Friday night we went out for dinner. I went to pick up the babysitter and Rusty stayed to feed the girls. He made macaroni and cheese. Katelyn didn't want it. Shocker. Katelyn doesn't like 95% of the things we eat. Rusty told her it wasn't just any mac and cheese, it was "Mac-Daddy cheese," because Daddy made it. She ate two bowls. Go figure.

Last night we opened a new box of aluminum foil. 250 feet of aluminum foil. The roll of foil had been dented. Every time you unrolled it once, the edge peeled away and had to be peeled off. A minor annoyance. Minor becomes major over 250 feet of foil. Luckily I'm married to a handy man who tries to make my life easier. First he tried a knife. Then he disappeared to the garage. And came back up with a skillsaw. He cut off the troubled end of the foil. I will be smiling every foot of foil for the next 247 feet.

Catching wild chickens 101

Equipment needed:
A fishing pole
A looped rope
bread
wild chickens

Instructions:
Tie the loop onto the end of the fishing line. Practice quickly pulling up on the fishing pole. You may want to try to catch a family member. Dogs are good sports. Find some wild chickens. Open up your loop and move backwards leaving about 10-20 feet of fishing line out. Entice the chickens with the bread, leaving some bread inside your loop. Optional: hide in the bushes. When the chicken has both feet inside the loop quickly pull up on the fishing pole. Congratulations, you just caught your first wild chicken. If wild chicken is part of your food storage plan you can eat the chicken. Or you can just pet it and let it go.

Note: No animals were injured during the making of these pictures.

The chicken with the red has just been caught.

One might ask, why are the Cook's catching chickens? Well, why not? On Friday Rusty was at work and needed to get into a room at the Marriott (where he is doing a remodeling job). He had to get the maintenance guy to open the door. He called him, but he was busy catching chickens. Rusty offered to trade him places so he could open the door. Rusty was then schooled in the fine art of chicken catching. His debut as a chicken catcher was highlighted by all of the subcontractors cheering him on (and booing him when he missed). Marriot catches their chickens because they are aggressive for food and wake the guests up in the morning. They then take them to a little chicken reservation, which is near the cannery between Lawai and Kalaheo.

The girls loved catching chickens.

You really can learn something new every day.

Rusty's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Rusty! We had our party last night. The girls made a fingerpaint poster for Daddy in the morning. We also made him two apple pies. That was his request in lieu of cake. He needed two pies because his first food love is pie for breakfast, so we had to have leftovers. Pie making is not my forte. However, I tried a different method with each pie and came up with some new apple pie baking preferences. Then I talked to my mom and she already knew what I had to experiment to find out. I should have just called first. I also got to use a pie crust recipe that I haven't used since I took pie's 4-H in high school from Joylynn. For dinner we had filet mignon steaks, baked/mashed potatoes (fixed like baked potatoes, but boiled as a method of cooking), green salad, jello salad, and corn. Kyky made Rusty a special green crown to wear and gave him a chess game so he could teach her how to play chess. Other fun gifts included gift cards to home depot and borders, a water bladder for bike rides, more juggling clubs so he can learn to juggle with more than three clubs, a daily spanish phrase calender, and a big book of magic tricks. He is a man of many hobbies. Happy Birthday Russ!

My apple pie tip: add quite a few more apples than the recipe call for and steam them for ten minutes or so before mixing on the sugary stuff. Then the apples fit in the pie pan and there are lots of them in the pie. I'm probably the last to know.

Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens

Monday, January 18th was the annual kamaina day at Na Aina Kai Botanical Garden on the North Shore. We decided early Monday morning to make it a field trip day and head up. I had no idea it was such a big deal. The parking alone required 10 + people to direct traffic, and that's alot of cars in one place on Kauai. The formal garden was the only part included in the admission. We may have to go back to see the childrens garden. The formal garden included a hedge maze, a coi pond, and a desert garden. The whole garden had bronze statues throughout. We loved the hedge maze. Kyleigh told me later that she was expecting a maze in the dirt that you did with your finger. She was especially excited about getting to walk through the tall hedges. Katelyn's favorite part was feeding the fish in the coi pond. We were all glad we decided to make the trek to the North Shore.

Cute Sisters.

We put the girls to bed. Each in their in own beds. When we went to check on them before we went to sleep this is what we found. The flash makes it look like day, but the room was dark and they were snuggled up together in KyKy's bed. Both of the stuffed animals are Kyleigh's. She was just sharing.

"Other Highlight" Pics