Whoops, skipped a day

Oh well, missed a day in there didn't I? The past two days have been a bit chilly here. This pretty much means that the kids have been playing inside. The exception to the rule is DS#2. He has been happy to run around outside collecting friends to come over to our house and play here. The most entertaining part of this is the fact that apparently he called his friend A this morning and the two boys decided that A and his sister M would come over to play. The boys neglected to inform or consult their parents until afterwards. A's dad seemed a bit embarrassed. DS#2 walked over to their house to get A and this is when A's dad learned of their plans. He drove the kids over and checked to make sure this was okay and to remind me that it was "about time (DS#2 and DD) come over to our house." I suppose they'll probably go over there for a bit tomorrow.

I guess I just don't mind having other kids (good kids) come over to our house. Then I know where my kids are and what they are up to. DS#3 loves having extra kids around to play with. The older kids seem to enjoy him as well (most of the time). More importantly, the kids that come over are generally very good about keeping things calm and quiet when DS#3 is napping. I suppose it is partly the over-protective parent in me that likes to keep track of who the kids' friends are and what they are up to. I like to think that this is a good thing.

Last night we had friends over for chili. Yes, it was chilly so I made chili. The chili went over well, I guess it was a good thing that the younger kids didn't want the chili and had hot dogs instead. We only had about one serving left. When I announced, laughingly, that this meant that those of us that ate chili had about half a pound of meat each my wife pointed out that DS#1 ate LOTS of chili and undoubtedly brought the average up for the rest of us. One of the greatest parts of the night was dessert. Our friend KT made jalapeno cheesecake, yeah, sounds very strange but it is absolutely amazing. Truly one of the top 5 desserts you could ever have. Sorry KT, my #1 is still the dark chocolate souffle cake that my lovely wife makes. Wow, was that a hint or what?

The truth is, I enjoy making chili and I enjoy grilling and experimenting (on the grill) a bit. Other than that, I am simply not much of a cook, particularly with the time constraints we normally have. I am happy to pop things in and out of the oven (hooray for Costco!), or to pop things into the crockpot, but generally more complicated cooking is left to my wife. Unfortunately for me, I am usually the only one that really appreciates the special dishes she makes. The kids have turned their noses up at enough meals to really discourage her from cooking. Tomorrow it is supposed to be much nicer (have to love the weather in Texas) so I will probably be out grilling again.

Sometime tomorrow I'll also upload a few more pictures and maybe even another video just to keep CB on her toes ;).