What a day!

My friend Julia came to stay with us this weekend and we've pulled out all the stops! Full-on family fun all day long. It started with fruit crepes for breakfast (garnished with cherry and/or applesauce from our own harvest last year) and a sunny frolic in the rapidly melting snow.

Bobby and Alice posing by their snowman creation. The "misty" effect is courtesy of Alice's sticky fingerprints all over the lens. I managed to clean it off after this picture.

Alice running into Bobby's arms.

Investigating the cold frame and all that "dirty"! Did I mention that Alice adds "y" to the end of many surprising words? For example: "Mommy, I need helpy.""Alice socky shoes on" "Uppystairs" "On the couchy"

Alice's hand print in the snow where she biffed it. The sixth finger is a mystery.

Bobby picks up the Babe and discovers she is soaked with muddy snow remnants.

We went to lunch at a Thai restaurant that we probably won't ever visit again. Alice had consumed so much juice that morning that her usual diaper routine could not contain it all. She requested a diaper change, then a potty turn where she ACTUALLY managed to pee in the toilet for the first time ever. We all cheered and doled out the lavish gifts and praise as promised (i.e. a few sheets of TP to wipe herself, the opportunity to flush, and a couple M&Ms for the road). She was very, very excited about it all. She has since requested several potty turns but hasn't managed to replicate her success. All in good time. It was fun to celebrate it for a moment today.

While Alice napped, Julia and I stole away to find a Thai Masamun curry paste or seasoning packet or ready-made sauce. I sure do love that stuff and would readily welcome it into our regular menu. We performed an extensive and yet fruitless tour of all the local Asian grocery stores in town. Plenty of sauces and such, but nothing readily recognizable as Thai Masamun. So much for a short cut.

We also did some regular grocery shopping and came home to make a pumpkin pie. I produced a not-so-tasty experimental dinner (*sigh!* vegetable vindaloo) and decided to give future recipe experiments more thought. Much, much more thought. If you can't stand the smell of it cooking, there's a good chance you won't enjoy the finished product, either.

After dinner, Bobby and Alice played with trains. This has been their routine the last few days. Most of the track configurations end up as physics experiments that we all enjoy...demonstrations of potential energy and kinetic energy.

Once Alice was in bed, Julia and I headed out for our next adventure: E-Fest. The official title was "E-Fest: Amateur Electric Plane Festival." We witnessed several races, the plane combat competition, and the "night flight." Did I ever tell you I have a thing for remote control planes? Yeah, well, this blog appears to be revealing ALL of my secrets. I've tinkered with the idea of becoming an amateur RC pilot but can't seem to get over the initial sticker price and steep learning curve associated with a highly technical hobby completely outside of my formal expertise. I love to watch them in flight, though, and long to pilot one myself. Most of the participants were middle-aged white men with their model planes and oodles of electronic gear, but I saw a handful of younger boys competing with their simple handmade planes. It gave me hope. Maybe I could try it at home a bit. Maybe all that gear and techno-talk won't take THAT long to navigate. I picked up a catalog and reserved a couple books at the library to research the topic a bit more.