Cheap White Wine

Description on the bottle:  The most important thing about a bottle of wine is that you enjoy it, regardless of its vintage or style.  This is the simple and straightforward principle that guides us in our wine-making.  Our white table wine is a premium blend of varietal grapes.  It is an honest, well-made wine.  We recommend it as an excellent everyday wine...that can also rise to the occasion.

Sarah says:  We got this bottle on clearance (as you can probably tell from the stickers) and just thought it sounded like fun.  The description also intrigued me, the most important thing SHOULD be if you enjoy it!  I was immediately thrown off by the color though, it's sort of greenish.  My first few sips didn't go so well either, but after I ate some dinner it was better.  I think this is a "drink with a meal" sort of wine.  It definitely grows on you, but overall, I think it is was it's labeled to be, cheap.

jon says: irony is to blame for this particular wine purchase. the very day my beautiful wife ran off to chicago we happened across this bottle while we were waiting for her ride to arrive. this was actually the second bottle we picked up that day. and the only reason we picked it up was irony. it was sitting in the clearance basket the label was slightly torn and the name was perfect, we couldn't help it. but when we first poured it into our ridiculously colorful glasses it had a greenish hue to it and sarah and i both looked at it and went, "oh"... then we tasted it and absolutely nothing special. so we figured that maybe it would taste better with our dinner and so we tried that out and i felt that it was much better with our delicious dinner that my wife put together for us but i think it was the food that made it better and not the other way around.

Overall rating:  Thumbs not quite down

There were no lifeguards on duty - so Liam took charge.

Sarah says:  Speaking of cheap things, I took the kiddos to Kensington Metro Park today.  $5 for three hours of fun is quite the deal.   I am always looking for cheap ways to entertain (ie. exhaust) the kids, so they get good memories, and I don't go broke in the process! I try to be frugal without limiting their childhood.  After today's success, I'm pondering buying the annual pass for $25, because I think we are going back!  I generally avoid taking the kids to places that are potentially dangerous unless I have Jon with me.  I like to keep the kid to adult ratio even.  But, for some reason, today I was feeling brave and went to the beach, just me at the 2 crazies.  It turned out great!  I have a few complaints 1) they don't open the bathrooms until Memorial Day.  Seriously, it's 85 degrees, the beach is PACKED with kids, and you won't open the bathrooms.  Mary openly took care of business in the lake, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that she wasn't the only one.  2) The number of Mom's in bikini's!  Yes, I'm proud of my body and like to look sexy for my husband, but we are Mom's, our bikini days are behind us, time to face it.  3) The number of 7 year olds in bikini's!  Every Mom I talk to complains about our kids growing up too fast, so why are we pushing them into adult swim wear?!  Let's start a movement where we encourage our kids to be innocent and protect them a little longer.  I'm pretty sure I wore a one piece well into my high school years, and Mary will be doing the same.  4) The number of people not paying any attention to their kids.  There was a little girl playing with Liam, they were equally splashing and having a great time.  At one point this little girl complained to her Mom that my kid was splashing her, and this lady had the nerve to yell at Liam to stop splashing.  Um, no.  Don't worry Liam, I've got your back.  I'm the one that has been watching them the past 20 min to make sure they don't drown, while you ignored your daughter so you could gossip.  I glanced over at you probably 50 times and never once saw you looking towards the water.  They were both splashing, they were both having a good time, why she suddenly complained is beyond me (maybe to get some attention from her Mommy?) but my son didn't do anything wrong, and I will not have you speaking down to him like that.  Grrrrr....

Digging Mary

Anyways - enough of that.  It was actually an amazing day at the beach!  The weather was perfect.  The water wasn't as freezing as I thought it should be.  My kids are finally old enough that I don't have to walk 1 step behind them the entire time in case they fall.  I was able to sit about 3 feet away, and watch them play.  I'm not ready yet to read a book, or engage in a conversation, or do anything that will take my eyes off them, but it was nice to be able to sit.  I built a moat with them, we searched for rocks and shells, we made friends with the little boys playing near by who brought some cool trucks, and I let them just enjoy the water.  It's amazing how entertaining 1 bucket, 1 shovel, and endless sand and water can be to a 3 and 5 year old!  It was a nice, inexpensive, way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  We survived the lack of bathrooms, and got home tired and without sunburns (well, except for the top of my feet - I'm not sure how many times I need to burn the top of my feet before I start remembering to put sunscreen there, but apparently I haven't hit that number yet).  Previously, going to the zoo (the membership fee is totally worth it if you are going to go more than once!) was always our "something to do when there is nothing to do", but I think this year it might be the beach!