Saturday, June 8, 2014: Weddin' Time

The plan for Grammy's visit was for Grammy to take Michael to Sesame Place, a Sesame Street themed amusement park, while Brian and I went to Doylestown for his grad school friend's (Jason Cheung), wedding.

Sesame Place is literally 30 minutes away from Doylestown.  We sure do know how to get away!  LOL.

As a result of logistics, I drove Grammy, Michael and I to Sesame Place and got them checked into their hotel across the street.  Brian met us at that hotel since it was on the way to Doylestown!

Friday night - check!  :)

Brian fetched me and off we went to be a young couple again!

We started Saturday exploring quaint downtown Doylestown.  We walked around, poked into some shops and met our friends for lunch at a bar downtown.  It was cute and quaint, like all small towns in PA.  But nothing to really write home about.  Like most small towns in PA.

In the afternoon, we prepped ourselves for the wedding!  Here's us waiting for the wedding to start:

Still love that man since 1999 in College Station, TX.  Isn't he still so handsome?  I think so!  And he's FUNNY!

I only took my smart phone with me for the weekend.  I was on vacation.  :)

They had their wedding at the James A. Michener Art Museum:

Funny story - when they booked the wedding, the museum had a great exhibit of landscapes going on.

On the actual wedding day, it was an exhibit of nude paintings/sculptures.

Couple's First Kiss:

The reception was tres chic:

They had a live band, and it was AWESOME!!!  I'm totally converted!  If Brian and I ever have a renewal of vows party, we are having a live band.  

I love going to weddings of couples in our 30's (or late 20's).  I always feel like the weddings are more stylish and thought out.  This wedding was BEAUTIFUL.  The food was delicious, the decor classy, and the entertainment spot on.  I know in my 20's, I was kind of all over the place in that regard.  Now, in my 30's, I have a better idea of what I like and what I don't!

The best man, JD, gave probably the second-most awesome best man speech I have heard (second to John's at our wedding where he opened with Brian chasing him around with a kitchen knife).

Some highlights from it:

"One of Cheung's best gifts to Sharla is his sense of optimism and humor, which is a good thing, because if you know Cheung, spending money is not his thing.  You see those two tables full of his friends there laughing?  They know what I'm talking about."

"Cheung is a great mix of my grandmothers.  My one looks at me and says, "JD, make sure you have FUN." and the other one says, "JD, make sure you wear your seatbelt when you're driving."

JD is currently living in LA trying to make it in stand-up comedy.  We were thoroughly entertained with his delivery, timing, and wit of his speech!

Brian and I had a fantastic time, dining on the delicious food and drinking from the open bar!!!!  I had something called a Bay Breeze.  And then I had more of them and never looked back.  

We danced, we sang, and we enjoyed ourselves.  It was a fantastic time.

The wedding finished with sparklers:

Oh - I forgot to add - one of the COOLEST details from their wedding.  Because they had an open bar, they provided transportation from the hotel to the wedding site - A BIG YELLOW SCHOOL BUS.

IT WAS AWESOME!!  We rode with this group of older guests, who were a RIOT.  When I finally got on the bus, they yelled, "FINALLY!  ONE OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE!"

On the way back, they regaled us with a hilarious version of spiritual music.  Watch the whole thing.  It's worth it:

*insert funny video here.  Blogger had trouble uploading for some reason.  Will try again later.*

We went back to the hotel and got into some comfortable clothes.  We stayed up drinking, talking and living old memories with our old Austin friends.  We laughed a lot.  

I think that makes for a pretty awesome date. :)

Weekend of June 7, 2013 - Friday

Grammy came to visit us and play with Michael the weekend of June 7th because Brian and I were attending a wedding out in PA for one of his grad school friends!

We are so thankful to have her spend some quality time with Michael while at the same time enabling us to spend some quality time with each other!

First thing's first - Grammy flew in on a very rainy and stormy day.  We fetched her and carted her off to the Please Touch Museum, a children's Museum in Philadelphia.

We love it there, but you have to drive pretty far and kind of through the ghetto to get there.  As a result, we do not go often.

Here's Michael on the child's hamster wheel:

Grammy and Michael, headed to the Alice in Wonderland play area:

One of my favorite memories of the Houston Children's Museum growing up was their grocery shopping area, and the Please Touch Museum has one too!

Here's our little baker:

Hope that plastic bread doesn't contain azodicarbonamide...

Our carb junkie:

As a checker:

One valuable lesson I learned as an adult in the children's grocery store is what a child must feel like shopping with US in an ADULT grocery store.  One time, Michael spent an entire HOUR grocery shopping here, and I was SO done.  But was he?  ABSOLUTELY not.  We went back for more.

I was bored.  There was nothing for me to do.  We had touched all that food already once.  WHY OH WHY were we going again?

Yet when he was little, every week, we had to go to the grocery store!  I'm sure he was bored!  I'm sure he couldn't believe we were going in AGAIN because I had forgotten one item!  This trip to the Please Touch Museum Children's grocery area was an eye-opening experience for me.  :)

After that, we were off to ride their very cool antique indoor carousel:

NOT.  

Oh well!  Moving on to child-operated cranes, which scoop up small plastic balls!

Michael had a great time with Grammy, as always!  

One day, I need to take a picture of the outside of the Please Touch Museum!  It's in a really cool older building and the architecture is really amazing.

Grammy had this great idea for a picture:

Unfortunately, my focus box was on the ceiling.  :(  Photography 101 - FAIL.

Up next - the wedding!!  

Strawberry Pickin' - June 5, 2013

One of our FAVORITE traditions to do every year come late spring/summer is to go to our local farm to go strawberry picking, Walnut Springs Farm!!

They grow raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb, strawberries - fresh and all you can pick.  

Doesn't that picture make you want to get your strawberry-jelly-preserving-jam-on?  

Michael loves strawberry picking.  For about 10 minutes.  In that time, you will net about 20 strawberries in your basket.  Then, it's WHINE city.  But I got this picture before he got started:

For whatever reason that day, I came up with the ingenious suggestion that he should be my "Strawberry Train!"  We both had baskets, but I needed mine to be empty so that I could collect strawberries.  He could be the strawberry train and transport the strawberries from my full basket to his empty one.

It worked.  For nearly an hour, Michael transported strawberries, 2-5 at a time, while saying, "Choo choo!!"

And at the end, he told me:  "Mommy, that wasn't very fun until I became the strawberry train.  After that, I had a great time."

Let it be known, that this moment was probably my most creative mommy moment to date.  And the rewards of being creative and helping your kids to find something fun to do is worth it for the both of you!

Let it also be known, that's the ONLY time in my 7 years of being a mom that I remember being creative instead of yelling, "Well - you can either complain about your situation or find something fun to do.  Now GO and quit your complaining!"

Michael got this picture of me being a migrant worker:

It was a fun and sunny day, and we picked about 3 pounds of strawberries!!!

Conversations

Michael has been throwing out hilarious stuff since we came back from our trip abroad.

All the different currencies and countries really threw him for a loop!

Yesterday, we were talking about Disney and Florida.
M:  "Mommy, do they use American money in Florida?"

With all the different languages we experienced while abroad, Michael has been counting up all the languages people know.  You better watch out - he'll want to know if you speak more than one.  And if it's "only one," he'll be glad to know he's not the only one that speaks "only one" language.  He thinks you guys are part of the same club.

Then, there was this gem:

M:  "Mommy, why did God make ticks?"
Me:  "I'm not sure."
M:  "Ticks are bad, but God is good.  So why did he make something so bad?"

Oh my, that could be a very deep question if you wanted it to be!

Or, you could take it at face value and wonder, "Well, ticks are good for something aren't they?  Are they good for anything in the realm of the whole wild food chain?  Or are ticks truly a creation of the devil?"

Deep ponderings...I know.

Baby Racoon! June 1, 2013

On June 1, 2013, Brian and Michael found a baby raccoon in our woods during the day.  It made a lot of noise and looked to be quite forlorn and lost without his mom.  Apparently, there were others, but we only caught one on candid camera:

Here's a video of the little guy up in a tree:

Exciting times out here in the "2-lane country."  :)

Nearly a year ago: May 30, 2013

I'm not quite sure if this is worth writing about and catching up, but I'm going to do it!  I'm going to catch up on nearly a year's worth of pictures!  iPhone/fancy cameras/everything.  HANG ON TIGHT.

First up:  Bring Your Kid to Work Day at Air Liquide!

Venkat, Brian's very funny Indian co-worker with a Canon 7D, was instrumental in organizing this picture with all the kids and the tank as demonstrated here:

They started with a safety talk with all the little ones in a conference room.  Note the safety glasses at the liquid nitrogen ice cream exhibit:

Sadly for the exhibitors, they did not take Brian's advice on making large batches of ice cream instead of "Dippin' Dots," which Air Liquide provides nitrogen for in real life.

So the kids got these Dippin' Dots that basically froze their tongues off, and they complained about it.

Let it be known that when you make ice cream with liquid nitrogen - get a large stainless steel bowl and make a big batch of it with half and half, cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Mix in the liquid nitrogen and voila - perfect ice cream.

There was also a station where they froze flowers and the kids beat the petals right off of them. 

Michael also attended the exhibit Brian did as well where they basically made slime, and Brian put Mentos in a coke bottle, which makes it ricochet into the air.  I'm sure you can guess what was most popular with the kids!  ;)

Michael's last exhibit was seeing a very powerful microscope where they looked at a bug under high magnification and a feather as well.

Michael LOVED being there!!  It was a fun day for all of us!  Here he is with his group and Mr. Rob:

It was a gorgeous spring day, and Michael enjoyed going to his Daddy's work!!