Football 101

Connor expressed some mild interest in maybe maybe trying out football. So, due diligence mommy that I am I jumped on the web and got the scoop on the Ashburn Youth Football League. This is the largest football league in the area and it is tackle football--even for 6 year olds. Helmets, pads, hits--the whole schmear. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're me and you're dreading this sporting step forward), the committment was too great. Basically, they start practice in early August and there's a two week period where they practice every day in gear. They tell you straight up--its a safety issue and if you're not going to be around for practice don't bother signing up. Well, since I'm not ready to give up the last two weeks of the summer when I'm off work to football, that was a big NO GO. But, I did a bit more digging and found a local company called I9 Sports that offered a 6 week FLAG football program. One night a week for about 90 minutes and its focused on learning the game--not playing actual games. Perfect. We signed up and the first week was last week and Connor did really well. His coach is really good with him and keeps him focused. We had our second week tonite and again he was engaged and interested until about 10 minutes from the end when he tired out and gave in to a huge blister on his foot. The boy is a trooper, I have to say. All day at camp, swimming at the pool, tennis lessons, etc. and then over to football practice. He's having a good time and I've met a really nice mom to talk to who lets me prattle on. Good deal.

Road Food

A few weeks ago while listening to "The Splendid Table", I heard about the Woodside Farm and Creamery.

Jane and Michael Stern from Gourmet magazine just went on and on about the absolutely fantastic cows and their resultant fantastic ice cream at this working dairy farm in Delaware. Intrigued, I was determined to make it a stop on our way to/from NJ. The Sterns were right.

It is absolutely fantastic. And we just happened to be there on National Ice Cream Day. I tasted butterscotch, cherry cola, some kind of crazy chocolate explosion, vanilla cookie dough, dirt (chocolate with crushed chocolate cookies and gummi worms), triple chocolate, and banana. I ended up with that bowl of the banana with chocoalte sprinkles and it wins as my fave.

We also got to enjoy a tour of the farm on a hayride and some fun with firetrucks. Great place.

More From The Garden

Picked those nice green zucchini tonite and quickly turned them into that yummy dinner!

Something Crunchy On a Busy Day?

Tooth #3 made its exit today. It happened on the way to football practice, in the car, while chewing gum. Suddenly, I hear..."Mom. There's someting crunchy in my gum! Oh, jeeez. Its the tooth!" Gross.

This all solved a problem that we'd been discussing for 20 minutes though--his fear that someone would knock it out at football. Took care of that, didn't we, boy?

7-Eleven

17 years ago! Amazing. Not amazing that we've made it this far--amazing how great it has been. And other than your gray hair, honey, we look exactly the same. Happy Anniversary!

A Little Personal Growth

Inspired by my friends Michelle and Andrew, I decided to try a little veggie garden this year. We had a spot in the backyard where the grass was a mess so Bob tilled it up for me. This is what it looked like:

We decided it needed some kind of border to keep the lawn mover crews from making a mess of it so we got a pallet of round river stone and made a simple english garden border for it. We divided it into three sections for this year, but those little walls will probably come out as my planting skills come back to life. The top bed is for the magnolia, the center for veggies, and the bottom right bed is for flowers. We added two decorative planters at the gate and some stepping stones and gravel under the gate itself. That whole area was a mud pit. Here's what it looked like yesterday:

I'd also be very remiss if I didn't point out the large cleared section directly behind the fence. Bob literally spend HOURS clearing the brush out of that area, including a few random small trees. It was totally overgrown, ugly, and full of ticks. We're still trying to figure out what we'll do there. Technically, its common area and we're not supposed to mess with it at all, but I'd liked to plant a lilac hedge or maybe a few evergreens for coverage. In the winter, those woods become pretty bare. That's a fall project. Yesterday, too, we harvested our first vegetable. Here it is, still on the vine:

And here's the little farmer with his bounty:

I cooked that beautiful yellow gift up for dinner along with some delicious green beans that Connor harvested at Great Country Farms yesterday on his summer camp field trip. They were both delicious. Its funny how you forget how fresh vegetables taste because we get so used to them from the grocery store. We've also got canteloupe, zucchini, tomatoes, and yellow bell peppers out there. And about two weeks ago I made a second attempt at starting some of those giant pumpkins for fall harvest. The first shot at growing those was a dismal disaster. The squirrels or the birds ate them up. But this time I have five of them nicely sprouting.

The Florida Department of Tourism Loves The Tates

Pirate family aboard the "Pirates Ransom"




Headed out of town on the People Movers at Dulles



Fine dining at Rusty's


Toes in the Sand!

Connor and a load of sponge in Tarpon Springs

The sponge boat half unloaded

Connor on Captain Memo's Pirate Cruise

The updraft air tube at the Museum of Science and Industry

Gyro at Mama's in Tarpon Springs

We just love Frenchy's. The rum punch. The grouper. The corn dogs. Its all good.

Yes. We went back to that peninsula of joy. The Sunshine State. Governor Crist should be sending us a note of thanks any day now. We originally visited Clearwater two years ago on a lark. First, there was a nice Sheraton on the beach that received decent reviews on Trip Advisor. Second, a friend told me it was a nice place for family beach time--meaning, no skanky boardwalk, no loud clubs, etc. Turns out--we loved it. So we went back again this year and we still love it. The only catch this time is that we had alot alot alot of rain. Not that I was keeping track or anything....but half the days were cloudy and rainy. I honestly can't remember what we did other than the one day we thought we'd drive south to Naples and escape the rain on the radar. But, as is usually the case with such cagey plans, the weather swung south and we ended up driving across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in tropical storm type rain with black sky and violent wind gusts. That little jaunt took up 4 or 5 hours. We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry and went to see Transformers 2. It was a pretty nice trip, regardless. More than the rain, the biggest barrier to happiness was the grumpiness of the participants, which, I guess, you could blame on the rain. We definitely all got on each other's nerves at various points. Next trip will be to a desert climate OR ELSE!