Ryan's Birthday

Rain cancelled baseball Friday, so Isaac was able to meet up with my brother Joe at Arnold's Go Karts. He had inherited a gift card from a coworker. Isaac had a blast with him.  I was a bit lonely at home on a Friday night with no Isaac and no Ryan.  Isaac didn't come home until after 10 o'clock!  Miss Banana happened to be up, so Joe got to squeeze in some time with her.  He calls her a meatball, which is pretty apt these days.

Saturday Isaac had a baseball game.  My dad drove in to see it and to keep me company since Ryan was working.  It was a nice spring day and afterwards he was able to come back to the house for a bit to fix something of Isaac's.

Isaac then went to spend some time with his dad and Banana and I headed into the city to see my friend Becca and her baby Wolfie (and yes, our kids have normal names like Hannah and William and we just chose to refer to them by bizarre nicknames.)  Her neighborhood was hosting the Kinetic Derby (you can read about our adventures at the Derby last year here).  We missed the actual race but there was still live music, booths, and food trucks.  We did catch this one biking away.  There were pictures on the panels that created a mini-movie as the cylinder spun. 

Then Hannah and I were off to meet Ryan at the Phillies game.  Ryan had asked to go to a rock concert for his birthday, but I feel like I am too old to be on my feet all night, listening to screaming and elbowing my way through crowds of middle schoolers.  His second choice was a Phillies game.  Baseball games are usually my personal hell, but I did it for Ryan.  I felt bad going to a MLB game without Isaac, but they had a special promotion going that if you brought a canned good you got a voucher for a free ticket.  Ryan said that he will use the vouchers to take Isaac.  We had some interesting characters around us and in true Ryan fashion he had made friends with all of them by the end of the game.  This was my favorite photo of the night.

  

 

Total photobomb for our family selfie. I could see him in the view finder, hence my cracking up but I guess Ryan didn't see him.  The ushers took a special liking to Hannah.  They arranged for the Phanavision guy to put Hannah on the big screen.  He did a close up of her little round face.  A coworker of mine was at the game and texted me that she saw us.

As usual, Hannah was ridiculously good and seemed to love looking around at all of the action. 

The next day we did church, picked up Isaac and did a soccer scrimmage.    We rounded out the weekend with a cake and candles. 

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Happy Birthday Ryan!  We love you so much!

Random Thursday: Inspiring Art Edition

Wahoo! It's

I love me a random Thursday. Friday is just around the corner!

Today's topic is

I have blogged about this in the past, but I have always loved the painting Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo. It is hung up in my living room (even though it terrified Isaac when it was younger and Ryan keeps trying to make it go away).

There was a Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum. I was really moved by the story behind this and how it represents Frida's loneliness. It was the only time a piece of artwork has brought me to tears.

I am lucky enough to live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, the city with the most murals in the whole world! They are used to beautify empty lots and to combat graffiti. I love that you can just round a corner in a semi-sketchy neighborhood and then be surprised by a beautiful work of art on the side of an abandoned building. Many honor Philadelphia natives and are painted by everyday people or school children who work with the mural arts program. If you are ever in Philadelphia, there are a few different mural tours you can take. My sister and I did a walking one that was exhausting but really informative. Here are a few murals.

Hang in there! Friday is coming!!

Kinetic Derby Catch Up Post

A few weeks ago Ryan, Isaac and I went to join my friend Becca and her ridiculous adorable baby William Frances Wolf for the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby.  Here are a few pictures from that day. 

There was a huge group of people wearing these metallic helmets.

 

Hula Scultpure

Say Anything car

This guy was legit playing the piano while his friend pedaled him along.

It didn't photograph well, but that guy has rows and rows of pinwheels on those yellow boards. 

Goal Check Up

So I have started in on my 101 in 1001.

9.  Try 50 new recipes. 

When Isaac was home "sick" the other day, I made copycat Starbucks Lemon Pound cake.  Ryan loves all things lemon and had specifically requested a lemon pound cake.  I found this recipe when I perusing Pinterest and it got rave reviews.  It is moist and sweet. I don't think her blog permits me to post her pictures here, and I didn't take any of my own, but check out her post.  It's fool proof! The icing didn't turn out as pretty as hers did, but this recipe was definitely a success.  I only have one loaf pan, so I used my jumbo muffin tin for the other half of the batter and they turned out great as muffins too. 

62. Go to the eye doctor. 

While this is relatively dull to blog about, I thought it would be an easy one to cross off the list and get the ball rolling, so I called and made an appointement to knock this one out over Christmas break.  I hadn't been to the eye doctor in years.  Fortunately, everything is great.  My vision is good and my eyes are healthy.  Apparently my over the top obsessiveness with wearing sunglasses has paid off.    One item down, 100 more to go!

81. Visit 10 museums. 

Ever since Ryan and I met each other, he had talked about how much fun it would do some of the touristy things in Philadelphia-- he specifically wanted to go to the National Constitution Center. So we finally carved out some time yesterday and headed into the city.  It was a bright sunny and warm day (for January) and we really enjoyed ourselves.

As usual, there was a protest going on outside the Constitution Visitor's Center.  I love a good rally and Ryan humored me and let me hang around for a while, and sport my sticker.

First we hit up the Liberty Bell, which I don't think I had visited since probably middle school.  They have totally renovated the little building that houses the bell, and it was interested to read all about it.  I always think of the Liberty Bell being a symbol of freedom during the revolutionary war, but it was interesting to read how the abolitionists used the bell in their campaign against slavery and how it became a symbol of civil rights.  Visiting the Liberty Bell is also totally free. 

From there it was a short walk to the National Constitution Center, a huge white building with the words "We the people..." written across the facade.  Ryan and I found all of the exhibits to be so uplifting and inspirational.

 

It really made the whole Constitution come alive.  Our favorite exhibit was all about prohibition and the roaring 20's.  It was really well done.  Here I am campaigning for women's right to vote. 

And getting booked with some notorious gangsters...

Weekend Report

My weekend started a day early. Isaac had a morning appointment at the pediatric cardiologist at Dupont.  His pediatrician was concerned that Isaac's has a heart murmur and that his heartbeat is irregular so he referred us.  We were very impressed with Dupont.  They were very friendly, they put Isaac right at ease.  Isaac did a great job for his EKG and ultrasound.  I was so proud of him.  They decided that he has an innocent heart murmur but he does NOT have an arthymia.  So that was great news.

 

 

After we finished up at the doctor's office, we *probably* had enough time to go back to school, but seeing as it was Friday, we decided to play a little hooky.  We got some lunch and did a little shopping.  We checked out a fun new bookstore we had never been in before and (of course) I couldn't walk out empty handed.   

 

 

It is soooooo good.  I've already torn through about half of it.  We rounded out our fun day by picking up Ryan's girls and going swimming.  It was a great day of family fun. 

 

The next day Isaac had a soccer game and I headed into the city to the Paper Source to try to tackle my wedding invites. 

 

 

 

Isaac and Ryan took a train into the city and met up with me afterwards.  I had bought a Groupon for a reduced admission price to the Acadamy of Natural Sciences.   

 

They had an amazing butterfly garden...

 

 

 

 

We loved the dinosaur bones...

 

 

It was hot as blazes that day.  I was a sweaty mess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope your weekend was as fun as ours was!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Molly for YOLOMonday

Engagement Photos!

Probably you've already seen the sneak peek from facebook, but we got our cd full of pictures from the delightful Erin Bertoni.  Here are some of our favorite shots that didn't make the cut for our Save the Dates.  

We started at Boathouse Row, worked our way through the Water Works, the gardens behind the Art Museum, the Rocky Statue, the art museum steps and then the other way with the city as a backdrop.

 It was nearly 100 degrees in thick, eastern PA humidity. I am surprised I didn't end up with sweat marks everywhere. 

I am also completely unaccustomed to not wearing sunglasses outdoors (no exaggeration, I wear sunglasses

all

the

time. 

I am very squinty in these pictures that made the cut, so I can only imagine how many pictures on the cutting room floor must have featured me with my eyes totally closed, grinning away.

Yay for touristy monuments in Philly!!

 FYI wedge flip flops were a terrible choice for this session.  We did a lot of walking that day and I felt like I spent a lot of time clenching my toes together to keep them on while I tottered up hills and stuff.  Also, I feel like they photographed like of oafy looking.