Mimi's Cafe was really nice! I've never been there before, we don't have them in Hampton Roads but we were visiting the hubster this weekend and thought we'd give it a try. I really enjoyed the ambiance and the service was very very friendly and the pancakes were super yummy! It is definitely a place I would tell my friends about and I would go again. They are french influenced and have a very delicious looking menu, I'd like to try their lunch and dinner entrees too! Check out if they have a location near you!
Today Travis and I are celebrating our 10 year "together" anniversary. It's hard to believe 10 years ago we were fresh (sorta...) faced 16 year olds who giggled at the thought of holding hands and had silly tickle fights. It's been the most fulfilling 10 years of my life and I couldn't imagine it being any different.
Family came into town this past week so instead of having everyone over to my house for Pancake Sunday we went out.
We go to Doc Taylor's every once and awhile (more so when we knew people that lived at the beach) their breakfast is delicious, fast, fresh, and pretty darn cheap. I know a couple people that rave about their $2 Bloody Marys and Mimosas too...
So today we ordered fresh blueberry pancakes (straight from the garden, even though I don't think blueberries are in season at the moment...) and fresh banana pancakes.
There wasn't a bite left when we were through!
The funniest thing is, our waitress asked if we wanted to order only one pancake for Alexis...the whole table laughed, she ate both of hers and toast and eggs and sausage and bacon and steak...pretty much whatever everyone else was eating as well...
Doc Taylor's is a fabulous little local joint, if you happen to vacation to Virginia Beach I recommend eating breakfast there, they serve it whenever they are open!
We randomly roadtripped to Washington D.C. to go to the zoo. I've been there before a few years ago to the Mall but never experienced it like this. It was a fantastic trip and I'll be making it again soon for the Cherry Blossom Festival (EXCITED!)
My overall experience with DC was a pleasant one, I rode the Metro for the first time, whoa!
Definitely don't see many kids on the Metro, next time I come I will not be bringing the big stroller!
The wind from the Metro blowing Charlotte's hair
Metro girls
The zoo was nice, I can't lie though, I was a tad disappointed. It's a bit tourist-y for my taste BUT I think it's supposed to be, I mean it is our National Zoo and not a little hometown zoo for goodness sakes! My favorite area was the bird area. The birds had the most beautiful exhibits I think and they're all so colorful. The Kookaburra was my favorite, so funny to listen to him laughing! But as soon as I got the video camera out he stopped (gosh darn him)! As soon as I left I could hear him laughing behind my back, ugh! I did happen to catch this guy making a ruckus though:
The male tiger was putting on a show, roaring at the people behind the door and jumping up to peek through the windows. I'm quite sure he was starving. I was hoping to see them feed him but I couldn't stand there for that long hoping something exciting was going to happen.
Putting her hand in the tiger's mouth
The reptile house was my second favorite place, I love reptiles and amphibians...behind glass of course. I mean, I don't mind them out of glass if they are the non venomous small type with the not so gigantic teeth that stick out while they're eyeing you. They are amazing animals, I was pretty excited to see a couple anacondas, that is one big snake!
This guy was smiling in his sleep after a big leafy green dinner!
One awesome thing about DC that I noticed is that there are architectural details galore! I could just walk around by myself all day taking pictures of interesting details. And there are so many walls that are just screaming to be backdrops!
I'm thinking you guys are going to see a lot of DC in the future, hope you like it!
What is it about car seats that parents think they can just slack off and get away with no research, buy the cheapest of the cheap and celebrate the day their child can turn around to face forward?
I hear a lot of people say, "Well I'm a safe driver." I don't care how safe you think you are, what about the millions of other people driving around on the road? Teenagers texting, business people talking on their "smart phones" and drinking coffee, soccer moms late for practice...there are so many distractions out there, even for the safest driver.
You would think parents would want their precious cargo buckled in as safe as possible but many people don't even bother reading the manuals that come with the seats!
My friend Danielle at Mama Dani's Musings worked with a Certified Car Seat Safety Technician to come up with a 4-part series about Car Seat Basics, check it out, read all 3 posts and ask all the questions you could possibly have on the 4th post.
I guarantee you will read something that you did not know before and your kids will travel safer because of it.
How awesome is a recipe that lets you throw everything into one bowl
After ricotta and Nutella were mixed in
Fairly thin batter, it spread well and made nice round pancakes!
Was surprised how they puffed up since the batter was so thin
The recipe suggested topping with honey but I topped with more Nutella!
The pancakes should have been the bee's knees but they honestly weren't. They were good, don't get me wrong, but they just didn't highlight the deliciousness that is Nutella. The ooey gooey messy chocolately goodness of Nutella! I will be revamping this recipe in the future, there needs to be a yummy yum yum pancake recipe with, you guessed it.....NUTELLA!!!!!!
Look at this poor pitiful lonely little light fixture...
Now check out this sweet Capiz Shell Chandelier from PBteen, it would be so awesome for the art studio!
I don't have $129.00 to spend on a chandelier though so I decided to make one of my own and it involves spin art.
We love spin art!
So I first cut some circles out of parchment paper with my circle cutter. I decided on parchment because light diffuses very nicely through it, it gives off a nice glow. Anywho, I took the circles and stuck them to contact paper. I was pretty surprised that I had a hard time getting parchment to stick to the contact but now that I think about it people use parchment paper to keep food from sticking so I suppose it makes sense, either way, the paper circles stuck just enough to do a quick little spin.
I had the contact paper stuck to a paper plate with some Blu-Tack for a little stability and the paper plate was stuck down to the salad spinner with Blu-Tack as well.
I recently bought these bottles (they were on clearance, I couldn't pass them up!) and filled them with watered down paint, Charlotte told me she wanted pink, blue and purple, and that's all!
Before
I was very pleasantly surprised that the paint stuck to the contact paper very very well. Well enough that I was able to save the contact paper and stick it on the window, two projects in one!
After
After all the circles were spun and dried I covered both sides with contact paper, cut them out into circles (leaving a little edge of contact paper showing) and punched holes in them with a needle to thread some fishing line through.
I made a ring around the light fixture with pipe cleaners (a temporary solution with what was available) and tied the fishing line to the pipe cleaners and taped (also temporary) it up!
Then I proceeded to take a lot more pictures of the little circles than I should have because I love them oh so much!
I love how this turned out but it is a bit sparse compared to the PBteen chandelier so I think I'm going to mix mediums and also try some wax crayon sun catchers and hang them up alongside the parchment circles.
. I decided on parchment because light diffuses very nicely through it, it gives off a nice glow. Anywho, I took the circles and stuck them to contact paper. I was pretty surprised that I had a hard time getting parchment to stick to the contact but now that I think about it people use parchment paper to keep food from sticking so I suppose it makes sense, either way, the paper circles stuck just enough to do a quick little spin.
for a little stability and the paper plate was stuck down to the salad spinner with Blu-Tack
