Sunday Visit

Ian and the kids came by yesterday, and we had a nice visit. I planned what I thought was a simple menu: homemade mac-and-cheese, Mom's spinach salad, baked ham, and apple crisp for dessert. I guess you could call my selections "simple" only when prepared individually. I got up at 8 am and chopped and boiled and baked until their arrival at 12:30. Don't get me wrong, I loved every minute of the chance to cook for an audience, even if a few innocently uttered "yuck"s and "I don't like that"s permeated what would have been the Sunday afternoon silence normal in my house. I must hand it to those kids though. They bravely tried everything I fixed and made the most of it. And no one spilled anything. Yay!

I continue to be challenged by photographing those little people when they're on the move, which seems to be pretty much all of the time. All of my digital albums from our get-togethers are filled with ghostly images of the kids in various stages of movement. They don't make the best scrapbook pages, but who cares, those blurry pics really capture the essence of what it is to be a Murdock kid. Even though the pics below are a little blurry, I still love them. So nice to see everyone smiling and laughing together doing something as simple as eating lunch.

Our afternoon was filled with various pursuits, including a rotation of Animal Crossing on the Wii. What a hit. Who would have thought that a game where you have to earn money, pay your mortgage, go to bed at the end of the day, and get along with your neighbors would be so addictive. Of course, in real life you don't have animals living next door (as homeowners, at least). Maybe that's why it's so much fun?

After the family left, I set to work trying to catch up with my scrapbooking. I am now about halfway through our New York trip (yes, I realize that was last September), and created some layouts that I love. I will post some of them soon. Right now I have more pressing things to do, like deciding what flavor of ice cream I want from the Schwann man tommorow...