A day at the beach

Recently, we headed to the beach on Sullivan's Island with the Berger girls.  They had visited us in France last summer and had a wonderful time with Kathleen and Lucie so we knew we would have a nice day at the beach.  We were not disappointed...they built sand castles, went swimming, walked along the shore, and chatted lots.  Bucky and I read and relaxed and enjoyed our children enjoying a day at the beach with their friends!

Kathleen and Galen starting their castle...

The drip castle...

Lucie and Ella after a swim!

Labor day

To celebrate Labor Day, we gathered at Hank and Barb's house for some eating, drinking and a bit of Trivial Pursuit!  Hank prepared his delicious barbeque chicken and Barb had her famous mac-n-cheese for the gang.  There were even homemade brownies for dessert!  The Trivial Pursuit competition was fierce...we divided into families (Muirs, Darbys and Walls) for the event, and after numerous questions, and a bit of haggling over a few of the answers, the Muirs prevailed.  It was a fun evening with family and friends!

Kate, Tutu and Barb...

Ed and Bucky...

Hank's famous bbq chicken...nice and crispy!

Fruit salad...yummy, yummy!

Barb's always popular mac-n-cheese!



Learning something new

On Sunday, Kathleen, Bucky and I headed to the beach for the day on Sullivan's Island.  Kathleen was eager to try skimboarding or sand skimming or whatever you want to call it...Basically, you throw a thin wooden board onto the shallow water as a wave recesses and then you try and jump on the board.  My dad has a board that he made ages ago and Kathleen was dying to try it out.  After a few hints from Bucky (who supposedly skimboarded in his day), she threw the board and jumped right on!  It was fun to watch her as she threw the board over and over and over again into the water.  She got some good rides, fell a couple of times and overall, had a fabulous time!  I have a feeling that we will be going to the beach again soon with dad's old skimboard in tow. 

Making Piera proud!

Last weekend, per Bucky's request, my dad and Kathleen made fresh pasta.  My dad used to make fresh pasta quite often, but he has not broken out his pasta machine in a few years so he was a little nervous.  Luckily, he had Kathleen as an assistant!  She had learned the craft of making gnocchi from Piera last  year during a visit to Italy so she was not daunted by attempting pasta.  You can follow the process below, but what you can't fully gather is how fantastic the final product was...the pasta was amazing and we are hopeful that Bubba and Kathleen will prepare fresh pasta on a regular basis from now on!

The first steps...

Getting messy...

Flattening the pasta....

Spreading the pasta out to dry...

Cutting the pasta...

Making fettucini...

Cool!

Separating the pasta...

Uncooked...

Cooked and tossed with butter...

Buon appetito!