Chúc mừng sinh nhật

Last night we celebrated Jack's 32nd birthday with an Asian dinner. (Asia Mart on the north side of Indy had an excellent selection of international groceries. Asia Mart, Trader Joe's, Cookie Cutters, and Chickfila are all on the same street within just a few miles of each other. It's awesome.)

We had Thai Whole Fish with Coriander. Whole fish was one of Jack's favorite dishes to order in Vietnam and Thailand, and he gutted and fried the fish for me. Now that should be in the Art of Manliness!

Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls - this recipe from epicurious really is very similar to the way my Vietnamese students taught me, but we used the traditional rice paper wrappers instead of wheat wrappers. And Spicy-Sweet Green Beans. And rice, of course.
For dessert a simple and completely un-asian peanut butter pie.
The ever=photogenic Kinsley joined us, and entertained our babies while we were frying things.


It all turned out well, and Jack was sincerely excited about his kindle and his vinyl.

photographer

Last week Rosie took photos with my phone for about an hour. Here is the world through her eyes, unedited:







Then my girl requested a photo shoot.

tutu

Rosie likes to dance. In fact, on Sunday she walked into a room full of older kids and a few adults, and said, "Hey guys, do you know this song?" They ALL stopped what they were doing and watched as she sang and danced to "Row, row, row your boat".

So last week I found tulle in the clearance section of the fabric store. Fifty cents a yard. I bought three. Yesterday I made a tutu during naptime and left it sitting outside Rosie's door to surprise her when she woke up.



My daughter is gorgeous.

meatless monday: hello, fall

Minestrone soup. Carrots, green beans, and swiss chard from our CSA.

the Matthews Covered Bridge Festival

Today we drove about ten minutes south to the small town of Matthews to take part in their annual Covered Bridge Festival. I couldn't find my camera before we left, but I took some instagram shots of the festivities.



We heard the local high school marching band play, but we were too early for the tractor pull. Rosie got to jump in one of the inflatable bounce houses, and Jack found a Neil Young record at one of the booths. While Rosie was jumping, I asked the attendant, a teenage Miley Cyrus look-alike, if she knew what an "elephant ear" was. "Yeah," she said, smiling as if she found it a little charming that I didn't. "Well," she corrected, "I don't actually know what it is. It's like, breaded, with cinnamon."

We sampled one later - it's a long thin piece of fried bread topped with cinnamon sugar. We didn't have any breaded pork tenderloins, which looked like the biggest selling item at the fair.


We bought a butterfly net, too -- something Rosie has been talking about for weeks now. Then we did a lot of running around.


And finally Rosie got to have a horseback ride. She wasn't scared a bit.

The Upland Labor Day Parade

Back when I was childless and living in Seattle, I had a bit of a girl crush on Liz Lemon. 30 Rock made me laugh.


But over the last year or two, I've grown tired of 30 Rock's snarky humor. And I have moved to Indiana. While Liz Lemon will always have a place in my heart, now I watch Parks and Recreation (which, incidentally, is set in Pawnee, Indiana), a show that has a kind of sweetness and sincerity to its humor. I am becoming a real fan of Leslie Knope.

In the Parks and Rec spirit, this year I want to embrace small town living and even, if I can, Indiana winters.

Labor Day weekend, in Upland, is the perfect time to embrace small town life.

Every year, the whole town turns into a big rummage sale for labor day. We spent several hours Saturday looking for treasures in our neighbors' front yards. Today we attended the town parade.


Let me tell you about this parade. Everyone is in it.



There are kids on bikes


and men slouching on all kinds of motorized vehicles.




Even lawn mowers.


There are politicians, and their fans.


This one was blasting "proud to be an American".


This one was walking along behind his van.


Then there is the popcorn queen.


And these men. What are they, you ask? I do not know.

But there is something awesome about them.


Our farmer was there, too, with a posterboard sign asking "Who grows your food?".


Rosie loved the parade. She loved catching the candy thrown from floats, and she loved going into Shiloh's backyard when everything was over and jumping on the trampoline. Owen loved snuggling in the chilly morning weather. And so did I.