Walking Casper

Since the weather was only in the low 70's today, I decided it was a good day to go walk a dog. So Tyler and I headed over to the Humane Society and picked out a smaller dog that didn't look like it'd pull us around too much.

I'm not sure what breed he is, but his name is Casper (although I kept wanting to call him Chester) and he was very mild mannered. He didn't try to jump all over us like the Chihuahua we walked last time.

The Humane Society is right next door to the Greenway, so it makes for a perfect pathway for walking dogs. We started out kind on slow though....Casper was more interested in sitting in the grass than anything else.

But we finally got things moving and walked to the 3/4 mile marker and then turned around and came back. We could have gone farther, but that particular part of the path wasn't shaded and Casper was starting to pant up a storm.

The view sure was nice though.

Once we made it back to the start we hung out on the grass for a bit before it was time to return Casper to the shelter. It's a little sad in there seeing the animals cooped up in small quarters, so hopefully he finds a good home soon.

Art in the Park: Thank You Cards

Yesterday was the second Art in the Park project and this time the kids were making Thank You cards, or just cards in general, I guess you would say. The assignment was to make 2 cards - 1 for a friend or family member and 1 for the community Meals on Wheels program.

First Tyler decided to make a card for me.

He's been on a real Phineas and Ferb kick lately....he's even got a temporary tattoo of Perry the platypus on his hand. So that was his inspiration. On the front of the card he drew a picture of Perry.

And on the inside he cut out a heart and wrote 'I love you Mommy'.

Then he moved on to his second card, the one to be given to a Meals on Wheels recipient.

On the cover he drew some flowers and colored in a blue sky.

And on the inside he wrote 'Have a nice Day' and drew another flower.

Then after he finished both cards we headed over to the playground for awhile.

Huh!? Tyler doesn't need help on the monkey bars anymore? When did that happen? I must have blinked my eyes.

Tyler in the Kitchen

I haven't been feeling well enough to care about trying new recipes lately. All that matters is that I get something on the dinner table each night. Period. I haven't been making much in the way of desserts or breakfast treats either, but that's where Tyler's been picking up the slack. He's been working his way through the June section of his Gooseberry Patch year-round cookbook.

As soon as school was out, his priority was to make some Chocolatey Lava Cakes.

The recipe says it serves 8, so we cut the ingredients in half, but still ended up with 5 cakes.

The first step was melting together chocolate chips and butter and then stirring in some vanilla.

Next he mixed the dry ingredients together.

And combined them with the wet ingredients. Then I helped him beat in the eggs using a hand-held mixer. After chilling the mixture, we divided it evenly among 5 muffin cups.

And then waited for exactly 11 minutes for them to bake up in the oven.

Then it was show time....except for the fact that I couldn't get the little buggers out of the pan.

Note to self: Next time don't follow the instructions of greasing the pan with butter and then dusting with cocoa powder. Just use Baker's Joy instead. You'll be sorry otherwise.

We finally managed to scoop them out of the pan with a spoon and then topped them off with whipped cream and M&M's. Delish!

Next he made Lemon Shake-Up.

It's basically a single serving of lemonade using just 1 lemon.

First he cut and squeezed the bejesus out of the lemon.

Then he added some ice, sugar, and water and started shakin'.

After it was all mixed up, he poured it into a cup, garnished it with a lemon slice and put it on the table to go with his lunch. The color came out a little 'orange' because we used agave nectar for the sweetener instead of granulated sugar. Next time, I don't know, I might just stick with the regular sugar, because the taste was kind of off as well. But then who am I to criticize. Tyler drank it right up without a single complaint.

Lunch and a Movie

First with some celebratory news, I got my hearing back yesterday. Well not completely, but it's MUCH better than it's been for the past week, which was almost non-existent. I can actually hear stuff without relying on closed captioning or shouts from Rick and Tyler. What a relief!

So before my ears had a chance to change their mind, Tyler and I quickly ran out for lunch and a movie. As you may or may not know, Mr. Popper's Penguins opened last weekend, but I was too sick to go....not to mention the fact that I couldn't hear, so of course we had to put it off. But now we were on our way.

For lunch we stopped to eat at Sonic. Normally we'd go for sandwiches at Subway, Quizno's or the Sub Shop (a local favorite), but with coupons for free food at Sonic, that's where we ended up. The food isn't so bad there, but eating in the car.... 

...not so glamorous! And the service is kind of terrible. All we ordered was a hamburger kid's meal with apple slices and a slushy drink for Tyler and a Sonic Burger for myself, but apparently that was too complicated. They tried charging me for the burger and a full sized drink, even though the burger was supposed to be free and the drink was supposed to be a child's size and included with the price of the kid's meal. And then they forgot to include the caramel sauce that comes with the apples. Not that we needed it or missed it at all, but it's supposed to come with the apples...just saying.

Then we were off to the movies.

Yeah, yeah, it was opening day for Cars 2, but I'm sick all the 3D movies....don't they make normal animated films anymore?

As for Mr. Popper's Penguins, Tyler and I both enjoyed it. It didn't really follow along with the book, but from the previews, that's what we'd expected anyway. The only similarity is that Mr. Popper has penguins that become increasingly hard to manage. The rest was a giant Hollywood re-write. Oh well, Tyler and I still had a great time.

Art in the Park: Super Hero Logos

Now that it's officially the first week of summer, The Allied Arts began their 6-week Art in the Park program. Tyler got out of school on the 10th, so he's been waiting anxiously for the summer events to get started. Last year he was in summer school and missed the art in the park, but this year he was ready to go.

The theme this year is 'I'm a Hero', so the first project was to create your own Super Hero Logo.

After some suggestions from the art teacher, Tyler had identified his super power and got right to work making his badge. He drew a picture of his logo, colored it, cut it out and then pasted it on to a piece of purple construction paper.

Can you tell what it is? It's Tyler setting the table. He thinks he's a hero when it comes to helping out in the kitchen....and I agree.

Once he completed his badge, he taped it to his shirt and wore it around for the rest of the morning.

Then he made a heart for me to wear so I wouldn't feel left out.

He's holding it there in his hand....it's kind of hard to see. Side note: Can someone please teach me how to sit up straight already! Is that Tyler and Slouchy Mcgee, or what!

I think I need to take a lesson from Mother Goose over there.....she's no slouch!

Calling All The Kings Horses

And all the Kings Men,

Too much more of this,

And I'll need someone to put me back together again.

Here I am in the midst of my 8th month and my hips are giving out on me and on top of that I'm sick, sick, SICK!

The baby loves hanging out on the right side of my belly, which looks kind of funny since I have an awkward bulge on that side, but even worse, the imbalance is wreaking havoc on my hips. Especially the right one. So while I wake up each morning in relatively good condition, by the end of the day I'm walking around like an 80 year old cripple. Not cute. So last week I went in for physical therapy, doing different exercises and stretches to relieve the pain. I can't really comment on its effectiveness though. I was only able to go the one time....I've been too sick to go again.

Sick with what you ask? Only the meanest cold I've ever had. Blech! Between the body aches, stuffy head, cough, and difficulty breathing....it's a real doozie. Oh yeah, and both of my eardrums ruptured the other night, leaving me with more #@*! pain and about 75-80% hearing loss. So Tyler's home on Summer break and not only am I too wiped out to do anything with him....I can't hear a hoot he says. Sounds funny, but it's not. For now the doctor has me on a round of antibiotics, so hopefully I start seeing some improvement soon.

Father's Day

Tyler was so excited about Father's Day that he couldn't even wait for Rick to get out of bed before accosting him with gifts.

I could understand his excitement because this year we decided to make a super special handmade gift. I've been lucky the past two years and have received handmade gifts from Tyler for Mother's Day, so I thought we should try and do the same for Rick.

So earlier this week we went over to Hands On Art to pick out a piece of pottery to paint. Tyler chose this little airplane, picked out all the colors, painted it to perfection and then left it behind for it's turn in the kiln.

We went back and picked it up on Saturday after it had been glazed and fired. I think it came out nice. And on the underside on the wings it says, Happy Father's Day 2011. So that's what was inside the gift bag. That and a Dove dark chocolate and almond candy bar.

For dinner it was a repeat of last year. Grilled pepper steak packets.

Inside the foil packets was a yummy mixture of sliced sirloin steak, rice, teriyaki sauce, sliced bell pepper, onion, and broccoli. Mmmmm. And for dessert we had ice cream cones with the pint of Baseball Nut we brought home from Baskin Robbins.

Happy Father's Day 2011