Weekend excursions and some more picnic food

This has been a fun and memorable weekend for our little Wolfe family. Josh went in early to work yesterday, but only needed to be there a few hours, and he took us all to a movie that afternoon. This was Nathanael's very first theater movie: "Wall-E". (For my French-friendly friends, here's the French page for the movie :) .)We had fun! Nathanael was disoriented at first by the darkness and all, but with Daddy holding him and us relocating to the back, closer to some lights, he settled down and enjoyed the experience (he even got in a little nap on Daddy's chest).

Today we took a picnic lunch to the zoo, and had a leisurely time there. The skies were overcast, and we even got a bit of rain, so the temperature was really nice with a little breeze, too. Nathanael saw several big animals which impressed him: Giraffes, a leopard, and a wild dog. On the smaller side, he saw three baby snow leopards! For lunch today, we had yummy ham sandwiches (ham from the freezer leftover from a honey ham), green bean & tomato salad, lemonade, and corn crispy treats (using corn flakes as opposed to rice krispies). The green bean salad was something new I invented today (though I imagine I am not the first person to try such a thing) which we liked really well, so I thought I'd share it here. It would work well wherever you want a cold vegetable, such as a picnic or other lunch. It's quick to make and quite simple.

Green Bean & Tomato Salad

Either saute in a bit of oil or blanch in boiling, salted water for a couple of minutes until bright and crisp:
Green beans, fresh or frozen (go the route of blanching if you use fresh)

Once cooked by either method, drain beans into a colander and immediately run cold water over them, tossing them with some ice cubes as you do so, to stop the cooking. Alternately, you can transfer the beans to a bowl full of cold water with ice cubes. Either way, do this until the beans feel chilled.

Drain the cooled beans and transfer to a serving bowl. Chop and add to the beans:
Tomato

Toss these together well with:
Oil
Vinegar
Seasoning*

You can serve the salad immediately or refrigerate until needed.

* Use any oil and vinegar combination you like. I used canola oil and white distilled vinegar. I imagine olive oil and a wine vinegar would also be very nice. As to seasonings, I used a Greek seasoning mix containing, among other unlisted things (except, they say, MSG): salt, pepper, oregano, and sage. You can use whatever seasonings you like. If not using a mix, I would definitely recommend salt and pepper, and italian herbs work well here.