Breakfast of Champions

That's RIGHT!!  Breakfast!!  We have begun a new family tradition.  I can call it a tradition since we have been practicing this since the first Saturday of October.  Every Saturday morning since October 4th we have had bratwurst and sometimes a couple hot dogs on the grill for our own version of tailgating.

The first time, we called it Octoberfest and smiled.  The next Friday came and we contemplated that night what we would have for the next morning's breakfast.  College Game day was set to begin EARLY the next morning!  We were on for brats, again!!  Living in the Pacific Time Zone makes College Game Day on ESPN start awfully early most weekends... so, tailgating for college football could begin earlier than I care to wake up!

Pops misses being around the craziness of Cornhusker Football and decided that tailgating every Saturday with just our family would work fine. Most days we use a charcoal grill.  Last night, they all slept in the tent in the backyard and had had a fire for roasting marshmallows. So, it only made sense to add the charcoal to the fire pit and put a grate on top of that.  

I have been on board from the get go.  Those of you who know me well, know that I couldn't care less about tailgating for college football, let alone any sport!  But, he suggested bratwurst.  If he would have said hamburgers or even steaks, I would have looked down my nose and said, "Oh, come on.  Eat your burger/steak after noon like the rest of the normal world."  But, he didn't.  

He knows me. He said, "Brats for Breakfast." I love a Johnsonville Brat. I prefer that it is first boiled in beer or apple juice before grillin'.  But, I am really not that picky. It's a brat. You really can't ruin it. Even if it is charred... it is still good. Crispy on the outside and bursting with flavor on the inside. I like a brat. I am shameless. I will change my outlook on meal prep if you say bratwurst.

Our life is different now. We eat brats every Saturday morning. I wake up to the smell of a charcoal fire. After I brush my teeth, I sink them into a juicy sausage. I tell myself that other people eat sausage links with their toast and eggs. WE eat a rather large sausage link on a soft hunk of bread instead of toast.  I could toast those buns - but, I am never fully awake when I crawl out of bed for brats on Saturday.  I just don't think of it.  And eggs? We'll have those for supper tonight.

Ain't he a stinker...

A stinker he is, yes!  Bud reads for hours every night after bedtime.  Sometimes he wakes me after I've already fallen asleep at night!  So, a stinker...yes!!

He has recently discovered comic books and cannot seem to get enough of them!  Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Garfield, Peanuts, Scooby Doo... he loves them!  I often wonder if some of the jokes don't just go right over his head... but he can be heard snickering and all out laughing all over the house at any time of day reading these "funnies."

Pops came home late last night and we found our boy like this:  lights on, reading specs on, thumb still in "his page," ten plus comic books and chapter books strewn around his immediate reaching area, sawing logs.  This parents' heart was sure soaring to see him take on this love of reading like his ma.

Must have been a good one!!  Sleep tight our little book woRm!

Drat!

A girl should KNOW when to keep trying and when to give up!  SHOULD SHOULD SHOULD. After success on Bud's pajamas, I should have just smiled and stopped.  Again, I had some great discounted fabric: satin with flannel back - perfect for my Branch's new nightgown!  I started in on the project after she had gone to bed.  I completed the nightgown and hung it on a hanger for her to see.  I was SEW excited!!

Uh, but there SEAMS to be a problem.  This neck hole is done exactly as the instructions said... except that I forgot to clip before finishing the binding.  The lack of clipping is noticeable while it is hanging because the edge doesn't seem to lay flat.  However, the clipping should not have hindered the ability for a child's head to go through!  

So, I have one tall kid and one kid with a head larger than average.  I would have never thought that before... She seemed to favor her mother's body type which has plenty of "larger than average" areas, but I wouldn't have called my skull big... thick?  maybe (hers, too!), but a large cranium?  WOW, a whole new world.

Now, I have to cut all that out and retry...  At least it is only like $1.50 worth of fabric that I am working with here!!  Yippee for sales!!!

Have No Fear...

Spidey's Here!!

I did a bit of sewing...  I helped a friend learn to use her sewing machine last week and worked on all those costumes this past weekend.  So, I was itching to start another project!  

This little turkey needed some new pajamas.  There is something rather endearing about seeing your kids running around in their pajamas that are just a weeeee bit on the high water side; but, this was getting ridiculous!  I am talking over six inches too short for the flannel spidey pants dug out from last year.  

Now, those crazy flannel spidey pants were just about the right size otherwise.  Just SHORT!  So, what's a mother to do?  Learn to sew some pants since the pants at the store that are long enough for a tall kid become long on the bottom and short on the top when they fall off, ya know?  (Thank goodness for that wonderful adjustable waist stuff at Gymboree!)  I bought some really inexpensive fabric.  (Thanks Joann Fabrics for your annual Columbus Day sale - where you can get clearanced fabric 50% off!!)  That means that I got this fabric for around $2/yard.  If you don't do much sewing... a yard of licensed character fabric can cost around $6 or more.  

Sorry, back to the point... I am thrilled because this is my first pair of pants completed.  I attempted to make a pair of scrubs for Pops waaaaaaaaaaaay back when we were first married.  I had great intentions.  I bought this great fabric for the top that had a scene with deer running through the woods.  For the scrub pants, I bought a coordinating brown mottled fabric.  I set out with my pattern and cut the pants out and started sewing.  I had the insides sewn of the legs and then read the next instruction for the pattern.  I re-read the instructions.  I pinned it together the way I understood the instructions.  It did not appear that this would turn out to be a pair of pants but instead a pair of chaps.  Somehow my young married self did not think that sending my new husband to his clinics in scrub chaps would be pleasing...  NOW, I would have just done it and dared him!!  :)  Anyway, I set them aside and never finished the pants.

I was a weeeeeeeee bit nervous starting out with these pajamas... what if I made my 7 year old some chaps for bedtime?  I suppose I could have told him that it was cool.  Seven year olds still believe everything that their moms tell them.  (Did you know that I can see through walls?  I CAN, too!  Ask Bud!)  I figured that if these pants did turn out to be chaps, it was only a couple dollars and confirmation that patterns are impossible to read for making pants.

Looks like it isn't impossible and perhaps, I taught myself reading comprehension in the past 8 or 9 years!

Bud thinks that the style of the pajamas makes him look karate-ish.  I think it is just good to have pajamas that are the right size!
Well, I dug through the scrap bin... and here is the deer fabric and chap pants.  It appears as though I really did give up on these pants, as I seem to have cut some big chunks off the end of the pants to make some other project!  Lots of deer fabric left - maybe I'll make something out of that!