Day with the Nephews

My sister was in town over the weekend, and brought her boys along.  She worked almost all weekend, but that gave me an excuse to take the boys out and spend the day with them.

We started off by going for breakfast, and holy cow, was I not ready for the appetites.  Sure, I noticed that they'd both grown in the almost-year since I'd seen them.  The older one must have sprouted up a good 5-6 inches, but it's amazing how they've learned to pack food away.  We went to a local pancake joint - I ate less than half of my egg-filled crepes dish.  They pounded back huge plates of chocolate chip pancakes and apple cinnamon crepes (both with Lots of maple syrup and whipped cream thankyouverymuch!)

Then we went to the market, where we learned about vermicompost (which we all agree I should do... the boys, because they like the idea of their auntie storing worms under her sink, me because a small bag of worm castings cost $15 freaking dollars).   While we were there, we bought some locally grown produce for dinner.    Then we drove out to a U-pick strawberry farm just outside of a nearby town, only to realize that they aren't open yet, due to a late start in the season.  That would have been annoying, but I find that some of our best conversations happen in the car.

Next, I had the slave labour portion of the day scheduled.  I had the boys put on their swim trunks and convinced them that they'd be doing me a huge favour if they would pressure wash my fence so that I could paint it.  Really, I just wanted them to cool off in the +30C temperature.   They seemed to have fun, and thought they looked like ghost busters with the pressure wand.

The reward for all that hard work was a late lunch at the Wok Box, where I declared that it was time for them to master the art of eating with chop sticks.

There may have been some rice and other foods flicked, dropped or otherwise spewed across the table during this little endeavour.  

But we had fun.

We spent the afternoon at the local Nature Centre, where we learned about local birds and saw more swifts and ruddy ducks than we could count.

(not my pictures)

Back to my place we went, where I made secret pasta that they had to taste before I'd tell them what it was.  After they assured me that they loved it - and wouldn't change their minds once they learned the ingredients - I told them it was full of spinach and artichokes. We also had fresh baby carrots and peas from the market, and finally  - FINALLY  - they were full.  So much so, they didn't notice that I didn't offer dessert.

After a long walk with the dogs, we came back home.  They were still pretty hyped up from the day, so I let them watch a few episodes of Avatar - the Last Air Bender to mellow them out.  At 11:00, they crashed on some mattresses on the floor.