Taco Night

Every Monday night Erik goes to practice with his band and me and the boys have Taco Night. I always put two sprigs of lettuce on Tommy's tacos, and he always digs through the cheese, whines, "I don't like salad!" and tries to remove it before he eats his dinner. I always say, "But you can't taste it, so why not be healthy?" And he agrees that he can't taste it, but he knows it's there and therefore life ceases to exist until the situation is remedied. So far, I've been able to convince him to leave it on there,though there's always at least one sprig left on his plate after dinner.


This Monday, I realized I should be inviting my brother over to have dinner with us. I don't know why I never thought of it before, but it's so perfect. Me and Jason got to sit around and catch up, while the kids (his two girls, my two boys, all perfectly aligned with age) ran around the backyard and had such a good time. They all go to school together, but it's different when they're hanging out after hours!

Scotty even took the opportunity to 'dress' for the occassion. Whenever there's a 'special' event, he immediately goes for his fireman outfit. The three-year-olds tuxedo? I'm sure it is.

This is my brother's youngest, we'll call her G, and she's just like my brother. Sweet, quiet, loving, and, when she's aggravated, a total punk.

We watched them terrorize the patio from our vantage point on the porch. It's hard to calculate how many variations of "stay away from the pond", "stop throwing stuff in the pond", "get that out of the pond" two adults will have to use with four children 8 and under, but suffice to say... the soothing sounds of waterfall are significantly diminished when you have to fish out baseballs, sticks, and shoes.