Moqueca

Every culture with a coastline has a different version of seafood stew. From New England "chowdah" to San Francisco's cioppino (Jeff's all-time favorite)...our family adores stew. We've decided to celebrate and pray for a different country every month and this month's focus is Brazil. So this week, I decided to make moqueca (pronounced "mo-KEH-kah"), a traditional Brazilian stew made with fish, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, and coconut milk. Jeff gave it a thumbs up but it was a little exotic for the kids!
Our church is committed to helping the Amazon jungle region of Brazil by sending mission's teams to set up water filters, visiting families in the village, providing dental hygiene education and constructing a church. So it's near and dear to our hearts. It's a fascinating culture marred by corruption and poverty. We're so glad to belong to a church that aims to bring hope and transformation to such beautiful people.

Tween Paparazzo Stalks Neighborhood Boys!

I saw an interesting documentary a few months back called "Teenage Paparazzo" about a pint-sized photojournalist who rode his bike over Hollywood and Beverly Hills trying to snap photos of the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. He would wait outside their homes or a club and then sell his pictures for thousands of dollars. Well Peoria isn't Hollywood and Delaney isn't a teen yet, but she does love to take pictures. So she asked me one night to use my camera and then preceded to bounce around click-clicking away on the old Canon 20d. The stars of the show were Hayes, who loves to run around and be cute, and also Jalen-- a neighborhood friend of Max's who could not get of enough the limelight. In fact, he insisted on getting his picture taken individually with everyone in the family, including Catherine, who he dragged out of the house specifically for the picture. Below our some of the pictures our tween paparrazo took that night, but I don't think TMZ is paying a thousand bucks a snapshot for the stars of our neighborhood.

Labor Day Party

 Gabe and Brittany threw a Labor Day weekend BBQ extravaganza that included some amazing smoked ribs and plenty of games that even Beth stayed past eight(euchre was the trick).   We started off with the couch game and I was beginning to wonder if we were going to end up with the couch game as it dragged into the second hour.  I can't even remember who won this but I think the guys pulled it out and the girls were just happy it was over.  Then we moved on to a round robin Euchre tournament.  I was eliminated in the first round but happily Gabe was my partner and we were able to squeeze in a game of Carcossone.   Even thought the weather didn't cooperate for the cookout, I was just happy for a labor free weekend from my wife's to-do list.

My Pal Chuck

I swore to myself I would never be the type of mom suckered into taking her kid to McD's or Chuck E. Cheese's. Well, I also swore I would never have a boy...and lo and behold...
I'll confess. I love Chuck E. Cheese's. I take my son there about once a week. Before you balk, you should know a few things:
1. A 2 year old is a cheap Chuck. E. Cheese's date. I still have 20 tokens jangling in my purse because my son prefers the free toddler slide! Go figure!
2. How fabulous that a giant mouse is teaching my son the electric slide! YES, the ELECTRIC SLIDE! I didn't know how to do this until I was a bona fide grown up. My son will have a leg up at weddings, that's for sure! (BTW, Chuck only does the dance every hour on the hour...so you gotta wait for it)!
3. Where else can you find free animatronic entertainment, an arcade, AND air conditioning? I love it! Hayes is mesmerized by Chuck and that buys mommy some much needed time to chill.
BTW, check out my "two sippie son" below. How talented is Hayes? He likes to drink water AND juice at the same time. We're awfully proud.
Well, enjoy your Labor Day weekend! See you at the arcade. --Cat

Catherine Cambra Hopkins

Now I Have to Find A Stamp

"Who brought the baby?" are the first words Hayes and I heard as we stepped into the Hoerr's house. We attended a Compassion letter writing party and of course if there's anything that cramps everyone's game at a letter writing party -- it's a baby! All kidding aside, Jeff and Jada host a get-together as Compassion advocates, to help encourage people to keep in contact with their sponsored child, and raise awareness about the Compassion program that links sponsors with children in poverty in third world countries. Our family sponsors a 14 year old girl in the Dominican Republic named Yarissa, so Hayes and I got busy writing her a letter. Yarissa writes our family consistently, so I want to make sure she gets consistent letters back. Hayes disappointed me in his attempts at prose...seriously, you couldn't read the majority of it-- step it up Hayes! After the letter, I had some time so I ended up drawing a picture of our family which I think Yarissa will enjoy. You can view it in one of the pictures below. That's right, I make my living as a graphic artist.

Jeff Hopkins