soup

My kids are the pickiest eaters ever. Jonah could subside entirely on milk. I don't know how healthy he would actually be, but he would be really, really happy. Annie, on the other hand, is all about the mac & cheese. For her birthday she had mac & cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So, I'm still trying to figure out why on earth they like clam chowder. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE clam chowder. But, for two kids who turn their noses up at practically everything, clam chowder is kind of an odd thing to like. I've yet to tell them that there are actually clams in it. I'm sure that would ruin the whole thing. They first discovered it on the ferry when we made the mistake of forgetting to pack food with us. Now they ask for it every time we get on the boat. Naturally, they had it for breakfast today.

photos by annie

And now, Annie would like to share some pictures she took at her last soccer game.

Her coach. Errr, Dad. No, Coach. Dad? Oh, I'm so confused!


Shoes.


Bee. What? You don't see it?


Playing soccer.


Grass.

Brilliant, no?

jonah says

"No mom. Stop. That's not your song. That's my song." Said when I make the mistake of trying to sing the ABC's along with him.

"No Annie. You started it." How old is he, anyway?

"You woke me up!" In his grouchiest voice after I (gasp) woke him up to leave for school.

bacon!

Earlier, I mentioned my love for bacon. Googling the word "bacon" led me to some great bacon blogs, bacon recipes, bacon of the month clubs, and this. Next time we are in Seattle, I'm heading to Archie McPhees's!

In case you were wondering, St. Anthony really is the patron saint of swineherds.

yes, we've let him watch it

Joel loves Star Wars. I love Star Wars. Somehow, the kids liked Star Wars before they had even seen it. Jonah is partial to the original. Annie likes the Ewoks. We don't have a TV and the kids are only allowed to watch the occasional kid flick on one of our laptops, but somehow Star Wars has sneaked its way in.

i heart pancakes

I could eat them all day. When I was pregnant with Annie I would make them about 5 times a week. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, it didn't matter. Joel came home from work one night to find pancakes on the table for the 3rd time that week and very politely asked if I could start making something different for dinner. Naturally, it follows that Annie was born with the same love for pancakes and she can pack them away, especially when they are sprinkled with liberal amounts of powdered sugar. Me? I prefer mine with syrup. And bacon. If there were two foods I couldn't live without it would be pancakes and bacon. If I was stranded on a desert island and could only bring three things, two of them would be pancakes and bacon. You get the idea.

While we are on the subject, I need a good homemade recipe for pancakes. My current favorite is the Snoqualmie Falls mix but it's expensive and I'm trying to buy less packaged food. I figure, if I can find a good recipe, I can make a big mix of the dry ingredients and then just measure and add the wet ingredients. The problem is that most recipes I find use buttermilk and I never have buttermilk in my fridge. I found some powdered buttermilk but I don't know if it would work to use that in the dried mix and then add milk. I need to start looking, though, since we finished off our box of mix this morning.

one less car

During our first 10 years of marriage, Joel and I got by with one car. It was actually pretty great because it meant that we carpooled to work and spent more time together. (Sometimes I miss driving up Airport Road in the early mornings.) Then we moved Far Away from Joel's office. Far Away = up to two hours on the bus. Each way.

Enter car number two.

Having two cars made life much easier. No more buses. No more figuring out who needed the car when. No more bumming rides from friends when one person couldn't pick up the other. But, it also meant one more car payment. One more car to fill up with gas every week. One more excuse to not take the bus or walk or ride a bike. A few months ago we started talking about selling car number two. But, it was such a nice car and a great convenience to have at our disposal. So we stalled.

Moving to the island has been a great impetus for us to change our lifestyle. We walk to school and around town and Joel now bikes to work. I guess it helps that we live in a neighborhood where it's easy to do these things. I know people who would have a hard time getting by with just one car. But, we discovered we were barely driving one car, let alone two, so it was time for the sedan to go. Joel sold it this week. We feel a little bit richer (no more car payment), a little bit freer (one less "thing") and a little bit greener.

the fire station guy

A neighbor invited me to MOPS this morning and the guest speaker was a fireman who scared the hell out of me and my lack of fire preparedness. He kept asking questions like "Who checks their smoke alarms every month?" and "Who practices their escape plan?" Of course, I was the dummy who never got to raise her hand. It's too bad he didn't ask questions like "What's the number for 911?" or "Who knows what a fire is?" because then I could have raised my hand. After feeling properly chastised, I went home and checked my smoke detectors and discovered that 3 out of 6 of them DIDN'T EVEN WORK. We're all gonna burn up. So, I headed up to Home Depot to exchange the cheap mailbox that wouldn't close for 8 new batteries, 2 fire ladders and 3 new smoke detectors because, as Dave the fire guy said, you can never have too many smoke detectors.

The fire drills start tomorrow.

one more try

Yes, I know you have all been waiting with baited breath for the Walsh clan to return from our blog hiatus. Well, here we are. And by "we" I mean Elizabeth, because it's been almost 5 months since Joel has posted anything on his blog so it's highly unlikely he'll get to this one (not that I'm casting any aspersions, of course. He has been busy with work and kids and moving and putting up with his lovely wife!). I've been inspired by my long lost friend/college roommate/bridesmaid. Here goes.