1) wine tasting. we kicked off the New Year with a blind wine tasting at Blair's house, featuring a $7 bottom shelf grocery store selection, a $35 midrange bottle, and a $200 Groth Reserve Cabernet from the wine cellar at the liquor store. not a one of us would ever have dreamed of purchasing a $200 bottle of wine before, but Blair had the inspired idea to get together for this little party with some of the money from her mom's estate, and I think her mom would have approved.
I have never been to an actual wine tasting and have no idea what to look for or how to describe wines. my other friends have much more experience in this regard than I do, and I had to laugh at our varied notes!
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| B was actually the cheap wine, C was the expensive one, and A was the midrange. my spare notes are on the far right! |
to absolutely no one's surprise, three of us guessed wrong about which wine was the high roller. Blair and Caleb both got it right, but only Caleb liked the expensive wine the best. I do wonder if we would have liked it better if we were drinking it alongside a steak or something more substantial than cheese and crackers. but in a way, it's all for the best knowing that fancy wine cellars and $200 bottles are not for the likes of us!
2) babies. our new family room rug makes a perfect play space for them to set up elaborate towers and buildings of Kapla and Magnatiles. they are now at an age where they can actually play together, and they especially love to have tea parties and play with my pots and pans. of course, Elizabeth is the default boss lady. most of the time, Victoria is just happy to be included, but every once in a while, she draws a defiant line in the sand and shrieks about her own ideas of how to play. sometimes it ends in tears, but sometimes, magically, it ends in them both hugging each other. sisters!!
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| Victoria with her beloved snake. she rubs the point of its tail between her fingers and over her eyes as she's falling asleep. too bad it's legitimately six feet long so it can't travel with us... |
3) big kids. I spent a delightful morning with Greta at Target spending her Christmas gift card from Auntie Kelli. we wandered around the aisles, admiring the room decor and skincare. of course we had to stop by Starbucks for a pink drink on our way home.
the girls had the day off school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Nick stayed home with the babies while I took the older girls to see Wicked! oh my goodness, it was amazing. I was glad I had read up on it beforehand to understand how long it would be (2 hours 40 minutes!!) and that it's just part one. I read quite a bit of online commentary complaining about the length but honestly, I'm glad they didn't cut any of it. the dance scenes, the songs, the beautiful set design and visual imagery was a feast for the eyes. and it provided some good fodder for discussion with Greta especially in terms of popularity, school cliques, and what it means to be a friend. Cece wasn't quite so enthralled with it (she agreed with the Internet that it was too long, and didn't like that it ended on an uncertain note). but it still felt luxurious to spend an afternoon at the theater with them!
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| Cece was not happy about sun in her eyes but I had to commemorate our very rare movie theater date! |
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| the girls (including a neighbor friend) set up a sidewalk stand to sell real "snow" cones. I think they sold about ten, mostly to our immediate neighbors who ventured out in the cold specifically to make a purchase. |
4) Erie. we had plans to spend a full weekend in Erie with our friends, driving up Friday night after work and coming home Sunday evening. then, Cece had a basketball game that got rescheduled to Sunday afternoon. then, Greta had a basketball game that was rescheduled to Friday night. then, the school music director announced that the first full cast rehearsal for the musical would be that Saturday morning from 8-11 AM. Amelia and I went back and forth about trying for a different weekend, but the subsequent weekends would be just as busy if not more so. finally, I decided we would just come up anyway even if it would be for less than 24 hours. and it was such a good visit!
we met for a late lunch at Noods Station 3, a Vietnamese restaurant featuring robot cat waiters. my bowl of pho hit the spot on a snowy afternoon, and the kids enjoyed chicken strips. Victoria and Elizabeth squealed with delight every time the cat waiter beetled around the corner with dishes of food, and at the end of our meal, the (human!) server told the kids they could pet the "cat".
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| every time the robot glided past, Victoria called "meow! meow!" |
then we walked a few blocks to the children's museum, which is one of the best children's museums I've ever visited. the icing on the cake: the membership to the Pittsburgh science center/museums that my mom gifted us includes reciprocal admission to most major science centers and children's museums that are at least 90 miles away, so we had free admission (a $60 value for my crew!). we will have to go back again when we have more time -- we only had about ten minutes on the top floor where they have various imaginative play stations (a grocery store, farm, cafe, theater, etc) and my kids could have spent hours there.
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| this was an ingenious set up with paint pots filled with cornstarch and water, with spray bottles of water, paint brushes, sponges and squeegees for the kids to "paint" or just clean the windows. they spent a good twenty minutes here |
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| through the window you can spy our hardworking double stroller, a great repository for all the coats and scarves! |
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| digging for dino bones |
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| they could "milk" the cow and water would stream into the bucket, then drain and circulate back into the cow for more milking |
finally we came back to the house for frozen pizza, salad, and homemade snow cream. the kids watched a movie while Amelia, Ryan, and I drank wine and talked about life. we threw the little ones in the tub and watched them splash around while we talked about life some more. as much as I truly am an introvert, sometimes in this season of caretaking for small children, I can see the appeal of communal living! eventually, we got all the kids tucked into bed and fell asleep ourselves.
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| turns out Cece didn't really like her boba tea... so Amelia and I added rum and Kahlua to it and enjoyed it immensely. I am not ashamed to say this was entirely my idea, from the doctored drink to the ridiculous picture |
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| Cece was an industrious snow cream helper, packing snow around the base of the Kitchenaid |
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| Victoria slept in a pack and play for the night, but snuggled in the big bed for stories and milk |
in the morning Amelia cooked up a feast for us and we packed up our bags. we'd be driving straight out to Cecilia's basketball game in the south suburbs of Pittsburgh. although our visit to Erie was short, it still felt like a mini vacation and an inoculation of friendship against the cold days to come!
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| Amelia made this cozy sweater and hat for her daughter years ago, and is passing it along to Victoria! |
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| I absolutely CANNOT with the hat |
5) duckpin bowling. another super fun night out with friends! I had heard people recommend a local duckpin bowling/arcade space as a date night idea, but was skeptical about how fun it might be. turns out,
lots of fun! the space is open to families during the day and transitions to 21+ at 9 p.m. we wandered around playing free arcade games, including skeeball and tetris, catching up on life, and then signed up for bocce ball (my first time playing and I had beginner's luck for sure!) and duckpin bowling of course. then we rounded out the night with a few trips down the giant slide. it felt so freeing to just
play!
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| they had delicious cocktails! also, I should have fixed my collar but this is a new "coatigan" I got from Stitch Fix that is so soft! |
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| this was patio ball -- essentially like beer pong but with garbage cans and a soft volleyball. and no liquid involved! |
Your turn: Have you ever been to a wine tasting? Do your tastes skew high ... or low, like mine?! Have you ever been to a restaurant with robot waiters? Would you go down the giant slide?
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