jennanddave.com

dave: Gah! *sputter* *curse* *sputter*
me: What's wrong?
dave: Argh!
me: Wait! I know! Did you put red food dye into the whipping cream instead of vanilla?
dave: Who put the red food coloring where the bottle of vanilla is usually kept?!?!
me: I haven't used the red food coloring in so long. I have almost confused the two myself, though. Almost.
dave: Win any games of Checkers lately?
me: Read any bottle labels lately, Chemist?
dave: Ooooo. Good one. I think you won that round.

Posted by Jenn at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday evening we went to the circus. Dave and I, unbeknownst to each other, picked up free admission tickets for the kids from a local coffee shop, set them aside, them completely forgot about them. I recall thinking that I should mark it on the calendar, however, that's apparently as far as I got.

Yesterday after lunch, Dave called me up and said "So, I was at the coffee shop and I picked up a free admission ticket for a circus that's coming to town." I said I had as well, and that I had marked the date on the calendar. To which Dave replied "It's tonight!" Only Dave and I can plan an outing weeks in advance and still manage to have it be completely spontaneous.

The circus was small, billed as "Old-fashioned". When we got into the tent and saw how small the ring was, and what the bleacher seating consisted of, Dave was worried about what we'd gotten ourselves into whereas I was all "This is going to be awesome." It was awesome, too. There was a trapeze artist, a balancing act, clowns (Henry's favorite), a woman who hula'd 50 hoops at once, a camel called
"Lawrence of Arabia" (which Henry and Dave went for a ride on during the intermission), goats. I'm forgetting some of the acts, but the whole show was a blast. It was also stinking hot. The four of us sucked down many sno-cones, just to stay cool. One of us also had cotton candy and popcorn. And another one of us had a hot dog. I'm not sure how he passed up the corn dogs. Henry came home sporting an amazing pink cotton candy mustache.

Posted by Jenn at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

What better way to follow up a Mother's Day post than one about Father's Day?

I asked Dave what he wanted to do for Father's Day and he said "Go to Perkins for breakfast." My man dreams big. Actually he does dream big because the reason he wanted to go to Perkins was to indulge in one of those ridiculously huge breakfast platters that feature lots of eggs, hash browns, pancakes, and kielbasa, and indulge he did. Six hours later he told me with great pride that he had eaten every bite of it. Henry daintily nibbled on pancakes with rainbow sprinkles after drowning them in every kind of syrup on the table, and devoured lots of bacon. Holly ate a ridiculous quantity of food, but I'm saving the subject of what she eats for a separate post altogether because seriously, you would not believe what and how much she eats.

After Perkins we retreated back to the homestead so Holly and Dave could sleep off their breakfasts, then after a bit of waffling about what to do for the rest of the day, ended up heading to Knoebel's, which, I have to confess, is what I was secretly hoping we'd do all along because Father's Day is all about mom's, right? We had a great time. Henry rode lots of rides, bounced his heart out, and swam around in the ball pit. Holly and Dave went down a big slide together and then she took each us for a spin in a car. Dave is convinced she's going to be the one who's a daredevil, willing to go on anything with him, but I have to say, we can't rule Henry out just yet. Whereas Holly is definitely showing signs of being more impulsive, Henry's more cerebral about his decisions with respect to what he'll go on, but when he feels comfortable with it, he's ready and willing. Dave won a clownfish doll at the frog toss game, which made up for our utter failure to get a blue bear with the claw game at Perkins, a disappointment that was so great it reduced Henry to sobs. We also ate. A lot.

We came home exhausted, dusty, and happy, all signs of a very good day.

Posted by Jenn at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last year for Mother's Day, Dave and Henry got me two black raspberry plants. Raspberries are my absolutely favorite thing to eat in the summer, and I was thrilled at the prospect of growing our own. We thought very hard about where to plant them, decided on a sunny spot, and let them get settled in. Last year they didn't do much other than to produce a few canes, as well as make some half-hearted inroads into our rhododendron. By mid-April, it had become clear that this was going to be a very good year for raspberries around these here parts.

Last week, the very first raspberry ripened to a beautiful, glossy black. Henry plucked it off the plant and suggested we take it across the street to give to the elderly woman we often stop and visit with. So we did. Sometimes Henry blows me away with his thoughtfulness. The next one ripened and Henry decided it should go to daddy. I was graced with the third one, mainly because I ran outside and grabbed it before Henry could get his hands on it and bring it to any of our other neighbors. Sometimes I blow myself away with my selfishness.

It was delicious.

Posted by Jenn at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

...was one of those times that I'm fairly certain Henry will remember in some nebulous-but-pleasantly-happy, "those were the days", kind of way for the rest of his life. We packed a picnic dinner, headed to a local state park, where we ate, listened to a great band, and hung out with friends. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, not too warm and not chilly. By the time we got home, Henry and Holly were up two and half hours past their bedtime and yet somehow managing to maintain pleasant demeanors. To top the night off completely, Henry was thrilled to see fireflies drifting around in the backyard and eventually raced around to the front to see if they were there, too. They were.

Posted by Jenn at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...after going back and forth for what we should do for Father's Day, Henry said "My brain just hatched a plan!" Where does he get this stuff?

Also, check this out, just in case you were wondering what it was like to be inside Dave's head. Or if you ever wondered what you'd have to deal with if you were married to him.

Posted by Jenn at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The beach was excellent. We ate sno-balls, taffy, pizza, burgers, but most importantly, we ate lots of shellfish. I'll tell you a secret about Dave: he makes a wicked seafood boil. He's got the system down for when to add what and for how long so that everything comes out steamed to perfection. It's a beautiful thing. We walked on the beach, watched many a pod of dolphins, admired the pelicans (with our mouths closed, of course) as they coasted over our heads. Henry enjoyed playing in the sand, but refused to go near the surf, per usual. Holly was not impressed with the ocean the first day (I think it may have been a little loud) and was *really* not impressed with the sand, but we wore her down gradually, and she spent a good amount of time on the last day with her daddy, sitting in a beach chair down by the water. It was very sweet. I went online and saw that the next week wasn't booked, and Dave and I talked a little bit about me and Holly staying for another week, but it wouldn't have been the same without everyone else there.

Meanwhile, I'm in denial that we're back home. Usually I'm pretty happy to come home after being away, but this trip was definitely an exception. So to pull myself out of my funk, I threw myself into cleaning and tidying the house, the yard, the everything. By Friday I'd worked myself up into such a state that I was nursing a nausea-inducing headache by the time the kids were in bed. I went to bed myself at 8:30. The next night I went to bed at 9. Yesterday I decided to revel in my misery and started to think about breaking up the summer with a few more trips than are on our agenda. I need the change of scenery.

Posted by Jenn at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned I was making a couple of journals for the Write It Out Project? Well, there were prizes, and I was lucky enough to win this beautiful Patriotic Log Cabin Table Runner from KigraPatchwork's Etsy shop. Try not to be too jealous.

Posted by Jenn at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)