He's "Hip to the Flip"

*If you know the person with me in the picture below, you'll know why this entry got its title.

Today marks 28 years for this guy:


His doppelganger is this guy, and so obviously he is also a most excellent friend.

And he looks an awful lot like this other guy:

In addition to being a great brother (see evidence in picture above), he's a great son. (Or so I hear.)

He also makes a great travel companion, which you would know if you saw the picture below or read this entry here.

And I'd say he's someone you can lean on. Although this picture suggests our family really likes to lean on small children.

His music loves include this, and this, and this/this. (Okay. Maybe not the last two. But we might be guilty of breaking into song when driving in the car together. Since there is no video evidence, this will have to suffice. And, in the spirit of honesty, I should note that it's never occurred with EITHER of those songs.)

I think we're pretty lucky to have such a great brother in our lives. Happy birthday, Jonathan!

You may now begin to celebrate.

Second Annual Caramel Apple Night

Question of the day: How do you pronounce the word "caramel"? Carmel or caramel?



This weekend was the second annual autumn party, and I think most of us agreed that we call what we made "carmel" apples. But we purchased "caramel" to do so. Either way, the apples turned out just as great as last year's apples turned out, although I think the toppings were better.

There was, however, a new lesson to be learned. Many of us actually ATE the apples this year, as is obvious from P's apple, modeled below.

While most of us ate just a slice or two (or half of it), P ate the entire apple. I'm guessing it took him over an hour, and we learned that consuming this much amazing yumminess could be a hazard to your health. It could be because he chose toffee as his topping, so I think his apple was 90% sugar and only 10% fruit by the time the candy and caramel was layered on.

We also watched the same movie, Monster House. (BTW, I think this young children would be a little scared watching this movie.) This is the perfect movie: not so scary that girls don't want to watch it, has plenty of humor, and the boys were also okay with it.