19th Anniversary - A Few Favorite Places in Lansing

This winter was cold.  So very cold, for so very long.  The cold coupled with Alice's robotics schedule didn't leave Billy and I time or desire to celebrate our anniversary before early April.  We finally decided that we could just go to a few local places that we enjoy and make an evening of it.

We started up at Batter up Bistro, my favorite brunch place!

We were going to go to Moriarty's next, but they were not yet open, so we walked the rest of the block to Stober's.  We had the shuffleboard to ourselves for several rounds.  

Sadly, they do not have a Touchtunes jukebox, so once we were tired of shuffleboard, we walked back the other direction to Moriarty's!  We played some darts and enjoyed the live band when they came on.  We even ran into Ms. Jones!

It was a pleasant, indoor, way to celebrate 19 years!

later days

18th Anniversary- Return to Grand Rapids
17th Anniversary - English Inn: Holmes and Watson

16th Anniversary - Nico's
15th Anniversary- Etran Adventure
14th Anniversary- Ann Arbor
13th Anniversary- The trip that wasn't
12th Anniversary - Toledo
11th Anniversary - St. Louis
10th Anniversary - Fish Grille, Waxahachie
9th Anniversary - Ft. Worth
8th Anniversary - Arby's
7th Anniversary - Hookah bar
6th Anniversary - Thai Chili
5th Anniversary - Carino's - Waxahachie
4th Anniversary - Flemming's Steakhouse @ City Centre
3rd Anniversary - Dinner Movie Theater
2nd Anniversary - Le Mistral
1st Anniversary - Paris

Recap of 1st-5th

edit 6-15-26: backdated for continuity.

43rd Birthday

I had an excellent multi day birthday, starting with the delivery of my new luggage!  One of our sets started acting up on our return trip from Poland, so Billy bought me a brand new set, and I found a set from the same company for cheap at an estate sale, so now we've been able to completely overhaul our luggage!

The day before my birthday, Billy tried to take me to Horrocks for their breakfast brunch bar.  Sadly, they don't actually start setting it out until 11, and despite the fact that it was the day after the time change, it was slow in coming out.

We did walk around to see what there was to see. I took a picture to show the kids cooked vs uncooked shrimp.

 

And sent a picture of this giant squash to Kristy!

We also saw some sugar cane.  Horrocks is so cool.

But we were hungry, and the food was too slow in coming, so Billy used AI to find a new brunch place in Lansing!  

Batter Up Bistro was lovely!  I enjoyed my eggs benedict, for a couple of days in fact!

Billy liked his breakfast sandwich too!

Emily and Grace made my cake, and they made two boxes worth!  It was a massive cake.  It was so tasty though!  I felt awfully special with my cake and cards and homemade gifts!

Man, my poor blog is so out of date, tomorrow marks a full month since my birthday!!  As the saying goes, "better late than never, but better never late!" So this will be printed back in early November.

later days

edit 12-2-25: backdated for continuity.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a weekend ordeal this year for our family!  Emily had back-to-back sleepovers, so all was saw of her was picking her up from one friend's house and driving to the next one.   Alice spent Saturday hanging out with her friend too, so we took the three youngest to Chuck E Cheese!

It had been a while since we'd been, and the place was empty when we arrived!  

The three of them had a really good time, and are excited to go back next time.  Grace and I also ducked over to Goodwill, where she scored 9 books from the set, I survived, that she's currently into! We got back in plenty of time for Alice to return, and had a quiet evening.  This helped dull the sting of not being invited to brunch on Sunday.

For Mother's Day, Grace tried to bring me breakfast in bed, but was a little slow, and I was already up and dressed.

It was a sweet gesture though, and a nice way to start the morning.

Billy scheduled, just the two of us*, a brunch reservation at the Tavern & Tap.  They had a special menu, and as predicted, I got the eggs benedict.

Billy got the benedict burger, which was pretty much my egg, on a hamburger instead of English muffin. = )

We weren't due to pick up Emily until 3, so we walked around downtown Lansing and played some Pokemon Go.

The city planners did a phenomenal job of presenting the capitol building from each direction!

Our walk took us down to Jackson field, where there was a game in progress.  It turns out it was a college finals game, and since it was the eight inning, we got free entry!

I love this stadium so much!  Since there were plenty of empty seats, Billy and I found a place where he could sit in the shade, and I could sit in the sunshine!

GLIAC Baseball Tournament.  This was the final game: GVSU vs SVSU.  We threw our support to the team in red, since that tends to be who we root for.  Sadly, our team didn't win, but it was a fun way to waste an hour!

From there it was time to go collect our Emily, and get ready for our week!

later days

*With the exception of, maybe, Emily, our kids are not yet old enough to appreciate the food at this price point, and having a leisurely brunch with Billy was more enjoyable than bringing all five along to start asking about leaving the second they've finished their 4 bites of food.  I do look forward to the day when I can sit and chat with all of my dear ones over a Mother's Day brunch, and I don't think that day is too far off, if our dinner time conversations are any indication! 

edit 5-27-24: backdated for continuity.