Bits & Pieces

Just a little catch-up on the past few weeks.

1. Passing a house with a big yard on a walk with my boys:
Me: Can you imagine how much time you’d spend playing outside if we had that yard?
*pause*
Me: Actually, you’d still probably stay inside playing video games.
Rocco and Leo simultaneously: No; we’d be outside playing video games.

2. Family discussion at dinner.

Me: What if I wrote a book called Little Red Fighting Hood?
Leo: Her hood was actually white, until the fighting began.
Me: The woods were a dark place. A very dark place.

3. Kevin had his first day back at the office:

4. Rocco chipped another tooth. This time, it was Leo’s.

5. Rocco acted in a play while also sitting with the audience, watching the play:

6. Just a typical Saturday morning:

7. We had our first public outing (other than parks, beaches, and hikes):

I had forgotten how much I love this kind of thing!

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Macaroni & cheese
Roasted broccoli

More

All right, you all failed me in the comments section, but my friend Renee texted some winners. She’s my former blogging friend and my current IRL friend who lives 1,412 miles too far away, and she is the funniest person I know.

1. You can camouflage with anything…but you make a loud fire alarm sound every time you do.

2. You have X-ray vision…but every time you use it you appear naked to everyone else.

And here’s one she made up just for me:

3. You never drop a breakfast casserole again…but you never make one as good as the one you dropped.

Renee, I will be sending you the prize of one million dollars shortly. (Did I forget to mention the prize earlier?)

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Who can be tied down with dinner options on a 70 degree day in Seattle?!

Mother’s Day Ups and Downs

Mother’s Day has been a series of ups and downs. The biggest down was when I dumped the breakfast casserole I was bringing to brunch upside down in the trunk of the car. I was already having an emotional week (slash month slash year slash life), so when we got to my parents’ I hid in the backyard to cry. But my sisters found me and listened while I cried that I want to go back to that part where everything was closed and we couldn’t go anywhere and didn’t have to talk to anyone. My sisters were all empathy and caring and God bless ‘em not a single one mentioned how badly they wanted a slice of breakfast casserole right then. They cheered me up in the way only sisters and good friends can. (I’m so lucky they are both of these things.)

The conversation we had over breakfast casserole, scrambled eggs and ham also cheered me up. We played a game where one person named a superhero and other people added a caveat. You know—like you can fly, but only once a week and you don’t know when it’s going to happen.

Here are the highlights, for all those moms out there who are trying to forget the fact that their minivans will forever smell of breakfast casseroles:

1. You can breathe underwater…but you are a weak swimmer.

2. You have super speed…but you can only go backwards.

3a. You have super strength…but only in your pinky fingers.
3b. You have super strength…but you cry like a baby every time you use it.

4a. You can change the weather…but every time you do, the weather also changes you.
4b. You can change the weather…but only on Mars.

5a. You can read people’s minds…but only your own.
5b. You can read people’s minds…but only by reading it in Braille on their foreheads.

6. You can see at night…but only things that start with the letter “F.”

7. You can shrink to the size of an ant…but only when you’re hungry, and you’re an anteater.

8. You have eyes in the back of your head…but you have really thick hair.

9. You are a shapeshifter…but you can only shapeshift into your twin brother.

10. You can shoot lasers from your eyes…but you’re followed by an army of cats that chase the laser lights any time you use them.

11a. You can control other people…but only their blinking.
11b. You can control other people…but every time you do, the first thing they do is punch you in the face before you get control.

For anyone who thinks it sounds like fun, here are a couple super powers that you can add caveats to in the comment section:

You have X-ray vision, but…
You can camouflage with your surroundings, but…
You can walk through fire, but…

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Picking up fried chicken, rolls, & sweet tea for a picnic. (I am not carrying ANY of it.)