Christine, Makai, Adam (with his BRF)

Christine, Makai

Blowing out the candles!

Last minute, we decided to join Adam and a bunch of other friends at Piece for pizza and beer. Makai was being kind of…. one second he was happy and the next he was screaming his head off for no reason. We made the decision while he was napping and were not sure what would happen when he woke up. Luckily he was on perfect behavior at both Piece and when we went to Lucky’s afterwards so some of the guys could play darts!

Dallas thought he hadn’t been to Piece for a year or so.. and I’d say that I haven’t been there for years (multiple..2008?), even though we’re around it often. They had a cleverly named beer called “Marketing Ploy,” which is a collaboration with Three Floyds. The beer was good and many at our table enjoyed it. To be honest, though, I think that the pizza was more of a marketing ploy than the beer. Piece was featuring a special pie that was made in collaboration with Honey Butter Fried Chicken and had their fried chicken on the pizza. Everyone raves about honey butter’s fried chicken, but this pie was nothing special. I think everyone preferred the other pizzas we ordered.

Anyway, it was nice to be back at Piece and out with friends. And to have a well-behaved baby that everyone gushed over. And I’d never been to Lucky’s and liked it’s cool, relaxed vibe.

photo by Stephanie

photo by Stephanie

My brother brought Steph and Jess down for a visit and we all went (with Makai) to The Radler for brunch. Dallas and I had been there for dinner, but they just recently added brunch, so I was excited to give it a try. This is what we had:

– Pretzel Bread Pudding :: White chocolate, pastry cream, haus cherry jam (Stephanie)
– Buttermilk Biscuits & Sausage Gravy (Jessica)
– Cremini Mushroom Poutine :: Two eggs, local cheese curds, roasted mushroom gravy, fries (Richard)
– Smoked Brisket Reuben & Fries :: Gruyere, sauerkraut, haus 1,000 island (Rachelle)
– Banana Bread :: Toasted oat streusel, almonds, sliced banana (shared)

I liked my reuben, but I’m probably not the best judge, since I rarely get it. I thought it was delicous though. My only complaint was that the bread didn’t hold up and I ended up eating it with a knife and fork. Steph said her pretzel bread pudding was pretty much like eating dessert, so be warned that it’s sweet (not that I personally would mind that!). I think everyone liked what they got. I remember really liking the streusel on the banana bread!

My brother had the Haus Hefeweizen and I had the Bloody Mary, which came with a Haus Helles back, pickled carrot, bacon olive, onion, knockwurst and cheese. The bloody mary was really good. Not too spicy, just right. Steph had some Goose Island soda and Jess stuck with her usual, Coke. The Coke came in a little bottle.

So. Anyway. Everyone was pleased with their meal at The Radler. It wasn’t the cheapest, but was good. Here’s a new part of my thoughts on restaurants – The Radler was chill enough for Makai, not so quiet that when he fussed everyone looked, but not super loud. They have high chairs, but I found out the hard way that there are no changing tables in the bathrooms. I think we’ll be back. We’ve had a good dinner and a good brunch. Still so glad to have this new restaurant option added to our neighborhood!

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My niece Stephanie has been involved in the Oak Creek schools band program since fifth grade. I’ve never seen her play and last weekend was her final concert ever. Well, at least in school at Oak Creek. In the fall she goes on to college and hopefully there is some opportunity for her to play there, if she wants.. or maybe she could join a community band. Anyway, it was my last chance, so I drove up to Oak Creek to see her play… finally!!!

After the concert there was a reception in the school’s cafeteria that included a lot of soda and SO MANY cupcakes. It made some people get a little crazy!

Random thoughts:
1. I don’t think I’ve been in a high school filled with high school kids since I was in high school. I mean.. I’ve been to Kamehameha Schools campus, but it was not filled with high-school aged people!

2. Wow. How overwhelming. Having a hard time imagining Makai in high school one day!

3. Oak Creek’s High School is pretty nice. Especially the newer end. I remember how crappy our junior high and high school were, especially the bathrooms. Everything was so old! They built a new high school a few years after I graduated.

4. We had dinner at Transfer Pizzeria in a hip Milwaukee neighborhood before the show and it was great!

My niece Stephanie graduated from Oak Creek High School on June 14th. Can you believe it? Me either! The day before graduation she got her first job and in the fall she starts college! Craziness!!

Steph’s class was about 480 students and the ceremony was held at Miller Park. I can’t even remember the last time I was at a graduation ceremony. Maybe when my brother graduated about 17 years ago? I don’t even know. It was interesting to see, even if it was loooong! And I wasn’t thinking, but the roof of Miller Park was open, which meant sunburns for everyone!

After the ceremony we met up with Steph outside the stadium for family photos. There were a ton of people, friends and family, and a very festive atmosphere. And even the racing sausages were there!

After photos, we went downtown to Joey Buona’s for a huge Italian feast.

Congratulations to Stephanie and the entire class of 2014!!

Stephanie’s graduation party was one week after her graduation ceremony. This time Dallas and Makai joined me to help celebrate. Richard and Amanda rented out a small building at Abendschein Park and it had a kitchen and bathrooms. Perfect facilities for party. The park seems well known for its baseball diamond and disc golf course and skate park. We stayed in the grassy areas where my brother had set up bags and a volleyball net.

There were a good mix of Stephanie’s friends and family at the party. It was nice to see everyone and to drink some good drinks and eat some good food. I still can’t believe Stephanie will be a college student in a couple months (weeks?).

A while back a guy in my office emailled everyone in Chicago about some almost free Cubs tickets that were available. Many people in our office travel and have a Starwood Preferred Guest account and they were having a promo offering Cubs-Braves bleacher tickets for a prime “platinum” weekend game this past weekend. The face value of each ticket was $67 but if you used a few of your SPG points, you could get these tickets for about $1 each!. I jumped on it and got the max 4 tickets that I could get. I thought it would be fun to take my dad, since he’d never been to Wrigley Field, and maybe my brother and Amanda or one of the kids. My brother has been to the park twice (first time, second time), but the others haven’t. Anyway, my brother and his family were camping, so Paul and Kate came, but my dad was free so he got to go to Wrigley Field for the first time.

The bleachers were not too rowdy, like they can sometimes be, which was good. I also saw and visited with some other friends from work who hopped on the deal like I did – Chris, Charlie, Waleed. I heard Geoff was there too, but I didn’t see him. We drank a few Shock Top beers, ate a bunch of peanuts, had some hot dogs. The game had a lot of runs and was exciting, even though the Cubs lost. Still a great time!

Last year we had so much fun in Wisconsin barbecuing and catching up with family, that we did it again this year. Last year, I was 7 months pregnant and it was fun this year to finally introduce everyone to Makai. He had so much fun playing and visiting with all his cousins and aunties and uncles that he missed his afternoon naps and stayed up right till his bed time at 8 p.m. Makai was especially loving Kiara, who is one month older than him; chilling out by Dustin; and playing with Tessa, Charlotte and Margo.

I had fun seeing everyone too and it was nice to be at my parent’s house in the country, which is not really the country, but is the country compared to where we live!

Also, I had never seen this version of 312 before, even though Goose Island beer is made in Chicago and is everywhere here:

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Oak Creek to Richard and Amanda’s house. Amanda’s parents and sister (and her family) also joined us there. The food was great and it was so much fun to hang out with everyone!

Amanda + Richard

Amanda + Makai

Drunks!

Courtnie, Debbie, Stephanie, Jessica

Courtnie, Jessica, Debbie, Stephanie, Mom

Makai made this Thanksgiving centerpiece in daycare.

Dad carving the turkey.

Makai being silly.

Cousins!

Being very Hawaiian! Makai’s first time in the snow. With grandpa!

Makai is a little obsessed with dogs. He loved playing with Milo.

Steph, Jess, Richard, Amanda, Milo (Thanks for hosting!)

My parents were visiting for the Christmas break from Wednesday (Christmas Eve) until Sunday. Then on Friday Jess and Stephanie came down. On Sunday Richard and Amanda joined everyone and we had our Christmas party.

I guess I didn’t get any photos of the fine meal that Dallas made. It was a Portuguese roast with vegetables. The recipe is from Dallas’s Aunty on Kauai and she makes it for him every time we go home. Amanda also made a nice salad and for dessert we had the homemade candy that my parents brought. ALSO, while Makai was taking his after-lunch nap, I had a fun (and delicious!) project for Jess and Steph. We made reindeer from Nutter Butter cookies. I thought they were going to be like Pinterest wrecks, but once they were dried and everything, they were pretty cute (and delicous!).

Later on we opened gifts. This was the first year that Stephanie joined the gift exchange between the adults. We just draw names, so we don’t have to buy for everyone. I had Steph’s name and she had mine! I got her an electric blanket for her cold dorm room and she got me a nice perfume that I’ve been wanting, some kind of new fangled Coke, and an awesome calendar personalized with photographs I’ve posted on Facebook over the past year or so! Even though Steph was in the name drawing, I could not resist buying her some small gifts. One of these was a selfie stick, which was fun to play with. I got Jess one too, since they don’t live in the same house any more!

Jess and I did not forget to take our photos by the hats we drew in 2010. We tried to take our photo with the selfie stick but after a lot of misfires, we just had mom take the photo. Look how much we’ve grown!

I finally saw the The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies with my brother and Jessica over the weekend. The movie has been out a long time so we only had two locations to pick from. The time that worked best brought us to the theater on Webster, which I haven’t been to for probably close to 2 years. I was surprised to see assigned seating, only 5 rows of seats, seats that recline all the way back at the press of a button, tables with every seat. Also, beer and wine at the concessions. And not crappy beer. My brother got some Ale Syndicate craft beer that’s made in my neighborhood.

The movie was pretty good. A good ending. I enjoyed it. You’ll love it if you love fight scenes. There’s a lot of fighting.

And with that comes the end of an era! My brother and I saw all of the Lord of the Rings movies together (the first one came out in 2001!). Even when I didn’t live nearby, we would see them together when I came home for Christmas because the movies always came out at Christmastime. After the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, then they made the three Hobbit movies. This was the last of those movies. I know they can’t make these movies forever, but I’ll miss the tradition!

This past weekend Jessica came to Chicago for a visit. I took Friday off and drove to Milwaukee after Makai went to bed and Dallas got back from a business trip to Indiana. Pouring rain at night = no bueno. But I wanted to get there Thursday so that we could drive back to Chicago Friday morning and still have the day to do stuff!

Everyone in this whole theater was taking 3D glasses selfies!

On Friday morning we got up and ate breakfast and drove straight from Oak Creek to the Adler Planetarium. I’d been to the Adler before (2006 – by myself, 2008 – work event, 2009 – with Stephanie), but the last time was 6 years ago, so I was happy to go back. When we got there it was cold and raining and we had to wait in a line outside the building! But not for long.. and a great surprise was that it was Illinois Resident Discount Day, so we got upgraded tickets (unlimited shows) because the general admission was free. I think we paid $17/ticket instead of $29!

I think Jess thought the exhibits were a little dry. They are. It seems like they tried to make things more interactive with tablets, but I only saw one tablet that was actually working. We still had fun looking at everything and spending the day together. And we saw two movies in the dome and one in the 3D theater. The weird thing was that I thought I remembered the movies being more…. movie like. Like with great theatrical value and Harrison Ford narrating. These shows were narrated by people standing there with a microphone and were not as crazy produced. Oh. Actually. That was in New York. There was a natural history museum I used to go to there that had a Planetarium where I saw that specific Harrison Ford-narrated show many times!

After our day at the Adler, we picked up Makai from daycare and headed home. We had Jessica’s very belated birthday gift and Makai was very interested in helping her open it! For dinner we ordered Jessica’s favorite: Pizza. From Dante’s!

On Friday morning we woke up bright and early and bought our tickets to the Field Museum online so we wouldn’t have to stand in line. Makai was coming with us because Dallas was golfing. I was a little nervous, to tell the truth. He had never been to a museum (aside from the Children’s Museum) and I didn’t know how he would tolerate it.

Off Color Brewing teamed up with the Field Museum to make Tooth & Claw beer!

Turns out: Fine! Makai was happy to be in the stroller as Jess and I walked around taking in the exhibits. There were a few that we let him out to explore and he was good with that too. We had tickets to a 3D movie about the T-Rex (they wouldn’t give him glasses) and he was fine with that too. We had lunch in the museum cafe and he sat nicely and ate his hotdog and then fell asleep in his stroller as we walked around for another hour. We were at the museum for multiple hours … and put in about 5 miles of walking! I think we saw every permanent exhibit.

I guess I had only been to the Field Museum once before. I thought I’d gone one time before that, but there’s no record of it here, and you KNOW if I had been there I’d have noted it here. haha. I guess I really like that boat in the Pacific Island exhibit. I took the same photo both times I visited the museum!

I really like the Field Museum. It’s beautiful and informative and old and historic and modern with a lot of interactive technology. It is good for 12 year olds and it is good for 1 year olds and it is good for (almost) 40 year olds.

P.S. If you go early in the morning at like 9 am when the museum opens you can get the first parking spot in the east parking lot and walk 50 steps right into the East entrance with no line. This is the disabled / stroller entrance, so bring your stroller. Our tickets were purchased online so we just had to show an ID and go in. When we walked in the doors Makai said “WOW! WOW! PRETTY!!!” before we’d even seen one exhibit!

P.S.S. In the basement, near the east entrance, there’s a special play area just for little kids. Makai loved the music room with all the drums.

P.S.S.S. I went to the Children’s Museum on a Friday and the Adler on a Friday and the crowds were horrible. The Field Museum on a Saturday was very tame in comparison. It was busy but not jammed. Maybe because there were no school/summer camps there? Maybe I shouldn’t try to keep avoiding the weekend crowd.

P.S.S.S.S. Get the soft serve or an Icee across from the east entrance. You deserve it! It was a long day and you walked 5 freaking miles inside of the museum!

After the museum we went home to rest for a while. Then I took Makai and Jessica to Buona Terra for dinner. Makai had never been there. He didn’t like what we ordered (butternut squash and gnocchi) and let us know by spitting his food out and blowing raspberries like we put poison on his tongue! I think he was just very distracted. The waiters were so nice to him (and us) and one guy even gave him two little plastic dinosaurs, which was awesome. I wanted to get him one at the museum for a souvenir, but refused to pay $4.95 for ten cents worth of cheap plastic. If you ask him now, “What did you see at the museum?” he says “Dinosaur!” and then says “ROARRRRR!”

On Sunday Richard and Amanda came down to visit and to collect Jessica. We had brunch at The Radler, got frozen yogurt at Yogurt Daze, ran around between rain showers at Palmer Square and ran into a coworker of mine on the street. An unspeakable amount of time had gone by since Makai had seen his Aunty Amanda, who works many weekends, so it was great to hang out with everyone.

Later on, Richard and Amanda left for home (with a stop at Uncle Mike’s!) and we dropped by JP and Rita’s barbecue. The weather actually got really hot and sunny.

Nice weekend with Jessica and the family!

This was the third year in a row that we have gone up to Wisconsin to visit my parents and see all of our family up there. The first year, 2013, I was pregnant and hadn’t seen a lot of my family for years. The second year, 2014, Makai was a baby and I got to introduce him to everyone. This year Makai was old enough to run around with the kids and that was a lot of fun too.

I had fun seeing everyone and it was nice to be at my parent’s house in the country, which is not really the country, but is the country compared to where we live! I realized how much I miss open windows. Especially at night and in the early morning. Makai loved running in the grass barefoot, playing with (and riding) the dogs, picking and eating tomatoes from the vine with papa, and just being outside a ton.

Dad and Dallas manning the grill.

Dad grilled hot dogs, beer brats, and hamburgers. Dallas made a 10-pound pork roast!

Typical WI BBQ coolers.

To all the beers I’ve loved before..

Jess stayed with my parents for two weeks before the party and made these cookies.

As with the previous years, the kids went wild for the frogs in the back ditch! This year Makai was in there with them. Tessa was so nice about leading him by the hand and letting him pet the frogs they captured.

Frog Crossing!

Kids on the bridge looking for frogs – Brianna, my cousin’s daughter is in red. PJ (standing) is a friend of my cousin Kelly’s daughter, Tessa.

Makai with Tessa (my cousin Kelly’s daughter). Charlotte (raising her hand) is Kelly’s as well. PJ is Tessa’s friend. Penny and Sam are my cousin Tiffany’s kids.

From the bottom: Makai, my niece Jessica, Charlotte & Tessa (my cousin Kelly’s), PJ is Tessa’s friend, Margo is also Kelly’s, Penny is my cousin Tiffany’s, Brianna is my cousin Melissa’s.

FROGS!

It was great to see so many of my aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin’s kids, etc!

My cousin Katrina with her parents, Ali and Dave, and her boyfriend, Gaylin.

Aunt Deb, Uncle Mike, Uncle Morey, Aunt Connie

My cousin Bethany’s husband, Chad, my Uncle Rich, my cousin Amanda’s husband Phil. Makai really enjoyed rubbing Phil’s shaved head. A lot. For a very long time. An uncomfortable amount of time!

Katie is my cousin Kelly’s daughter. No, my older cousin Kelly! Elizabeth is my cousin Molly’s daughter. Nic (with girlfriend Brenna) is Katie’s brother.

My cousin Anna’s daughter, Brianne, and my niece, Stephanie.

Margo is my younger cousin Kelly’s daughter. She’s pictured with her grandma, my Aunt Sue.

My cousin Melissa with her boyfriend, Aunt Ali, Aunt Connie, Aunt Deb, Uncle Morey, sidewalk chalk, Makai.

My niece Stephanie with her dog, Milo.

Dallas, my cousin Kelly with her husband Jeff, Uncle Dave and his daughter, my cousin, Katrina and her boyfriend Gaylin.

Now it’s time for some family selfies!

Cousin Kelly, Me, Aunt Ali

Me and Kelly. It was so great to spend the day with her and her family. I miss them! And so fun to see Makai play with her girls!

Me and my Aunt Ali

Me and my Aunt Sue

Some other photos from the weekend in Wisconsin:

My mom with Makai and Buddy by the pond in their subdivision.

When in Wisconsin: New Glarus Spotted Cow + Friday Fish Fry!

Makai walking Buddy.

Buddy stretching out and relaxing on the patio.

Milo and Dakoda in the garage, begging to come back inside.

This weekend we visited our friends’ lake house on Cross Lake without them, for the first time ever. I love to visit with our friends, but it was fun to hang out on our own too. The weather was not very warm and we’d hope to have swam more, since Makai loves it, but it still turned out to be a great, relaxing weekend.

Dallas and Makai and I drove up on Thursday evening. After shopping for groceries (Makai’s 3rd time in a shopping cart – he loves it!) and settling in, I took Makai down to the dock to watch the sun set. The lake was absolutely quiet and it was so calm and tranquil. I said “I love you Makai” and he said “I love you, hotdog boat.” Hot dog boat was a boat we saw the previous weekend for 10 seconds. It was just a regular boat and strapped to the back was a float in the shape of a hotdog. I couldn’t believe he even remembered it, let alone LOVED it!

The next day the weather was pretty horrible. It was cold and raining. Pouring hard in the morning and then on and off all day. Makai was getting a little crazy in the house, so I did some quick Google searching before deciding to drive 20 minutes over to Pleasant Prairie for a free tour of the Jelly Belly warehouse. (More on this later.) We chilled out the rest of the day and then had takeout pizza from Antioch Pizza for dinner.

The next day was sunny and chilly. Makai and Dallas and I hung around the yard eating breakfast and chasing balls. Makai ran and ran and ran. Uncle Richard, Aunty Amanda and cousin Jessica came over and then friends Jessica and Chris did too. We ate enormous, almost half pound hamburgers for lunch and dessert was Sweet Mandy B’s cupcakes that Jessica brought up for my birthday!

Since the Rosa is gone and summer is officially over, I also drank four different Octoberfest beers.

I bought some new bags for the lake house and while Makai took his afternoon nap, we all played. Dallas was undefeated with any team mate, except for the last game when he was paired with me and Amanda and my niece Jessica beat us. At one point it was the battle of the Jess’s.

Jess and Chris headed out and my brother’s family stayed for the night. We ordered MORE pizza from Anastasia’s and played the Exploding Kittens game while Milo and Makai kissed and wore the hats we got on the Jelly Belly tour. Makai also “helped” Jessica with her homework.

On Sunday we packed up and headed back early to meet a contractor at noon. We had a fun and relaxing weekend and hope we can do it again next year!

Thanks to my brother and Amanda for the pick me up!* Also? The lady at Starbucks Millennium Station doesn’t need to ask my name any more. Good? Bad?

* Must also thank them for Mindy Segal’s cookie book!

For Makai’s second birthday, we did a joint party with Trent and Loden, whose daughter Ellyza turned two just days before Makai. Loden set up an awesome ball pit, I did Daniel Tiger decorations and a coloring activity. The guys bought beer and we split decorating, food and the cost of renting the party room behind Four Treys.
I made cupcakes and tiger tails (pretzels dipped in candy coating and drizzled with chocolate) for desserts. Makai got really upset when we were singing happy birthday. I think just because so many people crowded around. It’s his party, he can cry if he wants to!

Makai and Ellyza also really enjoyed these blow outs!

When I was getting party supplies at Party City, I spent enough money that I could get a free pinata, which was good and bad! All of the big bags of pinata candy were things that a two-year old couldn’t eat, so I ended up picking up some things I knew Makai and Ellyza would like: chocolate covered raisins, fruit snacks and chocolate marshmallow candy. The kids took turns hitting the pinata but at the end we just pulled the ribbons on the bottom to make the candy fall out. And then I was mocked ridiculously because all the adults saw raisins fall out!

We had a great turn out for the party and a good mix of kids and friends without kids. Everyone had a great time. Brian DJed for us and Todd surprised us by wearing a custom shirt with Makai’s picture on it! I was happy that my entire immediate family made it to the party, even if none of Dallas’s could, and also that so many friends came to celebrate.

After the party, a bunch of our childless friends went to Riverview to play darts. We also went because we needed to eat and joined a bunch of our friends with kids for dinner. It was nice that we could all be in the same place.

At home we celebrated and may parents and brother gave Makai gifts. After everyone left we also gave Makai our gifts from mommy and daddy. Makai is really getting the hang of presents and getting excited about them. At daycare all the kids made a huge birthday card for Makai.

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Oak Creek to Richard and Amanda’s house. We also spent Thanksgiving there last year. This year Amanda had to work on Thanksgiving so we celebrated on Saturday instead of Thursday. The food was great and it was so much fun to hang out with everyone!

Birthday beer from my dad for my brother’s birthday.

Cousins: Stephanie, Jessica, Makai.

Cousins last year vs. this year.

Makai loves Milo!

Stephanie

Jessica, the (almost) teenager. Texting.

Mom & Dad.

Me and Amanda, color coordinated.

Makai made this turkey at daycare (with the help of Ms. Maribel).

Me and mom.

Trying out some different beers. At one point I had three glasses!

Makai eating crackers(?).

Makai and Aunty Amanda reading a book.

Amanda had to work on Christmas Day, so we planned to celebrate Christmas the day after. Since mom and dad were already at our house, they all came down to Chicago.

Dallas cooked our Christmas lunch, which was Japanese/Hawaiian themed. We had pork katsu, Japanese curry stew, kimchi fried rice, and mac salad. My family loved trying the new food and took many leftovers home!

After lunch Makai took his regular nap. Richard, Amanda, Jessica and I all played a game called Monopoly Draw, while Dallas, Stephanie and my dad all napped on the couch!

When Makai woke up we could finally open presents! Jess and Makai got gifts from everyone. For the second year in a row, Steph was in the adult gift exchange and for the second year in a row, she had my name and I had hers! I got her a trendy necklace from an Etsy designer and some cold hard cash. She got me a Sephora gift card, a bunch of Starbucks coffee and Teavana tea, and a really cool holiday collage that she made out of holiday Starbucks gift cards!

Steph also brought a bunch of cake pops from Starbucks. Makai loved them!

After presents and dessert, we took a bunch of santa hat family photos. Everyone except TWO PEOPLE wore hats.

One of Makai’s gifts was a great big dinosaur puzzle. How many people does it take to put it together?

Oh, Jess and I did not forget to take our photos by the hats we drew in 2010. Look how much she’s grown!

2010	2011	2012
2014	2015

Last weekend Jess came to stay with us while her parents went on a coffee- and beer-drinking road trip.

On Saturday morning Jess came with Makai and I to music class. Loden and Ellyza were there too. It was the last class of the winter session. After class we met Kristin at Frasca for brunch. All the food was great! Above are the cinnamon sugar donuts and the bloody mary.

During Makai’s nap Jessica worked on her homework and I fell asleep watching TV! When Makai woke up then we took a quick walk before it started to rain. Makai is constantly running and jumping and kicking everything now.

On Sunday morning, Makai and I went to the Three Little Kittens play. When we got back we all headed to Boiler Room for pizza lunch. We were the first ones there!

While Makai napped, Jess and I played a few card games: Sushi Go and Exploding Kittens.

After a while Richard and Amanda were back to visit and then go home. Fun, low key weekend with Jess!

Lunch at Merriment Social in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee. The neighborhood is very industrial, traditionally, and is home to many cool restaurants and bars now. Richard and Amanda had never been to Merriment Social and we all thought it was great. It seemed to be an old garage or warehouse. The interior was really cool and the food was very good. Our waiter was very attentive and helpful. He messed around with Makai quite a bit, which made us feel very welcome with kids.

We were chuckling that the Three Floyd’s Alpha King is listed as an IndiaNA Pale Ale.

The Hangover Sammy: Pork belly, scrambled egg, cheese, thai chili aioli, arugula, ciabatta, potato pancake.

The Violet Hour: Elderflower & blackberry, OJ, cava

Next we walked over a few blocks to Purple Door Ice Cream, an artisanal creamery with some really unique flavors. My picks were not very crazy – I had salted caramel and a chocolate, cashew, caramel parfait flavor. Dallas had a green tea waffle cone. Amanda had a whole flight of ice cream. It was her birthday, afterall! Everything I tried at Purple Door was amazing.

For her birthday, we gave Amanda two bags of coffee beans roasted locally in Chicago. One was the Canopy Blend from Bow Truss and the other was Bubbly Creek from Bridgeport Coffee, purchased at Cafe Mustache. Little did we know that my brother was getting her all kinds of coffee-making accessories. And from my parents, Amanda got all sorts of lotions and pampering products from Aveda!