Mommathon

Sunday- Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup
Monday-Fajitas
Tuesday-Roasted Chicken, Green Beans, Rolls
Wednesday-Rotel Chicken with Rice
Thursday-Lasagna
Friday-Veggie Burgers and Potato Salad
Saturday-Out to Dinner

We had just gone to the library and the boys were looking at their books in the back seat:

C: Why is there a skeleton in that person's yard?

L: Oh, no, that's Massachusetts a long time ago.

I have no idea what they were looking at, but the conversation struck me funny.

Liam is having a sleepover tonight and they wanted to watch Return of the Jedi. Sure, no problem, except we told them they had to wait for Colm to go to bed before they watched it. Our kids understand that there are some movies they are not allowed to watch and Colm gets that Star Wars movies are not on his "approved" list yet and he was totally fine with them watching it without him. (Which totally surprised me, by the way.) What was so funny was that as I was giving Colm his vitamins in the kitchen on our way up to bed, Sean was putting the movie in. Colm started freaking out...afraid he was going to see or hear some of this forbidden movie before he got upstairs. He was yelling no and covering his ears trying to get his vitamins out of my hands as quickly as possible so he could run upstairs before it started. I don't know what he thinks is going to happen if he watches a movie that we haven't approved for him...maybe he thinks he'll turn into Chewbacca.

When Liam got up this morning, he asked me if Sean and I had watched a movie last night after he had gone to bed. I told him that we hadn't and then he proceeded to argue with me about it. He was adamant that we had. Then he dramatically pointed to the inside of the trashcan and said, "Then what's this?!!!" It was an empty bag of microwave popcorn. Sherlock Liam had determined that where there is popcorn, there MUST be a movie. His whole tone was so funny. He knew he was right, it was just a matter of getting me to "admit" that we had watched a movie and had popcorn without him.

Monday-Spaghetti with Italian Sausage
Tuesday-Mexican Salad
Wednesday-Chicken Enchiladas
Thursday-Salmon, Salad, Sourdough Bread with Honey Butter
Friday-French Toast and Eggs
Saturday-Out to Eat

Yesterday was Liam's annual violin workshop. It's a one-day camp where they have a master's class, a technique class, usually a large play-in and then some other music-related-but-not-violin class. This year's workshop focused on fiddling and folk music and Liam really liked it. He learned how to play the dulcimer from a grandpa-type guy who was an awesome teacher and also happens to make dulcimers,too. He looked like he could substitute for Santa, was very enthusiastic and worked well with the kids. Liam also took a fiddling class which was also very cool. It was taught by one of the men that runs the fiddling camp that I would love Liam to go to someday. It's a day camp that takes place in the summer at a middle school north of the river. The man said Liam could take it because from what he saw he looked like he's ready, but technically they want kids to be in Book 2. He's almost there, but not quite, so I think we will wait until next summer. He'll be just that much more prepared and will get that much more out of it. Anyways, the workshop was awesome and this is the only picture I have from the entire day. I forgot my camera.

Learning to play the dulcimer

We had book club last night. We discussed the last book we read and then chose Signora da Vinci as our next read. This is the review that helped us decide that was the book we wanted to read...

“In this exquisite gem of a novel, Robin Maxwell conjures a fascinating account of Leonardo Da Vinci's mother, a bold woman whose adventurous spirit and quest for her own truth captures the exuberance of the Italian Renaissance. Though little is known of the historical Caterina da Vinci, Maxwell's impressive research and keen storytelling skills sweep us into a very plausible account of a young alchemist's daughter whose unfortunate love affair brings her the greatest love of her life - her genius son - as well as the opportunity to escape the restrictions of her gender and enter a seductive garden of philosophy, art, learning, and danger. From the dusty streets of Vinci to the glories of Lorenzo Il Magnifico's Florence and the conspiratorial halls of Rome and Milan, Signora da Vinci is a tour de force celebration of one woman's unquenchable ardor for knowledge and of a secret world that historical fiction readers rarely see.”
—C.W. Gortner, author of The Last Queen