Chicago Birthdays 2012

Its that time of year again...Birthday's DAY!

This year, we decided to head to Chicago for our birthdays!

On the first evening, we checked into the hotel and headed to Oven Grinder Co.

It ended up being packed, so we had some drinks and dinner elsewhere!

We did some walking downtown on day two!

We took in the sites at the German Christkindlmarket (crowded!) and walked along the Chicago River!

We stopped back by Oven Grinder Co. for lunch and found it much more our style!

We had their famous "Pizza Pot Pie"!

The Pizza Pot Pie is an individual serving, "made from scratch" with triple-raised Sicilian bread-type dough; a homemade sauce consisting of olive oil, fresh garlic, onions, green peppers, whole plum tomatoes and a special blend of cheeses; sausage made from prime Boston butts; and doorknob-size, whole, fresh mushrooms. 

Later we headed to a local Irish place near our hotel for dinner and drinks!

We had fun hanging in the hotel and enjoying a weekend in the Windy City!

The next day we headed home (swinging by Three Floyds along the way!)!

What a great Chicago style birthday weekend!

Aesop's Tables and Frankenstein!!

On Tuesday, October 30, 2012 we decided to have a bit of a fright night on Massachusetts Avenue!  We began by finding a cozy spot at Aesop's Tables.  This Mediterranean restaurant afforded just the right cover from the cold rain.  This evening of the full moon, we stepped past the wet night and into the brightly colored walls of this corner cafe.  Ashley had the gyros and Emily had the lobster bisque.  We finished it all off by splitting a piece of pumpkin cream cheese cake.  It was a perfect night for making plans and wasting some time!  We were sure to need all our wits before facing the Frankenstein monster!



Next we headed over to the IndyFringe Basile Theatre to catch our show.  After paying our admittance and picking up some drinks, we found fourth row seats and got comfortable.  The advertisement for the show had read, " The 4th Wall Players brings you mary Shelley's Frankenstein, returning to the IndyFringe Basile Theatre just in time for Halloween!  Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret to bestowing life and comes face to face with the abomination he created.  Returning to a grieving family, Victor must fight for the survival of his loved ones while attempting to end the curse he sprang on mankind."


We were certain by that introduction that this night would be one to be remembered!  It will truly be remembered, but for a different reason!  This show was horrible!  It felt like we were watching a middle school production.  Such a sad day when one of your most beloved stories dies in front of you!  We had to contain our laughter through most of the show and spent the rest of the night driving home and laughing all the way!  We definitely didn't have any nightmares after that production!  I guess it will always be a memory to cherish of the night before All Hallow's Eve when we cozied up in a cafe and laughed harder than we have in a long while!  Best twin night ever!

Halloween Parties!

On Friday, October 26, 2012 we had several Halloween parties to attend.  We started the evening at Emily's house with some buttered noodles and shrimp.  Once we had our bellies full, we got into our costumes.  Ashley was a very charming witch and Emily was a masked devil!  We took the scenic route to Zionsville while listening to our Cabaret Poe CD.  The night was spooky chilly as we made our winding way around the countryside.  We arrived at the small town square of the town of Zionsville about 7:30 in the evening.  After walking in our costumes through the brick streets, we ascended the stairs of the mansion to enter the N.A. Noel Sanctuary Gallery.  Their annual Masquerade Party at the Sanctuary was just getting underway.

The Sanctuary in the light of day!

Their flyer sounded alluring, "We are inviting more spirits to gather here in the Sanctuary for Masquerade on Main.  This party will feature a competition with prizes for best, most original, and best executed costumes, fortune tellers, silent auction, entertainment, homemade cauldrons of holiday soups and ghoulish desserts with a full cash bar; only $10 at the door!"

The haunted Sanctuary with lit candles, bubbling cauldrons, and plenty of ghouls!

And they delivered everything they promised and more!  The eerie old house was a perfect setting for such a ghoulishly delivered party!  The hardwood floors and towering ceilings made the space seem both endless and protective.  The massive fireplace loomed over one side of the room while the band wove music around the other.  We headed to the basement to have a tarot card reader tell us our fortunes.  It was a bit of fun and we enjoyed all she had to share about our personalities!  The costumed revelers were more than perfect!    Everyone seemed to be dressed to impress, and why not when there was a cash prize for best costume!  The only thing more dressed up than the guests was the gallery!  They brought in large branches and decorated them with lights and cobwebs and blackbirds.  The whole place was positively haunted!

Then we were off to Donni's Halloween House Warming Engagement party!  We stopped by her new place and enjoyed some warm beverages among some new characters before calling it a night.  Emily headed on to another Halloween party with Greg while Ashley went home to get some rest after her 12 hour work day! It was such an enchanting and magical evening, we never wanted it to be anything other than October!

The Invisible Man and Black Acre Brewing

On October 24, 2012, we decided to enjoy the Halloween season by taking a trip to the near eastside.  There is a little suburb called Irvington and it is known for its Halloween Festival!  This Wikipedia entry says it all:

" The Historic Irvington Halloween Festival is a non-profit event founded in 1947 by the Historic Irvington Community Council in an effort to bring together residents, neighborhood organizations, and businesses in the Irvington Historic District of Indianapolis, Indiana for a celebration of heritage and community.  The festival is currently the nation's oldest and largest Halloween festival.
The festival encompasses the week leading up to October 31st, culminating in a street festival on the final Saturday.  East Washington Street is closed between Ritter Avenue and Arlington Avenue in Irvington to hold the street festival.  Events include a 5 mile run, a pageant, musicians, contests, Halloween-themed movies, ghost tours, live theater, a "haunted" puppet show, and many other events."

We have to say, it truly is a community event!  So many of the businesses and people around this neighborhood were on the streets, enjoying the warm weather and enhancing the streets with their excitement over this wonderful time of year!  We were there to visit the historic Irving Theater.  This venue is used for concerts, plays and movies.  On this evening, they were showing the 1933 classic, The Invisible Man, along with the 1940 sequel, The Invisible Man Returns.



These black and white movies are favorites of ours.  Especially the monster movie classics!  This one did not disappoint!  We grabbed some pumpkin lattes, a pumpkin scone and some pumpkin bread and headed into the theater.  For only $5/ person, you get to enjoy this double feature with a cartoon in between!  What a deal and what a great movie!  After the first movie, the nostalgic, wooden church benches were really starting to feel, well, not so much nostalgic as uncomfortable, so we headed out in search of food.

We stopped at the Black Acre Brewing company for some appetizers and drinks and wound up in the middle of TRIVIA!!  Since the place was crowded with trivia teams, we grabbed a Pumpkin Thief Ale and an Oktoberfest Ale.  The Pumpkin Thief was advertised this way, "This pumpkin ale is brewed with 60 lbs. of pumpkin per 3 barrel batch and plenty of pumpkin pie spice.  Hooray fall!"  And it was amazing!  The Oktoberfest was nothing to write home about and the service was less than fantastic, but the trivia was a fun addition to our evening!


After all this Irvington excitement, we decided to call it a night and went our separate ways.  Walking the quaint streets of this sleepy suburb, we were reminded of the warm fall evenings of our childhood.  The wind whistled through the leaf piles, the sound of our feet passing the pavement against the stark quiet of the autumn evening, and the moon rising to lead our way down the enchanted cobble street.  It was a spooky, perfect twin night!

Sarah & Wes' Wedding!

Sarah Wilcox is now Sarah Trader!

We headed to Lafayette for all the festivities!

We stopped off at Nine Irish for lunch before the St. Mary's Cathedral wedding!

The beautiful weather made sitting on the patio a perfect way to start the day!

After the ceremony, we headed to the Trails for the reception.

It was a great time to catch up with family and enjoy the marriage of our cousin!

All three sisters were looking beautiful and having a great time!

Great sister day!

The First Annual Oktoberfest!

First annual Oktoberfest party!  

It was such a special event and everyone had a great time!  

We felt that this year our Halloween party (Tricks or Treats Triathlon) needed a bit of a freshening up, 

and this makeover definitely did the trick!  

Everyone was really enjoying the variety!  

I don't know about our other guests, but I was invited to about 10 Halloween parties this year, 

but I was only invited to ONE Oktoberfest!  

It was so unique and all the guests really got into their costumes and brought home the theme!

Some chose to make their costumes, others were store-bought, but they were all interesting! 

Ross even picked up some special German steins from a flea market 

and they were so authentic that we looked like we had just been to Munich!  

At the door, you picked up four clothespins and the rules explained the competition as thus,  

Willkommen!

Rules and Regulations 

Each person receives 4 clothespins to begin.

The person with the most at the end, WINS !!

How to steal pins:  Challenge someone and win! 

They must give you 1 pin! 

You may use any game, even one you create (as long as both parties agree).

If you lose all your pins:  You can buy back in by drinking DAS BOOT!!!

All scoring is on the honor system!  Have Fun!!

Most people jumped right in and started with some of the games we had set up or 

even just flipping coins or rock, paper, scissors for a clothespin!  

We were surprised how the night took on a shape of its own right before us!  

The outdoors were beautifully staged by Greg and he kept a nice fire burning all through the night.  

The glow of Natalie's pretzel machine added such an authentic touch that no one could believe we just threw the party together!  

It truly looked like we had been planning for months!

The menu was modest but crowd pleasing!  

We had beer soaked kielbasa in the crock pot, pretzels with cheese outside, a relish tray of olives, pickles and cheeses, german chocolate brownies, bite-size caramel apples, popcorn cones, snack pretzels, and or course sauerkraut!  

One guest brought a dessert with the colors of the German flag!

We had several drinking and non-drinking games set up: Flippy Cup, Bier Pong, Bier Pyramid, Bean Bag Toss, Candy Corn Toss, Bier Garden Trivia, and Das Boot!  

Das Boot was a beer chugging race inspired by the movie, "Beerfest".  

We also gave people the option of buying back into the competition if they lost all their pins.  

People were really using all the structures we created while also enjoying meeting new challengers and reveling in the night air.

The prizes were beers from the oldest brewery in the world!  

It is located in Germany near Munich were the annual Oktoberfest celebration is held each year. 

We had party-goers come from miles around Indianapolis and even some from as far away as Delphi!  

The turn-out was great and we had specially designed beer steins for all our guests to use during the evening and take home as thank yous! 

 Most thought they were just too nice to take home, so we have plenty for next year!

And there will be a next year!  

We all agreed that the party was such a huge hit and success, we will now replace our annual Halloween party with the Oktoberfest party!  

We may even start having it early in October and then we can really get into Halloween and relax for the rest of the month!  

What a great idea and legacy for years to come!

Best twin night ever!

Pumpkins, Pizza King, and More Pumpkins (ice cream that is!)

On Tuesday, October 16th, after Ashley and I both worked a half day, we met up at O'Charley's.  Ashley had come across a coupon that would get us unlimited salad, soup and bread for $5 each!  That was really hard to pass up!  So Emily played a little hooky from work and they met up for a hot bowl of harvest stew!  After getting more than our fill of that wonderful food, we hopped in the Kia and headed for Natalie's pumpkin patch!





















These pictures are from our trip in 2011, but this is the same patch!  We all really enjoy this annual tradition of getting our hands dirty in the pumpkin patch.  This year's crop was a little hail damaged, and it was late in the season, but we still got a few good ones.  Our haul wasn't nearly the size of previous years, but we all were happy with our pumpkins and gourds!  We each now have wonderful displays at our homes for all our fall visitors to enjoy!


We also had plenty of time to talk "sister talk" about all the things that our on our minds these days.  Natalie was telling us all about her new organization techniques for her house and showing us all the great things she has done to make it even better than the last time we were there!  Emily was talking about all her wedding ideas and thoughts for upcoming wedding events.  Ashley was talking about work and school and possibly her own engagement!  (we are just waiting for the words to come from Ross at this point!)

Then we headed to one of our favorite places, PIZZA KING!!!!  We ordered a mushroom pizza and some drinks and sat around enjoying the cheesy goodness, the train, and this rare opportunity to spend a Tuesday night together!





Our last stop of the night was the Frozen Custard for some PUMPKIN ice cream!  Okay, so Natalie's diet says she shouldn't have pumpkin or cheese, but she makes exceptions for her favorite sisters!  This pumpkin cone had just the right amount of pumpkin spice to win all or our affection!  It was truly the perfect end to a perfect day!

Germanfest at the Anthaneaum

This week we went to the German festival at the

 Historic Anthaneaum!

 We used a $5 Groupon to get admission and beers for 4! What a deal!

 They had two beautiful stages for live music, wiener dog races, an official
Sun King Biergarten tent, and outdoor seating for Germanfest goers!

We found our way around the outdoor Beirgarten and all the fun activities and booths! 

Of course we could not pass up the opportunity to take our photos in the 

oversized German photo cut out! Hahaha!

We even found a fun character in traditional dress to who volunteered
himself to pose with Emily and Greg!

 He  does seem to add some authenticity to their picture perfect moment at the festival!

It was nice to bring our men along this week to enjoy the evening 

which was steeped in German history.

 

We truly enjoyed the live outdoor music, sausage plates, and Oktoberfest biers!

We got great seats at a picnic table under the stars!

We talked, laughed, and loved the time together on this special Oktober night! 

We felt true nostalgia spending time at the beautiful and historic Anthaneaum and
getting a taste of German culture in the crisp outdoor October air.

GREAT TWIN NIGHT!  PROST!

IUPUI Application and Greek's Pizzeria!

On Monday the 8th of October, we decided to work on Ashley's application for her program at IUPUI!!  It is due November 16th, so we really got a head start on it!  We met up at Riverview because Ashley was working a little later than me!  Then we headed over to Greek's Pizzeria to try out their authentic Italian!  We ordered the Greek's Specialty pizza and some nice bread sticks 

This pizzeria delivered--and I don't mean pizza!!  It might have been because we were starved, or it could be that looking over old transcripts gives your food a special nostalgic taste, but we would be hard pressed to find a better meal!


With coupon in hand, we had quite a feast and even better conversation on their glassed walled terrace.  The weather was pleasant enough and yet we were glad to be inside and out of the October chilled air.

After a night of talking about where Ashley is headed in school and where Emily is headed for an engagement party, we were definitely feeling the amore!  Mainly because we are so proud of where we are going in our lives and of each other, but also because we can enjoy this kind of evening knowing our families have our back too.

It gives us things to look forward to (graduations and weddings) and something to enjoy in the now (the support of one another and our families, and well, pizza!).

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre

On September 27, 2012, we decided to take in a show at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre (IRT) because we found an incredible deal on tickets for a show we had both been wanting to see.  First we met downtown at one of our favorite restaurants, Buca di Beppo!  This landmark plays our favorite old standards and serves up family sized portions of everything!  We had some baked ziti, but there was nothing left of it for a picture!  

After our meal, we walked the block to the IRT for the new show, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  The ambiance of the theatre is perfect for these types of creepy shows.  The high ceilings and ornate decor make you feel that you are in an old castle in the hills of Eastern Europe.  Perhaps Dracula will meet you at the entrance!

 The show was absolutely spell binding!  It wove the mind into a confusing web of deception.  Were you happy to see the villain get away?  Were you rooting for Dr. Jekyll, and if so, were you actually encouraging his murderous behavior as the sadistic Mr. Hyde?  Is Dr. Jekyll good or evil?  Is anyone one or the other?

The play although dealing with serious perplexities, had many laughable moments!  The crowd was wincing at the murders and laughing as the characters displayed their detective skills.  It was eerie and inviting at the same time, sort of like its main character.

The excerpt from the IRT website describing the show:

"What is the nature of the beast that lives in all of us? This deliciously provocative re-imagining of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic digs deep to answer the question. Smart, sexy and suspenseful, Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation takes us from Victorian drawing rooms to the grim alleyways of London as it examines the inner workings of two different personalities and the ties that bind them dangerously close."

We enjoyed every suspenseful minute!  We also reminisced about our days in Scotland when we visited Deacon Brodies Tavern in Edinburgh.  The tavern was named after William Brodie, a man believed to be one of the inspiration for Robert Louis Steven's character.




Once again, we were able to savor the memories of yesterday, melding them with new to expand our enjoyment of both.  What a perfect time of year for something a little spooky and thought provoking!  Best twin night ever!