Saturday (Oops, I mean Friday) Sunny and Heating Up

6:20

The Painting Rocks 2012

Rock Painting

The Artist

A Rock from Lake Thompson, Maine

Halle and The Old Man in the Sea

The Magnificent Six

Making Crispy Creme Donuts Again!

Making Cupcakes for Dessert

Up at 6:20 to a quiet house, though my son in law Drew, got up about 15 minutes ago.  I sat and watched the sun rise above Long Point, deliberately, steadily, filling the lake with its reflection.  My neighbors went skiing by, as is their wont on weekends, and it looks like a warm day.  Already it's 63 degrees, highs in the 80's.

A leisurely Friday, for the most part, as we all seemed exhausted from our workouts on Thursday and the gathering that night.  Only Tom, Mary and Nick went out for a run.  And Drew and I went shopping in Lakewood, to Sam's to pick up salmon and chicken thighs for the next two nights, then Wegman's, for other goodies and Drew grabbed the last fire pit since he really liked the one he bought for us.

It was a big frying day, however, as we began after breakfast with crispy cremes, starting off the day with a sugar high.  We alternated cooking or baking, then, during the day, with playing Wipeout with the grandchildren in the water, or Escape, or tag, you name it, we played it.  Besides crispy creme, Evie and Nick put together the peach meringue dessert and Tom and Mary made snickerdoodle cupcakes.

In mid afternoon, we had our second annual rock painting.  During the year, I pick up interesting (to me) looking rocks, from hikes or even travels.  For instance, I brought home a rock from our good friends, the Armontrouts house, on Lake Thompson, in Maine.  Each grandchildren paints a rock, of their choice, and they are free to design it any way they wish.  After they are done, I spray them with a shellac, to hold the colors, and we put them along our driveway or in other places, like Evie's garden.  They were particularly good this year and it was fun to watch how patient some of them were with their painting.

We had another cooking extravaganza for dinner, making it a manic Friday night to say the least. To begin, the boys and Tommy did most of the frying, starting with sweet potatoes and zucchini tempura.  We had two dipping sauces too, a chipotle and marinara.  After the veggies, we had our favorite, calamari, dipped in a batter, and it went quickly.  For dinner, Tom grilled sockeye salmon to go with garlic spinach, salad, broccoli, and dessert, of course.

We ended the night, watching the Olympics, though Beth drove to Buffalo, to pick up Ramiro, who was flying in from JFK at 11:00.  The girls, no doubt on sugar highs, did not get to sleep until after 11:00, when Evie and I were so tired we told them we were through taking and were going to sleep.  They finally settled down.