Big Birthdays

FIT FOR A KING: January 8 marks three big birthdays in our household: Musician David Bowie, 65, Stephen Hawking, 71, and The King himself, Elvis Presley, who would have been 78 this year.

As we've done the couple of years past, we decided to dust off the "Are You Hungry Tonight," a collection of Elvis' favorite recipes.

CJ was lobbying for the old standby - peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but I told him this year, I thought we should expand our horizons. So we got crazy and made BLTs and macaroni and cheese per the recipe in the book.

No surprises in the BLT recipe - bread, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo. The recipe did note note that Elvis liked his bacon not burned, but very crispy. That's the same way CJ likes his bacon.

The mac and cheese called for American cheese (ewwwww!), elbow macaroni, dry mustard, a little flour, some salt and pepper, onion, and milk.

The kids made a shopping list and off to Albertson's we went. We took less than 5 minutes in the store (hooray!). As dinnertime approached, the kids read the recipes and we tacked the mac and cheese first. We boiled the noodles, and while those cooked, the kids dug into the American cheese. I don't believe either one of them has ever eaten or handled it before. Turns out they liked it. They tore it in bits, and we added some grated cheddar, as well.

We threw in the flour, mustard, and S&P, but skipped the onion at the kids' request. They stirred in the al dente noodles, which melted the cheeses.

We poured it into a baking dish and then the kids poured the milk over it, per direction. It was topped with a little more cheese and a few pats of butter and into the oven it went.

Then our attention turned to the BLTs. The kids sliced the tomatoes (I think that's a first), under the watchful eyes of The King.

They prepped the lettuce and assembled the sandwiches.

Dinner was a huge hit - everyone loved it.

(Note to self: Guess we need to try to find a Bowie or Hawking cookbook before next year.)

MATHNET: Today we spent some time making sure the kids were back on track for the classes that resume at their Shoreline school tomorrow. That meant checking science homework, and making sure they were up to date in math. One of the things they do in their weekly math class is watch a segment of "Mathnet."

"Mathnet" originally appeared on the children's show "Square One Television," which aired form 1987-1992. show. And once you get past the very '80s fashions and production values, it's pretty good. :)

CJ and Annabelle finished watching "The Case of the Ersatz Earthquake," a compelling tale about a psychic who said she could predict earthquakes and was trying to blackmail a city to pay her for advance warning of the next one. The show is entertaining, and it encourages problem solving and using logic. Good stuff.

PRACTICE: Out of nowhere, today CJ said, "I think I should try shaving practice."

I told him if he started today, that would definitely make for way more than enough practice, as he's probably about 5 plus years away from needing to shave.

Given that, we didn't break out the shaving cream and razor.