wayne's introduction to meemaw, bumpy, grammie, and grandad!

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sorry this round of posts is so late! i've been so busy  :/

greg and i took wayne to visit his "meemaw and bumpy" (my mom and dad) in NH a little while ago. the real reason for the visit was to see my grandparents who were visiting from florida! it was an awesome trip and a really really fun time in general. we did puzzles and played card games and ate delicious food and drank maybe one too many margaritas...then started on the glasses of wine! we went shopping and thought up ideas for curtains and talked and pretty much had a great family weekend. i love being able to see my parents as much as i want and it's even better when some extended family can come visit too!!

some photos (because otherwise my blog is 'boring')!

getting close!

it was SO HOT

wayne was being a good passenger

until he decided it was too hot..

'daddy! do grill things!'  'ok!'

cards with penny-bets

grammie and the infernal puzzle

little wayne was a big hit at the NH residence. he got pamped like nobody's business - grandad got him wrestling with his fingers, his "bumpy" gave him a ball to play with, and even "meemaw" let him sit on the furniture! he's been asking nonstop to go back since.

fun weekend :)

- L

three buck chuck and OOB

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on friday after work greg and i headed down to portland to meet up with my mom and dad for dinner and drinks in the old port area of the city. for dinner we went to the famous 'kitchen bar' - nosh - that greg and i tried out a few weeks ago. it was really fun and i'm glad that my parents could join us; so fun that we decided to try a new eatery every few weeks. there are so many neat little places to go that it will take us a year to see them all! i'm pretty excited for the adventures!

after nosh we decided to go to one of our (greg and my) favorite places for beers and popcorn - three dollar deweys! although my mumma insisted on calling it "three buck chuck" for the rest of the night. hilaaaaaarious.

my adorable parents

"three buck chuck" a.k.a. three dollar deweys

saturday had the potential to be really busy, but i wanted a nice relaxing evening so all plans were cancelled and we went shopping downtown at craft stores and the portland mall, followed by dinner at the best thai place i've ever been to, then to old orchard beach to peoplewatch and stick my feet in the ocean. the shopping extravaganza was awesome: i picked up a few new stamps and some odds and ends at a.c. moore and some cute new outfits from the gap - finally, shorts that FIT and are on SALE! the best kind of clothes are the 40% off kind.

so like i said, the best thai food place ever - thai me (as in "thai maine", i think?) their crab rangoons are to die for, and everything we've tried on the menu so far has been incredible. it's a little dinky place in a little podunk town but gosh, it is yummy.

thai maine?

nom nom nom

crab rangoons

the outside

thai delight and crab pad thai

after a delicious meal that we couldn't even finish (lunch tomorrow, yes yes?), we couldn't resist the temptation to take a trip to the beach to catch a view of the the sunset, the vacationers, and all that is old orchard. it was really fun and for my first time to oob, i think i was appropriately enthralled :)  there were SO MANY PEOPLE there, though, and we got there a little before sunset so all the day-beachgoers were leaving and the traffic/parking was horrendous. yuck.

beach

people!

blurry but cute

so now, before i get yelled at for making this post "too long to read" (ahem, mumma, ahem) i'll wrap it up with the hope that your weekends were as fun as mine! off to a matrix trilogy marathon and leftover thai food!

L

paintballin'

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this past weekend's adventure revolved around an epic four hour paintball battle in the backwoods of my old home state. 13 people showed up for the war - greg, my beautiful cousin nicole, and i were all on the same team (go pink!!). we won almost every time!! i did get shot in the butt in the second match...but i shot a LOT of other people by the end of the day!

some photos of the day:

the whole crew!

pretty cousins & battle wounds

gear. epic, epic gear.

even warriors need a little love

what a wicked fun weekend! we might be going up to the same place for BYOP (bring your own paint) day in a few weeks...i can't wait!! it was so fun going with nicole - she lives in a different state and i don't get to see her as often as i would like. hopefully she'll be able to see my house someday!

L

fourth of july 2011!

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so greg and i headed over to new hampshire to celebrate the fourth of july with two different sets of friends at two different lakehouses. the first "camp" (as mainers say) belongs to the family of my previously mentioned extremely good friend matt b. the crew of us has been going up there for over six years now, every summer. it was SO nice to be able to get together and see matt again after months of no contact while he was away at boot camp. we had a ton of fun - going out on the boat, playing 'mille bornes' (our traditional lakehouse card game), eating delicious food and reminiscing about our very old friendships.

ever played it?

jay, tara, kevin, matt, matthew, and greg!

we always have so much fun out there. hooray for that!

after spending a day or so out there, greg and i headed off to the second lakehouse of the weekend - suzanne and chris's! we took my bike because it was such a gorgeous weekend to ride and had a wonderful tour of the lakes region. three hours from auburn to matt's lakehouse...then another hour to suzanne's. it was perfect! some photos of our trip:

stopping for some coffee and a few photos:)

gas is important to make the bike goooo

once we got there it alternately poured rain and was so hot and sunny that i couldn't sit outside without a cold drink! it was definitely a fun and exciting weekend as well. we climbed up a very tall mountain to see some not-so-impressive fireworks but the company was worth the effort. climbing down in the dark was not all that fun, though! we made it mostly safe and sound (one twisted ankle!) back to the lakehouse. the next day was beautiful and clear so the boys took a ride in the gorgeous resident chevelle, belonging to suzanne's dad...and afterwards, we all took a ride out on the boat and saw bob behr's vacation house (like behr premium paint!). it's HUGE!

greg, mike, pete, chris & the beautiful chevelle

boat ride!

behr vacation house. it's bigger than my TOWN.

 the other boys brought their motorcycles as well (why am i always the only female with a motorcycle!??) so we all had a good ride back to maine together after the afternoon on the lake :)


july 4th, 2011 - best fourth of july yet!! here's to independence and fireworks and good beer and excellent friends!! how were your 4th of july celebrations?? [leave a comment below the post :) ]

L

baking cupcakes!

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i love to bake. i think i get it from my mom. one of the many things i always remember us doing together is spending hours in the kitchen making brownies and cookies and pies and scotcheroos and cakes and whatever else needed to be whipped up. thanksgiving meant multiple apple pies, christmas meant towering stacks of cookies, birthdays always had a cake...you get the idea :)

personally, i'm super duper drawn to cupcakes. i don't know why - probably because they are inherently extremely cute, and i like most cute things! also, it's all the deliciousness of a full grown cake, but bite size and with adorable frosting. how can you not like them!? i was informed a little while ago that cupcakes are a 'trendy' thing to bake lately, but i was doing way before it was cool (ok, maybe not, but i didn't realize it was the "new cool thing" until after i started getting recipe books...i promise!). in any case, i probably bake a batch once a week or so. it's usually just to try a new flavor or type of batter or maybe because someone mentioned that they like chilies and chocolate and i wanted an excuse to make chili-chocolate cupcakes. i hardly ever eat more than one so most end up going in to work for my coworkers to share or into greg's stomach. that man loves cupcakes. i have one cupcake book (called 500 cupcakes) and a few general baking books (one about cakes in general and one about chocolate) so i pull ideas from those and from the internet. there are some things, like certain flavors or fruits or nuts, that i don't really like to bake with so i tend to modify the recipes into something i do like, or mix-and-match the cakes and frostings until there's a combination that i feel like baking that week. sometimes they come out pretty delicious and i'm happy with it, other times i try to make a maple cake with brown sugar-maple frosting and i overcook the batter and it tastes like burnt pancakes. oops.

this week's baking adventure was a nutmeg cupcake with orange-ginger buttercream frosting. since i make everything from scratch (yep, even the frosting), i'm always looking for new spices to put in the cakes...i was originally in the mood to make a coffee cupcake with brown sugar frosting but evidently this state made selling coffee extract in supermarkets illegal. gahh! it turned out alright anyway since i found the sweetest little mini cupcake papers at the local jo-ann's after work today. when i got home, i got right to work...readyyyyyy, settttt, go baking montage!!

ingredients mise en place

butter+sugar takes forever

everything all added in

ready for the oven!

baked! some got a little overfilled. my bad.

minis frosted with orange/ginger buttercream. eee!!

 so all in all they ended up being pretty cute i think. the little papers definitely make them ten times cuter. i just ordered some new ateco piping tips from amazon.com because i want to try some different styles but i'm not sure if they're going to be big enough for cupcake frosting. hrm. wait and see i guess! right now i use a 16" piping bag and a big wilton star tip but i definitely need more practice before i try anything fancier. it's not easy to learn piping technique with nobody to teach you!! i'll probably take a batch of these mini nutmeg ones and give them a flat frosting (like a white ganache maybe?) and put on some patriotic decorations to take up to the lakehouse parties. easy and yummy.

the real test on these little guys will come when people try them. will the nutmeg be too subtle? the frosting too sweet? the papers too difficult to peel off? tune in next time for: fourth of july 2011: the aftermath!

L