I'll have to check with my dad, but for as long as I have been alive we have always had a traditional ravioli eating contest on the Sunday before Easter, Palm Sunday.
When I was little I used to stuff my face with ravioli's at my Grandparent's house, trying desperately to keep up with my older cousins, my dad and my uncle. 4 or 5 or 6 of these bad boys would end up in my stomach along with Italian sausage and pork. The raviolis are not like little 2" squares either, they are the size of a coffee can folded in half (that's how you cut the dough, with the lid of a coffee can).
This past Sunday we kept the tradition going sans my sister's family, but we ate enough for all of them. We got to my parents cabin around 3 in the afternoon and started the day off with another family tradition. Chips and guacamole!!
After we had our fill of chips and dip we headed outside to play with Grandpa's new flea market find. A marshmallow gun! Yep, PVC pipe, joined together with T and Elbow joints to make a gun that shoots miniature marshmallows.
Espen had a hard time getting the hang of it but once he did he thought it was a riot!
{kristen wiig?}
{mini marshmallow}
{proud parents}
I snuck off for a moment to rummage through my parents garage, you never now what you might find. I found my bicycle from when I was just about 5 or 6.
I remember waking up early on Christmas to find my dad putting the training wheels on that bike. I of course thought it was from Santa so my dad, quick thinker that he is, said that when Santa delivered the bike my dad told him that I didn't know how to ride a bike yet and asked him for some training wheels. Santa just happened to have an extra pair in his sleigh and gave them to my dad to put on. Clever! Needless to say, I made sure Espen was fast asleep this year when Jeremy was putting his bike together on Christmas eve for fear that I wouldn't be so quick on my feet to come up with a 'Santa' cover up story. (Espen, don't read this.)
{pink bike + banana seat= perfection}
After all of the biking and shooting, ha, we worked up our ravioli appetites and headed inside for dinner. As always, the food was amazing! Tons of sauce and cheese to top the raviolis and meat and although I only ate two this year, it was delicious.
{yum}
I learned that day that you have to be careful of what you ask your kids to do. For instance, while Espen was taking a drink of milk I asked him to smile for a picture, which he did. What I did not realize is that he would smile before he swallowed his milk, hence the following photo. The fact that I caught this on film kills me. So funny.
{smile, no WAIT!}
{got it}
After dinner, Jeremy retreated upstairs to digest his food while my dad took Espen and I out for a ride in the 'Monster Truck' as Espen would call it. My dad will tell you it's a 1941 Dodge Command Car. It's a real beast of a car, rickety, noisy and has sharp pieces of metal and ripped up upholstery all around it, but it is pretty darn cool.
{who's driving this thing?}
{so blurry, but look at that concentration}
You can't go for a ride around the neighborhood without stopping by the gigantic metal animal farm and jumping out for photos!
I rounded the corner of the house on my walk 'o junk to find these two guys shootin' the you know what. Not sure if it was camping or politics that they were discussing in these pictures but I'm guessing it was one of the two.
Espen learned a valuable lesson today. If you drink too much beer you may stumble into holes you just dug.
The day was awesome. The food was delish, we had some great conversations and made it home in one piece. Till next year!