The Inherent Consequences of Blueberry Donuts

I pretty much ate my way through my hometown last week. It was glorious! For whatever reason (namely a large and vibrant Italian community -seriously the greater Y-town area has literally 189 Italian festivals per year), Youngstown has some of the best food in the world. I feasted on pasta and Italian greens and wings and hot chips and Handles ice cream... But my favorite indulgence is always blueberry donuts from White House Fruit Farms. 

These things are a gift from God himself. I literally ate half a dozen over the course of a couple days. Consequently, despite the fact that I made myself go on two pretty decent runs while I was away, my pants were a little snug by the end of the trip (totally worth it, by the way). 

What are some of your favorite hometown foods?

Friends 2.0

This is my friend Katie. We grew up together, were college room mates (that's a picture of us at Miami circa 2000), were in each other's weddings, etc. Katie lives in Baltimore now and I haven't seen her since before Harper was born. That's just not right.

I got to see Katie when I went back to Boardman last week. We were both in town visiting family. And what was even better than seeing Katie, was meeting her daughter, Anna! Harper and Anna were fast friends.

Katie and I also got to see our friend, Mandy. Her little girl, Lydia, is about a month older than Harper. They were two peas in a pod! Lydia graciously let Harper and Anna play on her awesome swing set.

Anna was not too sure about all of the picture taking. But as you can see, Lydia and Harper have done this sort of thing before.

Can I just tell you how surreal it was to watch our girls play with each other while we sat in the shade laughing about middle school and high school memories? (Thanks to the dads, Ralph and Seth, for playing with the girls while us moms sat in the shade!)

The moral of this story is that reconnecting with old friends is wonderful. I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing more of this kind of thing soon.

90 and 3

You would think that taking a picture of my grandma and my daughter would be a relatively easy task. Not so much.

 Come on, guys!

Seriously, I'm as tired of this as you are. 

I guess this is as good as it's going to get. 

Actually, I kind of like this one.

1-2-3

Ohio

Harper and I are spending a few days at my parents' house in Northeastern Ohio. I grew up here and I always love coming back. Every time I visit this place, I feel like my mind is going a million miles an hour trying to incorporate the old with the new. It's all good stuff, but it definitely takes me a couple days to wrap my brain around everything. 

I took this picture this morning. I grew up in that house. Now, my daughter sleeps in my old room and I get the guest room. A lot has changed since I left home. 

Mmmm...Donut

What powdered donut?

Pulling A Pippa

We went to a wedding last night. Harper LOVED it. She made a big splash at the reception.

Here she is with some of our friends.

Basically, the only time she left the dance floor was to get a cupcake (and make room for the bride and groom's first dance, albeit begrudgingly). The band members had a lot of fun with her. They asked me if I would consider renting her out so that they could take her to other gigs to break the ice on the dance floor for them. I took a cellphone video of some of her moves. It's terrible quality and she really didn't want me to video her. Every time I whipped out my phone, she stopped dancing. But whatever. Here's what I got.