Florida 2009 #5

It’s really amazing how when it’s a completely overcast, how one still can get an incredible amount of sun. My face and cheeks are incredibly hot, and I think my kneecaps are on fire. But yesterday, it was very sunny all morning, and then became somewhat cloudy in the afternoon. We took a long walk along the beach, and we found several different shells. We also found a crab, still alive and mostly whole, but was missing the smaller of his two claws. Most of what we’ve found over the last week and a half is dead parts of crabs, mostly back shells and claws.
Coming back to the house, after spending an entire day on the beach, we made (or I should say Grandma made) all of the stuff that one would normally make tacos. Before coming to Florida, my mom and I were talking about what we were going to have to eat when everyone was here. One of the items was to have tacos. Because tacos can be somewhat cumbersome, I suggested we have tacos in a bag.

Yes, tacos in a bag. I would have to say that whoever came up with that idea was a sheer genius. I first came across this idea at work when a co-worker sold these as a United Way fundraiser. In essence, it’s taking everything that you would normally put in a taco, and put it into an individual sized bag of Fritos, and then eat it straight out of the bag.

Anyhow, Sarah had the idea that we all needed to have a picnic dinner on the beach. Luckily with having the tacos in a bag, we were able to accomplish this. At first, Becca insisted that she didn’t want to have them, that she needed to have regular tacos, as tacos in a bag were NOT tacos, and that they would not taste as good. After a little bit of convincing (and telling her they were unconventional tacos), she finally gave in and agreed to try them. Well, they were a big success, even for the grown ups. We then had dessert: a choice of lemon or orange cake from a coffee cup.

It was “Ingenuity Supper Sunday,” as these cakes only took about a minute. Yes, you take a 1/3 cup of cake mix, 3 tablespoons of water, and nuked in a microwave for 1 minute. The cake mix can be just about anything that you want, so long as it’s completely mixed with one box of angel food cake mix. Serve it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and voila! You have dessert.
Again, it was a big hit for the girls.

By the time we got done, it was time for the girls to go to bed. After all, it was a really long day for them considering the late night arrival and beach walk the night before, coupled with the fact that they were extremely excited about being able to be out on the beach early in the morning. Before retiring for bed, my brother, sister-in-law, my mom, and I had a before bed cocktail, and then hid Easter Eggs for the girls to find when they get up tomorrow morning.

It should be really fun to see how excited they’ll get!