Mother's Day 5/13/2012

We have not posted in awhile and have a lot of blogging to catch up on. On Mother's day (May 13th) we celebrated my (Elise's) mom's birthday as well as mother's day by going up to Venice Beach, hanging out, walking around, and eating dinner at C&O Trattoria. C&O's is a great family style Italian restaurant that Alex discovered while at UCLA. We had so much fun hanging out and celebrating my mom. Here are some fun moments from the day: 

View of some of the boats from the pier

Me and Kiri on the pier

My mom and Kiri on the beach

Mom and Dad

Alex kite flying

Dad assisting

Mom taking her turn with the kite

Kiri the pro kite flier

These are some of my favorites of my mom

At dinner

It was so yummy and so much fun!

Mother's Day Saturday

We spent this past Saturday with my family (the Pfotenhauer's) for Mother's Day.  My mother has recently taken up miniature gardening as a hobby.  She has a few pots that are about a foot diameter that she has been working with.  I designed and built a 3' by 1.5' trough for her to do a larger mini-garden in (pictured below).  It sits on wheels and is about waist height.  Elise and I also used a wood burner to personalize the sides; Elise was able to etch floral patterns and I burned out "Pfotenhauer Gardens".  I have also included a picture of one of my mother's mini-gardens and a few other shots of the afternoon.

Blizzard in the real garden.

Toasting our Mint Julep's that my brother brewed.

An owl from us and some gnomes my brother gave to my mom to start decorating
with some of her other supplies.

One of my mother's current mini gardens.

Life Experience: New Orleans Crawfish

Last night Elise and I had the opportunity to photograph an event for a friend, Danica.  She was giving a presentation meeting for potential clients as she starts working as a financial consultant for Thrivent.  The main feature of the event was crawfish eating.  The fish were flown in fresh from New Orleans, caught that morning.  It was fun to see everybody attempt to eat them.  One of the crawfish got loose before he was thrown in the pot and made a run for it.  Below are pictures of the food and drink (a regional beer brewed in Nola).

Waiting to be cooked.

Hanging out in the jacuzzi.

The one that got away.

Regional beer selection.

Side foods

The main course.

Eating instructions.

A plate with the spread.