Trip to the Museum

On Friday I went with the boys on their 4th grade field trip to the museum. Below are some fun photos of my group. Ben playing the chimes in the music park.

Ben and friends exploring the force of moving water in the stream exhibit.

My group, acting like the bears we had just seen. Funny, because the bears just sat there looking at us.

The group reading about the black bears, which are native to NC.

We arrived in time for a butterfly release in the butterfly house. This owl butterfly had just been hatched that morning. I doubt he made it much longer after a thousand kids passed him around! But it was great to see such a large butterfly up close.

Pot au Feu (aka, my boys ate fennel!)

On Tuesday I went to a cooking class at Williams-Sonoma. I went to one two weeks ago on Latin American food, and it was really good. This week's wasn't as good, but then I went and made one of the recipes last night, and it was really good - better than the one we made in class, probably because I added my own twist to it.

The recipe is called Pot au Feu, which is a french recipe using an inexpensive cut of beef and cooking on low, very slowly to make it tender. It's similar to a pot roast. My Pot au Feu was very tasty, and the BOYS even ATE it! Not only did they like the beef, they both ate leeks and fennel and parsnips!
This is Ben about to eat a slice of fennel - and he LIKED it. He ate several slices of it, and declared it his favorite vegetable.

Here is Alek, about to eat fennel! He liked it too, but not quite as much as Ben.

Back to Ben, eating more fennel!

So, let me share my magic recipe with you. I'm definately going to make this again.

3 lb chuck roast

wine (I used Raven's Wood Zinfandel - a hearty red)

worchestershire sauce

Salamida's Pinch (a seasoning blend that we absolutely LOVE, from upstate NY)

15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes, diced

1 T dried thyme

3 carrots

1 fennel bulb

2 parsnips

2 leeks

I prepared the roast by sprinkling a side with Salamida's Pinch, then using the pointy side of my meat tenderizer to puncture it all over. Then, I poured worchestershire sauce on that size, and pressed it again with the mallet. I find grocery store beef is rather gray and flavorless, and the addition of the wochestershire sauce makes the beef more flavorful. I treated the meat on both sides this way.

In my cast-iron enameled pot, I dumped the can of tomatoes and spread them across the bottom, laid in the beef, then poured about a cup of wine overall. Into the oven it went, at 275 degrees for two hours.

I chopped all the vegetables in to 1" sections, and put them on top of the beef/tomato/wine mixture and put it all back in the oven for another hour.

At the end of the 3 hours, the pot contained a great amount of broth, tender beef, and tender veggies. I served the beef by cutting it into 1/4 inch slices, next to the veggies, and with some sourdough bread.

I strained the broth, and saved the leftovers of beef/veggies/broth overnight. Today I made Pot au Feu soup! And the kids ate it again! I used all the leftovers, chopping them into smaller pieces, and also cooked 1 cup barley in 4 cups beef broth from bullion. I put the two together, added more Salamida's Pinch and some fresh cracked pepper. DELISH!

And it was a hearty warm soup for this dark and dreary day!

Sporty Saturday

Huge day here today. I was with Ben and Gary was with Alek, so I have more pictures of Ben ... Ben competed in the Raleigh Rampage at TRC today. He had an awesome climbing day, and came in 5th in the Youth D category. His scores from last weekend's comp were posted on the USAC website, and he's ranked 20th in his category after last week's comp. Fantastic, since he's only been bouldering for 6 weeks!

Here are some pics from today. Coach Jason helping the team (Ben, Caley, Amanda, Cameron) evaluate the routes before the comp starts.

I didn't get pictures of the climbs today, but above are Alek, Ben, Caley and little Jason, watching the finals at the end of other comp. The team is really supportive and encouraging of each other, and Ben has made some really good friends on the team.

Caley, Alek, and Ben watching the finals.

Ben and Caley sitting on the stairs watching the finals.

The other kids sitting on the other stairs.

Aren't they CUTE???

Ben came in 5th in the comp. Alek made a TOUCHDOWN today at his football game, and got the Sportsmanship Award of the game award. Unfortunately, his team lost this week, but he had a super game!

It's now 8 pm, I'm exhausted, and they are both still bouncing around the playroom playing with their stuffed animals. WOW.

Apex Super Walmart

The super walmart opened, less than a mile from my house, this week. I went for the first time today, and the parking lot was packed when I arrived at 10:30 am today (Friday). It's not as pretty as the Holly Springs Super Walmart ... the Apex store has grey concrete floors, and the HS one has brown concrete floors, which gives it a more trendy look. Apex Walmart was very clean, so far. The HS one has been very clean for over two years, as compared to the Cary regular Walmart which is a dump. I hope they keep this one nice, it certainly had all the unique grocery items that I have to go to Harris Teeter and Lowe's to find. They had several organics, but I forgot to check for the organic Chocolate Chip Waffles we get a Whole Foods. I'll have to try the meats, too, to see if they are any good. The did have the pet floor cleaner for the Spot Bot, Indiana Popcorn Kettle Corn, strawberry bagels, and chipotle chilies in adobo sauce (which I couldn't find in any of the regular grocery stores. Now Harris Teeter is offering Boar's Head deli meats, at the same prices as Kroger and Lowes, so I can go anywhere for them. Of course, Walmart carries most of it's Good Value Brand, so we'll have to try some of it to see if it's worth the change.

My favorite things at the new Super Walmart:
1. Back wall of the McDonalds is a picture mural of downtown Apex, and includes a picture of our church!
2. 28 cents a pound for bananas
3. Acai juice in 5 different varieties!!
4. Silk Soymilk for $3 / half gallon
5. Same price as BJs for eggs, OJ, TP (a little bit higher than BJs for Legos)
6. Lots of variety of salad, veggies, fruits, yogurt, cereal

The one thing they could change:
1. Make the employees who smoke go out BACK of the store to smoke, rather than standing next to the front door - YUCK.

I didn't check out the other sections of the store today - spent an hour and a half in the grocery side. I think this store is nearly as big as Wegman's in Johnson City, NY. That's still, and I think always will be, my #1 favorite grocery store.

Inner Peaks Bouldering Competition

On Saturday Ben competed in his first Bouldering competition at Inner Peaks Climbing Gym in Charlotte NC. He did really well, attempting over 30 routes across the 3 hour competition. He came 4th against Youth D Males, which is all boys age 10 and below. We are really proud of the way he managed his energy and his strategy over the 3 hours. We've seen such improvement in his climbing in the 6 weeks he's been with TRC - his endurance is amazing! Here are some pictures from the competition. Shane is the head coach of the TRC climbing team of which Ben is a member. Shane was also the route-setter for this competition. I thought the routes were amazing ... there were so many variations and difficulties. They were numbered from 1 - 51, and got progressively harder. Although, depending on the climber's size and strenths, some were very difficult even though they were lower in number. For example, the highest number Ben completed was number 26, but he couldn't complete 25-20, he completed four others in the 10-20 range, and a couple in the 1-10 range. Each route had a number of point associated with it, and if you flashed it on your first attempt (made it to the top without falling), you received full value. If you made it to the top on your second attempt, your score was full value - 10 points, and for third attempt and below the score was full value - 20 points. So, you could try the routes as many times as you wanted. At this competition, they took your 5 highest scores and then ranked the competitors. If there was a tie, then your falls were used to break the ties. We'll see the final scores when they are posted later this week.

Before each competition they have a Climber's Meeting, where they go over the rules and important information. Shane gave the Climber's Meeting.

Ben flashed this red route (made it to the top on his first try). You can follow his progress through the next pictures...

Up up up...

Smearing up to the top ...

Hanging on of the last push (notice that his feet are not on any holds) ...

And he's up and over the top! Bouldering is different from top rope climbing, which Ben did last spring. In top rope climbing, the climber is in a harness, attached to a rope, and he climbs up a wall which goes 20-30 feet in the air. If he falls, the rope and harness catch him. A person is at the other end of the rope, watching the climber and belaying (or guiding) the rope. In bouldering, a climber climbs without harness or rope, up boulders 15 feet high. The boulders have many angles and facets. Both types of climbing use the same type of holds. Bouldering is scarier, because you have to have enough energy at the end to either go over the top or come back down by climbing or jumping down.

Yellow route 12 - Ben flashed this one.

This morning he said his back and abs were sore ... you can see why!

Under his right foot you can see how small some of these holds really are!

The woman to the right of Ben is Megan, one of the TRC Team coaches. She was a great help in guiding Ben and helping him evaluate the routes.

If you look in the background of this picture, you can see how crowded the comp was, and how beautiful the climbing walls were. Inner Peaks was a huge climbing center, and was a real joy to spend the day in.

Maybe not my best camera angle.

Heading up for the final grab on #14 ... a very tricky route! Ben did it on his second try.

Sorry about the focus here ... we messed with the camera and everything is blurry from here on. Anyway, here Ben is hanging by his arms as he turns overhead to the wall to the right. The trick was to use that triangle feature ont he rock (to the right of his back)

And he makes it! This was the final hold on #14!

This route was #24 - it was a severe angle. You can see why Ben's abs would hurt today because the climber has to have super core strength to hold his feet against the wall opposing gravity. Ben didn't finish this route, but he tried it several time. It was a wonderful challenge for him. Each route is called a 'problem' because they all must be evaluated before you start your climb ... the climber has to plan where to have their feet and hands in preparation for the next hold, and the next hold, etc. You also have to know how to approach each hold so your feet and hands are turned correctly and so that you can hold your body weight at the various angles.

Pink route #16 - he didn't finish this one.

In the last hour, after he had 5 good scores completed, he jumped up to higher routes to give them a try ... here he's on #33. It's a good strategy, because sometimes your skills may be a perfect match for a higher route that more difficult for a larger-bodied person.

Alek was a good sport - hanging out in the gym from 4 pm until it ended at 10 pm. It was a long day for all of us, and we spent the night in a hotel in Charlotte and came home this morning.

Even after 3 hours of climbing, Ben was all smiles as we waited for results to be announced. Behind him you can see how cool this climbing gym was!

Alek's Tower

Last weekend Alek built a big tower with the Magz magnetic pieces.