Unusual excitement

The following things made C ridiculously excited

1.  Getting a marvelous mama shirt (for my mom's group).  He loved it is for him, and what it says on the back.

He has asked to put it on every day since he got it. 

2.  Making me paint his toenails after I finished painting his.  He thinks it's hilarious we match.

3.  Going to day camp.  Yesterday he went to his first preschool daycamp.  He was there 2.5 hours w/no parents--just workers and 20+ other preschoolers.  It was a campout theme, and he LOVED it.  He told me how good he was and about all the fun things he did.  It was great to get some me time, but it went by so fast.

A little train ride

C and I had a fun adventure on the Amtrak today.  We met some other friends from our mom's group to take a 25-30 min ride to Pontiac.  There isn't really anything in Pontiac, but there's a cute little park right across the street from the train station.  It was perfect to entertain the kids for the 40 minutes or so that there was to kill before the train going south came by to pick us up.  The kids were great, and the outing was the perfect time for 2-4 year olds. 

on the train

de-trained.  he loved it!

A little food post: Gazpacho and a Tomato Tart

One of Scott's favorite foods is gazpacho.  He always hounds me each summer until I make it at least once.  I finally obliged after I got my hands on some really good tomatoes from a girlfriend's garden and cucumbers from the farmer's market.  The only ingredient I was missing was the water from grandma's canned tomatoes, so I had to use tomato juice--which makes it saltier, but it was still good.  The tomato tart was a Paula Deen recipe that I cheaped down--no manchego cheese, no fresh herbs etc b/c I didn't have any and I didn't want to go to the store.  The result was tasty, but a bit too dense for the crust b/c I used grate parmesan instead of a shredded cheese.  Next time I'm going to try it with shredded parmesan since it's so much cheaper than manchego.

the bare beginnings--isn't it pretty!  tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow peppers (you can use any sweet pepper), vidalia onions (with a couple purple hidden in there)

 add a little garlic (well, a lot), hot sauce, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper (I should have omitted the salt since I used tomato juice--in my opinion)

all mixed up

now the tomato juice/water mixture is added (I watered it down b/c tomato juice is too thick and canned tasting)

then i take 2/3 of the veggies and blitz them in my food processor, and then I add it back to the rest of the unprocessed soup

last step: add bread crumbs.  I added more since it was saltier than normal--and I added a lot of garlic (oops). these were fresh bread crumbs, so they weren't salty at all--it was just 2 or 3 pieces of bread thrown in the food processor

the finished product--and one messy bowl on one messy counter

the beginnings of the crust before it was cooked. it has to be precooked and then you add the filling--mayo, parm, mozzarella, bread crumbs, herbs, and really soft cooked onions. then you layer it with tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil and bake

the finished product...delicious! it would have been prettier if i'd had a variety of colors in the tomatoes, but taste was great.  

Picture Day

first time he's worn the cape I made him for his bday

Team Green

So C loves to match you know.  Here he is excited to match daddy's workout clothes w/an old Seattle Sounders jersey and some blue athletic shorts.  So cute--they had to go play.

switching to frisbee

k dog with his huge stick

A little catch up

Last week C got to jump off the diving board in swim lessons. 

Here are some pics.

getting used to the vest

waiting in line

going out...so brave here



on the edge, starting to hesitate.  He ended up needing someone to stand behind him to give him confidence and help him off, but he really wanted to do it, and he did.

that's all that caught him--that noodle thing and his vest

He finished lessons last week, and I'm really proud of his progress.  He has almost no fear of the water.  He really needs to try to straighten his legs to do his flutter kicks and blow bubbles from his nose, but otherwise he's got it down. 

Manchester United's Newest Player

Introducing Chichacolinarito, the youngest Man U player.  We recently got C his very own ManU jersey.  He wanted the brand new blue away jersey set (which I have to admit is super cool even if it isn't Man U red).  He was so excited that his "outfit" and sometimes "costume" was coming all the way from Manchester, England (since we actually ordered it from the club store).  He couldn't wait for Scott to get it on him.  He wore it for all his meals, naptime, and he asked to put it back on this morning.  I told him no b/c it was all kinds of sweaty after last night.  He actually started crying during his nap yesterday b/c his sock had slipped down.  He needed help. He also couldn't wait to go play soccer with daddy after dinner.  Scott took him up to the local school, but the gate was locked, so they had to go to the track.  I walked the dogs up to find them after I'd cleaned up dinner.  Unfortunately they had already quit playing soccer by the time I got there, but he was into playing on the playground. 

hot out of the package

i guess he needed a rest after getting all ready

just hanging out with daddy

so sweaty.  i'm ready for this humidity to break

i love this of him.  it is so hard to snap a photo of him looking at the camera when he is on the move

showing me his running skills

playing in his "spider web"