Cartoon Us

There was a caricature artist at Aaron's office Christmas party. Aaron is missing his widows peak but otherwise, I think it's pretty good. Aaron's head almost didn't fit onto the paper!

What do you think?

Peanut Butter Birthday Pie

I just love birthdays and I always work to make them as special as possible for people. When I was planning Aaron's birthday, I worked out his birthday week gifts and a special dinner out. Picked up the cards and a balloon. But what to do for a cake? Then it hit me. He LOVES peanut butter pie. But it is the one thing I have not made for him. I've never made a peanut butter pie. The day had come. It was going outside the usual birthday cake but I didn't think he would mind.

I don't think I've seen him so delighted before. And it wasn't the dinosaur candle holder.

Peanut butter pie is way easier to make than I realized. I feel a little bad I haven't made one sooner than this. But that probably made it taste all the better right?

Here is how I made it:

Peanut Butter Pie

1 package of Nutter Butter cookies

5 tablespoons melted butter

1 and 1/4 cup peanut butter

1 softened 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 and 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 thawed 8 oz Cool Whip

Crust: Turn the cookies into crumbs in a food processor. Mix with melted butter and press into pie pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Filling: Whip peanut butter and cream cheese with a mixer. Add in sugar and continue to whip. Add in Cool Whip and beat until nice and smooth. Scrape filling into cooled pie crust and put in the fridge for at least one hour.

(actually I get the 12 oz Cool Whip and use the extra on top of each pie slice)

Welcome home... doughnut

Aaron has been out of town for two weeks and I was so happy for him to come home today! AND he brought me home a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

We used to have Krispy Kreme in Rochester, but years ago, they all closed. It has been many moons since I had one, so I was thrilled!

Steppin' it up for Father's Day

The boys got Aaron a Fitbit Charge for Father's Day! Now we can compete on our steps.

Aaron made the discovery however that I take almost two steps for everyone one of his so now he has to step it up! Heh heh.

National Burger Day Gone Wrong

How to write this post without making anyone queasy?

Did you know yesterday was National Burger Day? I picked burgers up for Aaron and I on the way home from violin lessons yesterday evening. When I pulled in the driveway I texted Aaron that I needed a hand carrying everything in. When he didn't come out I got suspicious. I thought I heard him shout "MOVE" inside. Once I got inside he yelled down the stairs, "I cut my foot! Don't come up!". Well that is like saying, "this smells terrible... smell it." Despite seeing the red trail up the stairs I had to go up.

I'm actually very pleased with myself. I can get squeamish but I managed to help him bundle up his foot, call urgent care and get him there in a timely manner. It was definitely the most gruesome injury I've seen in person. Who knew the foot bled so much?

Once we were in a procedure room and it was clear he wasn't going to lose the foot (heh) the joking began. I confessed that I snuck a few fries after I dropped him off at the door of urgent care. Would it be wrong to eat my burger in the waiting room? We started taking snapshots of the poor foot.

11 stitches, 1 tetnus shot, 1 fashionable boot, 3 hours at urgent care and 2 cold burgers later and Aaron's foot will be fine. No nerve damage.

Remember the headlamp I got for my birthday? I wore it to clean up the floors and tub when I got home. I could qualify to clean up crime scenes now.

Oh and how did this happen? He swung his foot under the very sharp edge of a galvanzed metal roof of a bird feeder sitting on the floor. Yup. Not a grizzly bear. A bird feeder.

I had to blog about this. Not my usual, but a blip in our story that I may want to read again someday. So much of why I post to this blog... recording daily life. In fact while I didn't encourage it, Aaron posted before and after pics of his foot on Instagram if you are curious. But you have been warned!

Handcarved walking stick

Aaron made me a walking stick... complete with acorn topper, leather wrist strap and monogram. I tried it out on our walk last weekend. I think he could sell these!

Look what Aaron found in his Christmas stocking

This is the look you want to see on their face when you have kept the best gift ever a secret for months.

First flight. Aaron couldn't wait to try out his new drone.

It is surprisingly easy to fly. It's not jumpy like the little toy helicopters he has had in the past. While you fly it with the controller, you can see through the camera via an app on your iPhone. You can also use the app to move the camera up and down, take a photo or shoot video.

Drone selfie!

The view it captures is amazing.

First #djiphantom video!!! Can't wait to shoot more tomorrow!!! Love. Love. Love this thing!!!

A video posted by Aaron (@aaron_istic) on Dec 12, 2014 at 6:34pm PST

Happy Birthday Aaron from the Accordion Guy

I wanted to do something really special for Aaron for his birthday. So while I was out at the Fringe Festival, I recorded the Rochester Accordion Guy singing Happy Birthday to Aaron.

If you aren't from Rochester you probably don't know about the Accordion Guy or rather The Rochester Accordion Man. His name is Walter and you can find him sitting outside every sporting event and concert in Rochester. The 76 year old told Rochester Subway he has been doing this for 30 years and gone through 83 accordions! Apparently he was invited to the White House to play for Ronald Raegan and performed The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

I'm so glad I was able to capture this special song for Aaron! Maybe next year I can get the Festival Dancing Guy to do a little Birthday dance for him.

Birthday Shootout

Aaron's birthday is on Tuesday but today I threw him a Birthday Shootout party. We got together at the gun club and did some target shooting.

Turns out the girls are pretty good shots!

The best part was when we got out the pumpkins.

Sorry pumpkin.

Then I had an expansive charucterie and cheese board spread.

Here it is from another angle. I was rather pleased with my presentation.

Aaron's Graduation Party

I was so excited about Aaron's graduation, I couldn't wait to throw him a party! It had to have a theme of course and that was CHALKBOARDS!

Really this was my chance to do all the sorts of things I always wanted to do for a summer party... like food trucks! I had the Le Petit Poutine truck cater the party!

Mmmm delicious poutine!

And there had to be ice cream! I had the Eat Me Ice Cream sandwich cart come by!

Everyone could choose from vanilla, chocolate or peanut butter ice cream sandwiches.

Aaron was pretty excited about his ice cream sandwich.

There were also veggie trays and charcuterie from Wegmans.

It was great to have our friends and family with us to celebrate. It was so good to catch up with everyone.

It was pretty much all Aaron's favorite things!

Aaron graduates with his MBA!

Today Aaron graduated from the University of Rochester's Simon School with his MBA!

We waited through over 500 students to watch Aaron, who was the next to last person, get his diploma. Unbelievably, I only got pics of him walking... not actually getting his diploma. I even had my long lense so I could see him from the balcony of Eastman Theatre.

Aaron's mom and sister flew into town to attend his graduation.

And my parents drove up to join us also.

Aaron has worked hard these past two years and I am so proud of his accomplishment!

Ten year wedding anniversary

Today is Aaron and I's ten year wedding anniversary!

We have wonderful memories of the day spent with friends and family. Like when they decorated Aaron's jeep.

And pelted us with bird-safe, non-slip, rice-like substance.

We were blessed to have all eight of our grandparents with us that day. Something I will always cherish.

It rained on our wedding day but they say that is good luck. At least we got to take this cute photo with a giant umbrella.

I can't believe it has been ten years. It has been an amazing decade. I certainly love him ten times more than the day we got married. I'm looking forward to many more years to come with this guy. More pictures on Flickr.

The ten year anniversary gift is tin... so Aaron got me these tin initials... oh and this gorgeous anniversary ring!

I liked the bunnies in the message Facebook posted congratulating us on our anniversary. They know me well.

Year to year 2014 out-takes

I almost forgot about the out-takes from our New Years, Year to Year photo session.

Stewie takea moment to moisten his lips.

Oscar tries to go for the "wind flapping through the ears" look.

Hugo has something to tell Aaron real quick.

Then he photobombs me.

Year to Year 2014

We took our TENTH New Year's family photos for our Year to Year Page. I'm starting to run out of room on the page.

Everyone is looking pretty good. Stewie looks like he put on a little weight but he is as handsome as ever.