Lobsters (again!)

We had our friends Roger and Kim and fam here for a few days, and as is their tradition, they treated us to a lobster meal. 

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The boys, post-swim,  sunning themselves atop the tables

listening to music on the little amp

listening to music that takes my nerves to the edge and dangles them over

(do you know what I'm talking about, Heidi and Ash?)

First Day in the Pool

The water was delivered- 12,000 gallons. (wouldn't a small village in Africa love to get that?)

Curious onlookers gathered to watch :

and bragged they had the "best seats in the house"

Swim all day the next day.....

To confess, in all honesty, without pretense, just being real here...it was a stressful day. Towel mismanagement, confusion over the sound of fun vs. sound of fighting, confusion over towel ownership, water on the wood floors, water on the tile floors, wet bathing suits sitting on the couch, noodles dredged in the dirt then thrown into the pool, stuff like that. We saw immediately that we need  to learn the finer art of having a pool in the backyard. I think we identified our errors and are working towards an ongoing solution. I know, it's just a pool, not national healthcare.  

We ate outdoors because it was such a nice evening. The deck is quite full of constructionish stuff  but you  can't tell in these pics. 

The cooker, always the cooker.

Maura made name tags for us and scotch-taped them to the table cloth. Can you say CUTE????

Bread from that bakery in NJ- delivered to Gord by the owner. I love when that happens!

Molasses- how Canadian of us!

I sat here.

Showing me how much he loves molasses.  

BBQ-d Ribs.

Laughing at Dad:

Adam took this one of us:

Memorial Day Picnic food

We had lots of fun people at our house for Memorial Day. The parade in town was cancelled due to the construction at the Town Hall and the Town Intersection where the Town Traffic Light is. I was slightly bummed but the absence of a parade (and having to march in it with my Girl Scouts) sure made having a picnic much easier. 

When we were discussing our menu, David said he would make an Ambrosia Salad. His favorite recipe is one he found on Cooks.com but he omits the coconut. If it were me, I would be throwing whole Mounds bars in there. 

Here he mixes the Cool Whip and sour cream. We talked about "folding" the Cool Whip rather than "jabbing" the Cool Whip. 

Marshmallows are meted meticulously. 

....and tasted gratuitously. 

Yummy little charms. 

He carefully opened many cans of fruit. Mandarin oranges; pineapple slices that then had to be chunked; maraschino cherries and that was it. He mixed until it all looked awesome and put it in a festive purple bowl (Purple Heart) in the refrigerator. 

I made a large bean salad. See how much I made? That is approximately how much was still left at the end of the day. David's Ambrosia Salad was g.o.n.e.  

Moral of the story: people would rather eat food that is engineered (marshmallows and Coolwhip) rather than whole foods (beans, peppers and onions) like I made. What is this world coming to? 

Pitchers of ice water await. 

Gord made his wonderful Guacamole Stuff and it too was gone at the end of the day. 

Tomorrow I may be adding pics of the people that came and games that we played. And airplanes that we flew. 

And there is still some bean salad left if you want some of that. 

Chef Gordon

Sometimes (like hardly ever, really) I run out of grocery items. Last night it was bbq sauce. No problem says Chef Gordon and he proceeds to make his own sauce. I walked by the containers a couple of times before I realized there was strawberry jam out amongst the savory, salty and spicy things. I ventured a guess "you put strawberry jam in the bbq sauce?" "yes, I did" said the Chef. Do you think it was good or gross? It was delicious. Never underestimate the Gordon. For the sake of your tastebuds. They deserve it. 

April Fools Fun

On April Fool's morning, the kids woke up to this on the inside of the toilet lid.

Did it faze them? Nope. Except Landon who said "I hate it!" "I want to use your bathroom." "It will stick to my back."

For dinner we had cupcakes frosted with fluffy pink frosting:

Which was actually meatloaf and mashed potatoes. 

I totally got them! It was really yummy too. Looks kind of gross now though. 

For dessert I made them all try sushi. 

David has said that he will never try sushi. 

Borrowing a line from the inimitable SpongeBob SquarePants,  "I don't want to face my fears, I am afraid of them" I told Dave it was time to face his fears and try sushi. 

Which was actually Rice Krispies (treat recipe) rolled into sushi rolls. Wrapped in fruit-by-the-foot as the seaweed wrap. MUCH, much better than the real thing. 

And in case you didn't look at the "airline gets sued" posting I put up earlier on April 1, that was an April Fool's tricky thing too. 

Lament of the Mini Eggs

Frantically, I plumb
the depths of the bag.
Empty
Gone
Consumed
Cruel fate! I wail
Cruel fate!
Unwittingly and mindlessly
I ate the last egg
whilst
mindlessly reading CNN
Downcast I sit,
broken, a shell.
Carpe ovo!

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas day! Santa was quite generous even though we thought he was going to cut back this year.  We celebrated with Grandma, Grandpa and Maria, as well as  Ash and Uriah, Leanne,  Vicki, Dan, Jon and Brian. The pictures we have are mostly of the children. Adults just aren't that cute on Christmas morning :)

Skipping to dinner because it easier than rearrranging all the photos. 

Gord was in charge of making Pumpkin Ravioli:

Here is a little timeline of how the whole thing works:

Ricotta and pumpkin filling:

Served with Alfredo sauce.

Present opening:

He tried on each item of clothing as he opened it up:

Yay- a Wii!

Her trademark surprise look:

Opening his stocking stuffers:

checking for more:

Even Saff got a toy: