Weekend Moments
February 25, 2008
We are wild and crazy on Saturday nights.
And then on Sunday mornings Rob makes breakfast.
Chocolate chip pancakes.
I finally convinced everyone to throw away that crap pretend pancake syrup. Have you ever read the label? There is not one drop of real maple syrup in there. It doesn’t even taste like real maple syrup. And considering we live in an area where numerous people tap their Maple trees and sell big jugs of the real stuff, it seems like a crime.
I guess Aunt Jemima won’t be emailing me to write for them anytime soon.
This week we are filled to the brim with appointments. How they all happened to converge in one week I have no idea.
One of them is an appointment at the eye doctor for my *almost* 12 year old. In an effort to save time and more importantly my sanity on the day of his appointment, I had Rob stop in the eyeglass store with him this weekend so that new frames could be picked out. After looking at 5 gazillion different frames in the store he is adamant that he wants the identical pair.
The wild and crazy never stops.
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Goodness you have a lot of laptops! That’s a lovely photo. It’s nice that you take so many pictures of your family, and document the little things; 10 years from now it will be the everyday routines and events that will be treasured memories, but so many families only take pictures of the Big Events, like vacations. It’s also nice that because they’re all so used to being photographed, that you can actually get good candids, without everybody mugging and goofing off when they see the camera.
I’m totally with you on the syrup… it HAS to be maple! Actually I judge breakfast places on three things: real 1/2 and 1/2 for the coffee, real butter for the toast, and real syrup.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:09 pmwe’re from New Jersey and real maple syrup in the grocery store comes in really small containers and seems a bit costly but i hate the fake stuff. is there a place you know of where we can order? thought maybe you’d know somewhere local that we could support.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:28 pmThat fake maple syrup should be against the law.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:29 pmI have been lurking for awhile, but I have to say, your blog makes my heart happy! I love the way you capture your family. I love your writing!
February 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pmI also hope we are as ‘wild and crazy’ as you guys are when our kids get older. So nice to see a family together like that!
Sundays are pancake day here, too. While I do not forsee us giving up our beloved Aunt Jemima, I put so much stuff in my pancakes that the kids frequently eat them without any syrup at all.
Yesterday I did banana choc chip!
February 25th, 2008 at 12:59 pmAbout the maple syrup, the last time I bought some, a quart I think it was, it cost over fourteen dollars. So I guess that is why some people buy the fake stuff. About the laptops, how can you keep your little ones from destroying all those computers?!?! And your husband must make a bundle of money, otherwise I don’t know how you could afford them all!!
February 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pmMy girls would love to get ahold of some Aunt Jemima, until recently unavailable in our town, but thanks to the marketing Gods, now for sale in small town France.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:13 pmWE actually remembered ” Pancake Day” this year. It has to be THE actual day that we remembered. It was usually Monty’s Mum who reminded us each and every year but this year it was herself and she has been gone two or three years now.
I have acrtually no idea what reminded us this year but I am SO PLEASED that we remembered ourselves..
:-) 
XXXXXXXXX
Have a totally wonderful wonderful Easter. WE had GREAT PANCAKES which Monty made for us and we were really good not to have pancakes as well.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:21 pmLOL… We are wild and crazy just like you are.
I’ve heard tell that the worst enemy of a marriage is a good book, but I think the laptop is quickly taking the place of the book.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pmHusbands are good for chocolate chip pancakes, aren’t they? As for the syrup, we try and to live and eat organically, but my ONE EXCEPTION is syrup. It HAS to be Mrs. Butterworth’s or Aunt Jemima. I hate real maple syrup. But I do love the fake made with REAL high fructose corn syrup. YUM!
February 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pmI feel like I’m part of the “In Crowd”. I’ve got the same laptop as the majority!
February 25th, 2008 at 1:32 pmThe first photo looks like it came right out of a Dell computer ad!
February 25th, 2008 at 1:34 pmHi - I’m a new commenter but I’ve been reading along for a while. I agree about the crap in the imitation syrup. We switched to pure maple syrup a few years ago and are glad we did. However, pure maple syrup is expensive, so we put it in one of those squeeze bottles (like a ketchup bottle from a diner, only this one is clear in color). It definitely helps to portion-control the amount of syrup on my sons’ pancakes and stretches the syrup longer.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:35 pmThat is so great! My kids would LOVE to have their own laptops, so they could be just like Mom and Dad!
February 25th, 2008 at 1:36 pmMy old roommate is from Vermont and showed me the lack of any real maple syrup on the Aunt Jemima ingredient label one day. I haven’t had it since. The real stuff makes a huge difference. It is pricey, but you can get bigger jugs of the real stuff at Costco for a better deal than the littler ones in the grocery store.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:05 pmLOL it does look like a dell ad…. LOL what can I say I have one. Have a great week!
February 25th, 2008 at 2:18 pmI hate the fake stuff but my kids don’t like real maple syrup either. Oh well, I’ll just keep the good expensive stuff for myself then.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pmThe picture with all the laptops is priceless. Do they have their own blogs yet? They will. My kids 6 & 7 are also wondering when the laptop fairy is going to visit them. Loved it.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:29 pmI have to laugh. My hub and I have laptops and the two teens have desktops. Soon(we be moving this week) the desktops will be in the same room and we’ll have similar lifes on Saturday nights. Great pictures. I really enjoy all your photos.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:48 pmHow nice that everybody wants to be together (even if they’re on their laptops)–looks like fun to me!
February 25th, 2008 at 4:51 pmDag. How many laptops do you have??
Chris says: I only have one. My husband has one from work. And my two oldest sons have their own.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:19 pmthe family bonding in that first picture brings me great joy.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:57 pmDo you know I’m 40 and have never tasted real maple syrup? Must put that on my To Do Before I Die list. LOL
February 25th, 2008 at 7:10 pmWhat only four laptops???? In a family as large as yours. Child abuse, that’s what I call it. The family that blogs together, stays together.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:13 pmI love the intense look of concentration on all those boys’ faces and how you manage to capture the small moments that make up the big picture!
February 25th, 2008 at 7:21 pmI thought we were the only one with FOUR computers… lmbo!
Great photo!
Beth
February 25th, 2008 at 8:35 pmYour laptop pic cracked me up!
I did the scheduling nightmare to myself last week - I don’t know why I did that to myself! Oh well, just think of it this way, it’s all over at once.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:37 pmHI. Sometime could you write about how you homeschool from ages 5 to teenaged? I’m curious how, do they work in different groups?
February 25th, 2008 at 8:52 pmI looked at the first picture and said,”How many laptops can one family have!” My husband, looking over my shoulder, said,”Be careful. We used to say the same thing about strollers!”
February 25th, 2008 at 11:15 pmMy sons only know real maple syrup - I don’t care the cost, that’s what they’ll always have - the real GOOD stuff
I am on strike against ALL things containing corn syrup…
LOVE your photography!
February 26th, 2008 at 12:51 amHa–that looks like my house! Only difference is that all of ours have an apple on the back side.
February 26th, 2008 at 4:41 amthat picture looks just like my husband and I on a saturday night. Yes we to are wild and crazy..
February 26th, 2008 at 6:03 amWhat is the deal about this week??? My family ended up with total madness this week too. Dentist appointments and baseball practices and basketball practices have flooded the calendar.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:14 amthat laptop picture cracks me up!
February 26th, 2008 at 11:05 amFor those looking for affordable maple syrup- Trader Joes sells REAL maple syrup for 2-3$ a bottle. Yeah, probably not as nice as the stuff you pick up from a local farmer, but definatly more affordable than its 10$+ bretheren at the regular grocery stores.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:30 amWe just switched to real maple syrup too! And that first picture is exactly what my home will look like a few years from now. For now we fight our 5-year-old for the use of our two laptops. It’s not at all nerdy around here.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:33 pmYour family looks just like our family (except we have macs, lol) - I adore that picture of a typical “Saturday night”!
February 26th, 2008 at 2:15 pmHi Chris- a quick question for you— I love the candid photos you take “all over” so my question is- what kind of camera do you have? Do you have a SLR or something smaller that you take along for those store pictures? I don’ t know that I could bring my larger camera with me all over so I just wondered how you did it. LOVE all your photos.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:26 pmThanks for being such an inspiration
Chris, what do you edit your photos in?
February 26th, 2008 at 3:07 pmWow - laptop family! cute matching laptops.
Maple syrup with no maple? That’s pretty bad! I hardly ever have pancakes so haven’t looked at our syrup bottle - I may have to check it now!
Use honey! YUM!
February 26th, 2008 at 3:15 pmIf that was my couch on Saturday night, it would include an image of me rolled up in a ball asleep and drooling.
February 26th, 2008 at 4:33 pmheh…do y’all buy your laptops by the dozen?
February 26th, 2008 at 4:35 pmHow about making your own maple syrup? It is better for you than what you buy at the store, but still not the real thing. But with our family of 6 we go through a lot of syrup. Can’t afford the real stuff.
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
Combine all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil for 3 minutes stirring constantly, cool and store. Easy!
February 26th, 2008 at 5:20 pmLove the real maple syrup. I get mine from Stew Leonard’s or the farmer’s market, it’s more pricey but it’s also more versatile. You can use it to sweeten just about anything, creme caramel, smoothies, whipped sweet potatoes, anything involving fall flavors—there are just some places where Aunt Jemima won’t venture.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:37 pmBeautiful Photography. What kind of SLR do you have? I’m considering learning a new trade in photography since painting isn’t selling well.
Sounds like you are finding beauty in the busy life of a mother.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:11 pmMmmmm, maple syrup…… I’d almost visit in a New England winter just to sit under the trees letting it drip into my mouth.. (yes yes I know, it has to be boiled first, but the visual isn’t quite as fun!).
We’re onto our second bottle of VT syrup that we bought last year (in VT, funnily enough!). I prefer the Grade B Amber, unfortunately we only have Grade A left. Again I’m left with that yearning for an ‘essential’ trip across the pond…..
February 27th, 2008 at 6:01 pmoh yes - i agreewith jackie - would loveto hear about your homeschooling…
February 27th, 2008 at 10:02 pmAs we all sit on the couch w/ our laptops… I come across your post! I see there are others with wild Saturday nights too!
Pop on over & visit me at http://anapronaday.blogspot.com
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:20 am