Fathers Day

The first thing to decide on this post was the title. Normally it’s quite easy but this one could easily have been titled “Devil Children” or “Chicken Giblets”. While both of those titles would have worked I think Fathers Day is the most suitable.

This week has flown by and it has been another busy one. Our shipment arrived on Tuesday and the whole of Tuesday and pretty much everyday since has been spent unpacking boxes. It’s now Sunday evening and we’re getting there. The house is still a tip but the boxes are going! It is mainly clothes that need to be put away now and then we need to work out what on earth we are going to do with all the empty boxes in the garage – there’s definitely no room for cars in there at the moment.

Harry has finished school for summer now – poor Tracy! The final week consisted of his usual half day on Wednesday, no work all week, a sports afternoon on Thursday (although I’m not sure how sporty it was apart from a tug-o-war) and then a 2 hour school day on Friday. It seemed a bit pointless going to school for 2 hours but I think that is the minimum amount of time that counts as a school day and it means they have completed enough school days in the year. An easy life!

On the Wednesday we received an email from Andy (Harrold & Carlton FC coach) which informed Harry that his team mates had voted him player of the season – which he was suitably thrilled about. They asked if we could send a note or video to share with the team at the presentation BBQ on Saturday. After spending some time preparing his acceptance speech with typical cliches such as “really surprised”, “couldn’t have done it without you”, etc. we headed on down to the tennis court to shoot the video. To spare his embarrassment I won’t share the first 4 “takes”. The final version that got sent across was as follows:

httpv://youtu.be/aaRkmrTKqcI

On Thursday afternoon we headed to VW Seattle to sign the papers for the new car. We had been told that it could cost anything up to $1,000’s to register the car but it turned out to only be $156 which was a nice result! We then went back to VW Seattle on Friday to actually get the car. Tracy drove it back to the apartment following me (as I nearly drove into a bus!). It was definitely the bus drivers fault though – he was where I wanted to be! It doesn’t bode well for the driving test though which was meant to be taken this Tuesday but I rearranged it until next Thursday.

Our Friday night meal out was my choice, and I plumped for the Californian Pizza Kitchen in Bellevue – it made a change from Harry’s choices which were Zeeks Pizza or the Mexican and Toby’s choices which were McDonalds or Burger King. Although it was nice, it wasn’t quite the same as having a Friday evening in Kirkland but I suppose we need to get used the that.

Saturday saw us packing up the another 4 suitcases of clothes and a bunch of other things and almost moving everything to our new house. It rained all day and we spent most of it tidying, unpacking and shopping! The boys bedroom benefitted from a very colorful light and 4 new lamps appeared in and around the dining room and the family room. A giant pear was also acquired and currently sits proudly on the dining room table. Harry and Toby spent most of their time in the shops playing some sort of “touch as many things as you can” game. It didn’t matter how many times they were told not to – they’d forgotten 2 seconds later. Still they promised they would behave on Sunday as it was Fathers Day.

Fathers Day began rather abruptly at 7:10am as the boys came into the bedroom shouting “Happy Fathers Day”. I opened one present – a rather nice iphone charger before I got a cup of tea and Cadburys chocolate fingers in bed! I then opened my other pressie which is a Belgian waffle maker. I’ve wanted one of these since we came out in February. It looks brilliant – can’t wait to make some waffles!

From this point on I think Harry and Toby spent the day misbehaving in countless different ways and it stayed that way until just after 6pm when we sat down for roast chicken. We nearly didn’t get the chicken as unlike UK supermarkets this one still had it’s giblets in! I wasn’t getting involved (as it was Fathers Day) and neither were Toby or Harry – even though Harry had intended to take them out, he changed his mind when he saw them. Tracy ended up scooping them out with a spoon and putting them straight down the waste disposal unit – I can highly recommend these and not just for giblets. They are also very good for unfinished bowls of cereal and potato peelings.

After the giblet experience, it was decided that we wouldn’t be having roast chicken again just beef and pork, however, Tracy changed her mind once she had tasted how good it was! All plates were cleared and our first American roast dinner was complete – yum!

After dinner, we sat down and watched Cars in the formal lounge in readiness for Cars 2 which is out in the cinemas next week. The devil children are being bribed into good behavior – a week of behaving and we go to the cinema next weekend. What are the chances of that happening!?