleaning crew. He still pays a penny, but somehow his sisters think it is a small fortune. Since he hatched his way out of manual labor with such executive cunning and can afford to pay his employees, I don't see the point of shutting down his smooth operation. Aah, but I do laugh.