A Tea Party of Sorts

We absolutely love audio books while riding in the car.  We barely get the doors closed and the engine on before Mister is asking me to turn one on.  I wrote a whole post about this last summer.  I scored a fabulous find at the annual library book sale- a whole CD case full of children's audiobooks!  Dr. Doolittle and The Secret Garden are the two we've listened to so far, but also included were Tuck Everlasting, The Story of the Orchestra, and a some others I can't remember.  For a donation, this was quite a score!

We've listened to Dr. Doolittle a gazillion times already.  Mister loves it. But I was enraptured by The Secret Garden, a book I read as a girl.  As I listened to it being read by a beautiful English accent, I realized why this book is a children's classic.  It is not just beautifully written, but makes one feel deep and strong emotions regarding the characters and the events... even if you're not quite sure what the strong feelings mean. I'm not articulate enough to expound on it, but what a great way to spend a long car ride to and from camp!

I had a copy of the movie The Secret Garden (1993)- still shrink wrapped- that I found at the Salvation Army one day.  Friday night is movie night and since listening to the book, it was a perfect time to watch it! Because the book takes place in England,  we had an English tea of sorts, though I took tremendous liberty.

Racing through Walmart, trying to think of some British foods, I found these Biscoff cookies.  I remember receiving a package of them on my flight home from London many many years ago. Perfect!  And so delicious dunked in the caramel tea I made.

We set the table up in front of the TV and set it with mugs, cream, and sugar, plus the rest of our dinner- fish sticks (hey, fish n chips are a popular British food!) and English muffins (kind of like crumpets and "English").  I added a dish of baby carrots for good measure.  We enjoyed a wonderful tea while watching The Secret Garden.

I had to keep an eye on Brown-Eyed-Girl. She had more sugar and cream than she did tea :)  

We enjoyed the movie and it was fairly close to the book.  I love nights like this, when we make memories with things that in and of themselves are not very special.  Fish sticks, chipped mugs, a wrinkled tablecloth.  But pulling them all together and calling it an English tea party... it makes for a memorable movie night.

Denny's: A Dream Come True?

It's really kind of funny.   This video I mean.  We love Rhett and Link here, but it's funny how they keep coming up with more and more original stuff that makes us laugh.  And how they get signed on by folks like Alka Seltzer and now Denny's to sell, well, bacon.  And what's also funny is how effective this commercial was with my son...  

On a recent trip to the big city, he nearly exploded with excitement when he saw a Denny's sign sticking out like a sore thumb over the interstate overpass.  "WE have a DENNY'S?" He asked as though this were on par with having Disney World around the corner.  He was blown away.  On another trip to the big city, Josh and I were discussing where to eat lunch and Mister chimed in that he would really, really love to go to  Denny's and have some of their delicious bacon.  We were really leaning toward finally trying the new Five Guys Burgers, but our son's excitement made us agree to his request.

We pulled into the parking lot and were nearly blinded by the shiny exterior of this diner. The place was hopping.  We had a satisfying meal complete with mashed potato made from potato flakes and pancake bites made from Bisquick and, of course, bacon for Mister.  Was it the best bacon he'd ever had? we asked him.

Maybe, he said.  Maybe the second best.

But as he took another bite he said with a depth of emotion,"Thank you for bringing me here!"

And that made it all worth it.

And here's part two of the Bacon Makes It Better series, just in case you loved it too.