Family Project Yesindeedy: First Friday - BBQ Edition

Blog Binge Below:

Keeping up my average of roughly a post a week (but usually doing them in bursts when I finally take photos of the camera/phones and dedicate a naptime), here are six new posts. Happy reading. ;)

Last I updated you on the smoker it was getting primed for its maiden voyage. Well, it has been there and back! I think we've used it 3 times but they're starting to blur together a little bit. I know he started w/ a pork shoulder (boston butt) for pulled pork which we got to share w/ friends. The next venture was a big one - we decided to commandeer our monthly neighborhood gathering "First Friday Happy Hour" and turn it into a pot-luck with pulled pork (the safety) and brisket (the new venture). The third was for a family gathering w/ a bunch of the McElroy crew (Alison's family - dad side). But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Grandpa Robert delivering hill country post oak - coke can sized - right on the money!

Working on his pork rub - Memphis Dust.

Kyle has experimented w/ two different ways to do the brisket - one w/ a fancy rub, one w/ only salt/pepper ("dalmation style" which is how the Franklin's guy does it).

This is his blow-torch thingy (attaches to a propane tank) to keep the side fire going (to make coals). (It's also super handy at torching weeds!!!)

Rub rub rub

The Texas Crutch (wrapping the meet after the smoke ring has been established) to keep it moist. Still figuring this one out...have crutched, not crutched, crutched late...

The shfancy thermometer w/ chordless remote thingy

First Assistant

First Princess (w/ shield)

Okay, fast forward...the invite went out on the neighborhood list serve and given previous months where all we had was beer and popsicles but still had a great turnout - we're expecting a crowd. And they came! Roughly 75 people - or 28ish households. Brisket was a little moist. But it was devoured. Pork was his best yet. Sides were plentiful.

Just one plate left...

The crew in the front yard...

Down the driveway,  into the backyard...

All the kids really care about is right here:

Seriously, we had such a fun night. The weather was perfect. The food was great. The crowd was awesome - new and repeat neighbors. Can't wait til next month!

FYI: We did end up making a poster all about "First Friday: BBQ Edition" for Owen's "family project" for school today - it was on display at Grandparent's Day (which will get its on post shortly).

Kyle did a repeat of the brisket (this time a little dry) just 2 days later because I had some extended family in town and it was a good time to get a bunch of the Austin McElroy's together. Once again, great folks, yummy food. My brother's birthday gathering was just a few days after that w/ some of my mom's side of the family and we opted for store-bought chicken because we were in BBQ overload (both diet-wise and because of how intense the process is). 

On that note, I think we were too optimistic that investing in a good smoker (not leaky like the borrowed one from our Carlos days last summer) would mean after the fire got started it would pretty much be on autopilot...NOT SO. Keeping that bad boy between 225 and 250 requires constant vigilance and generally adjusting the fire (and therefore keeping the side fire ready w/ hot coals) every 45-60 minutes or so. The day of the yard party Kyle put the meat on around 4am before he left for work and then left me in charge. I left for 1 hour to exercise and when I came back it was at 118! I freaked and then freaked more because I realize I didn't know how to start the charcoal to get the temp back up (girlscout I was not). A call to family friend and BBQ save-the-day-er Joel Foshea got us back on track and by the time Kyle got home (thankfully early that morning) I had the temp right where it should be. Whew! On-the-job-training. :)

Kyle just asked me to look at the calendar and tell him which of the next few Saturdays we could smoke again...its definitely taken over. :)

National Lemonade Stand Day

I remember seeing online a few weeks ago that there is a "National Lemonade Stand Day" sometime in April or May. I even put it on my calendar thinking the kids and I might do something. And they beat me too it. I came home one day last week from Costco w/ a bunch of big boxes. Rebecca immediately claimed one (I'm hard-pressed to throw a box away, ever). She painted it brown and told me it was a lemonade stand. Okay. The next day about an hour before our neighborhood "First Friday Happy Hour" O & R informed me they were doing a lemonade stand and did I have any lemons. Um, no. But I did have HEB brand chrystal light lemonade - quality fake stuff. So we mixed up a batch in an empty gallon water jug, got out cups, made a little sign for their stand on the computer and googled how much to charge for a glass of lemonade. I'm not joking - I googled that. Mostly to settle a dispute becuase Owen wanted to charge 1 penny (or free!) and Rebecca wanted to make as much money as possible. We had a brief supply/demand discussion ;) and settled on $.25/cup. 

And off they went. 

Lemonade $.25

Thanks for drinking with us, 

Rebecca & Owen

Anything to drum up business.

Waving to passing cars.

First Customers!!!

Jimmy and Staci from across the street! 

They gave them a dollar and said they didn't need change.

Once the others neighbors arrived that was pretty much the trend. One or two glasses for a dollar. The only person who asked for change was another kid. I'm not sure how they worked it out! Minus the 2 dollars in quarters I gave them to start out (in order to make the change they didn't ever need to make) which they had to repay, they netted about $11. They definitely learned a little about ROI, not so much for hard work. :)

Digger Day Trip

A few weeks ago Kyle got off early one day and we spontaneously headed down to out to Marble Falls (Granite Shoals to be exact) to visit Grandpa Robert (aka Pop Pop) - we knew he had a big digger on the land and had offered to show it off to the kids. Owen, Rebecca and Kyle all got to drive it while Maggie and I watched (and she obsessed about cows). Then we ate (way too much, and that was before the pie) at the Bluebonnet for dinner.

Rebecca lovin' on Grandpa

Owen about to get going.

Rebecca's turn. Good thing she had her pink, bedazzled bandana to block the dust from her face "like a real cowgirl". She is now quite often a "cowgirl princess" which combines all things pink and sparkly with cowboy boots (an Owen hand-me-down pair that is waaaaay too big since her pink ones don't fit). She doesn't know how in she is in Austin!

And yes, that's Kyle sitting on his dad's lap. I have no words...

Good times!

Margaret Laura

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that I wasn't sure Maggie knew her given name is Margaret Laura. We had a very adult conversation about it and she told me "no, just Maggie." Then she giggled and started repeating "Marrrret Laura" over and over again and giggling like it was the funniest thing in the world. She at least knows who we're talking to/about if we ever use that name! But in some ways she's right - she's just Maggie. :)

Didn't take her long to copy Rebecca's trick.

Tight, frequent, often sticky snuggles...that's her style.

Daddy did her hair and she thought it was priiiiiiiity.

Cheeeeese face for pictures - working on keeping eyes open. There's just so much smile!

These used to be Rebecca's sunglasses. Maggie can rock them as well.

Other Maggie-isms:

-Doesn't just rely on her brother or sister to try to delay bedtime - she now has a nightly request for a sipowater and its not just for her. There's sipowater Maggie and sipowater Rebecca and sipowater Owen too. Strong work 3rd child!

-Also has a very strong opinion about which of "their songs" we sing at bedtime. And her opinion is that we should sing all of them. But I think she's learned that I'm not going to sing all 3 songs all the way through so we usually get through about a verse of whichever one she demanded first and she will yell out the name of another one (like changing the Mommy Pandora Station)...repeat as many times as I'll allow. Her favorites are: Doddabud (Before the Throne of God Above), and of course Vision and Fountain but she also likes to thrown in Oh, Donny E-I-O (with a specific animal requested) of course.

-I think I've mentioned that she can now say Owen and Rebecca's full names (as opposed to Owie and Bepbep) but she also likes to (just for fun?) put a RE in front of anyone's name - so she'll say REbecca, and REowen, and REmaggie are here! 

-She still carries her baby with her a lot of places but is very quick to hand it off if she needs to do something else - Hode dis baby - is what she says to me. It works both ways since her other favorite thing to hold is my phone so she'll sneak grab it from my back pocket or from the kitchen counter and say Hode dis phone (as if to assure me that all she wants to do is hold it...not move apps, navigate straight to videos of herself that she likes to watch over and over again, play music (she has decent taste except for Dora's Backpack song over and over again which is my fault for having it on there), etc.

-She says "Mees" for "excuse me" which for some reason I really think is cute - she'll scoot by me and say "Mees, momma, Mees!"

-In terms of who Maggie is at almost three years old, this is a big one. She has a favorite book. Big time favorite. She grabbed it at the library and honestly I wasn't paying attention to what it was and we got it home and it happened to be about potty training (sort of) and I'm NOT exaggerating when I say I think we have collectively read it over 100 times. In fact, we re-checked it out twice, then I broke down and ordered it on Amazon. It's called Pip and Posey: The Little Puddle. And without quoting the entire book to you (which I think I could) - I'll just say its about two sweet little mice friends that are having a playdate and one of them (Pip) has an accident. Maggie's favorite page is right after Pip was having so much fun roaring like a dinosaur that he forgot he needed to go pee. And SUDDENLY (she yells) there was a little puddle (PUDDLE O' PEEPEE)...but Posey says "EREEBODY HA' ACCIDENTS SONETIMES" (and even though the book doesn't say this POSEY CLEAN IT UP!)...She can basically recite it now. We sort of have a set dialogue when we read it - what I read, what she reads (while I read) and the commentary she adds....it's the same every time. I love that. 

And they spent the rest of the day painting pictures (WHAT DAT? ALLIGATOR!)

And the next time Pip had to go pee he went in the potty all by himself. (ALL BY HISELF!!!)

Hooray. 

(THE EN'!)

I'm keeping this one for the grandkids. :)

REbecca

This spring we are experimenting w/ kiddo activities...testing the waters, if you will. There is a goal to balance fun/interesting/enriching things for the kids w/ family/schedule sanity and having down-time... Piano is going well mostly because our teacher is super sweet and laid back and she comes to the house so its not a place we have to get to. And Owen's soccer is easy since its just on Saturdays. And Rebecca has been taking a 45 minute gymnastics "class" at Champions (at WAYA) that Nana has been taking her to most Mondays. It's a fun outing for both of them! When Nana has a conflict I have taken her (which has lead to Rebecca at her request having just about every local grandparent come and watch). Have I ever mentioned how great it is to live in the same town as all of our people???

Anyways, here are some really fuzzy, really far away iphone shots of R's gymnastics adventures.

The rings

The balance beam

The floor

The wedge ;)

There is also a super fun long trampoline that they run/bounce down. The rotate through 3 stations w/ different coaches. She loves it. She also "loves" Coach Chris. Yep.

And just a few more of our little performer...

Outfit of her own creation, face-paiting thanks to a birthday party...

Playing on a playground right next to Owen's soccer game - being silly w/ Daddy.

I think we were doing 'speriments...

We were cleaning out her locker and found her had and sunglasses (she found on a walk and made hers) in there - she asked me to take her picture, but wanted to pose by Daddy's smoker and pose she did!

Bombing Owen's picture

And doing it herself!

She takes credit for teaching Maggie how to hang upside down in the jungle gym - I have no doubt she did (photos in another post).

Right of Passage

I think Owen has had 6+ pairs of shoes that are exactly the same - brown merrell jungle mocs. In my opinion they are the best shoes for boys - rugged enough to play (hard) in, nice looking enough to wear to church. They are the one pair of shoes we have to have. And luckily they fit the uniform requirement for school, so he has had yet another pair this year. But, every kid has to learn how to tie his shoes at some point...

 The shoe world is now his oyster. (But we'll probably just keep buying the merrells...)

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In other Owen knews...

Still pressing on in the pursuit of completing the kindergarten "readers" collection - 60 books in all, I think he has about 12-15 left. Whew! (Taking a little break to look at the lego book from the library w/ Nana.)

Still enjoying his (nameless?) soccer team. Such a sweet group of boys!

Still enjoying walks and bike rides in the neighborhood - we make it to "the big swing" as often as possible.

Along w/ Rebecca still enjoying our neighbor friends. (Here we are enjoying a food trailer dinner near campus.)

This really has nothing to do w/ Owen but I thought it was a fun thing and of all our three kids he would get the most out of it and I don't want to start a new post so...we went to a vision/fundraising dinner for Bridges International (the group w/ do stuff w/ that works w/ international students at UT) - the key note speaker was General Charles Duke - the 10th man to walk on the man (Apollo 16). Really cool stories - really great man.