It's Friday night, and I'm blogging.. because tomorrow is unplugged day. We're banning any kindle, Xbox, TV, computer, ipod, nexus, ect use. Asa actually came up with the idea, and if it goes well we might make Unplugged Saturday a monthly occurrence. But Sunday is going to be super busy for me as next week is Game week. One of the funnest of the summer, but also one of the one that involves the most prep. So I figured I'd check one more thing off my list and get the blog done tonight. Summer is really going to start flying by now. Mom will be here next week, through Peyton's birthday on the second, until we all leave for Ohio on the 5th. I'll be there for ten days, before heading to Vegas, and then meeting back up with everyone in Seattle for a week on the west coast. By the time we get back there will only be a couple days left in July! So, as you can see, it's about to get busier than busy.
But, back to this week! I last left you after Hobbit Day had occurred. This week was Culture Week. When we voted on our summer theme weeks, Culture Week just barely made the cut. I'm glad that it did. Besides that, Asa and I celebrated our third Anniversary. Lets just make this easy and go day by day.
Monday: Antartica Day & Our Anniversary!
I wanted to get in a theme day, even though Asa and I were going out the entire evening. Knowing I wasn't going to make an elaborate meal, I also didn't want to do a country that we would be missing out on the cuisine, so we settled on Antartica.. which isn't technically a country. There isn't even an official flag for it, but we made a poster board anyway. I had gone to the library to get some books on each of our country, so the boys took those books plus the internet and all put some things on the board that they found interesting.
Truthfully, I was also trying to sneak in a way to hold a summer 'snowball' fight. I had read you could mix a box of cornstarch and a can of shaving cream to make a mold-able 'snow'. And despite the fact that Antartica is actually a desert (receiving very little precipitation), I planned it for our activity anyway. And it was A. BLAST. Seriously, SO much fun.
Asa was working, so he didn't partake. He stayed safely inside. Though, there were plenty of snowballs thrown his way that ended up on the sliding glass doors.
When all of our snow was gone, we were a total mess, so on went the sprinklers and out came the hose. Honestly, that just made a bigger mess. So, we ditched it all and went to the pool. It's since rained plenty of times (obviously, this is Florida and it's June), so I'm happy to say there's no residue of the Great Waterstraut Snowfall of 2013.
After the pool, Asa and I shared our anniversary cake. It's a good excuse to get out our cake knife (which was also my parents-- we share the same anniversary). I promised the cake knife to the first kid to get married on June 17th.
Oh, and things might have gotten slightly out of hand after that.
We also took our anniversary picture. You know, where we take a picture of anniversary #3 while holding the picture from anniversary #2, in which we were holding the picture from anniversary #1.
Peyton did a good job taking pictures. Now we just have to figure out which one we want to print out. But my favorite has to be the piggy back one.
Justin and I made a deal about me watching the rest of The Lord of the Rings, if he would watch the kids for the whole evening. He showed up right after work, around 3:45 and Asa and I headed out. Justin was even so nice to take the next day off so we could stay out as late as we wanted. We had decided to go to Disney, even though we had just been there Friday (and Asa on Thursday too). Our first stop: Disney Quest. We even got to play Let's Go Jungle!
After awhile, we decided to go over to the Winterland Putt Putt Course. It's the only Disney course we hadn't done before. And I just realized we never totaled up our score to see who won. I'm going to have to go look for the score card now!
It started raining, hard, when we were on hole 17, so we abandoned the last hole in favor of heading to dinner early.
We have wanted to eat at Ohana FOR.EVER. But, it's rather expensive, and just not feasible for all five of us, and Asa and I have gone to Disney minus kids a total of two times, the last two anniversaries, coincidentally. So when we decided a few months ago to go to Ohana, I thought for sure we wouldn't be able to get a reservation. It's one of those that books up 180 days in advance. There was one left, for 9:15. But I had heard if you show up early they can often accommodate you, especially if you are a party of three or less. So, around 8 when the rain started, we headed over. After wandering the gift shops at the Polynesian for about 10 minutes our buzzer went off for our table. Success!
First of all, you should know Ohana is all you can eat, family style, brought to your table, Polynesian food. And it is AMAZING. But, before I talk about our food.... can I just say for a second how AWESOME our table was. They said it's one of the best in the restaurant. The table was next to the window, and just beyond the trees, you could see Cinderellas castle. Awesome, just amazing view.
Then they brought out the food. (Commence googling to get the names of everything to make sure I get it right) First you have some pineapple bread. There was just a faint taste of pineapple to it, but it was delicious. I could have filled up on bread and the Mixed Greens with Honey-Lime dressing alone. It is worth noting, they leave everything on your table so you don't have to eat it in courses, which I loved. We eventually did eat the whole loaf and most of the salad. They were both sweet without being overwhelming. I need to find a way to recreate the salad at home. It had mangos and some other kind of fruit in it.. but I can't remember now.
Then they bring you out appetizers. The Pork fried dumplings, and Corriander chicken wings. Both had a sweet and tangy sauce drizzled over them. Let me just say I was least excited about the dumplings (and the noodles which I'll tell you about next), but they ended up being probably my favorites. Whatever they put on top of it, I wish they would bottle. I could eat anything with that over top of it.
After that, you're served broccoli and green peas and pad Thai noodles. The vegetables were good, and I learned Asa LOVES baby corn. I had no idea. Ten years, you think you know a guy. But the noodles. Oh my gosh, I know you're thinking 'really how good can noodles be?' But they were awesome. I wish they would have stayed warmer longer, but I ate them when they got a little colder anyway.
And then, the servers come around with meat/shrimp on long skewers and give you as much as you want:Marinated sirloin steak, Asian BBQ pork loin, Mesquite grilled turkey, and non-peeled shrimp. I had two small pieces of each, the steak was my favorite. The pork was just ok. Asa had several helpings of steak and shrimp. It was all so good.
Then, lets talk non-food related awesomeness, our server was lovely. The guy playing the ukele throughout dinner was charming, and all the anniversary couples (us included!) got up and danced per his request. The next table over was about 5 older couples all out to dinner together, and they thought it was adorable we were on our anniversary and were very sweet to us. Not to mention the guy who sat us who came back to check on us, and remind us it was nearly firework time, so if we just took our time we would have one of the best tables in the house to see the fireworks over the castle (they even pump the Wishes music into the restaurant to accompany the fireworks). Oh, and the grill mid-restaurant out in the open where the cook all the meat is pretty cool, too.
And of course, there was dessert. I was so full by this time, I'm pretty sure Asa had most of it. But the 'Ohana bread pudding a la mode with Banana Foster sauce was just as yummy as the rest of the meal. Adding to it was certainly finishing up while the fireworks went off. All together it was $100 for everything, so nothing we would do more than once a year, but we might have a new anniversary tradition.
The ONLY downside of the day was the lightning storm. I was pretty sure the pool would be closed, therefore foiling our anniversary tradition of jumping in a pool in our clothes. But we walked down there anyway, and sure enough we were met with a sign dashing all our hopes and dreams. (Ok, that might be a little dramatic, but I was bummed).
But, there was the sounds of a bubbling creek nearby, and we knew what we had to do. So, we headed up into a probably restricted area, sat in the fountain that starts the whole creek and splashed around in it. We hopped out, narrowly missing an employee driving one of those little Disney carts. We contend it counts.
Asa took a picture, which turned out blurry and not awesome, but you can totally tell I'm drenched from fountain jumping (again, totally counts) We even came prepared with a change of clothes, knowing we wouldn't want to drive all the way home drenched. We got home a little after midnight.
Also cute story: Asa went to bed early on Sunday night knowing he wouldn't be getting much sleep Monday, getting home late and working early. But, at exactly midnight there was the smallest knock on our door. I sighed wondering what had happened that a kid needed us at midnight, and when I quietly said 'come in', all three kids opened the door to shout 'Happy Anniversary!'. It woke up Asa, and he wasn't thrilled, but I thought it was so sweet. I only found out two days later, Hayden had no idea what an anniversary was.
Tuesday: Netherlands Day
Getting home late, Asa let me sleep as late as I could. Apparently, that time is noon. I was rather upset, because I had missed the whole morning, when we usually do our academics. But, since Tuesday is Geography day and we were studying a different country each day this week anyway, I let it slide.
We made the Netherlands board including windmills, fishing, beer, and a weird sport called Fierljeppen (aka Canal Jumping).
And then had our project for the day, in which we made dutch pottery. You know, white plates with blue decorations. We colored the plates with blue sharpies. I had seen the project on pinterest where you color it and then bake it. It half worked, but it didn't stay very blue. So far though, the designs are still there. Yes, Peyton and Hayden are still in their pajamas and it was like 1 pm.. don't judge me.
For our Netherlands dinner we had Beef with Apples over Mashed Potatoes. Not bad, but not amazing.
And dessert was Haagse Bluf, a blackberry meringue type of creme. Asa put it on the leftover Lembas bread from Hobbit Day and called it an elven pop tart. Peyton, Asa, and I all really enjoyed it. Calib and Hayden took a bite and passed.
Wednesday: South Africa
After we finished Writing Wednesday, the boys got out all their books and happily made their South Africa board. Complete with soccer balls, the three capitol cities, and poisoness snakes (they have a lot!)
Our South Africa food was Bobotie with yellow rice. On their own, they were ok. The bobotie was actually kind of sweet. When I mixed them together on my plate, though, magic happened. So yummy. Everyone was pretty happy with this meal. Oh, and there was a mixed green salad too.
And the desert, we BAKED. And it turned out FABULOUSLY. Thats two things in a week that the boys and I have baked and it wasn't disastrous . Don't call it a comeback, and certainly don't call me a baker. Because, I'm still not. I'll still be doing all the no-bake Christmas Cookies. Anyway, it was a Melktert. Mostly milk, eggs, and sugar baked in a pie crust with cinnamon sugar on top. But, for real, it's good. It's like a fluffy cheesecake. Really light. It got two thumbs up all around the table.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Our craft was making a mancala board. We painted an egg carton and got out some beads. It worked pretty well. And after explaining the game to the kids, they got pretty into it. Hayden wasn't nearly the stratigic player that his brothers were, but he at least got the game concept.
Thursday: Mexico
I knew when we were voting on countries, Mexico would make it in. Any excuse to have Mexican food and these kids are sold. I wanted to make it authentic though, I wasn't just going to go to the store and get stuff for tacos like I usually do. So after making our board which was heavily Aztec influenced, we made our own refried beans. Yes, thats right, for the first time in my whole lie I bought dry beans. Not canned. And they were yummy.
We also made homemade flour tortillas. This I would so do again. I probably need to roll them a little thinner, but the payoff was big. Peyton wouldn't try them, but the rest of us were totally sold.
It wasn't a ton of work, but letting Hayden have full access to a bag of flour probably wasn't my best move.
Oh, and AND for dessert, we made homemade churros. They were there one second, and gone the next. So, by that measurement a total success.
Our project for the day is still uncompleted. But we are making paper mache maracas. They took a very long time to dry (thank you, Florida humidity), so we'll add some rice and popcorn tomorrow for the noise, and some handles tomorrow. It'll be a good project for unplugged day. Especially if it rains, and we're inside most of the day.
Thursday is also Science Day, and this weeks project was invisible ink. We mixed lemon juice and water and used a q-tip to write on printer paper. Once it dried, there was nothing on the paper, but it showed back up when it was held close to a light bulb. (The new living room lamp for my mom came in handy!)
And, I've managed to get at least Calib to help me with my newest quilting project. I don't want to share too much and ruin the surprise. Don't worry, you'll get to see the finished project-- just not until after July 21st. Sometimes though, I do things with my boys, and I think... 'their future wife is going to thank me for this'. Laundry, dishes, fixing a hole in some pants.. you know, those sorts of things. You're welcome future Kettner/Waterstrauts. Sorry about Peyton's picky eating though, I still can't help you there.
Friday: Australia Day
Everyone was looking forward to Australia day. By the time the boys completed the Australia board and hung it up with the others, I was pretty proud of myself. After all, look at all the research they did all week and they had no idea they were doing 'school' work. See, I'm sneaky, Peyton THINKS he's on summer vacation, but really were still trucking away at home school. It's just a little less work, and more activities. But I have them all totally fooled.
I had found a tutorial on how to make an origami boomerang, so we all sat down and folded away. They actually worked out pretty well. While nobody caught their boomerang on the way back, they did for sure come back to you. We also looked up some aboriginal (whoa, no spell check on that? go me!) drawings and added those to our boomerangs.
Dinner tonight was amazing, and reminded me a lot of Ohana. We had 'Shrimp on the Barbie', although they actually don't call Shrimp, 'Shrimp' there, so Prawns on the Barbie? Either way, Australians love their barbecues.
We also made a grapefruit honeydew and prosciutto salad with a light honey vinaigrette dressing, and some crispy potatoes. The salad Asa and I loved, but there were mixed reviews from the kids. The potatoes and shrimp were a hit all around though.
Besides Ohana, of course, this was mine and Asa's favorite meal of the week. Hands down. SO good.
And then there was dessert. I made caramel bananas over vanilla ice cream. It was hands down everyone's favorite. And thats saying something, because the melktert was pretty popular.
Overall, this week was a total success. However, I am looking forward to pulling some meals out of the freezer and tossing them into the slow cooker. There's been so much cooking lately!
Also worth noting, HAPPY SUMMER! While here in Florida, summer isn't as exactly welcome as it is up north, it still has that connotation of fun with it. We did fit in our first summer family trip to the pool (Asa is usually at work when we go).
Calib begged for Peyton to teach him how to do a flip. I'm not sure how Asa laying in front of them helped (as Calib still can't do it), but the kids had fun.
Oh, and congrats to the Miami Heat. Calib and I stayed up together last night to watch Game 7 and it was amazingly entertaining. Calib was thrilled the Heat won. He's begging to go to a game next year, we'll see what we can do.
Thats all folks. I've got things to do, and kindle to gorge on before I can't for 24 hours!
Next Up: Game Week! Grandma Visits! Rootbeer Floats!
