Track and Field 2013

Last week Wednesday was the annual homeschool track and field meet.  This is our 4th year participating and the boys always look forward to it.  Usually we have pretty decent weather, but this year the was a bit rainy.  It started out just dripping, but by the end, everyone was pretty wet.

We could only find one umbrella so Chris grabbed the beach umbrella, which came in very handy.

Joel is waiting to do the 50 yard dash.

Here he is running the 50 yard dash.  Ignore the hysterical child.  Aaron was petrified of the starting gun.  Chris is in the red shirt at the start line helping out.

Here's Andrew running the 50 yard dash.

Unfortunately, Aaron had totally lost it by the time it was Noah's turn to run and I didn't get a video of him.

Noah waiting for his ribbon. 

Joel, talking his leader's ear off.

Andrew.  He wouldn't show me his ribbons because he said he didn't want to lose them.

Noah placed 3rd in the soccer kick event.

Joel placed 2nd in the 50 yard dash.

Looking forward to next year!

Eats this week

My favorite meal that my mom made while I was growing up was roast beef and gravy, carrots, and potatoes.  It was actually a very scientific meal.  First, I mashed up my potatoes and carrots and mixed them together.  Then I chopped up some roast beef and forked in on top and smothered the whole mess with gravy.  And usually had seconds.  And my brother added ketchup to his mess.  Quite often my folks would be done eating before my brother and I even made a dent in our plates.

Roast beef was on sale this week at Meijer for $3.49/lb.  Kind of expensive for meat, but we hadn't had any roast beef in awhile and the $12 roast I bought will make at least 3 meals, if not 4.  I tried a recipe similar to this one and my husband immediately detected the 3/4 cup of cola in it (he doesn't like sweet in his savory dishes).  So next time I will just use beef broth.  I like this recipe because it makes an abundance of gravy and I made the whole meal in the crockpot.  I mixed the soups and gravy mix all together in the crockpot and then added carrots and potatoes with the roast layered on top.  It cooked on low for about 5-6 hrs and on high for 2-3 (it was a very large roast).  Delicious and reminiscent of my childhood.

Tonight we had this delicious recipe for spaghetti and meatballs, except I made mine in the crockpot and omitted the water.  I doubled the recipe for the sauce and  quickly realized that I would not be able to fit the meatballs in later, so I simmered the sauce on high for about 5 hours and removed half of it to freezer containers.  I then added half of the meatballs I had made (and froze the other half) and dropped them into the sauce and simmered on high for about 2 1/2 more hours.  The result was delicious, tender meatballs.  I also have a bunch of leftovers, sauce for our pizza tomorrow, and 3 more meals which will likely result in more leftovers.  Love it when that happens!

We noticed at dinner that Andrew really enjoyed his spaghetti.  I wonder what our first clue was??  (He wasn't thrilled to get his pic taken.)

In honor of Chris' 37th birthday, I made a Boston cream poke cake.  Quite decadent-tasting and quite simple.