Weekend Wrap-up

Just as I thought- another great weekend :)

We never made it to the beach on Saturday- it rained all.day.long.

My cousin's baby shower was absolutely lovely :) There was food, games, and partying. My cousin's girlfriend is Dominican and baby showers are celebrated a little differently. First, it was held at 8pm... I should have taken a nap that afternoon... second, it is a party of sorts- a DJ, buffet style food, etc. and lastly, she didn't open any gifts :( I love watching mama's-to-be open shower gifts. They traditionally open gifts the next day with close family and friends. I know how much controversy that would cause in American customs but it is what it is.




The cake- which was a traditional dominican dulce de leche

Then, yesterday was my brother's graduation!!!! I dedicated yesterday's post to him and the entire class of 2011. I have been waiting for this for a while. The only thing that sucked was that it started at 8 am (I don't even have to be at work that early) and it was raining. Of course neither of those stopped the party tho'. I'm not sure if commencement officials expect the graduates to pay attention or not- but I don't think they were especially considering I was texting my brother the entire time (and so were his friends and a few other family members) and there are reports of him twittering (I don't do twitter-fb is enough for me). At my college graduation they did not call our names individually but each graduates name was scrolling on the jumbo tron in the arena. Well my brother not only got his name called out loud but each graduate got a 4 second message on the jumbo tron along with a picture and he dedicated his space to us!!! Very sweet.

So after the graduation we took a million pictures in the rain and then went to lunch. Anyone who knows my brother (or anyone in family) knows that lunch was a debacle. My brother's first task as a graduate was to pick a restaurant of his choice for lunch and of course he chose a restaurant that was closed. So, we spent 15 minutes in the car, in the rain calling every restaurant in the tri-state area to see who was open and who could accommodate 11 people for lunch (his friends opted-opt and I don't blame them, so it was just family). Then my his phone died and of course he needs to receive all of his congratulatory text messages, phone calls, tweets, and fb posts- so we drove by his apartment to get his car charger (which was actually no biggie because it was 2 minutes from the arena but I had to add it in there for the dramatic effect). Then we finally arrive at lunch (a nearly 30 minute drive away) and the waiter decided that we should wait hours for bread! Okay, maybe not hours but to a hungry pregnant woman any minute is a minute too long. I mean we did call ahead and notified them we were coming- they could have had it on the table already (is that too much to ask?? okay maybe it is but that's not the point!) My brother LOVES Italian food so we ended up at the Macaroni Grill. Delicious.

After lunch we had to have celebratory cake. What's a celebration without cake?? So do you remember these from my shopping spree:

Well those delicious squares of chocolate was a part of my master plan:

My brother's graduation cupcakes! Yes, I am a dessert diva-in-training. I love to bake and I use my family as guinea pigs. I love dessert (it's the best part of any meal) and therefore I love to make dessert. Not to brag but I can make a great tasting cake/cupcake at anytime so i am honing on decorating. I have taken cake decorating classes (although I haven't finished the series yet) and that along with a little internet inspiration I was able to do this! Everybody loved them and there is none left to prove it.


To be honest I could have used a little bit of time added on to the weekend (no surprise there) even though I didn't even go to work yesterday. This Friday starts half-day Friday's at work and I am sooo excited!!! I was hoping with rising costs we would get the whole day off as many of our "competitors" do but I'll take what I can get because most companies only observe casual Fridays. I think that I may never work a full Friday for the remainder of 2011 because my maternity leave will start just as we return to full day Friday's (that is if all goes to plan and I understood our human resources person correctly). There's nothing else on my schedule for this weekend but I'm sure I'll find something to change that :)