My Wee One is 10...

Our youngest is 10.  Wah.....Like all parents we wonder where the time has gone.  We had a birthday party for him and brought the gang down to the park where we hadn't been in a couple years.  It brought back a ton of memories of when both our kids were little.  We were at that park at least three times a week back then.  We felt a little out of place today, watching all the new parents there.  On the days when your kids are being weenies, you may question your decision to ever have kids.  But when you are at the park like we were today, those weenie days seem impossible.  In fact, you regret the weenie days altogether.

Meteor Shower and Family Bonding

So I heard there was going to be a magnificent meteor shower on Saturday night.  I convinced my family to go out looking for it.  I enticed them with a beach fire and, for my husband and I, some of our favorite brew. After sitting around the fire for almost an hour, my snarky daughter said, "This is what happens when you believe a Facebook post on meteor showers, mom."  Rude.

I do believe we saw at least six shooting stars after that, two of which were seen by Miss Skeptical.  And in between we had some family bonding time which we needed.  It was fun!

Until the next morning when we realized the lighter fluid bottle wasn't closed all the way and had leaked in the trunk.  Brilliant as a meteor, I tell ya.

To-Do List Follow-Up

Let's see how I did, shall we?...

1. Grocery shop with reusable bags instead of getting plastic ones (CHECK)
2. Collect branches for a craft I'm working on
3. Start a cork project (CHECK)
4. Make invitations for Garret's birthday (CHECK)
5. Take pictures for Garret's birthday party scavenger hunt (CHECK)
6. Buy boots for Kalen (CHECK)
7. Make flag for information picket (CHECK)
8. Bring a load of yard crap to the compost (CHECK)

Branches just didn't happen.  It was rainy and cold most of the time.  I will have to wait for dryer weather.  But all in all I'm glad I completed most of my list.  Here's the cork project I completed.

A little cork board strip.  I found this strip of trim in my garage.  I stained it then attached the corks with hot glue.  Some of the rubbery corks didn't like the hot glue so I used tacky glue for them.  Pretty easy.  

To-Do List For My Long Weekend

I have a 4-day weekend coming up.  Woohoo! 

Here's my to-do list.  Afterwards, I will post on how well I did.

1. Grocery shop with reusable bags instead of getting plastic ones
2. Collect branches for a craft I'm working on
3. Start a cork project
4. Make invitations for Garret's birthday
5. Take pictures for Garret's birthday party scavenger hunt
6. Buy boots for Kalen
7. Make flag for information picket
8. Bring a load of yard crap to the compost

Wish me luck!

Beer and Cheese Tasting

We got some tickets for a beer and cheese tasting event at a local micro brew along with the local co-op.  It sounded interesting.  Usually it would be a wine and cheese event but they were free tickets given to us by a friend, we like beer, and we like cheese so what the heck...

The menu:

1. Belgian Wit and Donnay Dairy Organic Chevre (goat cheese)
2. Saison and Brie Couronne
3. Acer Rubrum (brown ale) and Old Amsterdam (Gouda)
4. Summit IPA and Carr Valley Applewood Smoked Cheddar
5. IPA and Roquefort

My Favorite Beer:  Belgian Wit, Saison, and Acer Rubrum
My Favorite Cheese:  Gouda, Smoked Cheddar, and Roquefort

I have to say the Roquefort is such an odd mix.  It smells like a cow patty or as my husband said, "It smells like back home."  But strangely enough I liked the strong taste.  I do like blue cheese but this stuff is over the top.

The brewery we went to is in an old building that used to be a car garage, many times over.  I feel a special connection to it because my grandpa worked there as a mechanic.  My grama worked at the candy shop up the street.  They met in that neighborhood.  She would walk by the garage while he was on his breaks.  Kind of romantic, I think.  The brewery that is there now incorporates some of that history.  Everything is recycled and reused.  Bar stools are made of wood and old pipe.  The bar has old tin roofing along the outside of it.  The booths were going to be thrown away by another local business and were reupholstered with old army blankets.  The list goes on and on.  Super cool place.