Family Fun Time at the Bar

 

One of the things I had a hard time coming to terms with when we first moved to Kansas was the fact that anyone, any age could go to the town bar. What?? Why would I want to take my kids to a bar???

 

Growing up in Indiana, our town's bar had a seedy reputation. And there was never any bar in Indiana you could get into (legally) under the age of 21. So the idea of kids in the town bar was totally foreign to me. I just couldn't imagine a bar as an environment good for kids.

 

But over the last few years we've come to frequent the bar more often. I don't even think of it as a bar really. Yeah, they serve alcohol but so does Applebee's and there are plenty of kids in that restaurant. The Main Street Bar (pictured here) is more like a small town restaurant or cafe than a bar. They serve great food (except calf fries....sorry Mel but nothing can make those taste good!) The kids love their smiley fries and as you can see they really enjoy learning to play pool!

 

DR and the boys started going to the bar on Friday nights after practice for double cheeseburgers and more pool. Every Christmas we go to see Santa at the town Legion and then go next door to the bar to get something to eat...often served by Santa though the kids don't realize it.

 

The night I took pics of the kids playing pool we were at the bar for a Super Bowl Party. We did leave at halftime though, I couldn't bear too much more than that of the game. We all go to the bar and we see farmers, teachers, truck drivers, friends...all the same people that my kids see out and about in the community.

 

"Going to the bar" in Kansas is so much different than in Indiana. A Kansas bar is much less about drinking and partying than it is a place in the community, in the great expanse of the high desert/prairie, where people can gather. Sure I wouldn't want to take my kids out to the bar at 10:00 at night or anything but going to the bar for dinner once a month or so is a little treat for us all. So if you come out to Kansas to visit me I'll take you, and your kids, to the bar. Just don't blame me if you don't like the calf fries...I warned you!

Foody Friday - Indoor "Super Easy S'mores"

We finally received a good bit of snow this week!! I wouldn't call it anything serious, only a few inches, nothing like what my family in Indiana is dealing with....8 inches and counting!! But for SW Kansas a few inches and some wind was enough to cancel school for two days. It was too cold and windy to play outside...we tried! By day number two I was already worried that the boys were getting bored...EEEEK!!! Time to shake things up a bit.

 

On Pinterest I found a photo of Cast Iron S'mores but without instructions.

Time for a bit of experimenting.

 

 

Luckily I live two blocks from a grocery store! After a quick Arctic hike I had all my ingredients; s'mores stuff and butter.

 

 

First I preheated my oven to 300 degrees. You could probably go to 350 but my oven runs on the hot side. I greased my cast iron skillet, bottom and sides, really well with butter.

 

 

Pour in a package of chocolate chips.

 

Spread marshmallows evenly over the top. Then place in the heated oven. Watch carefully until marshmallows and chocolate are melted. It only took about 8 minutes in my oven. Then I put the skillet under a low broiler for 3 minutes to turn the marshmallows nice and golden.

 

The boys used the graham crackers to dip all that wonderful gooey goodness straight from the pan.

 

Yip was in 7th Heaven eating this, so much in fact he made himself sick by eating so much! Indoor s'mores...a quick little treat to break up the cabin fever!

I am such an ART NERD!

Just to give you a little insight on just how much of an art nerd I truly am.....

The film The Monuments Men comes out in theatres on February 7th (Only 5 DAYS!!!!)

I was watching the trailer the other day....take a couple minutes and watch it (George Clooney and Matt Damon!! Eye candy to boot!!)

 

So this is how nerdy I am....I started crying, yes real tears, at the scene of the empty art museum and the burning of paintings (burning a RAPHAEL!!! FYI: No one knows for sure if that one was actually burned but it hasn't been seen since the war. Some experts expect it to resurface in another generation or two. I sure hope I'm around for that). I can barely stand the thought. To think of so many masterpieces, a visual legacy of time and culture, burned!!! Gone forever!! (tears are forming as I type!)

 

I always knew Hitler stole artworks during WWII but I didn't realize to what extent and magnitude his plans were until I watched the 2 hour documentary The Rape of Europa. Hitler was "collecting" the great masterpieces of Europe (and burned or sold at a pittance the ones he found distasteful, such as Picasso and Matisse) to fill his own Fuhrer Art Museum he planned after the war. It's a great thing to watch for any of you history, art and/or culture lovers. My favorite tidbit is how masons were brought in to surround Michelangelo's masterpieces (David and the Slaves) with in a brick honeycomb to protect them from German bombs. AMAZING!! Oh!! And the part about moving the Nike of Samothroce down the steps at the Louvre in Paris!! I was on pins and needles (even though I know it survived). Don't even get me started on the bit about the Ghent Alterpiece!!!!

 

 

 

I also just happened to start reading The Madonnas of Leningrad that touches on the evacuation of The Hermitage Art Museum in Leningrad (that had a larger collection than the Louvre!!!) and how museum employees packed and shipped away art work and then lived in the basement for the duration of the 900 day siege roasting potatoes in linseed oil. Imagine the dedication to art and history and culture to go out of your way to protect artistic masterpieces.

 

 

So this little mystery of history is my current past time and I'm really looking forward to seeing The Monuments Men. Matt Damon is in it and if he chose to film this one then I know it's good. He's such an advocate for education, he's probably the one actor that I'd really like to meet someday.

 

One problem....the LEGO movie, which my boys have been DYING to see for a year, comes out on the same day. Ditch my kids for my own movie? See two movies in one day? Get a babysitter? I'm not sure how this will work yet but I WILL see this film soon! If any of you see it before me let me know what you thought!

 

Bullet Points

Is there any blogger out there who actually gets all the blogs they want to write actually written and posted? I'm with my friend Lana....too many thoughts and too little time! In the little time I've found this morning my thoughts rambling too much to put down a concise, well written blog post (though I can't claim I actually do many of those well written ones anyway). So I'm taking a page out of another blogger friend's (Amy)book.....bullet points.

• I'm often thinking of my Indiana family and hoping they are surviving the harsh winter. Though I'm sure they aren't enjoying it, I am enjoying their pictures of snow!
• I have an eerie feeling that Kansas, warm compared to Indiana, may be in for their own awful winter. We've had snows, about 9, this winter but nothing too serious. HOWEVER...the old timers around here have been saying this winter's weather pattern has been just like the one back in 1950something where a blizzard hit in MARCH and there was snow up to the roof of the pharmacy. I even heard a story that someone drove a Jeep from the roof of one building, across Main St. to the roof of another building over the snow. Yikes!!
• I am really tired of 3rd grade homework! Can anyone explain to me the rationalization behind timing a 9 year old on math facts...every night? I have one who has been in tears 7-8 times, not counting the times he's been merely upset doing homework. If I don't have a (justifiable) answer soon then we are done with the whole timing thing. I get more excited than the boys on nights when they come home from school with no homework!!!!
• I've stopped dyeing my hair as of last April. Some days I love it and some days it bothers me, though not enough to start dyeing it again. Someday I'll post on this one a bit more.
• I miss my Indiana family :(
• I really miss my Indiana family :(
• I have four painting parties scheduled for February!!! Yay!! I'm loving this but unsure how to keep it going. I'm definitely not a business person at all. I know I have to market myself and "get my name out there" whatever that means. I just don't know the first step to doing all that.
• Making smoothies filled with spinach and leftover veggies but disguised with blueberries and orange juice is an awesome way to get my kids to eat green stuff!

That's about it for right now. No exciting weather patterns to speak of in SW Kansas. Just cold (only in the 20's but cold enough) gray and drab outside. I think tonight calls for a Movie Night and banana splits to liven things up!

Tis' the Season...for BASKETBALL!!

Right after football ended for Yip and Yap back in the fall, a paper was sent home from school to sign up for basketball teams. At the time the boys weren't interested, probably because they had just finished football and really weren't ready to start anything new. At the time that kind of bugged me. I started playing basketball when I was in 4th grade all the way through my sophomore year in college and then coached. DR doesn't even like watching basketball on television with me. I'm kind of intense. So, it kind of hurt my feelings when Yip and Yap didn't want to play basketball. I got over it though. No basketball meant less of me running the boys all over the place.

 

 

Fast forward to Christmas vacation...our friend, the 3rd grade boys basketball coach, was desperate for players so he asked the boys again if they'd like to play.

 

"Sure, why not?" they said. Where did that change of heart come from?

 

So they made it to one or two practices and before you know it we are spending our Saturday mornings at basketball games! Two Saturdays down and four more to go.

 

Yip and Yap may be the tallest on the team but graceful they are not.

They kind of remind me of two long legged baby giraffes when I watch them run down the court.

 

I was never much of a ball handler when I played...and neither are they. Of course DR likes to call it "amoeba ball" because no matter where the ball is there are at least 6 kids crowded around it. So, there's a lot of loose balls. I think there has been more tackles during the basketball games than there were during all the football games.

 

Well, it's not the NBA (thank goodness) but it's been a lot fun watching all the boys play!

 

 

Let's just hope they get a bit more coordinated in the next month! They sure couldn't get worse!

January Painting Parties!

I just have a few minutes to write up this quick post, but I wanted to share the photos of two painting parties that I led yesterday.

 

In the morning a class of 9 did  another grain elevator...who knew they'd be so popular?

I love this painting because it's quick, normally completed in less than two hours and it is also a very low stress painting...for the most part!

 

For my friend Cass, this was her first painting party and she came away friend it saying, "It was so relaxing!!" Yay! I'm glad it's not always stressful for folks!

 

Though they loved the sunrise, a few women decided that they'd prefer something else for the silhouette. How awesome is that!! I just love that they feel free to break away from my instruction and do their own thing!

 

Sue took a photo of the barn and bins at her house and painted that with a sunrise behind it. It was voted a success by her husband!

 

In the evening I led a class of 10 ladies (with 3 newbies!!!) quite a bit more involved. Our nest took about 2 1/2 hours with more sketching time than normal to get all of the lines of our window planned before painting began.

 

Everyone did a GREAT job, like always!

Thanks ladies for a great day of creativity and companionship!

Anything Can Be a Doll…Use Your Imagination!

Growing up, I was the oldest of seven children. There were four girls within about 6 years, then a 5 or 6 year break and then three boys within about four years. We always joked that my parents had two sets of children. But I was a teenager when my brothers were babies and toddlers and I remember my dad saying once how boys could make a car/truck out of anything! 

"Somewhere in the deep dark jungle," he would jokingly say, "there's a little boys pushing a rock in the dirt and going "bbbbrrrrrr" just like a truck!" 

And it's true isn't it! I've sure learned with boys that they can make trucks and guns out of just about anything. Two Legos = gun. Cardboard box = car. Of course their fascination with cars, trucks and guns just gets more sophisticated with age doesn't it? 

Case in point below! 

But I'm learning how the same principle can be applied to little girls as well!! They can make a doll from ANYTHING!! DR is often humorously perplexed by Yahoo as he listens to her play and the complex discussions and relationships that she weaves between her dolls. It's not uncommon for her to play for an hour or more in her room, all by herself, and the whole time she's talking to her dolls…or more specifically, her dolls are talking to one another. 

But this morning I realized that boys and girls are just the same….toys can be ANYTHING!! As I was getting Yahoo ready for school this morning in the bathroom, and then getting myself ready to go sub at the school today, she pulled open the drawer and started pulling out all her nail polish bottles and started a conversation!!

Yes, she was pretending that all her nail polish bottles were sisters and they were…well, I didn't follow along well enough to know exactly what was going on…but it tickled me to no end that she had no problem at all pretending that these bottles were real! Ha Ha! 

The more I think boys and girls are different the more I learn they are just the same!