Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Buckle Up

Ok, Here's an attempt to catch up on the past few whirlwind weeks.
Please forgive any lack of clever writing, basically, there are just too many events and pictures to post.

First up, (H)'s End-of PMO Program: cute songs, memory books and kids freezing up when faced with a large audience. They did really well though and everyone seemed to enjoy it, so as director of PMO, I count that as a success. Each kid was presented with their memory book and since Mother's Day was that weekend, they had planted basil plants which they gave to their moms. There were 8 kids from Senior families who received special recognition for "graduating" from PMO since they had been there all 3 years, some of them from birth. These kids are all very dear friends of ours and we will miss them dearly next year. I honestly don't know what PMO will be like (or our seminary community for that matter) without these kids.
Here's (H) with his best bud who is moving to Texas in a few weeks. And here he is after getting his memory book. What is it about our kids and sticking their tongues out?!

Next up, Mother's Day Weekend and my cousin's graduation from Emory:
Sunday we headed to Atlanta and after a nice lunch and the children's symphony concert with ^J^'s family, we headed down to Decatur for a celebratory graduation dinner at one of the best restaurants I've ever been to: The Iberian Pig. 
Both of my cousins are major foodies and I was super-excited when I heard he was picking the restaurant because I knew we wouldn't end up at some generic chain place. When we got there, the staff was so helpful and genuinely nice, we had to wait for a table and so my mom said she'd order a round of drinks. They had some really unusual cocktails and great beers and wines. ^J^ got some vodka drink with essence of violets and they hand-chip the ice off a huge hunk of ice with an actual ice-pick! The kids had fun watching that! I realized they'd never had a shirley temple so I let them order one and *A* would not stop talking about her "fancy drink".
The Iberian Pig is Spanish-themed which means lots of tapas, and while it has regular entrees as well, we opted to order a bunch of things off the tapas menu and share. It was ALL so heavenly. My favorite thing was probably the bacon wrapped dates, I see these all the time on the Food Network but I've never had them and they were like candy! So good! There was a bunch of interesting flat breads, like a really crispy pizza with toppings like arugula and shaved cheese and mushrooms with truffle oil. I tried so many things I'd heard of but never had the chance to try before, things I may not try again (like wild boar sausage), but I just had to try everything even if it was odd because it was just so fancy and fun! Here's the menu.
The next drink ^J^ ordered was this bacon-infused rye drink. It was odd and smokey-tasting, but he loved it. After so much food, they started bringing out desserts. I didn't think we'd ordered any but we dug right in anyway and those were amazing as well: some kind of fruity gelato with hardened white chocolate on the outside and cinnamon donuts with dark chocolate dipping sauce. yum! Come to find out, our waitress gave the desserts to us on the house because she felt bad that they were out of a few things we asked for. She felt so bad in fact that she gave all of us gift certificates to use the next time we came! It was a wonderful night and we closed the place down!
Our kids were so great too, it was like they knew it was a special place and they behaved accordingly. They tried most all of the food we ordered and (H)'s favorite was the eggplant fries. *A* loved the goat cheese tortellini and of course the desserts!

We spent the night in a hotel near Emory that night and went to the ceremony the next morning followed by a brunch reception. It was a great time to celebrate and spend time together as a family!
Here are the kids with their Great-Great Aunt, aren't they so matchy and cute?!
Waiting for the ceremony to start. 

We all clapped and cheered when his name was read aloud and we are so proud of where he's been and where he's going, although we will miss him. Hopefully he'll come visit lots and California won't change him too much because *A* now has a slight crush on her 21 year old 2nd cousin!
Although, really, who could blame her?

Ok. I'm tired so I'll catch you up on the fun-filled seminary graduation events of last week...tomorrow.

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