Dinner At Drew's Apartment

Last night we hopped in the van with all the makings for a pizza party and headed to Richmond. It was me, Alex, Hannah, and Shauna. Luke had to work and we invited Gramma, but she had to work at 5:30 am both Saturday and Sunday, so she couldn't join us. Mikey had stayed in DC to help a friend move, so he drove down and met us at Drew's place.

Drew

Drew and Julian cleaned the kitchen before I got there, which I appreciated, since pizza making takes up a lot of room! I pre-made the crusts and mixed the sauce at home, but even the assembly/cooking process uses a lot of space. They had some fresh pineapple, which was so good on the pineapple/bacon pizza. I normally like canned pineapple better, but in this case, fresh was so much better.

Drew in his clean kitchen

I was very impressed by Drew's room and bathroom. They were neat and clean! What??? Is this the same kid whose room had to be cleaned by me and my now infamous snow shovel??? When he moved out of his bedroom (or was forced out by me!), it was a room worthy of any Hoarders television show. He isn't a hoarder because he has no problem parting with things, he was just too lazy to actually get rid of them. Anyway, his room was spotless. I checked the closet since I thought he might have shoved everything in there, but it was perfect. Clothes were hanging neatly there was a cat carrier on the floor and a couple of things on the shelf. It was probably the neatest closet I've ever seen! I asked one of his roommates, Julian, if he cleaned for days before we came and he said no, Drew always keeps his room like that! Julian is well acquainted with Drew's old room, so he is just as surprised as we were. I talked to Drew about it and he said he just never let it get messy. Just like his mom! (Shut up, Denise!)

Hannah, Shauna, and Alex, enjoying Drew's front porch

Anyway, the weather was absolutely perfect and we enjoyed our pizza and conversation out on their front deck. The kids, especially Alex, were very impressed with the active and interesting area that they live in. It is called The Fan district of Richmond and they are right on a main road, so people are constantly walking/jogging/skateboarding/roller blading by. It is a prime people watching spot. I still can't get over how gorgeous it was, between the perfect weather and the beauty of the area. The street is all large, old houses and the median is lined with crape myrtles, which are in full bloom. It was very relaxing and we had lots of fun conversation. Besides Julian and Drew, their other roommate, Mario, stopped by for a little while. We hadn't met him, yet, so it was nice to finally put a face to the name. Hannah thought he was cute, speaking of his face! One of their neighbors, Ryan, joined us, also, as well as two of Mario's longtime friends. Everyone enjoyed the pizza and Julian gave me the ultimate compliment when he told me this was the first time he has actually felt full in longer than he can remember. It was so good to meet everyone and spend time with Drew and Julian. Julian was a regular at our house for many, many years before they moved to Richmond. Have I ever blogged about the time Julian scared the crap out of my by climbing up to the second story porch and coming in that way?

Me and the sign that used to hang in the cafe at the rink

Living Room wall and cool neon artwork. That door leads to the front porch.

Alex had been having trouble falling asleep Friday night, so he baked a cake at 4:00 am! Shauna was his partner, although it sounds like she mainly cleaned up his mess! The cake was awesome. Since he didn't have access to my frosting recipes (they are on my computer, which is password protected), he looked a recipe up on his ipod. It was really delicious and he had decorated it to look like the beach. He used graham cracker crumbs mixed with cinnamon (which I thought was going to taste horrible on a cake, but it was so good!) for the sand. Then he used medium blue sprinkles for the ocean and light blue for the sky. It really looked like the beach, it was amazing. He tinted the frosting the perfect blue. I was impressed.

At the end of the night, we had to part with Mike, as it didn't make sense for him to come all the way home for a little over 12 hours. He headed back up north and we headed to Drew's Walgreens to pick up a DVD of my 2nd birthday party. We got to see the wild cats that live there, that Drew has been telling me about. We saw 5 or 6, including one with no tail. The clerk at Walgreens was super sweet and so excited about meeting "Drew's Mommy", as she called me. I'm working on uploading the video to You Tube, but Jack has to reformat it for me, so I had to send it to him. Hopefully, I will be able to get it up by tomorrow. I have to say that Jack was very patient with me, giving me detailed instructions on how to decrypt the birthday DVD and send him the information he needs to make it You Tube ready for me. His phone was acting up so he couldn't call me and mine kept going into roaming and was taking forever to send and receive texts. He didn't even yell at me once! I think it took almost an hour start to finish.

Speaking of my infamous snow shovel, keep an eye out for a rebuttal post to the above highlighted link from Denise! The Hotel Cinderella posts are in the works, as well. I just need some more time and energy in the day to get it all done.