Memorial Day Weekend, Part 1

You'll notice one common theme in this post: food.
:)

Before I get to the good stuff, I'll explain the logistics of the last 10 days of May, because we were all over the place and you'll see just how nuts we are. Trust me, the food pics will be a reward if you make it through the next paragraph.

We had a college friend's (child-free) wedding outside of Chicago on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, so Friday after work we made the trek to Milwaukee to drop off the kids with Grammy and Buppa, with a pitstop at Dustin and Kelly's to drop off an extra car. Early Saturday morning, Dad took TJ up to the lake. Ed and I hung around to "babysit" Jojo while Mom co-hosted a baby shower. When she returned, we headed back down to Chicago to spend the night with friends Matt and Di. (That's where the food comes in!) After a lazy Sunday morning, we headed out to St. Charles for Tom and Liz's wedding. Great times, with about 25 of our college friends. Monday, Ed headed home to Michigan in the truck and I trekked back up to Milwaukee to spend the week there with mom and dad and the kids. Because...on Friday I was headed to a wedding in NY, flying out of Chicago, and it was just easier to leave the kids in one place the whole time, especially after I'd just been gone five days for work the previous week, leaving Ed and our babysitter on massive kid duty. So Friday I drove down to O'Hare and flew to New York for Debbie and Seth's wedding. (Did I mention yet that we have 7(!) weddings this summer? Yup.) Sunday was the true icing on the cake: I left the hotel on Long Island at 10 am, flew to Chicago, drove to Milwaukee to pick up the kids, and then drove back to Michigan. A measly 12 hours in transit.

So back to the food.
Amy and Mike joined us and Matt and Di in Chinatown. Besides a huge load of appetizers and entrees, we had bubble drinks. Yum! It was great to have a "grown-up" dinner out with friends where we could just sit and talk without distraction. And it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who doesn't enjoy sharing food with others at restaurants, something much discussed while we contemplated what to order. Di's excuse is that she's an only child; not sure what mine is!

Matt's dinner, shrimp something, came in a neat little container.

After dinner we headed back to Matt and Di's to try out their new backyard fire pit and roast s'mores. It was a perfect night to be outside! And you know you're with good friends when you can happily eat seven roasting sticks' worth of marshies (so 14 total) without being embarrassed. To clarify, those weren't all s'mores--some were just roasted marshmallows. Thanks to Matt for whittling us some sharp pointed sticks!

We then enjoyed a bit of the great outdoors in Chicago by camping in the Knoepkes' backyard. I do have to point out that we were graciously offered beds in the house. But Ed is allergic to cats and they have two, so on this lovely night we camped, something we haven't done in six or seven years. Definitely need to take the boys camping, but need a bigger tent to do so!

And we topped off the first half of our child-free weekend with a relaxing breakfast at a local favorite, Lumes. Check out my stuffed French toast. Yum!

You can see Matt's egg skillet in the background. A much smaller meal (ha!) with "only" four eggs on top. We all needed to be rolled out of the restaurant.