An Evening with Peter

Peter is finishing up the school year with a project on the lighthouses of North Carolina. As part of the project, each kid had to pick a light house, write a report, and make a model of the lighthouse. The parameters for the model was it had to look like "their" lighthouse, and be between 1 and 4 feet, so it was pretty wide open.

The last time he had a project like that, Mom got all goofy and decided we'd use cake to represent RFK Stadium (really I just wanted the stadium cake pan). The dry run of a stadium-cake for a Super Bowl Party worked great; but of course the one the night before his project would NOT come out of the pan in one piece.

So this time I kept my mouth shut, and let Peter decide how to make his lighthouse. He decided to cover two oatmeal canisters in salt-dough colored white, grey and black (the colors of the Oak Island lighthouse).

The plan was to get it all done over the weekend, but then Carolina hosted an NCAA regional baseball series, and we got tickets to the games. So then the plan was to do it Monday night, but Mom's work interfered; we did get some done, but didn't get it finished.

So, Peter worked on it tonight while G was at swim team, then when his Dad came to pick Grace and him up, we all decided that Peter and I would grab dinner ourselves, finish off the light house, then I'd drive them both (Peter and the light house) over to his Dad's.

We had to wait for some paint to dry, so I told Peter that I'd be happy to go anywhere, including places on the other side of town.

This is one reason I love my son: He picked The Weathervane, the restaurant at A Southern Season! Not a typical 10-year-old boy's choice.

We sat in the bar, and he had a lemon soda and I had a glass of a really nice Malbec while we looked at the menu. We decided to share the special; seared scallops wrapped in prosciutto, served over roasted red and yellow tomatoes, with jasmine rice. I added on a Goat Cheese Toasts appetizer, and Peter had bread with olive oil to dip it in. Spectacular dinner, and while we waited for our food we played rousing games of categories (Peter beat me soundly every time), Rock-Paper-Scissors (I tended to win), and various other word games.

After dinner we scooted home and picked up the magazines in his room since his Granddaddy is spending the night tomorrow, and finished off the light house:

Peter's rendition of the Oak Island Lighthouse

Peter and his lighthouse