Island Time II

The ferry ride to Whidbey is about 25 minutes long, but it was one of the kids’ favorite parts of our trip.

 

 

Kevin always makes fun of me for taking pictures of kids through windows but I just can’t stop!  I loved this seashell chain they had strung throughout a cafe we stopped by in a cozy beach cafe.

(The following picture was taken after we removed the shovel from Ariella’s face.)

I couldn’t get enough of the beach feet!

 

Oh yeah, and this guy was there too.

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Penne ricotta frittata
Cucumber and onion salad
Carrots
Homemade ice cream

Island time

We spent a glorious weekend at our family’s beach house on Whidbey Island.  I took the kids up with a couple of my girlfriends and their daughters for a “Women and Children Only” thing.  It was 24 hours of beachcombing, swimming in the pool, game playing, book reading, chocolate chip pancake eating, and keeping Vincenzo from gouging his friends’ eyes out with a pool cue.

Cute, eh?

I had zoomed in on my telephoto lens to take this shot, and seconds later, through the viewfinder I saw Vincenzo use the plastic shovel like a baseball bat to nail one of the girls in the face.  She had it coming.

 

Smores.  Whatevs.

 

I love this picture of Vincenzo but need to get my BIL’s help to edit out the pole growing from his head.

You know what?  Screw that.  I’ve evolved to the point of editing my own pictures by now.

 

I took about 100 pictures of the trip.  About three of them are of Rocco, always in the stroller (he has an affinity for rocks and potato bugs so I couldn’t put him on the ground) and also always stuck at an awkward angle and/or in the rain (he should really grow a pair and start standing up for himself).

 

And as a promise to post pictures later this week that don’t just make my kids look like the jabronies they are:

I leave you with my favorite quote of the weekend, which was when Vincenzo told his friends, “I have a snake in my underwear!”

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Spaghetti and meatballs
Salad
Lemon bars

Scrapbooking

For the record, my husband calls it “Scrapebooking” due to a typo he caught three years back.  I just couldn’t make a good page last spring so I started calling it “Crapbooking,” but this summer I’ve been on a roll!  Here are a few of my favorites from Rocco’s first year scrapebook.

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Grilled vegetable sandwiches with goat cheese
Salad
Angel food and sorbet layered ice cream cake

Bits and pieces

Here are just a few pieces of last week:

1. 

V: Guess what I saw today?
M: What?
V: A green bug.  Only it was blue.

2. Dad showed up to Rocco’s hair party and said of his wig, “I inhairited it from your mother.”

3.

Vincenzo: Mom, wanna know a secret?
Me: Sure.  What?
Vincenzo: [whispering] I shot you and you’re dead.

 

4. My in-law’s neighbor called 911 and when the paramedics rushed to her door, this conversation ensued:

EM: Why did you call 911, ma’am?
Elderly neighbor: Because I’m in so much pain!
EM: How long have you been in pain?
Elderly neighbor: Ohhhh, about two months now…

5.  We had a bunch of kids over one day and afterwards I noticed a smoke alarm had *somehow* been knocked off the ceiling and was laying on the floor.  I asked Vincenzo if he knew who did it and he said yes.  I didn’t care who did it but thought it would be fun to have him describe him/her to me and I’d draw the culprit, police-profile style.  So everyone, please be on the look out for the Smoke Alarm Bandit, last seen wearing this darling sailboat shirt.  She shouldn’t be hard to miss.

Happy birthday baby Rocco…for reals this time!

We celebrated Rocco’s birthday this weekend, a week late so sue me.  We went for the “crazy hair” theme, as his hair self-faux-hawked for a good chunk of his first year. 

The invitations, front and back:

The guests, some front and some back:

The food (angel hair pasta, natch):

And whatever you call this (also natch):

And this cake which I couldn’t figure out how to tie into the hair theme.  Then as I was mixing the batter, an idea struck.  The hair doesn’t have to be on the outside for it to be thematic, does it?  Hee heeeeee.

 

My living room carpet was on hand to alert everyone to the fact that our housekeeper had to cut back to once a month (no, those are not dirt marks on your computer screen).

But in this day and age, who needs a housekeeper?  I’ve got photo editing software!

Something’s been bothering me about Rocco’s hairstyle lately.

I couldn’t quite pin it down until I searched around the Internet a little…

Yup, that’s it.*

More on Rocco’s party later this week because you know you want it.

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Ask MIL

*If you don’t know what this picture is of, first of all Hi Mom and secondly it’s from the movie “Something About Mary” where this girl, due to a series of comical mishaps, accidentally used some guy’s semen to gel up her bangs.  It’s a classic reference.