1st Annual Ludwig Oktoberfest!

Yesterday was our 1st Annual Ludwig Oktoberfest. I think it was a success! It was an absolutely beautiful day, sunny and somewhere in the 70s. Even though Clemson managed to lose to Boston College, we still had a good turnout of happy Oktoberfestians. Thanks to some borrowed tables, we had ourselves a semi-authentic biergarten. Thanks to my own German chef/grillmaster, we also had a great Oktoberfest menu: brats on the grill, sauerkraut, pretzels (soft and hard), pasta salad, meat salad, gingerbread and brownies, and of course, imported beer from Munich.






I think everyone had a good time and would be up for returning for the 2nd annual event.
Most notable differences in Ludwig Oktoberfest and Munich Oktoberfest
* I'm pretty sure there isn't much cornhole being played in Munich.
* It's probably pretty tough to find a Koolaid Jammer in a biergarten in Munich.
* The kids to adults ratio was probably much higher at the Ludwig Oktoberfest than Munich Oktoberfest.





* I don't think there are any American football games on a big screen being played in Munich.

* Total lederhosen count at Ludwig Oktoberfest: 2. Total Dirndle count: 0



* Ludwig Oktoberfest is apparently sponsored by Pepsi.



* I don't think you'll see many Halloween costumes in Munich at Oktoberfest.



* You won't find anything cool like this at the Munich Oktoberfest:

I'm Crafty?!

It's a big day around here...beginning at 3 pm we will celebrate the 1st Annual Ludwig Oktoberfest! We are very excited. Everything is coming together. Chris is off at Bloom picking up the ice for cold drinks and Max is napping to gear up for the big day:



(Clemson needs to beat Boston College so that we'll have happy Oktoberfest revelers.)

So in the days leading up to Oktoberfest, I made a discovery about myself: I can be crafty when necessary! Who knew? Since I don't have a dirndle to wear to our party (I refuse to pay good money for one until I lose the "baby weight"), I figured that Max at least needed to have some lederhosen. Baby lederhosen aren't cheap, so what's a girl to do? That's right, make some! Turns out, all you need to make baby lederhosen are a pair of brown pants, a couple of buttons, some German/American pins, some thread, an old belt, and a purse strap! I can't wait to dress him up in these! Here's a preview:



And, finally, Julie and Paul had a Halloween party to go to last night. Julie dressed up as a dog. In a toddler costume. What did she need to complete this look? Face paint. And who better to paint her face than someone who barely wears makeup and has never so much as painted a paint-by-numbers portrait. That's right - she asked me to do it. I think I did a pretty good job, considering...



Chris just got back with the ice...

A Fussy Froggy Evening.

So, first off, I think Max looks exactly like Chris in this picture - Chris makes this exact same expression. Secondly, this outfit was very appropriate considering what we saw later in the evening....

We had Chris's co-worker and buddy Frank over for dinner last night since he was in town for some meetings. I cooked "Bruschetta Chicken Bake" for dinner. It was really easy and pretty good.



Chris and Frank also enjoyed some wine with dinner - a Cline Syrah that Ben and Leslie gave us for our birthdays. We had visited Cline Cellars when we were in Sonoma 2 years ago. I had a tiny glass - didn't want to make Max drunk - it was very good. I guess that was the first wine I had tasted in a year.

After dinner, it was time for Max to go to bed. But something was off...every time he fell asleep he woke himself back up within a few minutes and started crying. Nothing we did made him happy. But Frank had the magic touch with this hold...Max doesn't look like he likes it, but he did fall asleep while Frank was holding him.



Meanwhile, Bailey helped me clean up the kitchen...she gave the Bruschetta Chicken Bake a "paws up."



A little while later, Chris went out to the car to get his cell phone. He came bounding in the door saying "Robin, you've got to see these frogs!" I could not figure out what he was so excited about. I always see toads on our sidewalk after it rains, but he claimed there were "huge frogs" outside. I thought he was joking, or setting me up for some Halloween prank, but I went outside and saw THIS:





I'm not sure how it's possible that I have lived here my entire life and never seen one of these frogs, but I never have. I was fascinated by this thing - it was HUGE. A real frog!! It was cute and creepy at the same time.

Tonight Chris is at Rio Grille with Frank while Max and I are at home watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Here's a picture of my lil punkin' with my big punkin' :) They are the cutest!

Trader Joe's? Trader No(s)!

First of all, how cute is my little guy in his Halloween pajamas?? (Thanks Julie!)

Tonight we decided to head out once Chris got home from work to do some preparatory shopping for the Ludwigs' 1st Annual Oktoberfest, which is this Saturday! The big news around Greenville is that we got a new Trader Joe's grocery store. I had heard so many great things about this place that I wanted to check it out. It first opened this past weekend, and Chris and I drove by as we headed somewhere else and it was slam-packed. So, we figured that a Tuesday night might be a better time to stop by. Well, we stopped by. And....meh. It's a really small grocery store, with limited variety, very loud music, and an extremely annoying bell that apparently is rung every time a "1st time customer" checks out. (Wait a minute - they didn't ring the bell for us!) Other than the brand new shiny red shopping carts, we didn't see anything special about this place whatsoever and I doubt we'll be back. I do wish someone would explain to me what the fascination is with this place. Official Ludwig review: a big fat NO to Trader Joe.




Next we headed over to Whole Foods. Much more success there - Chris found some goodies he liked in the German aisle. I definitely found some gelato and truffles I liked, but I refrained....




We rounded out our shopping adventure at Sam's Club. After all was said and done, we had really stocked up on some awesome food for Oktoberfest: brats, pretzels, potato salad, radishes, sauerkraut, meat for meat salad, ingredients for noodle salad, etc....it's going to be great!!

Let's Get Rolling...

This is the 3rd time Max rolled over. I finally was able to catch it on video. However, since then he has refused to do it again!

Rock and Roll!

This is how I found Max when I came back from the bedroom this morning - I was gone for a minute or less. When I left him, he was on his back. So, apparently, he rolled over for the first time and I missed it!! He refused to do it again. One trick per day apparently.

I can't believe it, but Max was nine weeks old yesterday.



He spent some time with his great-grandmother, Nana. She really loves babies. Well, she loved him at this point,..maybe not so much later on when I went to the grocery store and left him with Mom and Nana and he started shrieking.






Today we're taking it easy. We had a play date here this morning - 4 kids around the age of 2 and Max and another baby. I'm not sure Max was even aware there were other kids here, but it was fun watching them all play. Now Max is napping and I'm thinking about joining him...

Waking up (at 5 AM) is hard to do....

Last night was crazy. Between Bailey needing to get up to go outside due to the MASSIVE amounts of water she drank because of her medication and Max getting up to eat, I was up every hour from 2 AM until Mr. Max decided we should get up for the day (5 AM). I think Max has been talking to Sam and Nathanael....

After Max had been crying at one point for about 20 minutes and I was about at wits' end, I put him beside me in the bed and picked up my iPhone and checked my emails. I had one new email. It was from me. One year ago today I composed an email to myself on futureme.org. Check it out - it's very cool. You can email your future self. The email couldn't have been more timely. An excerpt:
"I'd love to know what the situation is a year from now, on the day you receive this email. I hope you have come through this and are stronger and happier...and have a child or have one on the way in some form."

After reading that, I really couldn't be upset about Max's screaming and crying at the pre-dawn hour. I was reminded how long I had wished for this screaming little boy and I was able to look at the screaming from a different perspective :) So, I went ahead and fed him, even though he shouldn't have been hungry, and then he calmed down and became Happy Max. I thought maybe he would go back to sleep after this feeding, but this was the response I got when I said "Max, can we PLEASE go back to bed?"

So I gave up on sleeping, and decided we would start our day (except for Bailey, who stayed in bed - lucky dog). Luckily Max was in a great mood - I decided to read him a book, "Waking Up Is Hard To Do", by Neil Sedaka and illustrated by Daniel Miyares, who was one of Ben's best friends growing up.



Max seemed to enjoy listening to me read, but he disagreed wholeheartedly that waking up is hard to do.




Later on was playtime.



After that, Max, Bailey, and I went for a long walk...it was perfect weather. Chilly when we started and warm when we finished. Bailey and Max were both pooped after about ten minutes, but I walked for well over an hour.



After Max ate his lunch, he decided that he would try to stow away in Pop Pop's suitcase for a trip to Egypt. After I explained to him that he doesn't have a passport quite yet, he was rather disappointed.



Next we took some pictures on the front porch at Mimi and Pop Pop's. Aunt Lympi wanted Max to get in her jack-o-lantern...as you can see, he didn't quite fit. Oops, crying baby - have to end this post with these pictures... (Mimi did want it to be pointed out that she and Pop Pop had just ridden their bikes for 16 miles...)

The Mis-Adventures of Max and Robin

Today Chris left for Charleston for work. But before he left, he was forced to take Bailey to the vet because we found a "tumor" in between two of her toes. (No, Dad, she's not currently on hospice). Of course I needed her to be taken right away. So, before Max and I were even out of the bed this morning, Chris had loaded Bailey up and taken her to the vet because he read online that they opened at 7 AM. Well, a short time later I saw the car pull up back at the house...Chris and a very relieved looking Bailey came back inside. Apparently the vets don't arrive until 9 AM. Chris had made an appointment for 9:30. So, around 9:15, Bailey was lured back to the car again (it wasn't really that difficult. Chris said "let's go" and she happily went. at which point I declared her dumb) and they headed to their appointment. A LONG time later...at least an hour...they came home with 2 prescriptions and, happily, a benign diagnosis. I'm still not really sure what it is (some kind of extreme inflammation) but I think it's somehow related to all the licking and chewing she does.

So, I now have to somehow force 2 pills down her gullet 2 times a day. Today it worked like a charm when I stuffed them inside of some barbecue that we still had in the fridge, but once that is gone, I'm not sure what I'll use. Probably cheese.

Chris finally got on the road and left Max and I here to go about our day. I needed to go to the grocery store for a few ingredients for a dish I'm going to make on Thursday for a get-together. So I loaded Max up and headed to Bloom. I hate Bloom. Their prices are higher than average, their selection is less than average, and I just don't like the store in general. We were cruising down the aisles and I was being particularly careful because I could not see very well with Max's carseat propped up on the front of the shopping cart. When I got to the aisle with the soft drinks, where I intended to pick up my Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi (very good), it was blocked due to one of the managers stocking the shelves. So, annoyed, I went around and came up the other end. So, I was picking up speed here at the end of my shopping trip, ready to be done and ready to get home before Max reached his expiration time, when suddenly ... CRASH...



I didn't know what I had hit until I saw all the "Fuse" drink bottles flying to the floor in front of my cart. Luckily they were plastic. The manager, who was rushing to the front of the store to take a phone call, did not look amused. I apologized...he did not respond. I helped him pick up a few bottles and then I continued on, since he didn't seem very appreciative of my efforts. Darn Bloom. In my defense, whenever I take those online surveys that are listed on the bottom of your receipt, I always complain about those displays that are set up in the center of the aisles. I always knew it was only a matter of time before I took one out.

After that, we cheered ourselves up by purchasing some pretty flowers at Home Depot, and then we headed home. Enough destruction for one day...

No Apples at the Orchard

Today we took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Skytop Orchard in Flat Rock, NC. It was, again, a beautiful fall day and it was a short and pretty drive up to Flat Rock. About 3/4 of the way there, it dawned on us to check and see if SkyTop takes credit cards. I checked their website with my iPhone (best Christmas gift ever) and discovered that, alas, they do not take credit or debit cards. Of course Chris and I had $1 between us, due to our boiled peanut purchase yesterday, so we decided to just "swing by" an ATM when we reached Flat Rock. I still haven't figured out how people in that town shop, because we couldn't find a bank or an ATM anywhere, so we gave up and went to meet our friends who were already there, in hopes that they would loan us some cash.

So we finally got parked and onto the orchard premises, which were CRAWLING with people. Apparently Oct. 17th is "Visit an Apple Orchard" Day and we didn't know it. We met up with our friends at the picnic area and proceeded to start the trip off right with some YUMMY apple donuts. Well, I had one. Chris had an apple that he found lying around...





I'm not sure the Apple Orchard was exactly what I had pictured. So instead of what we did do, here is a list of the top 5 things we did NOT do at the orchard:

1. We did NOT pick any apples. Apparently, according to a sign in the store, there were no apples left on the trees. Which is ok, because Max doesn't have teeth.
2. We did NOT go on a hay ride. Apparently there was no hay on the hay ride anyway, so I think that might have been a rip-off. :)

3. We did NOT buy a pumpkin. There were pumpkins there, but they were just in a pile at the entrance to the store, and we can probably just pick one out of a pile at Bi-Lo for half the price.
4. We did NOT spend any money. We had borrowed $30 from our friends, but it turned out that we didn't need it.
5. We did NOT make it past the bamboo forest to the barnyard area where there were apparently sheep, goats, chickens, and turkeys. This would have been my favorite part; I"m not sure why we didn't go there. Oh well. Next time :)

Apples or not, it was great to get out of the house and do something different, and it was fun to hang out with friends.

On our way home, we stopped at Mema and PapaBob's for a visit.



Max was being a pretty good sport, despite the long day. He did have a minor incident which required an outfit change, but luckily I have finally learned to carry a spare set of clothes!


We finally made it home from our busy and fun day, and this is the scene at our house right now...