Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Pass Me a Pancake, Mandrake!

Alice and Brook and I had a wonderful sleepover to celebrate Presidents' Day. We took each other to the Aquarium and then that night I got to watch Finding Nemo for the first time, which helped me to better understand the lure of the coral reef tank and to interpret all the little voices I had heard from calling out from their strollers, "Nemo! Nemo!" "Dory! Dory!" "Gill! Gill!" It's really a fabulous movie, and I recognized the voice of Albert Brooks playing Marlin before I even read the credits.

Our adventures were too numerous to recount all of them here (two days is a very long time and we already wrote the highlights in our sleepover journal), but I want to share with you the fact that I made pancakes for the very first time in my life. When I took the morning breakfast order, Alice was happy with Captain Crunch (thank goodness for mason jars and their long-term storage capabilities) but Brook said, "How about pancakes?" Luckily I had my trusty copy of How to Cook Everything--thanks to Jeff--and because there were kids coming, I had stocked up on extra milk (along with baloney and white bread.) Here is one of the first pancakes that I ever gave birth to:


And here are a couple of happy customers in my pancake restaurant (they were wonderfully kind about the fact that I didn't have any maple syrup--agave sweetener was an acceptable substitute):




We also made Native American longhouses and lived in them while we traded goods and services. Alice was a hunter/book dealer, I was a gatherer/storyteller and Brook traded blankets made to order. My gathering trips gave me a convenient opportunity to wash dishes and empty litter boxes, etc. and I brought back clementines from the dining room to share with all.

Here is our little village by Blue Carpet Lake (Alice lives under the recliner, I live on the couch and Brook owns the gorgeous mansion in the foreground--she is obviously the most successful person in the village and I think she could also make a living as an architect):


We also decided that we need to try to have sleepovers more than twice a year. Twice a year is not enough!

Don't forget to check out little Alice at Photo Tip of the Day.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Not for Nothin', Muffin!


Yee Haw!!!!!! We're goin' a thousand miles an hour and my eight-year-old kid is drivin' the boat!

(It's summer 1966 at Portage Lake in Maine and Phil has given the steering wheel to Scott and thrown caution to the winds - have a Happy Special Magical Birthday Weekend, Daddy!)