backhoes & shark fins & snails, oh my!

Whew! Made it through the day somehow. We've been living with reconstruction of the water main on our street for over a year, and it's getting a little old. But today they were working right on top of us. They even nicked our gas line, so no cooking for me for half the day. But we got it fixed for free plus a new gas meter, so all's well that ends well I suppose...

Oh yeah...lunch!
Ryan lunch: Spongebob's pet snail Gary, made of vegan bologna, tomato, soy cheese, nori, and edible ink; Gary is sitting on top of some twirly wrap sandwiches made with Vegannaise, smoked Tofurky, soy cheese, & lettuce on flax lavash; steamed broccoli; Spongebob mac & cheez (my own cheez sauce subbed for the boxed crap of course).Some pics from the construction...





















We got access back to and from our driveway just in time for the cupcake stand as school let out, however the construction prevented many parents from parking in their usual spots along the curb, so most of the customers were construction guys!

AJ
wanted
to take
the
"long
cut"
home
from
school
to avoid
the
construc-
tion
(3-4
minutes
versus
the usual
2-3
minutes).
The
rail
trail
runs
conveniently between the school and our back yard.

AJ got things started while waiting for Ryan to walk home from first grade...
I think the most amusing
customer was the steam
roller driver who pulled
up, got out, and bought a
cup of iced tea. Other
customers included the
mailman and the NStar
gas repairman.

Today's goods were:
chocolate cupcakes,
pineapple skewers,
and iced tea. Luckily
there were enough
cupcakes left over
for us all...good thing
I made two dozen!

Choco-
late
cup
cakes
with
vanilla
frosting
and
dark
choco-
late
crisps.
Very
tasty
indeed!
And
don't
they
look
like
shark
fins?!

Nate was an excellent cupcake customer, but he wasn't all that in to watching construction equipment, actually the boys watched maybe 10 minutes total all day, go figure...









Nate was more
interested in
building with
blocks inside
or battling
bubbles in the
yard with foam
swords. But he did
help bake the
cupcakes, and
licked the bowl
very well!

Maia has become quite knowledgeable about cupcakes as well, freaking out if she sees one and you don't share immediately!

Among other favourite
things of Maia's are
balls, bubbles, balloons,
bananas, beans, berries,
her Blue Bear...she's
pretty good with her
B words obviously!

The boys gave it the
usual hour, then closed
up and enjoyed
cupcakes and tea for
themselves.

We'll see how long
they keep this up
into the fall!

Long weekend
approaching for
school...so I'll
be back with bentos
on tuesday, but
I have a product
review, cookbook
challenge log, and
recipes to fill the days!

backlog weekend

We've been so busy enjoying the last week of summer vacation and getting ready for school to start that I haven't overloaded the blog with my usual plethora of kids pics. Fear not! LOL You can ignore this post and wait until monday for me to post something useful again. Ha ha.

First up, Ryan at the
Lego store for Lego
Club meeting. He built
some really cool stuff
this time. It's actually a
good deal: $15 gets you
an hour of building time
with 19 other kids split
into 4 groups, a cool
t-shirt (my husband's wardrobe is 99% Magic t-shirts, Ryan's is creeping up to 20% Lego t-shirts), a coupon if you want to buy anything, and a big grab bag of random Lego bricks to take home.

Maia knows how to say
"water bottle" quite
clearly, so it wasn't much
of a stretch for her to learn
one of her brothers' fave
pasttimes, "water battle".
Nate had a turn with the
hose, but Ryan was ready
with a repurposed chalk
board shield, LOL.

Oh, did I ever mention I
grew Turkish eggplant this
summer? They were doing
great...I had like 10 of them
on 1 plant growing nicely...
until Mr. Woodchuck decided
they were just right for
harvesting. He left me ONE. And he even left a few marks in that one. He completely devoured my cilantro plant. Grrrr...

With 4 kids it's hard to
keep up with all that
goes on. Maia took her
first steps over a week
ago! She's only managed
3 consecutive steps so
far; she's quite cautious.


The boys' weekend stand
consisted of homemade
chocolate chip cookies,
watermelon slices, and
berry iced tea. The boys
all really loved the apple
juice sweetened iced tea.
Ryan said, "if I ever have
a tea party, that's what
I'll serve." AJ is the only
one who likes hot tea, and
he prefers Japanese green
tea.
They used a "Cookies" sign and bubbles to try to lure in customers driving by.













Maia's appetite for solid food has been steadily increasing. She usually shares what I have, along with a plate of finger food for her to eat herself.
\
And of course the farm
is providing plenty, despite
the lack of tomatoes.

Volunteers spend a lot of
time making the farm a
beautiful place to spend
time...

weekend left over

My husband has returned this morning from his trip (and was immediately enlisted to play Pikmin 2 by the boys...before a much needed nap). So it feels like a long weekend around here...or maybe a one day Monday weekend with jet lag??

Some benefits to having one
less adult to feed: eating WHEN
I want (often after the kids
are asleep), eating WHAT I
want (he's not a big tempeh
fan), and eating HOW MUCH
I want. The last one isn't
necessarily a good thing. I
should save more for the next
day's meals, but sometimes it's my only reprieve while solo parenting and I just get carried away. So here we have my giant dinner of kale with creamy sauce, bbq tempeh, and ratatouille.

The kids TRY to be helpful.
Maia really wanted to help
unload the dishes from the
dishwasher, which has been
a favourite pasttime of each
child at this age. Only problem
here was...these were dirty
dishes she decided to unload,
and wear!



Maia and Nate spent a lot
of time with their new
Aquadoodle from their
aunt Barbara. Maia had to
be sitting ON it though,
which drove Nate crazy.




The swing often serves as
babysitter outside when the
boys are playing in their pool,
having a lemonade stand, or
I need to take brush back to
the compost.

Nate got a new birthday
book from his friend born
the day after him, sent
all the way from British
Columbia. A Seal In The Family was read
immediately, a very
cute based-on-true story!

Time for another stand...
It was AJ's turn to make the
poster. He called the stand
"Yum! Yum!" and they
served strawberry lemonade,
chips & kiwi mango salsa, and
zucchini brownies. It was super
hot out, so business was a
little slower than the last time;
I think everyone was hiding
inside with the a/c on or out at
the pool or beach.

There is one tree that partially
shades the sidewalk, so we
always set up the table there.
Still, they were quite hot and
each drank an entire bottle of
water during the hour+ they
were out. But they weren't deterred, and are planning another stand for next weekend!