Going through some great old photos

Me and Marina at Disney World

 We hung out tonight, cooked lasagna and green beans (Marina made the green beans) and then watched Revenge of the Sith. I also spent some time going through some old photos and put them up in the blog.

Abby, Nana and PopPop at Disney

Going to MegaMind in 3D

Note the price goes up as you buy more!

Cold drinks for a cold day

Going through photos

Carved pumpkins with the girls tonight. Abby likes to make her pumpkin "throw up"!

Weekend of Meat!

It was a great weekend! We went to Meatfest (it's exactly what it sounds like). The girls had bacon ice-cream cones, bacon lollipops, played corn-hole and hung out with a whole bunch of my college friends of my kids. Abby took a bunch of pictures with Kathleen's camera. Turns out she's pretty talented (I knew it all along).

We also did a bunch of bike riding practice. We rode up to the forum, had lunch at Chipotle and rode back.

Looney Tunes

9/29/11 - I am on a quest. It's an ongoing quest where I want to expose the girls to funny things from my childhood. I can't imagine my kids growing up not knowing who Bugs Bunny is or having watched the Rabbit of Seville. I got a compilation from NetFlix and it was Rabbit Season (or was it Duck Season?)!

Old Town Norcross

10/11/11 - We went out for Pizza tonight into old town Norcross. We all went to the park afterwards and played on the playground.

Just the three of us

Kathleen was working today so the girls and I made dinner together: dumplings and rice.

Marina and I practiced for her Reconstruction quiz. We learned all about carpet-baggers, scalawags and the Freedman's Bureau.

Abby worked on artwork to represent diversity in the world.

I Want the Volcano!

My mom and dad came through town today. The girls were thrilled and we all went out for dinner at the traditional hibachi restaurant.

The girls never seem to get tired of the hibachi chef tricks. Abby caught the egg in her mouth (she was the only one)! They still love the volcano, the ketchup scare and all the rest. We stopped for frozen yogurt and then relaxed at home and talked

Festivus for the rest of us

Very busy weekend!

The girls had a sleepover with their friends and we all met for a Dim Sum brunch. The girls tried everything and it went well.

We drove downtown and got special doughnuts at Sublime doughnuts and then went to a Sunday in the Park Victorian festival at Oakland Cemetery. There was live music, Irish dancers, corn-dogs, hula hoops, classic cars and more. The girls passed out on the way home. I love it when I wear them out.

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

It was curriculum night at Abby's school. I met with her teacher, volunteered for reading, did the PTA thing while Kathleen and the girls went for a walk with Baley and played Ticket to Ride.

GREAT WEEKEND!!!!

8/19 - 8/21: This weekend was awesome! We watched Harry Potter part 2 on Friday night and ate pizza. Abby and I made breakfast in bed for everyone on Monday. Abby learned how to make eggs and bacon. Saturday, we played a little Catan met some friends for Rise of the Planet of the Apes and dinner at Chow Baby. We closed the night watching Harry Potter 3 with a promise of no TV or movies on Sunday. We had an active day on Sunday including the trampoline and a bike ride to the forum and dunkin donuts. Abby was a trooper on the ride. Marina and I also spent some time doing our inside out coaching and finished our "reality" session.

The quest continues!

8/18/2011 - we finished Harry potter tonight and then started a new Catan game. We introduced a new variant tonight: Fishermen of Catan from Traders and Barbarians. The girls caught on quick and everyone had fun.

Game on!

Nice night at home. Kathleen prepared dinner for us as I taught the girls to play Ticket to Ride. We all had a nice evening and are looking forward to spending the weekend together

Thursday is Sunday

We all got sundaes at Brewster's today. The reward for some "hard work" at home.

Abby led the team in making dinner and Marina and I worked on improving her communication skills. We started by having Marina develop some goals for this year and have a next step to develop the plan to achieve the goals. We are working through the "inside-out" coaching methodology to allow Marina more ownership of her goal and plans. I hope it all goes well!

Magical Blockbuster Weekend

Friday night was great! Marina, Abigail, Kathleen and I all went out for pizza, Captain America and frozen yogurt. Several friends joined us (Ken, Chris and Chris' kids). Everyone loved the movie and I am happy that the girls are becoming fans of comic book movies (including Kathleen!). We need to add the classic Superman movies to the netflix list.

We went to the pool on Saturday and Sunday and also practiced some new magic tricks! I bought the girls a couple of magic kits and worked with the girls on some tricks. Some worked well:






some needed some practice: