Brothers, Birthdays, and a Bakery

Don't let this picture fool you. The bickering between these two boys is driving us insane. Yesterday, they had a heated argument over a "Neutella spoon". (We won't even go into why my kids would be allowed to eat spoonfuls of that stuff straight out of the jar.) Seriously, there was half a jar of Neutella and a handful of spoons left in the drawer. I think sometimes they must enjoy arguing...like it's some kind of sport, because most of the actual problems between them could be easily resolved. Anyway, there are rare moments when they are buddies like this, and I hope as they get older these moments will become the norm rather than the exception.

And lets add Libby to the mix.

Yep, that's more like it.

And after a few grueling minutes, and just before I gave up, this was the best I could get.



We've started celebrating Libby's birthday. It's probably going to be more like a week long festival at our house.

Here she is with her cake. We made it together...our filling didn't hold up super well, hence the bulging center, but it tasted very yummy.

Libby thought so too.

And here we are with Pap-pap at my favorite restaurant in Baltimore. It's actually a bakery. Piedigrotta Bakery. I still can't stop thinking about this place days later...the gnocchi, lasagna, prescuitto, gelato, the fresh bread, the pistachio cookies. The place is full of eye candy. And it tastes as good as it looks.

They say their hours are till 6 pm but fridays and saturdays they serve dinner from 5:30 till 8:00. You need to call to make a reservation. It's located in Little Italy in Baltimore. Just a block from the Little Italy garage (where you can park for 3 dollars after 4:00.) It's a flat rate for a four course meal. They bring you beautiful plate after beautiful plate. It is owned by an Italian couple, Antonio and Bruna. He sat and talked with us. He told us how he started working in a bakery in Milan at age 9. He told us about his grandmother who had 24 kids, and at one point cooked 5 meals a day for 52 people. (5 meals a day? I want to move to there.)
He took the boys into the back and showed them the kitchen, the pasta machine, the walk in fridge and freezers. He sent us home with some frozen pasta, a big bag of apples, and this picture which he took and burned on a cd for us.

I LOVE this place. For me it feels like sitting down at my Grandma's table again, and the flavors bring back memories that I had not even realized I still had. You can check it out at:
http://www.piedigrottabakery.com/

STAGE

Here is a view looking up above a stage with grid level above, two loading bridges and the fly bridge at the bottom of the image. A ladder leads 60 feet up to the loading bridges from the fly floor (which is itself 30 feet above the stage level)



This is the upper loading bridge. the weights on the floor are loaded onto the linesets to the left. these counterbalance the weight of the stage sets that are suspended beneath the grid floor to the right. the wires overhead connect the two.



This post is for my parents who are still skeptical that I know how to make buildings. But look at this thing: complicated, expensive, precise.. and perfect for a fight scene at the end of a movie. And, I'll add, still standing after a recent earthquake. Guys with too many tatoos are loading in the first show as we speak. If other people trust me to design this, wouldn't it follow that I would also be qualified to trim tree branches, cut hair, or perform minor surgery?

A success

The party was a lovely success...

The most important two people there seemed to be very happy...

As long as the bibby had a shoe to play with she was good...

I made my first wedding cake, had flowers to cover my goofs, and it stayed upright...

James got a few dances with the bride...

and a good time was had by all.

These pics would go really well with a soundtrack... I'm thinking something like: "Almost Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. Life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, blowing like the breeze..."









So the first day on skyline drive looked like this:

Scenic overlook? Not so much.



But when we got to the top of Stony Man mountain, we got above the fog, and it looked like this:

Still a bit hazy at the top.

The next day started out looking cloudy, but we took a chance and went back with Mom-mom and Pap-pap. We climbed Bear Fence Mountain, and scrambled over boulders that as the guide book accurately described, "seemed like they would never end". Jer waited till after the hike to read the section about how this hike is not recommeneded for young children that need to be carried. I'm glad he did, because we made it just fine.

A wedding

Here we are with the bride and groom.

We drove the kid van to the reception. I like to call this next series, "Reverent? What?"

Yeah, those are my kids sprinting laps around the temple grounds. This is what happens when you wait outside during the photo shoot.

Cousins.

Why do the silly family pictures always end up being my favorite? Maybe because it really captures the essensce of our family dynamics.