Dell Curry Camp Pic

Basketball Camp

                              

This week Ben is doing a basketball camp that is run by Dell Curry with help from his sons Stephen and Seth. Dell Curry played for the Charlotte Hornets for 10 years, Stephen Curry plays for the Golden State Warriors, and Seth played basketball at Duke but has not found his way into the NBA yet apparently.

Anyway when I first signed Ben up for basketball camp I did so without asking his permission first and it was a sore point between us for months. Ben does not like to try new things, at least not without assurances that there will be kids he knows there, etc. Even though Dell Curry camp is at the JCC all of 500 feet from where he was going to camp all summer, he was acting like it was on the moon for all the grief he gave me. In fact we had several shouting matches over it.

He finally came around when he found out that his friend Drew from his camp group was doing Dell Curry camp this week also, and that he would get to meet an actual current NBA player, Stephen Curry. Ben headed to camp with good grace on Monday, and wasted no time in getting his shirt and shoes autographed by father and sons :) He came home talking a blue streak about how awesome basketball camp is. Of course.

Juice Update

So I spent the last 18 hours having stomach cramps, diarrhea, and feeling very nauseous ;) This morning I feel marginally improved but not great. Joel says I coincidentally came down with a stomach virus, and Abby says I gave myself food poisoning (I did wash the produce!) At any rate, the experience has not made the juicer and I friends. I will probably be laying off it, unless it's to make some fresh orange juice or something like that :) On the bright side, the ordeal has caused me to drop two pounds already. I shall be endeavoring to come up with a less unpleasant way to lose the remaining 3...

Juice

So my bright idea to lose 5 more pounds before we head to the beach again in a couple weeks is to replace lunch with juice. As in, a pile of vegetables and fruits smooshed through a juicer. (Watch the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" if you want to learn more about juicing as meal replacement). Joel humored me by buying a juicer last night after he did the weekly grocery shop, and I had my first go of it a little while ago. I must admit, most of the glass of juice I squeezed is still looking at me :) There is something a bit off-putting about the color as well as the smell, though the taste (since I put two apples in it) is not bad. However, the color and smell are working pretty well as an appetite suppressant right now. Ha ha.

Princess Pony Party

A princess pony party is exactly what it sounds like. Little girls dressed up as princesses, riding ponies. What more could a little girl want??? My little girl, although happy to help groom the ponies, was too scared to actually get on one. Joel readily accepted responsibility for the genetic timidness around large hoofed animals. It certainly doesn't come from my side of the family ;) Caroline, I am counting on you now to be the equestrian in the family -- Mommy wants an excuse to get back on a horse.

Brownie Baking

Ben's camp counselor Jenny is babysitting tonight. The long story is that we had plans to go out with friends tonight (who eventually cancelled so now we are going out by ourselves) and needed to find a babysitter. Our usual babysitter, Sharon, was not available, so Ben asked his camp counselor if she could babysit, and she gave him her phone number and email address to pass along to me. Ben seems to have a bit of a crush on his camp counselor, and apparently he promised her he would make brownies for her. So here is Ben, hard at work on the promised brownies! He insisted on doing all the work himself too, the only thing I did for him was crack the eggs.

First Week of Preschool

Caroline's first week at her new preschool was a great success! She is doing well adjusting to her new surroundings and is already becoming attached to her teachers, Lindsay and Ashley. I sent a long email to the preschool director explaining the basics of celiac disease, Caroline's symptoms, and what to be careful of in terms of accidental gluten exposure. I have a feeling that a version of this letter is going to follow Caroline to every new classroom, summer camp, etc that she attends from now until college. The preschool director was very appreciative of the letter, and showed it immediately to every teacher that has any contact with Caroline. She also reviewed the classroom art supplies (glues, paints, play dough etc) and verified that everything was gluten free except for the play dough, and she ordered gluten free play dough for Caroline.

I made my first foray into gluten-free cupcake making (using a boxed recipe but eventually I want to start making my own gluten free flour blend to use for baking). I read online that a good suggestion for birthday parties / classroom parties etc is to make a batch of cupcakes, freeze them, and then you can just thaw one and frost it when needed for a party. Of course before I froze them I had to get my taste-testers' approval. Although it was a mix, it called for some not so standard ingredients like buttermilk and almond extract. The flavor and texture both got a thumbs up from all three of my taste testers ;) At first I thought Caroline was planning to just lick all the frosting off (which would have been somewhat ironic), but after she did that she chowed down on the actual cupcake and ate the whole thing!