May Day 2019

Happy May Day!

By a happy accident, we were already scheduled to have a twin night on May day.

We decided to celebrate this May day with Beltane traditions.

We ate honey cherry cakes and had some red wine before lighting our Beltane fires in the ARN chapel!

Our lavender peach candles were heightened with dragon blood incense.

The traditional Beltane colors of red and white were brought into our celebration through flowers.

As Ashley has had a string of bad luck and Emily has had illness in her house, we decided to use the smoke to cleanse us as we enter spring.

We lit our candles and wrote an incantation to recite as we walked through the purifying smoke.

"With lavender smoke the Beltane fires we stoke.

We walk through the smoke of this Beltane fire and ask this- our true desire.

Walking on the eve of this May day may he things that weigh us down fall away.

Cleanse us of all winter's ills and strengthen us in our celtic spells.

I am her and she is me. So mote it be."

We walked through the smoke and recited our incantation three times.

Then we moved on to our next task.  

We wanted to charge some lavender spray as a way to bring these blessings into the coming weeks of spring.

We meditated, holding hands and envisioning spring: its renewal, growth, and promise of sunshine.

Then we placed our spray in our hands and drew light through it while reciting our incantation three times.

"Charge this spray on Beltane day.

Imbue it with spring's cleansing powers and accept our offering of these flowers.

I am her and she is me. So mote it be."

 After our sprays were charged with good energy, we gave ourselves a spritz and headed to our next part of the night.

We arrived at Studio Move Grill to see The Sorcerer's Stone!

We always try to see our favorite HP movie whenever it shows on the big screen!

We ordered pretzel bites with queso, a burger and mac&cheese, chocolate beignets and wine.

The chocolate beignets were unforgettable-especially as they arrived just as we were asked, "Anything from the TROLLEY!"

Our entrees arrived just as Dumbledore announced, "Let the feast begin!"

There are few experiences we like better than seeing this film on the big screen with a nice glass of red.

We wore our witch hats and ravenclaw/hufflepuff regalia.

Of course there were a few looks - most of them seemed envious.

The theatre was nearly empty which made the evening even more special.

Spring has sprung!  Many fun twin nights to come!

New Office Part 2

Easter at Gilbert Farms

The Gilberts hosted everyone at the farm for Easter this year!

They had all the food you could image and beautiful decorations all throughout the house!

Greg had the honor of cutting the ham.

All that spiral goodness!

Natalie had set the table with burlap and bunnies.

The food was incredible!  Everyone loved the twice baked potatoes.

Nora almost ate everyone's peas!

Of course, one of the best parts was sharing the day with gran.

Mom sent a bunny sweater and she sipped coffee and watched all the hoppin' fun!

Lenora loved the gold glittering eggs.

Of course their were sugar cookies!

Once we had our fill of Easter foods, the egg hunt took place outside.

From their comfortable seat on the front porch, Ashley and gran watched the mad scramble for colored eggs!

The eggs were hidden all along the path, fountain and front yard.

There were likely more than 100 eggs!

After the big hunt, the kids all opened their eggs in the living room to see what they got.

Gummies and coins were filling most of the plastic eggs.

After opening all the eggs and Easter presents, the kids did crafts with aunt Natalie.

Then we posed for some group photos before the kids totally crashed.

It was a perfect day of family, food and fun!

Great Easter!  He is risen!

New Gatch Office Part 1

Saturday with Gran

On this chilly Saturday, we had plans to take the kids to the Hoosier Village playground.

We wanted to see gran and let her enjoy the babies today, but things did not go to plan.

Ashley picked up lunch, and Emily brought the kids directly to the Hoosier Village park.

When Ashley came in to grab gran, her blood pressure was sky high.

So we decided to let the kids play for a bit and then have a low-key hangout in gran's apartment.

The kids loved rolling around on gran's carpet and showing her all their skills.

Ashley was making up PJ Masks stories with Victor and we all had a nice time.

After a couple hours, gran looked exhausted, so we let her rest and went home.

Great day just hanging out with gran and the kids!

Massages at Ironworks

This twin night was all about deals and relaxing!

We started by meeting at Maggiano's for dinner.

We had never been here before, but we had a deal from the DiscoverIndy book, so we took a chance.

We both ordered the lighter take chicken parmesan and had a bottle of red wine.

It exceeded all expectations!

The atmosphere was very 1920s chic and the food was excellent!

We were very pleased with our wine selection and took our time enjoying the sites, smells, and tastes of Italy.

Next we made our way to Iron Works for our 8 PM couples massage.

We had purchased a Groupon for a girls' weekend that never happened, so we made our own fun of it.

We had booked deep tissue massages and were looking forward to a relaxing evening.

Unfortunately, the massages were really not very good.

But a bottle of wine and a dark room for an hour was still a great way to spend a Monday night!

Fun twin times!

2019 Irish Weekend

After a few weeks of Ashley being abroad, we were finally able to get together for St. Patrick's Day!

We started our festivities by meeting at Hoosier Village for some breakfast with gran!

Ashley prepared a beautiful crustless quiche with corned beef, cabbage, onion and carrot!

It was absolutely perfect!

Emily accented it with some green fruit and of course there was Irish coffee!

Gran was so surprised to see us!

We had our green on and played some Irish tunes.

Then we watched the 1986 O'Neal Reunion tape with gran and shared laughs and tears.

Pretty soon it was time to pack it up and head downtown.

It was so cold this year that we forwent a lot of our normal activities.

Instead of attending the parade, we decided to check out the Hoosier Lottery tent party.

It was being held in a heated tent and Highland Reign was playing!

We had a chance to catch up with Robert and the gang.

It was a great set-up because parking was available 20 ft from the tent! LOL

After having a green beer at the tent, we made our way to our Airbnb rental.

The model apartment was furnished and equipped with a kitchen and washer/dryer.

It really had everything we needed and overlooked the walk route!

Perfect spot!

Ashley decorated the place with special Irish touches and we made ourselves at home.

We could not have been ANY closer to all the action!

We unpacked and poured ourselves some snakebites to talk about our plans for the evening.

We had a lot of catching up to do after weeks of being apart!

So much to cover - work, trips, kids, gran, feelings - everything!

We had to cut ourselves off from talking all night - get ready and walk over to Nine Irish Brothers for dinner.

It was a VERY chilly walk!

We arrived in time to get a perfect booth right next to the stage.

Ashley ordered Irish Nachos and Emily had the classic corned beef and cabbage.

We both had snakebites!

The band, Lachlan, was slated to play, but only one member showed up of the two.

Additionally, he seemed quite bitter of his stance in life and sang of Disney deaths and other morose topics.

He did, however, take requests - and we got to hear Galway Girl.

We met some interesting strangers and stayed a few pints past our initial instinct.

We finally headed out when the singer packed it in.

We got an Uber back to the apartment due to the increasingly cold weather.

Ashley made sure we had some rainbow goldfish and cucumber eye masks as we fell into bed.

Next morning, we were achy and cold!  A quick check of the weather revealed 20 degree temps and wind.

In light of the cold- we made the joint decision to have our Lucky Charms and coffee, take our time getting ready and enjoy the morning.

After leisurely packing it up, we checked out and stashed our bags in the car before checking out the tent party.

Highland Reign was playing their set and we made our way around the tent.

We found a perfect spot between the two main areas where the music was not so overpowering.

It was a great spot to take in the sights and sounds in our celtic scarves and shamrock crowns.

Afterwards, we made our way back to the nearby car and dropped Ashley at the college where she was parked.

It was a sad goodbye as time went by so fast this year.

We agreed to share photos of the rest of the weekend with one another to share in all the leprechaun antics.

We agreed that next year we need to participate in more events or the time just slips by too quickly.

The Greening, the parade, the walk....all missed this year.

But we did have the time with gran, the traditional food and the pub experience!

Not at all a failure, but room for change next year.

With the changing family and job dynamics, every year carries its unique challenges.

This year was a little scaled back due to weather, small kids and international travel, but it was worth every minute!

Shamrockin' good time!