Music day

The girls and I made pizza together. The girls chopped and spread all the toppings. We hung out and watched the sing-off along with some performances by Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga.

Wicked Weekend

We went to Wicked at the Fox theatre Friday night!

We all got dressed up and went downtown. Had dinner next door to the Fox and Marina paid for the sweet potato fries (at her request).

Saturday we made bacon and eggs together (I think Marina ate 6 pieces of bacon by herself...she may have baconitis!) and then went to midtown to hang out with some friends. We all went to Chow Baby and then to Morelli's for ice-cream. We tried some crazy flavors like coconut jalepeno, salted caramel and strawberry ginger. We walked around little 5 and browsed in Abbadabba's and the Junkman's daughter. We stayed home for the evening and watched Rio.

Sunday we hung out at home and Marina and I did some things online (like writing this blog!)

Here's Marina: hello this is weird. i do not know what to say. bye-bye

We ended Sunday by going to the park with Baley. We rode bikes, played on the playground, got something from the ice-cream man and went with friends to the dog park.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Kathleen had to travel to Chicago for family funeral. We were sad for her but we made roast chicken together with Kathleen's recipe.

Chick-a-leen:

Wash chicken thoroughly and salt the inside of the chicken
Cut a lemon in half and put lemon halves inside chicken with 6 sprigs of thyme and halved cloves of garlic
Wash and chop vegetables and place in bottom of baking pan (sweet potato, carrots, mushrooms, onion)
Drizzle olive oil on vegetables
Place chicken on top of vegetables
Melt a quarter stick of butter and drizzle over chicken
Salt and pepper the top of the chicken
Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 1 hour
Cover lightly with foil and bake for one half hour more

While the chicken cooked we made presents for Kathleen's birthday and read some science fiction short stories.

Quiet evening at home

We made dumplings, rice and broccoli tonight and read Isaac Asimov stories while the girls worked on arts and crafts projects.

I quizzed marina on her civil war facts and helped her come up with funny mnemonics to help remember esoteric facts...even I remember them now:

When Abby is 18 she will run away like a fugitive to live free in California and Daddy will be 50. Daddy will call the California government and they will send her back : The 1850 Compromise allowed California into the union as a free state and passed the fugitive slave act which sent escaped slaves back to their owners.

We knew they were coming...

We all baked a cake tonight!

We had a crumb cake mix...they had never seen crumb cake and Abby decided not to eat any, but we all had a good time cracking eggs, mixing batter and baking the cake. It came out awesome and we all loved it... except for Abby :-(

Abby made her own fun and had her own fun with a silly fashion show

Backyard Camping

We had an adventure over labor day weekend... I set up the tent in the backyard for the girls to have a backyard camping trip!

Sabrina Katz came over and the girls had burgers, dogs and corn. The girls collected wood and I built a fire for s'mores. They sat by the fire and then played flashlight tag on the trampoline. It was great watching the lights bounce up and down in the dark and hearing them laughing for hours. I snuck around the house and scared them in the tent (and they got revenge on me in my bedroom later that night).

It eventually got too hot for them and they came inside to sleep. It's the end of the summer and I think we can go on a real camping trip this fall.

We watched the last 2 Harry Potter movies on Saturday and Sunday and Abby went for a play date with her best friend Payton while Kathleen, Marina and I went on a long bike ride around the neighborhood. We almost got lost but Marina toughed it out up and down all the hills.

We made a special breakfast this weekend...Elvis French Toast!

Elvis French Toast:

Mix Peanut Butter and Banana's in bowl thoroughly together in a bowl and spread mixture between two pieces of bread.

Dip sandwiches into traditional french toast batter (eggs, milk, vanilla)

Fry to a golden brown

Curriculum Night Part 2

I joined Marina, Abby and Kathleen for dinner and dessert before running to Curriculum night for Marina. The girls all had fun together and Marina is doing really well at school.