More questions! Plus Updates!

My parents are here! Arlo is six! Holy bejubus, it's been a good day.

Leah asks:
if you were back at Clinton School for the Winter Craft Fair, which is this Saturday, what craft would you bring to us this year?

Man, this is a well-timed question. Today we attended the Jingle Bell Breakfast at Lucy's preschool. I got shanghaied (is that an offensive term?) into being on the committee and it was a huge gigantic time suck, but I worked with some sharp, witty and fun mamas who I hope will become friends. Although all the alumnia come back for the Breakfast, most of the crafts need to be scaled down for 3-5yos. We actually did the classic Clinton pipecleaner-and-bead snowflake! The one thing that I thought was absolutely brilliant was this: take two old record players. Take a paper plate and punch a hole in the middle. Load it onto the record player, turn it on and draw on it with markers. The teenaged helpers enjoyed it as much as the 3yos. (I bet there are a couple in the basement at Clinton. My dad, a retired teacher, was totally charmed by the record player thing and told us that there was dozens in the basement in his ole school -- policy dictated that they needed to retain old equipment for ten years after they stopped using it.)

That said, these are two things that I hope to do with my 3rd grader over the next few weeks:
Monogram Thrifted Mugs
Bleached out tees

And (female friends and family, stop reading now) we bought a bunch of linen dishtowels and will be doing potato print hearts on them for holiday gifts this year.

My Uncle Fred asks:
What is YOUR favorite dish to cook and which is your favorite meal?

I really like making Asian food these days. Mostly because I can haul out my bamboo steamer and make dumplings (thank you Robyn Brody-Kaplyn for introducing me to Asian markets and dumpling night!). I feel like my life changed once I realized I have to have at least four kinds of rice in the pantry. (Balsamic, Jasmine, Arborio, and Mexican - the Goya mix. The kiddos won't accept anything else.)I love making anything from this website and her cookbook. But I think my favorite dish to cook is this one (thanks, Dileri!) with some steamed Gai Lan from the farmers' market and some shrimp shumai and TJ's veggie thai dumplings.
One of my favorite meals is probably when Evan took me out to Bouley for my 40th birthday. Loretta and Jim have taken us out for a lot of memorable meals. But honestly, I think my favorite meal is once a year, when we go to Cabo with Evan's family and go to The Office with just one of our kids. We started going when we were just married, by ourselves. Then just with Oscar B, on the floor, mucking about in the sand and digging out the beer caps. When Arlo came around, we left a sibling with Loretta and Jim or Tiffany and Bart and went to the office with just one. When Lucy came along, it was even more precious to spend a couple hours with just one kid, walking down the beach, dodging the drunks and the vendors, and sitting down outside, digging your toes in the sand, and eating the most perfect meal in the world: Guacamole, chips, and fish tacos, with a bucket of Sol beer.

So that's all our questions. Got any more?

I need to go prep for Arlo's birthday tomorrow. Today, after the Jingle Bell Breakfast, Arlo opened his presents and was thrilled and happy. Yay! We hung around at home for a bit and then met Auntie JoJo and Dan at Bob's Big Boy for Arlo's requested birthday dinner (onion rings, milkshake, and then a gigantic lump of fries and burgers that you ignore). Pictures soon, I promise.