CALIFORNIA!

Last weekend, Matt and I flew out to California to go to a dear family friend's Bar Mitzvah.  Being the over-achievers (more like over-planners) that we are, we were also able to squeeze in quite a few other activities while we were there.

We got in late thursday night and headed straight from the airport to see my brother's band play at the Tiki Lounge in Costa Mesa. They were awesome!!!  Even in our exhausted state, Matt, my mom, Steph and I had a great time.

 My brother, the drummer!  Sorry for the dark pic, I had to sneak it on my phone since he made my mom keep her camera in the car. ;) Yay JON!!

After having gone to bed at about 1am (4 am to us), we fought the urge to sleep in friday morning and got up bright and early to visit my friend Vanessa and see her new baby boy Michael.  The quick visit was definitely worth the little sleep!  He is such a little angel and his big sister Hailey is as cute as ever.  Vanessa looks amazing and is such a natural at motherhood and both she and my mom had a good time giving Matt and I a hard time about keeping my mom from official "grandmotherhood." ;-)

Matt and precious baby Michael Reid Piot

Me with big sister Hailey and baby Michael....soooo cute!

After our visit with the Piots, my mom and I decided we needed a little pampering, so we went to go get a mother/daughter mani/pedi...

Caught on camera getting super spoiled!

And then, we went to go watch my mom in her ballroom class with her hot Latin dance teacher Eddie!!  She was gettin' down Dirty Dancing style with the Rumba, Cha Cha and swing!  Way to go Baby...I mean mom! ;-)

That evening, we headed up to Redondo Beach to visit Jon and Steph and see their new apartment.  Talk about beach living!!  They walk out of their complex, make a right and they are staring at the gorgeous Pacific!  We hung out at their apartment for a couple of glasses of wine, then went down to the Redondo Pier and had a fabulous dinner at Tony's on the Pier with Jon, Steph, my mom and Steph's dad, Danny.  

:)

Jon and Steph

Posing on the the dolphin at the "squishy ground" for mom

Basically this is their front yard!!

View from our table at Tony's

Saturday was Bar Mitzvah day, so Matt and I dusted off our yamakas and headed to Temple. ;)  It was a beautiful and hilarious ceremony, and if you know Josh Fried, you'll know why.  Everything, from his grand entrance into the synagogue, to Josh telling the mystery person whose cell phone went off to "please don't spoil the movie by adding your own soundtrack," it was a really enjoyable.  Afterwards there was a brief luncheon and then we had a few hours to hang out with Jon and Steph at the beach before the party!!  

And boy oh boy, what a party it was! We partook in every bit of the festivities!  The hora, the photobooth, the candybar, the cha-cha slide, the ice cream sundae bar, the real bar...we did it all and we had a blast!  Josh's mom, Deb, did such a fabulous job planning the whole thing.  They even had a slide show that was actually more like a movie that chronicled the entire process, it was amazing!  And the best part of the whole thing, everyone had such a great time, especially Josh!

Do the dress or shoes look familiar anyone, anyone, bridesmaids?...

Me and Matt with Josh the Bar Mitzvah boy!

Gabe, Josh's little bro

The Hendricks and the Fried boys!

Loving the free giveaways!!

We weren't quite prepared for the last frame :)

After a long night of dancing and stuffing our faces with delicious bar mitzvah goodies, we made our way back to Jon and Steph's place to crash.  Sunday was yet another early morning to head back down to the OC to have breakfast with my mom and catch our flight.  As usual it was a whirlwind, but wonderful weekend!  

And just in case any were wondering, Maggie Lu was in NYC the whole time relaxing at Hotel De Santo with her Pomeranian Husband Brutus!  

'Til next time my faithful followers...

xoxo

Only in NYC...

Does your super bang on your door at 7:15 in the morning, unannounced, to come and install the new stove you have been waiting for, for over a week!!!

me, awoken from a blissful slumber....really, Frank, 7:15??

where the old stove used to be...ewwww

the nice, shiny new one, ready and waiting

haulin' the old one down the stairs at 7:30 am, I'm sure my neighbors are THRILLED!

I guess I can't complain too much because after a week and a day of microwave and toaster oven cooking, I finally can make a real dinner tonight! Woohoo!!! What we put up with in this fabulous town...

But, on a happier note, Maggie Lu got a little haircut yesterday!  Doesn't she look scrumptious with her summer do!!!

Pig Roast!

Last weekend, Matt, Jer and I (aka the Hendricks clan) braved the NYC traffic and headed out to Long Island to go to the annual Orlando family Memorial Day Weekend Pig Roast!  We had a blast!!!  It was so great spending some time with my NYC family...great aunts and uncles, second and third cousins and lots of friends!

Crawfish Appetizers

I even gave them a try!

The PIG!!

Pig head anyone???

Me and Great Grandma Alice...she's 96 and looks fab!

Front row L->R: Jordan (2nd Cousin Once Removed), Me, Cousin Nancy (1st Cousin Once Removed) 

Back row L->R: Cousin Amy (2nd Cousin), Matt (Hubby), Jer (Brother-in-law) 

Phew! That was hard ;-)

It started to get a little chilly out, so Great Uncle Tony gave me his pajama pants to borrow, and yes that is a pimp hat he is wearing.  Our family has no shame! :)

Cousin Nancy, Great Uncle Tony, Great Aunt Nancy, Me, Cousin Lukey (1st Cousin Once Removed)

:)

The bar was fully stocked!

And our bartenders were quite good!

Me, Grams and Matt

Me and Uncle Tony

Matt, Me, Cousin Kathy (1st Cousin Once Removed), Jim (Kathy's hubby)

Cousin Kathy's amazing Mardi Gras cake!

Parental Practice....

A couple of weeks ago, Matt and I had some weekend overnight visitors that gave us some great insight into parenting.  While I feel I get quite a bit of practice on a daily basis, Matt is not quite as well versed. :)  

Since a picture is worth a thousand words (and I am so behind on my blog, I can't really think of what to write right now) I will let the photos from the weekend speak for themselves...

We started the weekend off with a little photo shoot using the photobooth program on our new computer.  Couldn't you just eat these little munchkins up?!?

After the first couple normal shots, we decided to take it up a notch and utilize some of the amazing features the iMac photobooth has to offer.

The comic book

Black and White, for that formal look we were going for.

Sepia...gotta love that old fashioned look!

The Andy Warhol for the artistic types!

And my personal fave....the ghost family!!

It's amazing how much time you can kill by sitting in front of a computer and taking picture after picture of yourselves!

Once our photo session was over, we headed out toward our activity for the day...the Central Park Carousel!  We packed up a lunch and some snacks and the five of us took the bus over to 86th and 5th Avenue to enter the park.  We made a little pit stop on a big grassy area right around 79th street to eat and run around a bit.

Me with my three little buddies!

The FOUR kiddos of the day!

Me and Patrick

After lunch, which consisted of peanut butter and banana sandwiches for me and Patrick and hot dogs for Matt and the girls, we kept making our way.  We made another little stop at the famous Balto statue and of course had to have our turn at climbing him, along with every other person in CP that day!

Ali, braving Balto all by herself :)

30 streets, 6 avenues and 2 hours later, we finally made it to the carousel.  The long journey was definitely worth the trip for this much anticipated destination, which by the time we got our tickets and made it through the line, was about 3 minutes of horse riding bliss!

Charlotte riding her steed side-saddle

Patrick, me, Ali and Charlotte

The littlest buddy and his baby horse :)

After our rip-roaring ride in the middle of Central Park we started heading back home, but not before climbing some rocks, sliding on the giant marble slide near the zoo or getting our icecream fix from Mr. Softee!

When we finally made it back, we had a delicious dinner of NYC pizza and watched a blockbuster hit, Alvin and the Chipmunks, before it was time for bed.  While Matt and I could have fallen into a sound sleep in about 3 seconds, exhausted from the day's activities and not to mention the at least four miles we walked with 3 little ones, the kiddos had other plans.  After a wonderful reading of "The Octonauts and the Only Lonely Monster" by Matt, all five of us attempted to lay together in our full-sized guest bed.  Not quite so successful!  Everyone kept giggling and tickling and kicking and rolling over until finally the girls decided as exciting as it would be to sleep with Matt and Patrick, they would prefer to sleep in my room with me.  So, next thing I knew, I was nestled between two little sleeping beauties with no pillow.  I finally wiggled my way out of bed in search of another pillow and found Matt and Patrick asleep in the guest room with their heads at the foot of the bed and their feet at the head of the bed...so cute!  I stole one of their five pillows they were holding hostage and nestled my way back into my middle spot.  I finally fell asleep around 2:30 am, and a mere 4 hours later was awaken by the sweetest little Ali voice. 

We spent the morning in our apartment watching Sunday morning cartoons, eating cinnamon rolls and taking more pictures on the computer!

 

Can you tell I'm just a little bit sleepy in these?!? ;-)

We finally surrendered our three little buddies to their parents on Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day wandering around, just the two of us.  As much fun as it was to spend so much time with these guys, I think it's safe to say, it'll be at least a few more years 'til we add any little ones to our family (sorry mom).  But until then, I'm sure we can borrow the Dotson trio anytime we need our fix!