We;re back from our anniversary trip, and have a whopping one weekend until were off for another overnight trip to Daytona Beach. Luckily, Asa's on call week fell right where it needed to this month: Not on Calib's birthday weekend, Not on our weekend at Universal with the Sattlers, Not on anniversary weekend, and not on C.E.O in Daytona weekend (it's a busy June here!)
But, it did fall on the weekend that Toy Story 4 came out. Luckily, our theater was playing it on Thursday night (his on call rotation starts on Friday's at 5pm), so we were able to get it in. Super cute movie, but 2 is still my favorite Toy Story.
Peyton didn't go see it with us, he's not usually a movie person, but he does want to go see Spiderman Far From Home, which comes out on this birthday. So, we do have tickets for that.
Since we were home, I'm back into my dog walking morning routine. I started using the double leash when I walk Ellie and Phenom together and it's awesome. They pull each other along instead of pulling on me. Also, man, those walks are getting shorter and hotter. Today we just did the Blue Spring Drive loop and the dogs were really panting by the time we got back. Google did say the current feels like was 104 (at 10 AM!)
Despite the hot weather, Asa and I powered through our usual weekend bike ride of the 8 mile loop. The cooling towels and the overcast skies on Saturday really did help.
Friday was the first day of summer, and the first day of summer usually means it's time to hunker down inside the air conditioning to avoid the heat. Which also means it was time for another Waterstraut Family Tradition: Building the ever popular Blanket Fort. So, goodbye nice and clean living room. I'll see you in... August, maybe? We did just book our flights to Ohio for the end of the summer, so that's probably when it'll come down.
We're able to keep it up so long because of the frame of it. When we first started doing the blanket fort, we used random furniture and such to create the frame. The fact that four kitchen chairs were being used usually became a problem. So last year I thought of investing in some PVC pipe to make a frame, and it was awesome. Of course, I kept the frame for future years too.
And we have a case I sewed years ago to hold the specific blanket fort sheets. We don't use our good bed sheets, rather we have flat sheets from sets past (I even took some flat sheets from my grandmas house and we even have some old school 70s star wars sheets.It's a fun patchwork of my history!)
The frame is basically a cube- well, it's rectangular because we have extenders on two of the sides. But, it's super easy to put together. We also zip tie four poles to the coffee table in the middle of the room for support.
And then we just come in and pin sheets together. Ir's a pretty easy process.
And before long, you have yourself a wonderfully constructed blanket fort! Ta Da!
Etta wasn't too sure about the fort, until the fuzzy blankets made up the floor. Then she loved it.
The blankets and the pillows everyone make the fort super comfy. But, I'm old and have trouble with my back sometimes, so we also make sure to add in the beach chairs for us older folk. Dipper, however, enjoys the beach chairs as well.
I often wonder when we'll stop this summer tradition. I think maybe at some point the boys will outgrow the fort. But, then I think, I'm 37 and I still haven't outgrown it, so maybe not. There's not much better pastimes than drinking and playing cards in the blanket fort.
I mean, Hayden enjoys playing video games in the fort, and I even found Calib working on his Biology class in the fort.
And even Peyton shows up in the fort from time to time. Mostly just to be a teenager and nap, lay around, and use his phone, but hey, it's something!
The first night we have the fort up, we always get some sort of take out to have in the fort. Calib, unfortunately, had to work, so he missed it. But Asa and I went out to grab some food and then we all hung out in the blanket fort for the evening.
I may have also convinced Asa to stop for all you can swirl while we were out getting food.
The next morning I did discover Calib and Hayden had spent the night in the fort.
Since we were gone for the official father's day, we decided to reschedule our version of it for this past Sunday. We don't celebrate Father's Day here, instead we celebrate Hobbit Day- where we eat like Hobbits. Once Upon a Time we used to watch all the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies too. But, we've moved on to just movie marathons and video games.
But, the Hobbit thing for meals still applies with 7 meals in one day.
You really have to pace yourself, and I try and give out smaller portions. First Breakfast is always the same thing, Grilled Pound Cake with Lemon Creme and Berries.
Second breakfast is an assortment of breakfast meats and toad in the hole.
Usually then we'd have Elevensies. But, the thing about it is, then you have to get first AND second breakfast in before 11 AM, and in this house, that's a big ask. So, I rescheduled Elevensies for 11 PM to better accommodate this family. So, we moved on to some movie watching instead.
And we needed to work up an appetite so Asa and I went on another bike ride, though shorter than the 8 miles, but we stopped by the Connerton Park to play some Wizards Unite and get Asa some more spell energy.
Luncheon is one of the biggest meals for Hobbits. So, I made Flatbread pizzas. Everyone loves these because I can tailor to their tastes. I just get some naan bread and go to town with toppings. On this particualr day I made a peanut butter and jelly pizza (that's SO good- it has the freshly ground honey roasted peanut butter from Earth Fare, homemade strawberry jelly from my mom, and these little coconut cookies from Costco crushed up on top), a BLT, a taco (we had left over taco chicken from quesadillas a few nights before), a pesto chicken and a plain cheese with marinara sauce for Hayden.
I cut up my fruits and veggies at the beginning of the week so when we have salads and such I don't have to chop everything over and over again, so I pulled those out so people could top their pieces of naan bread pizza accordingly.
Of course, we're eating like hobbits so we have to have berries.
And Hobbits need 'Afters' (aka dessert) with Hobbit sized sweets. I picked up the mini fruit tart at Earth Fare and the mini apple pie at Publix, plus we had some leftovers from this week that I cut up and put on the cake plate.
Everyone showed up for lunch, mostly because nobody in this house will pass up the naan bread pizzas. But, the boys also like hobbit day because they can pop in and out of meals to whatever strikes their fancy.
After luncheon Asa, Hayden and I headed down to the pool.
For Afternoon Tea, I made Banana and Nutella Sandwiches along with some coffee (it's not tea, but everyone here likes coffee better).
Hobbits also enjoy mushrooms, so for dinner I made sure to add those in to our usual peppers and onions.
I served that with bangers and mash, salad, and berries.
Of course dinner also had to include afters. For the most part I pulled out the stuff we still hadn't finished off, but I also added in some Earth Fare cookies.
Supper is usually mushroom soup. But this year we went with a mushroom flatbread. Basically I put the leftovers from dinner on top of naan bread. Asa was the only one still in it for supper, though. The rest of us had tapped out.
By the time 11 PM rolled around, everyone was ready for elevensies. Now, it true Hobbit fashion, it should have been lembas bread. But, I made that a few times, and while it was fine, it was nothing too exciting. So, I basically just put together a little charcuterie of snacky items and leftovers from the day. We had some gouda cheese, a bunch of stuff from the Earth Fare olive bar, and some other leftovers. And then we ate it in the blanket fort to end the day.
Shout out to Asa who never minds rescheduling his Father's Day for our anniversary. We don't do public mush here, but he really is a great dad, and deserves his own day.
Since it's summer, I told Hayden maybe we'd take a workbook break and do some theme weeks. This week is a little weird since we'll be gone on Friday and he has/had library events three times in four days. Next week we have Peyton's birthday and the 4th of July. So, I told him we'd span a 'baking week' over those two weeks. Yesterday we made dinner rolls from scratch. I'd never done bread like that before, where you use yeast basically (I do make a good banana bread), so we were learning together.
But they actually came out really good!
Today were trying the same recipe again, but we're making it into monkey bread. It's in the oven now, so we'll see how that works out.
Also worth sharing: Asa and I don't drink a lot of wine, but my mom did leave us with a couple bottles. We didn't have a stopper once the cork was out, so I went to order one. You guys it's a CORGI but they call it a Corki! Amazing.
I leave you with a funny picture of Dipper, who reminded of me when we try and wake Peyton up in the morning.
Next Up: Heading to Daytona for a weekend at C.E.O as Peyton's birthday present!
