This is not your Grandmother's chicken!

After we got back from San Antonio yesterday we went over to Del Monte for a glass of wine with Steph. Evie was very alert and chuckled several times. Here's two small videos. In the first one I was explaining the roller coaster ride in San Antonio at Peter Piper Pizza. I know it sounds daft but, it's all about the baby, heh?



And here Evie giggles a bit.....


For dinner Steph made some very good looking Cornish Hens and the kids had one each. They were stuffed with an apple and onion based mixture and the skin was injected with herbs. This video shows the twins eating their dinner.......sorry I got carried away with my commentary- the wine you know- I promise to try to be less wordy ( loquacious in Jennifer speak )in future episodes.....

Just a Quickie

I wanted to post these pics from yesterday when Evie came for lunch. She was so pretty and in a great mood.....she giggled at Nana but when I tried to get it on video she was coy.....

Tonight, it's dinner from Chipotle

We are watching the twins while Steph is in NYC accompanying Al, and having dinner with her sister Emily.



This picture was taken just as we were going back to Del Monte after dinner. The moon is bright in the background but, unfortunately you can't see it.(Ed. Since you couldn't see the moon I cropped it and reduced the red-eye on Paige.)

We had a terrific dinner from Chipotle(its so easy) and they love it and then the kids went for the mail with Nana.......here they are returning....

An hour with Graham

We minded Graham last night for an hour while his dad did some business; his mom and sisters were out shopping, Graham reported that they shopped 'all over the place'
He really loves his Nana and you will see it in these videos. She played cards with him to get him to better recognize numbers, then she played Scrabble to get him to work on letters, then she played dominoes, which Graham had a hard time remembering how to say. Funny.

We celebrated today and went to eat at Neiman's .......

The twins came home with Gold Star certificates because both of them got 100% correct answers on an 'information' quiz that deals with knowledge of their address, school and other personal data.
We celebrated and went to eat lunch at Mariposa in Neiman's and then went shopping in The Galleria. Some really funny stuff went on including Graham dancing to the music in Hello Kitty and he and Paige mimicking the dummies in the windows of Sak's.
Both were very good in the restaurant and both were bonkers over the shopping that followed. As seems to be the case too often, I missed some of the great shots, particularly of GB dancing and him mimicking the window dummies. I did get one of Paige aping the mannequin. The mannequin and PK are at the bottom. I will post some video later.


Graham can eat!








Note the marks on Paigie's face- Top of eye and just underneath are bite marks from Bad Girl Patchie, bottom red spot is a nasty mosquito bite.

Sunday after church.

Today you can feel the difference in the weather here in Houston and it seems like finally the summer is coming to an end. Whew! I know there will be more hot times to follow but this is a nice respite.
These three pics have been published before. These are cropped versions of each.






Next is a picture of Graham and Paige and Nana carrying lots of stuff from The Dollar Store into the house by the side entrance.





And a picture of the lemonade stand










Here is a video of the twins raiding Nana's fridge earlier in the day.



a couple of vids of the great salespeople of Del Monte

Wish you were here......

I have just come home after a great night with the Del Monte bunch.
I do not have pics of the whole afternoon but I do have some from early on.
Steph, Evie B and I walked over to P...C..... to pick up Paige and Graham. Here are some pics of us meeting the kids and walking back to my house. And then a pic or two of us in Whole Foods getting mussels and clams. I left my camera at home after we went shopping but Steph will probably post some shots of the Dublin Dinner we made.


Our neighborhood is being retrofitted with new water mains and this is a fire hydrant before it's planted




Paige and Graham were so good in the little shopping cart that looked like a car. We pushed them around and fed them all the samples that Whole Foods offered today. Soup, fruit, cheese, and smoked salmon. It's a wonder they ate dinner at all. Of course, the dip in the pool helped work up our appetites.

This is Sr. Tony picking out our mussels

Am I spoiled or what?

Nana's out of town in El Paso. I kept busy ( Making sure Wall Street had a good Sept 11th ) and at about 4 pm I called the Walkers to check on some stuff. Al said something about ballet and costumes and I was welcome to join them. Where's do I go says I. So off I went to Leotards and Leggings and there were the twins getting outfits for their dance classes which begin in a few days. Then we went to a little Italian restaurant for an early dinner. It was perfect. We were the only ones in there at 5.15 and we had a little corner table in a beautiful room all to ourselves. Steph ordered for everyone and we had a real family type dinner with everyone sharing all the appetizers and main dishes. Everything was yummy except the artichoke which Nana can do much better. The baby was with us and either slept or was quiet. The twins ate like lumberjacks and then had dessert.
Of course I took my camera.
Here's Graham as we checked out of the apparel (Do not look at Mommy's feet----she just had a pedicure and her nails were drying in FLIP FLOPS!!!store

Here Paige is trying to decide which hair piece she should buy


Steph had Evie in the baby bjorn the whole time and I was amazed that she could eat the whole dinner without slopping any food onto Evelyn's head.


Last week the twins and I went with Al to his office. Here's a picture I took with Paige in the hallway on the 18th floor. Note the ducks hanging from the ceiling.

And here they sit nicely in Daddy's office


And a video in the hallway checking out the security system.

And getting in the elevator.

Birthday Bash

The twins were 4 in June but because of Evelyn's arrival in same month and a long visit to Nantucket in August, their party celebration was delayed until yesterday.
The event was carefully planned and with a lot of help from Lil Bev and a bunch of Rice University students, it went very well. We had a carousel and a Ferris wheel
for the little kids and a trampoline thing ( that's what it was called ) for the daring kids. We had face painting and a coconut shy (with tin cans instead of coconuts) and lots of other fun stuff for the kids and adults. Everyone went home with a present from the Toy Boat (huh, say that 3 times real quickly)

Home Cooking

Last night Beverly cooked dinner! It was very good and although she hasn't done much cooking for many years she wowed me.
Here's Chef Beverly at work in her kitchen......

Dancing

Here's a quick video or two with the twins and Nana dancing

More later........It is now later and here are two more.
The closeup of the stein is for Uncle Buck. He gave that to me in 1967 upon graduation from King's Point. I have treasured it since. Haven't drunk any beer from it though. It was full of English money when we were robbed while we were out of town at Christmas 5 or 6 years ago. The nasty theft took the money but left me the keepsake........

Bee bop aloola

Graham appears to have a good voice. These two videos are from last night on stage.






Paige cleaning out the leaf trap.






Nana about to get tied up by Paige



And Nana and Evelyn once more


And finally Evelyn sees a monster behind Nana or, she may just be ogling her dinner supply