I took my girls to McDonald's today like we do every Monday and there were some booklets laying around. The booklets were to inform families of what to do if there were a tornado, a flood, a wild fire and a few other natural disasters.

My daughters kept showing me pictures and reading the information to me. As we were getting ready to leave the restaurant my oldest crumb cruncher looks at me and says, "These are really informative dad, but they DON'T tell what we're supposed to do if we're attacked by dinosaurs."

She left it at that and walked out of the building. I giggled on my way out knowing that she really didn't think we would be attacked by dinosaurs. Did she?

Okay, maybe watching Jurassic Park I and III forty times might be starting to rub off a little bit.

Labels: Daughters, Dining, funny moment

Everyone has at least one weird food combination if not many. Here are a few of my food weirdnesses:

1. Mix movie popcorn with bites from a Snickers bar. (Da best!)
2. Put an orange slice in your tea. (Much better than orange flavored tea)
3. Put chocolate mini donuts in the freezer to make the shell crunchy.
4. Dip french fries in BBQ sauce instead of ketchup.
5. Don't put milk on your cereal. Drink it from a cup with each bite of cereal and the cereal never gets soggy!
6. Mix corn into your mac and cheese. (Douse with pepper)
7. Dip regular chips in BBQ sauce. (Great with brisket or ribs)
8. Wipe your popcorn in a stick of cold butter. (Like, yeah)
9. Jalapenos on a BLT rather than tomatoes.
10. McD's fries dipped in special sauce.

Got any yourself?

Labels: Dining, Food

Well, history was made tonight. Our five-year-old ate her first sandwich. Yes, that's right, we forced our child to eat a plain ham sandwich. I know you're thinking we're such bad parents and kids should not be forced to eat things they do not like. Unlike the days when we were kids.

The list of things that she won't eat include sandwich's, hamburgers, pizza, ketchup, BBQ sauce and a few other grossly horrific food items. We've let her get by with this for some time now because she does eat carrots, sweet potatoes and most other foods.

Tonight's historic event was followed by my speech about what I had to eat as a kid. If you grew up in the 70's you might remember a few of these. The absolute worst was liver! You know the liver that looked like a steak. I think that might have been a food I refused to eat a time or two. When I did eat it I was holding my nose, literally, and would fill my mouth with some liquid to get it down. If today's kids only knew!

Other foods of contention included hominy. What in the heck is hominy anyway? Then there were the oldies but goodies like broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach and lima beans. Yes, lima beans! Who eats lima beans? What about spam? Are your kids eating spam? On the holidays we had to eat unearthly things like black eyed peas and stuffing.

On the other hand, I also remember the great things I ate as a kid. Who didn't grow up on fried bologna sandwiches, Spaghettios, mac and cheese and frozen pizza?

My how the times have changed. So, when my girls grow up and read this many years from now, remember that mom and dad weren't so bad after all.

Labels: 70's, Daughters, Dining, funny moment, Memories, Parenting

When Hot Wife went vacationing for four days it left me and my two girls to fend for ourselves. Working at home, this gave us even more time to spend together. We had a great time, ate out, shopped and watched movies.

I think the most important lesson I learned from this weekend is patience. When you are around your kids for days on end and they get wound up it can be a bit trying at times. There were instances when both daughters were jumping around, talking loud and making absolutely no sense. In a restaurant this can become nerve racking.

Each time I was about to tell them to be completely quiet and not move I would think about something. What if, heaven forbid, something unexpected happened to one of my precious daughters? What would I give just to hear them laugh and scream or see them jump around just for one second? I would give anything.

With that in mind I would politely ask them to tone it down, take a deep breath and thank God that there they were, my daughters, with me having fun and being kids.

Labels: Daughters, Dining, Parenting

Our Wednesday Night tennis was canceled this week due to the fact that all of the tennis playing wives decided to gallivant off to Cancun without the husbands. Not to be ones to sit and mope, the dad's decided to pack up the crumb crunchers and do a dad's night at the club buffet.

All dad's with vacationing wives showed up and brought the buck-a-roo's. Notice my oldest and youngest daughters actually not sitting next to me. Funny how they're both sitting next to doctors. Maybe that is an indication!

All went well and we got off the hook for cooking at least one night's meal. We now have three more nights of daddy/daughter bonding. Let's see, there's McDonalds, Chick Fillet, Rib Crib, Donuts...

Labels: Daughters, Dining, Fun Events

Hot Wife and I attended our first murder mystery dinner with the tennis crew and a few other close couples. The event was a celebration of a couple of birthdays.

We each received an invitation with our names and a description of our characters. The setting of the party was a country club awards dinner loosly based on Caddy Shack. We had to attend the dinner in character. I was picked as the dainty Lee Wong, an unlucky gambler that swings both ways, if you know what I mean. Have you picked me out of the crowd?

The evening began with a stretch limo ride around town where we all got our first clues and introduced ourselves. After a few drinks we made a pit stop to see one of the tennis crew couples that was unable to attend. From there it was back to the dinner and more clues.

We all enjoyed a great time and made our guesses as to who the killer was. The killer turned out to be Mow, the assistant grounds keeper. If you get a chance to attend a murder mystery I would suggest you do it.

Thanks to Sugar Rush in Enid for doing a great job.

Labels: Dining, Fun Events, funny moment, Photo

These pictures were taken along the way on our latest road trip. They are taken with an iPhone and then emailed to an address set up on this blog. Only moments after each picture is taken they show up on this page.

We started doing this because our daughters get a little sad every time we leave home. This way they get to track what we are doing during the day and we get to send them little messages. This has been a real help in allowing us to leave town while keeping the girls happy. They especially love the photo that comes through saying we found them a surprise.

At Starbucks on our way to OU/Kansas.

At The Mont in Norman for lunch.

Hot Wife with Sooner Swirl.

A little shopping in Campus Corner.

The walk to the stadium.

Our cool seats. High up in the shade.

Dinner at Cheesecake to watch the 4th quarter.

Hot Wife supporting her team.

The End.

Labels: Dining, Fun Events, Hot Wife, Road Trips

I'm not sure if I should be posting this or not. I'm going to go ahead just because of the humor factor.

We are a family not known for eating at home very often. There are a half dozen restaurants in town that not only know us by name but know our orders before we sit down. Because of this habit we rarely eat at home and even rarer yet, hot wife cooks something. When we do eat at home it is usually cereal, microwave pancakes or mac and cheese.

Hot wife threw a loop in the household today by firing up the crock pot. It was full of pot roast and vegetables. The house very quickly became filled with the smell of home cookin! In most homes that would bring memories of hot meals and family dinners. In our house it brought a bit of confusion.

I had been home with youngest daughter while she played with the Wii. Oldest daughter arrived home from dance and I met her at the door. The first thing she noticed was the smell. She asked, "What's that?" With a light laugh I told her mommy was cooking dinner. She looked confused and asked, "Who's coming over?" I laughed a little harder and said that just because mommy was cooking it didn't mean someone was coming over.

The funny moment came when youngest daughter said, "Wow, I thought that smell was my feet."

Labels: Daughters, Dining, funny moment

Hot wife and I ran down to OKC to see a musical. Before the show we stopped at BJ's to watch the big OU/Texas game. Bj's has huge TV and did have the sound on. A great place to watch a game and good chips and salsa.

Labels: Dining, Road Trips

I am very blessed to be in the position of belonging to our local country club. It has become a routine with my daughters and I to eat there every Friday. Mom sits in most Friday's but the girls and I have missed very few.

Every waiter there knows us by name and they pretty much know what we will order. One waiter has created his own ritual of giving my girls flowers after every Friday lunch. The entire staff is getting to watch our girls grow up and they have almost become like family.

My oldest orders corn dogs and shoestring fries most of the time, she changes it up with a cheeseburger or grilled cheese every now and then. She really loves the muffins and tries to get as much butter on each one as she can. My very picky youngest daughter, gets her chicken strips and fries almost every week. Once in a while I can get her to do spaghetti. She refuses to try ketchup (?) but likes to dip everything in salsa and even puts it on her spaghetti!

One of the lasting memories I have as a kid is eating at a local restaurant in a round room. Every year on my birthday, my family would get together and eat at this restaurant. It is something I looked forward to and still remember. Just think, that was only once a year! Think of building a tradition you do every week or every month.

Create that ritual of doing something with your kids every week at the same time and set it in stone. Your kids may not think much of it now but they will look back on it years from now and remember it as one of their favorite times.

I hope you girls enjoyed spending time with dad every Friday. I looked forward to it every week.

Labels: Daughters, Dining, Memories, Parenting