Bring on Summer and some Brisket!

We officially made it through our first day of summer vacation.  And of course, it has rained here allllll day.  On the upside, we've had a pretty fabulous day.

It took me 'til almost 9:30 this morning to convince Mikayla to get out of her new 'tent' and come and eat breakfast.  Think she likes it?  And I'm happy to report a good first night's sleep for the big boy as well.  He claims that it was the best he's ever slept.  The rest of the day I had troubles actually keeping out of their rooms.  Noah was asking at 10am if it was time for a nap yet.  After we played with playdoh for quite some time this morning they both insisted on getting some books, a snack and heading off to their new spaces while I jumped in the shower quickly.  I could get used to this them entertaining themselves thing ;-)

This afternoon we did a little bit of an art project.  I traced each of them (their entire body) and then they got to color self-portraits.  Noah especially did a stellar job - his "Noah" had clothes on and his stuffed animal Baby Penguin (which he traced himself) is also in his picture.  I hung the huge pieces of art on their bedroom doors and I think we'll do it again at the end of summer a a comparison.

Oh, before I forget, I didn't mention yesterday that as well as Grape Popsicles, yesterday was also National Hamburger or Cheeseburger Day.  Guess it slipped my mind because we did celebrate but my Dad did an awesome job grilling so I didn't do the creating.

Today, though is National Brisket Day.  Let me tell you what a heck of a time I had actually finding brisket.  First, in case you're wondering brisket is a cut of meat from the pectoral muscles.  Cows do not actually have collar bones so these muscles end up supporting 60% of a cows weight, which is why it is such a tough cut of meat.  Now you know :)  Anyway, I found plenty of corned beef brisket, but not any plain beef brisket, which is what I was looking for.  After numerous stores (thanks to Grant for putting up with me over the weekend with trips to probably half a dozen grocery stores) I finally stumbled across a pre-cooked brisket in Fremont yesterday when we stopped to pick up the popsicles.  I was done struggling to find something, so threw in the towel and called it a day.  It went over fairly well here, but I don't think I'll be running right out and making it again.  From my research I've learned there's quite the art to actually preparing this to its optimum yum factor.  I think I'll leave it to the pros from here on out.

We're taking on Kid Kitchen tomorrow (believe it or not we couldn't today because I was completely out of eggs, sugar and flour...) with a salute to Apple Jacks.  Until then...

Art project time!

 Beef Brisket with honey butter biscuits and warm dijon potato salad (there was apricot jello with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and watermelon, too ;-) )