Trip to the Longwood Gardens!

On May 20, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and visited the Longwood Gardens. It is quickly becoming my favorite place in these parts. We got a yearly membership! It's a garden so it always changes with the season, and I can't wait to see what the year will bring!

For now, here's a quick 1.17 minute slideshow of some of my favorite pics!

Don't make fun of my song choice. Strawberry Swing is my song of choice for gorgeous sunny days. It puts me in a fantastic mood and that is what I felt the day we went to the gardens!

Ignore the slighly fuzzy pics...don't understand why they did not download very well into my movie! The originals are great!

Love to all,

P

Strawberry Rhubarb Sundaes

Photo courtesy of marthastewart.com

So easy and so simple. If you don't like rhubarb, don't worry...you barely taste it what with the strawberries and sugar and all!

Ingredients
1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
2 pints vanilla ice cream
Shortbread Wedges, or store-bought shortbread cookies, for serving (optional)

Directions
1. In a large saucepan, place strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, and 1/4 cup water; bring to a simmer over high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb begins to break down, 6 to 8 minutes.

2. Refrigerate until cool, at least 1 hour and up to 1 week. Spoon strawberry-rhubarb sauce over scoops of ice cream; serve with shortbread, if desired.

Voila! Easy summer dessert. Thank you Kirsten for introducing me to this!

I am lovin' my farmer's co-op that I joined. They gave me the rhubarb in my weekly box. My weekly box of organic locally grown fresh picked vegetables is definitely overpriced, but I have loved everything I have gotten and it tastes so much better than anything I get at the grocery store. Seriously.

That's it. FOR NOW. I am working on a slideshow of our trip to the Longwood Gardens. Who would have thought that my life in the States would be as fun as my life in France. Not going to say what's going on next week, but I am SUPER excited about it too. Can't wait to post about it! Now...if I can only get confit de canard here...and the rest of French cuisine here too...what I would do for a blanquette de veau right now...

HOORAY!

In an attempt to see what Michael thinks about attractions between men and women...I asked him:

"Michael, do boys like boys? Or do boys like girls?"

Please refrain from judgement about me asking this kind of question to a 3.5 yr old. I am not sure what I expected and I obviously was not thinking right...but to show me that I was asking a stupid question for anyone at any age, he replied:

"Boys like Mommies!"

Aww...and this Mommy finally got some pictures with her little guy:

Longwood Gardens


At the Cheesecake Factory

Us being silly...

What a lucky Mommy I am!

Scottish Games!

Last Saturday, May 15, Brian organized a day out at the Scottish Games that were being held at the Fair Hill grounds!

Men in plaid skirts competing in Feats of Strength...deep fried food...bagpipes...great weather...is it any wonder we had a fantastic time?

Michael had his first carnival turkey leg. Lots of carnival food firsts in America lately:

And what Scottish games would be complete without some of these?

Father and son had a great time. I am so happy for Michael to have such a great dad:

And my mom and dad LOVED it at the festival:

We took tons of pictures but no video. So I bring you a photo compilation of the Caber Toss. In this game, the contestant must pick up a pretty dang heavy and tall tree...and then throw it in the air. The tree must flip 180 degrees, land on its end, and then fall onto its side. You are judged by 1)being able to complete this flip, and 2)when the tree finally lands, the closer the tree is to a noon position, the better.

Here is the world's 8th strongest man doing it. Made it look like child's play:

VOILA. I tried to find some scottish music to set it too but then got lazy about it!

Next up...pictures from our visit to the Longwood Gardens!

Date Night - SHAZZAM!

Ok, that Shazzam was ridiculous but I felt like it.

Last Friday, May 14...Brian and I had our first date night since December and it was AWESOME.

I'm not sure about all the other married couples with kids out there...but we have some date nights and they are fun. We enjoy our time out. And we are so glad we are out!

But then we have the date nights that are REALLY great and remind us of exactly what it was like before Michael. And we had one of those this past Friday!

I picked up Brian at work and we headed to Media, PA to try out a French restaurant there. Just a last minute thing Brian looked up at the end of the day so we decided, "Hey, WHY NOT?"

Off we went, in the middle of the rain...had a great dinner and got in the car.

It was only 9:00pm so we looked at each other and said, "Now what?" "I dunno." "I guess we could stick to our original plan and see Robin Hood." "But it's Late." "SO what...I think we can catch the 10:00 show"

And so off we went. Like 2 kids without a care in the world without the rest of our family waiting at home for us.

Like 2 kids BEFORE we had Michael.

So off we went to see Robin Hood and we had a fantastic time.

And THAT was why this was such an incredible date night. Because for 6 hours, we felt like carefree kids (even though I did call home because there was a SEVERE thunderstorm ripping through our house that uprooted 3 trees...but I focused on my date!)! It's not something you feel like after you have a kid...you're busy worrying!

SO Thanks to my parents for giving us a night out. We REALLY needed it badly! And we enjoyed ourselves immensely!
P

Trader Joe's

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Trader Joe's. Great food, good ingredients (none of that processed fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated stuff) and good for you!

Well, my parents found my latest obsession there at the store:

(picture courtesy of glutenfreeislife.wordpress.com)

Red Pepper spread with Eggplant and Garlic. Skeptical? So was I. And I LIKE all those things in that title.

But I LOVE it. I have been putting it on all my sandwiches, pita wraps, etc. It's DELICIOUS and so good for you. (Per tbspn serving: 15 cal, 0.5 g fat, 0 cholesterol, 1 g sugar).

So my parents came up with this lunch item that I love. It's not for those who are big fans of meat burgers and generally delicious rich items. It's definitely for those who really LIKE eating healthy and love the taste of vegetables. So it's not for everyone...but I love it!

1. Stir fry thinly sliced carrots, cabbage, celery with either onion or garlic (or both). Salt/Pepper to taste. Add a splash of fish sauce if you like a bit of asian flare. Be careful with that fish sauce.

2. Warm up a whole wheat Trader joe's pita in the microwave for 15 seconds.

3. Spread this pita with 1-2 tbspn of the Eggplant/Red Pepper dip (use as much or little as you like).

4. Add the stir fried vegetables to the pita - voila.

Easy healthy lunch that is filling and low in calories.

If you want stir fry directions, e-mail me. It's basically sauteeing vegetables.

Anyways, just wanted to share something healthy that my parents came up with and that is surprisingly delicious. For the vegetable lovers out there at least.

Brent sent me a youtube clip that I have been enjoying for about a day now! If you are not a fan of the SNL guys who do "I'm on a Boat," etc...do not click on this link:



And I don't understand why this video does not fit? Maybe it's because I have a column there to the right, but I am too lazy to figure out how to fix this.

Our First Guests! Our Family!

Brian's parents flew in on April 30th to spend the weekend with us...and also to give us motivation to get our house TOGETHER.

Michael woke up at 6:30am both mornings because he was so excited they were there! Every weekend with Grammy and Grandpa begins with pancakes...this time with aprons to remind them of their rank in the family:
Grammy made Michael a cross stitched blanket that was very similar to one that Brian has from when he was little:

Then, we jumped in the car, drove an hour and met up with Thomas the Tank for the day:

Michael also got to see his Aunt AK and Uncle Bill:

And Grandpa took Michael to the only kind of tattoo parlor that he would willingly take his grandson: a temporary oneMeet Thomas the Tank was held at the B&O Railroad. Who knew it existed outside of the Monopoly board?? Don't answer that.

Here we are on the platform to get our ride on Thomas the Tank. It was a bit anticlimactic as it went about 2mph with tons of kids on it.

Michael LOVED it though! Here he is looking out the window:

And father and son with Thomas in the background:

Overall, Michael was a bit overwhelmed at Thomas the Tank. He definitely enjoyed himself there! But I was surprised that after only 2.5 hours, he was done!

That was F-I-N-E by us because we took a quick detour to Ft. McHenry thanks to The Mom's suggestion!

Here is why Ft. McHenry is important according to Wikipedia:

"Ft. McHenry is a star shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812 when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in the Chesapeake Bay. It was during this bombardment of the fort that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write "The Star-Spangled Banner," the poem that would eventually be set to the tune of the The Anacreontic Song, to become the national anthem of the United States."

Much better than what I could have said!

Brian was a good sport while I made him stand against this red brick wall and between the green shutters that makes the green man on his shirt stand out:

And this is straight out of the camera...I just loved the greens/oranges and the way the light hit this and the black scrolly thing.
And we stayed to see the changing of the flag. The flag with the 13 stars come down and was replaced by our current one.
On Sunday, we went to church and hung around the house! Michael put together his blue adirondack chair and went mowing with Dad. It was a relaxing Sunday after our full Saturday, and we loved every minute of our fun weekend!

I leave you with this picture. It was way too dark, so I lightened it up in photoshop and it's still bizarre with the blownout areas, but I just like the way it looks. Kind of futuristic like from Iron Man or something...

You Vote: Sofa or Sectional?

Decorating, furniture shopping/etc.

Should we go for the sectional in our living room:
Or the sofa?

Post your opinion in comments.

Wilmington Flower Market

Yesterday, we visited the Wilmington Flower Market!

Wilmington Flower Market = Carnival = FUNNEL CAKE:
Michael had his first funnel cake and he LOVED it. What is the Wilmington Flower Market not like? It's not like a flower market. I think they had like 3 booths TOTAL that sold plants. It was an excuse to have a carnival.

Michael rode every ride. And of course, the carousel. Where did my little baby go? The event was held at Rockdale Park in Wilmington. We drove through the windy backroads of PA and DE to see the tented park near this tourist attraction:
That's right. A tower in a park. Can't say things are THAT much different than in Europe. :)

Here's Michael with my parents and the fish he won. My parents bought him enough tickets to ride every ride. TWICE. Grandparents...gotta love 'em:And this is what I did while my mom rode the ferris wheel with Michael. Which pic do you like better? The one where the wheel looks bright and cheery? Or the one where the sky has a gloomy look? Or neither? It's ok if it's neither. You can put that in the comments. Something to the effect of: "I don't like either of these pictures because I don't want to see you practicing with your camera." That is fine too.

And where are the pictures of meeting Thomas and Brian's grandparents? I am excited to post those...but to be honest...they need a bunch of post processing because it was the 1st time I took pictures in months. So some of them need cropping because the composition isn't great or they need some tweaking for color/brightness in photoshop because I didn't expose the frame right. SO there is a slight delay...but THEY ARE COMING! Here's one that I like right now:


Also, am going to post pics of Michael with the farm animals too from the Wilmington Flower Market. Just had to get this POSTED.

Thor's Hammer

So it's kind of hard to see from the pic, but Michael is wearing a shirt with a cartoon figure on it called, "The Mighty THOR."

For those of you who knew Michael in the womb, "Thor" was his womb name. So it was absolutely awesome that Brent/Tracy brought Michael this shirt when they came to visit.

And this is his mighty thunderbolt-wielding muscle pose:
Hope you enjoyed your late afternoon walk as much as we did.

What do you do when grandparents leave?

You give out haircuts. First up, Brian. Take a look at our before and after pics:

B - reminiscent of Sasquatch (or however you spell that):
Post haircut and beard trim:

Pre haircut side view 1:

Post haircut - still a bit of mushroom effect from middle school, but not half bad for my 1st time giving a haircut since college days:
Pre:

Post:

And the back pre haircut:

Post:

Artfully avoided his wild and wooly cowlick.

Pretty proud of myself. My last attempt at a homemade haircut resulted in 2 small slanted lines in the back/center of his head that caused a little girl sitting behind us in church to stare at the back of Brian's head in fear.

Next up: Michael.

Pics of meeting Thomas and grandparents visit up next once I proof them!

Love,
P

THAT'S IT

I need to vent. I am going to pay someone to take pictures of Michael and I. I just can't 1) remember to do it or ask someone to do it for me, 2) Make Michael smile for it, 3)Take the picture right.

There were 440 pictures taken this weekend. I have 5 of just Michael and I. Of these 5, there are none of Michael looking at the camera.

The last picture I have with Michael, was in December 2009 at Au Petit Margeury. That makes it nearly 5 months that I have had a good picture with my one and only son.

And I have to take matters into my own hands now. Because I think there are more pictures of Michael with his aunts/uncles/grandparents than with his own mother.

That being said...we got a ton of great pictures of Michael with Brian and his Dad this weekend. And lots of great ones with Thomas. But now, I can totally understand why both my mom and Brian's mom have both approached me with the camera and said, "Please take a picture of Michael and I. I just really need it."

Us moms...we just have to fend for ourselves!