The Big Artichoke Adventure.

Barring all obvious choices for the best day of my life - this particular blog post is about the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!  It was so wonderful and delicious and a bit cold but I will relive it often in my mind.

If you know me then you know that I'm slightly obsessed with artichokes.  I love them.  I could eat them everyday all day long and never get sick of them.  Really, I think they're the tastiest creation on Earth.  So, yes, these are pictures of us in Castroville, CA - the countries artichoke capitol.  While driving to see family we drove by Castroville and I almost passed out when I read the sign.  Shortly thereafter we went exploring to see what this artichoke capital city land had to offer.  I present - The Giant Artichoke.

The restaurant is actually called - The Giant Artichoke and appropriately they have a giant artichoke attached to the building.

This is a true story that I tell often and scare people away with but the first time M. tried an artichoke and I knew it would either make or break our relationship.  He loved it and I knew he was the one.  Tried and true my eldest born son is also a lover of the artichoke nectar.

No, we didn't feed X. any artichoke but it was tempting.

I was VERY excited.

I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of the "Artichoke Platter" that I forgot to take pictures until our food came.  I ordered a buger made from artichoke hearts and spinach - it was heavenly.  I got the artichoke soup on the side - it was less than heavenly unfortunately but it was the only thing that failed the awesome-sauce test.

Said artichoke burger.

I mentioned the platter and this is the remains after we mauled it.  It came with a steamed artichoke, deep fried artichoke hearts, and some amazing artichoke bread.  It was so good.  So good.

M.'s sandwich was just your run-of-the-mill diner sandwich.  Next time I think we'll just order two or three of the platters and call it good.

I think I was actually dead in this picture because my dreams of a meal made entirely of artichokes had come true.  Do you see the comotose stare?  I shut down and had to re-boot.  It was that good.

E. did the same.  This is his "It was so good it killed me" pose.  It's just a weird thing we do in our house - don't worry about it.

X. became king of the giant artichoke.

E. was lifting the giant artichoke and had the weight of it's goodness on his shoulders.

So, in conclusion, I'm a fan of artichokes.  I like them a lot.  I eat them whenever I can and I will be back to The Giant Artichoke soon.

Brothers and education.

Yes, the title is a bit odd and there isn't much of a correlation other than I have pictures of both and am putting them together.  The first run up here are a bunch of my cute little men and then we enter the world of E.'s new school regime.  My boys love each other and already have so much fun giggling with each other.  I'm so excited for them to be able to really play with each other, they're so cute.

E. is an excellent bowler on the Kinect.  This is his "strike" dance.

I love this pose.  E. always wants us to play the Kinect with him and he wants to hold X. while we play so this is a common position for them.

And here we have school.  A wonderful mom that home teachers her four children told me about the homeschooling program Five in a Row.  She even was so kind as to lend me her books about it.  We started with The Story of Ping and have done a few since.  I only took pictures of Ping though because I was excited and it was the first one.  I'll try to be more faithful taking more in the future.  E. loves it and is having so much fun.  I'm having a blast too when it isn't taking over our lives.  It's been a lot of fun and he loves to learn.  He's currently having a guitar lesson with M. for school so I can type this post.  Hot dog for music class!