It's Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was so nice again this year! We had everyone meet up at our place, hang out and have some Vino

we had some gifts for our Mommas and made sure to be earth friendly by putting them in reusable shopping bags instead of regular old gift bags...

Carol's garden is starting to come in and she brought me some amazingly fresh veggies

which I really love and appreciate!

We all went to Charles Plaza (the most amazing and healthy Chinese restaurant in Philly) and had a late lunch / early dinner.

then to Naked Chocolate Cafe for some hand made chocolates, coffee and Pop-Pop had his favorite hot chocolate espresso style

This year I was really wishing we had a large yard and could have had an all day BBQ ~ I am starting to think it is time to move out of the city and *gulp* move to the suburbs...I can't even believe I am hearing myself say it but I am looking forward to some birds chirping, a garden growing and walking barefoot on my own grass!

Anyway - Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there - I hope everyone had as nice of a day as we did :)

Pizza Pizza Pizza...

aaahhhh nothing ruins my so called diet like Pizza...i love it! especially De Lorenzo's Pizza in Trenton - we used to think Toccanelli's Pizza was the best but have since been converted over to De Lorenzo's. We heart the crispy thin crust and simple sauce ... K's favorite is the sausage and my favorite is the roasted red pepper YUM!

Since Aunt Margie was going to be in town and near Trenton, we decided to meet up for Pizza and wound up with a large group of 9 + 1 cute little baby boy of course!




us with Liam - he is such a good baby!


thanks to Jess for actually bringing her camera and taking pictures since we seem to always forget!


my Dad getting to know Liam - they both look pretty happy :)


"give me your finger to chew on and I'll give you a kiss"


that is Kareem and Liam's M.O.

ha-ha!

Fajitas, Fun + Family!

Saturday we went to Justin + Drea's house to hang out and cook dinner! I am working hard to try to be a better blogger - especially because I think we will like having these written memories to look back on someday BUT of course forgot my camera (again) so I took some iPhone pics, which for some reason came out kind of blurred but better than nothing right!?!

Here is little man Lee-Pee (Liam) chillin


We all <3 Mexican Food so we decided to go with Chicken Fajitas, a Mexican Salad and the Fixings - it was YUMMY!






Kareem and Justin liking the meal we cooked

even though Justin did do the grilling ;)

At dinner, Liam was hysterical - he was really tired but just not quite ready to go to bed yet so he sat up with us and watched us eat

until the sleep took over and he passed out at the table sitting up

too funny!!!!!!

Drea has been dying to get us to play this board game they got hooked on while living in Germany - "Settlers of Catan" - it looked really complex but once you get the hang of it - it is really fun and I can easily see getting hooked!



So sorry again about the fuzzy photos but that's all I got!

A
xoxo

Easter 2009

Easter was wonderful this year - lots of Firsts - Liam's First Easter and the First family gathering at Justin + Andrea's new home - there was a really big group - 14 including Liam! Drea and Justin did a great job of pulling their new house together and they really outdid themselves!

The weather was absolutely perfect and the day was very laid back. Liam was crawling (he is not even 6 months yet!) and being as cute as ever, the food was delicious (especially Aunt Jan's Quiche yumm) and it was an extra special treat for us to have Aunt Margie there from upstate NY and Dennis, Nina and Zach from Canada.

Aunt Nina had her camera out and took a bunch of great photos so I will update this post once I get some of those pics from her.

Also, Carol got me a beautiful Fuchsia Orchid plant that is reminiscent of our wedding flowers!

All in all - a great holiday!

party like it's passover...

we had a very low key Passover this year at my parents house. Traci and Scott went to Scott's sister's so it was just us and Mike, who even wore a yamaka! too funny

and since my family is not exactly photo happy I was the only one taking pictures and I forgot my camera so I just snapped a couple with my iPhone, which also means I am not in any of the pictures but that is OK because I wasn't exactly all dressed up LOL.

we all did have a really good time - I especially thought the (mini) Seder my Dad did was really cool even though Jen interjected to tell us all about Moses but was wrong HA!

Here is the Seder Plate...


I took a picture of the table but it wasn't set up very fancy because we needed a lot of room for the massive amounts of amazing food my mom made...


Everyone except me and Mabel :(




Course 1 - Matzo Ball Soup - oh yeah!!!


Course 2 is usually Gifilte Fish and Chopped Liver but we skipped it this year (much to my delight) - my mom made sweet and sour Turkey Meatballs but they were not picture worthy

Course 3 was Brisket, Salt + Pepper Kugel, Kasha + Bowties, Steamed and marinated asparagus, sauteed broccoli and more matzo (whole wheat and regular)...


Course 4 was Dessert - didn't take any pictures but it was goood! we had coconut based ice cream (dairy free), it was chocolate peanut butter swirl, my mom made a fresh berry sauce and there were two different types of macaroons. it didn't hurt that we pulled out the Kahlua (not so sure about that being Kosher for Passover but I think Elijah will forgive us) to pour over it.

and for me - I drank mostly Chardonnay but switched up to this yummy concoction at the end of the night - Stoli Vanilla, Kahlua, Rice Milk and a touch of Soy Creamer - OMG I could drink way tooooo many of these

My mom and I taught Jen and Mike how to play Maj Jong - I totally should have taken some pics of that - I think Mike is hooked!

busy busy weekend...

This past weekend was slam packed but great!

Justin and Andrea came home for good from their 18-month stint in Munich, Germany and came to stay with us for the weekend. We finally got to meet little Liam!!!! Wow - he is such a good baby - so laid back, happy and well-adjusted! Justin and Andrea are definitely great role models for K and I - they are not neurotic, overly worrisome nor make a big deal out of small stuff - it is awesome to watch!

We also found out that Mabel is a super-freak-baby-stalk-psycho who thinks she is part babysitter / part security guard. She loves Liam and thinks it is necessary to lick his head, hands and feet whenever they are exposed and within 2 feet of her - he didn't seem to mind so we all thought it was pretty entertaining. She also really disliked his pack-n-play - we don't know if she thought he was trapped or what but whenever he was in there - she cried and circled it as well as tried to dig him out with her big ass bear paws - yeah that was not good lol!


Drea and I had a girls beauty day on Saturday, starting off with some much needed Waxing, then to Manicures + Pedicures then to lunch, then to get some Vino and head to Megan's for some amazing Facials with MicroDermabrasion.

Kareem + Justin spent the day with Liam around the City and then met up with Aunt Margie - Drea and I got to spend a little but of time with her but not as much as we wanted b/c she had to had back to upstate NY.


Saturday night we went for Sushi and took Liam of course - he was so good and after he woke up he decided to hold onto chop sticks and pretend he was having Sushi too - he must instinctively know how freaking good Mikado is!




Then we all went on a mission for some Frozen Yogurt and finally back to the house to just hang out :)

Sunday was super duper busy as we went for brunch at El Camino Real and then made the drive up to Hamburg for Pop-Pop's 89th Birthday Party!


It was so awesome to see Pop-Pop finally meet Liam - the oldest and newest family members ...


Pop-Pop is doing great and told us that he does 50+ Push-Ups every morning - yeah Kareem and I definitely got a reality check and were like "wow - we are L-A-Z-Y!"

From there K and I headed over to Jarrett + Sarah's for a surprise 35th Birthday Dinner Party for Jarrett - he totally didn't know we were coming and was really surprised! Sarah went all out and hosted a FABULOUS dinner party - the food was amazing, the drinks were flowing, the decor was perfect and the guest list was great - one of the best dinner parties we have been too in a long time - so good that we didn't get home until almost 2:00 AM (and on a Sunday night!) but we failed to take ANY pictures at all - I think we were just enjoying ourselves so much we completely forgot!

Overall, we had a great weekend and Mabel was exhausted from all of it - here she is getting a treat for being soooooo good!


Love,
A