August 31, 2010

  • Weekend fun (no rodents this time)

    As promised, I'm back with more pictures of the weekend (no possums today!).

    One of the things Ann and I did during her visit was take the kids up to the gorgeous Wayfarer's Chapel up in Rancho Palos Verdes. It's a beautiful wood-and-glass chapel nestled in the woods, overlooking the ocean. Not only is it a nice little trip on its own, but it's where June and Charles are tying the knot next summer. Jack's super into the concept of getting married (he thinks it's something you do with everyone you love, so he's constantly asking to get married to me, Johnny, Derek, Atari, his grandparents ... you name it, he wants to marry it), so he was excited to go.

    Ann and Jack at the fountain just outside the chapel.

    August 135

    Here we are inside the chapel. I'm getting married to Jack, and apparently Derek is our witness.

    August 138  

    We sealed it with a kiss

    August 140

    The boys were very happy to have Ann here. Just look at their smiles.

    OK, so maybe in this picture, the nectarines are Derek's source of delight, but he was also happy about Ann's presence.

    August 154

    Jack thinks up of his next mischievous plan

    August 159

    Sunday morning, at Ann's suggestion, we made Monkey Bread. I know I must be the only mom in the United States (maybe the world?) to have never made this delicious, gooey, cinnamony, sugary breakfast treat ... for months, all I've been hearing other moms talk about on Facebook is monkey bread, but for whatever reason, I never made it. Well, I'm SO glad that Ann talked me into it! It's so easy (there are many recipes, but I used the one I linked to above), and kids can actually help. You basically cut up biscuit dough, shake it in a bag with cinnamon and sugar, put it in a bundt pan, and drizzle lots of butter melted with brown sugar over it, then bake. It becomes this pull-apart bread that you just can't stay away from. Delicious with coffee, on its own or with other breakfast accompaniments. I'm definitely enlisting Jack and our niece Maddy as my assistant chefs when we all spend Christmas together this year.

    My little monkey, helping me with monkey bread. Please excuse my PJ'd appearance.

    August 171  August 175

    Here we are, shaking the bread to coat it with cinnamon sugar. We sang "shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your monkey, shake your mon-key" while doing this, and also danced in a rather silly fashion. So fun.

    August 178  August 179

    I was too busy stuffing my face to take pictures of the finished product. I will say, as a warning, do not use a bundt pan with a removable center. I made the mistake of doing this. I thought since batter stays in those pans, it ought to be fine for this recipe, but of course the liquid butter and brown sugar ran right out of the pan. We were able to salvage it using a regular round cake pan, but I'm going to run out and buy a regular old cheap bundt cake pan, without a removable center, just for monkey bread! This is going to go into our regular breakfast rotation. Next up: The O'Neal family gains 100 pounds. Just kidding.

    Sunday night, we celebrated Victoria's birthday at Chris and Vic's house. We all had a great time! 

    Here we are with Vic's sister-in-law (on the left), Victoria and Maddy. It was cute -- we said, "Let's take a girls' picture," and Maddy came up and stood next to us, like, "Oh, girls' picture? I'm ready!" Too adorable!

    August 182  

    I love this sweet picture of Victoria and Maddy blowing out her birthday candles. This is one of those images that makes me really want a daughter.

    August 185

    I hope everyone had a great weekend, too!