Happy Fall

Happy fall!!  My wonderful hubby brought me flowers for my favorite season :)  Of course we forgot to bring vases to Philly, but the Ona pitcher works just as well.

Moo loves flowers :)

Festival of Festivals

Yesterday, Hilary invited us to go to a festival in Manayunk.  The party was for Sarge's sweet sixteen :)  Sarge is a dog who was rescued from a dog fighting organization two years ago.  To celebrate his birthday, Sarge's adopted parents held a huge party full of vegan BBQ, pupcakes, birthday cake, games and music.  Local animal shelters were there as well showing off their cute doggies who need new homes.  Instead of presents, guests were supposed to bring donations for local animals in need.  It was crazy how many dogs and cats we saw all getting along!

Down on Main Street was the 2010 EcoArts Festival.  It was a celebration of artistic, sustainable, and local green initiatives.  It was neat to walk around and see different people's take on green and healthy living, especially because it was such a beautiful day.

Walking down to Pretzel Park

Jeff, Danielle, Hilary, and the hubby

Party people/dogs!

Cutie Pie

To celebrate the first weekend of autumn, Danielle and I made an apple pie!  Three pounds of apples, one very messy oven, and a set of blinds later we made a very yummy pie :)

Our pie!

We cut apple shapes out of the top crust and put the cutouts in the middle... so cute!

Meet in the Middle

This past weekend, Amy and Kevin were in Washington DC visiting Kevin's brother and his girlfriend.  We missed our Kamy so we decided to drive down to see them!  We met at a sports bar in Crystal City to watch the UNC football game.  UNC lost, but it was fun watching my baby blues with fellow heels.  Being the super tourists that we are, we spent the rest of the evening visiting different monuments and a Starbucks, of course.  It was so nice to spend time with our old buddies :)

Watching the heels!

Alex is the Washington Monument!  It was too bright to take a picture of :)

Me and Amy in front of the Capitol Building

Kevin and Alex

Outside of the White House!  Obama did not come out to play... I guess he knew I would want to talk about reducing the interest rate on student loans.

Picture for Lisa: the Red Cross Building

C is for Colorado where Alex was born

Hugs for North Carolina

P is for partners in crime in Pennsylvania

Lincoln

A little dark but a nice one of Amy and Kevin with the Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool in the background

Waiting for the metro!  DC's metro system was so nice and clean!

Eating Dinner at Ben's Chili Bowl.  Obama has eaten here!!

Study-Free Weekends

This year, instead of having multiple exams or quizzes every week, we only have exams once a month.  While this means that there is much more information on every exam than before, it also means the return of the [mostly] study-free weekend :)  So, instead of studying my life away in the library, Alex and I got to hang out with friends and bake up a few treats.  

Danielle's friend from Chicago was in town this weekend so we all went out to dinner Friday night to welcome her to the city of brotherly love.  Catch Phrase ensued shortly after dinner and both Alex and I learned new things: I learned the meaning of billy club and Alex discovered who Ashton Kutcher is.  Saturday we got to sleep in, if you don't count the cat waking me up at 3:55 am for breakfast!  We went for a run around the Schuylkill river after taking a week off for Alex's hurt knee :(  The river is our most favorite place to run in Philadelphia.  I will post some pictures of our pretty trail once the leaves begin to change colors.  We had asked Den and Olivia to come over for dinner Saturday night, so I decided to make a banana pudding dessert.  

My favorite dessert!

Yum

Mr. Pai (Shilpa's dad) taught Alex and I how to make several Indian dishes during the summer.  We decided to try our newly acquired Indian cuisine skills on Olivia and Den.  The dinner was awesome and I can't wait to make it again!  In fact, I was so full from dinner that I totally forgot to serve the banana pudding :(  Luckily Kia, always willing to try what I make, came down for a taste later that night.

Alex currently has a long term substitute teaching job as a 7th grade French teacher.  To give the kids a little taste of French baking, we made Madeleine cookies today.  We baked one hundred cookies and dipped each one in chocolate.  Madeleines are not my most favorite cookie, but they were a much better alternative to my pharmacology textbook :)

Cookies!  The cookie at the bottom is just begging to be eaten.

My baking burn :(

Labor Day Weekend in the Pitt

Emily and Frank moved into their new house in Pittsburgh about a week ago.  I had not seen the house yet so we decided to make a trip over there for Labor Day weekend.  The Scheers were also visiting so it was a nice family reunion.

Walking home from Craig street.  Emily and Frank live right near several Universities so the area is full of college kids and bars... noisy!

The neatest spice rack ever!

Emily painting the dining room a pretty blue

More painting

The pirate and I out eating lunch at a local Thai restaurant

The Scheers out on the awesome back deck :)  Emily and Frank got a grill as a housewarming present from the Scheers.  We grilled some steaks the first night and they were great!!

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Last week was our first week of module exams.  We only had three tests so I had a little extra time to make cupcakes.  Alex got to pick the flavor and he came up with dark chocolate raspberry.  So Hilary, Danielle, and I used a study break to bake up some yummy treats!

First we made dark chocolate cupcakes and then piped raspberry filling into the middle.  We topped the yummy treats with a buttercream frosting :)

Raspberry filling!

Kia's Career Change

For his interview last week, Alex was in desperate need of a haircut.  In these crazy money-saving times, Alex decided he would ask Kia, the future surgeon, to cut his hair.  

Before

After

So it turns out Kia should consider changing his career path to hair dresser because Alex looked great and got the job!!