We love coming to visit my folks. Its a break from the cold weather, there are other adults to watch the kids and we are surrounded by numerous shrines to consumerism only minutes from the house (seriously!! 3 different bookstores within 8 minutes of the house!!! When you have to drive at least an hour to shop somewhere other than Target or WalMart this is almost surreal)
While my mom would be perfectly happy to make dinner all week, we like to help out. This is where the trials come in. I've mentioned before about all my foremothers fervently embracing agribusiness as soon as it was available, so what DH & I consider to be staples - flour, sugar, onions, eggs, baking soda, lemon juice, etc, do not exist in my parents' kitchen. Mom isn't going to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch when Toll House has premade & preformed ones in the refrigerator case. In fact, why not just buy Chips Ahoy & save the dirty tray? Mom doesn't bake.
DH is making Chicken Florentine for dinner tonight. We had to buy everything but the chicken - including a whisk. I'm going to make sugar cookies with the boys tomorrow. True to my upbringing I bought a couple rolls of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough.I didn't realize there was no rolling pin in the house. My SIL made cookies last year, I can't recall if they were from scratch or not but still...she would have needed a rolling pin. Maybe she used a wine bottle?
The boys are suffering tribulations. My parents have a couple of kiddy bikes with training wheels. The boys can ride bikes but get little practice at home where we have only a small porch sized flat paved surface & the rest is gravel or grass. So their ambition exceeds their ability. So far both have skinned elbows, Havoc has a scraped knee & Mayhem,by drifting backwards down a humpback bridge managed to fall off & despite wearing a helmet, managed to scrape his scalp up.
But a good time is still being had by all.
