What It IS, and Summer Traditions

So, tell me... did everyone else think this was too obvious?  Really?  I've never seen another one of these -- and this is an OLD one!  Linda took a guess over on Facebook, thinking it was a wire whip -- and it does look like a whipping or whisking kind of thing.  But Lauren was the first one to comment here on the blog, and got it right.  It is an egg separator!

As I mentioned, I found it in my grandma's kitchen drawer, and brought it home as a treasure several years ago.  It really is a helpful tool!  Those egg whites spiral right out of there without any help from the "operator."  I learned that it's important to dump the yolk right away, though, or that will start to spiral through as well.

I do actually use it from time to time -- like this weekend, when I was using only egg whites for a white cake recipe.

The birthday boy ordered white cake with lemon icing.  Doesn't that sound refreshing?  It was delicious!  It wasn't any big masterpiece recipe -- just a box and a can, but hey -- I didn't hear anyone complain!

I know -- I said BOY, and I should've said MAN.  I am still contemplating the conundrum of the passage of 18 years at warp speed.

In the name of teenage-boy (man) privacy, I don't share a lot of photos of my son... but today, he is officially overruled!  'Cuz I'm so darn proud of him -- and I wanted you to see his handsome, smilin' face!

Since his birthday is in July, we almost always have been able to celebrate outdoors -- which has also almost-always led to a casual game of baseball including cousins young and old.  Bigger kids help little kids, and even my nephew who is confined to a wheel chair "RUNS" the bases!  (And don't you ever tell him he ISN'T running!)

On Saturday, the weather was questionable, and we moved the party from outdoors to indoors.  At the last minute though, the sun came back out and the birthday boy said he really wanted to try the party outside.  So, he and his sister went to work preparing the patio.  It ended up being a comfortable evening with no rain, and we were so glad we moved back outside.  We were missing a few cousins this year for the baseball game, but still -- there was a game.  It's a tradition that everyone looks forward to, I think.

What did you do this weekend?