Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Is there a doctor in the house?

Oh yes, there sure is--just not the kind you're thinking of! :-)

As I mentioned before, Aaron passed his dissertation defense back in July, and he is now officially Dr. Kennedy! UND's summer graduation was held last weekend, so we had a bunch of friends and family in town to celebrate!

Aaron's family arrived on Thursday, so that evening, we had them over for a cookout (my dad grilled his famous chicken), and Zoey got to meet her great-grandparents for the first time! Here she is with her Great Nana:


Friday was the actual graduation ceremony. Here is Aaron with his advisor, Dr. Xiquan Dong:


Unfortunately, we had to get to the graduation venue over an hour early in order to get a good seat, so by the time the ceremony actually started, Zoey was "done" with having to sit still and be quiet...lol.



We stayed long enough to watch Daddy walk across the stage and get hooded (thank goodness Ph.D. grads were first!), then she and I joined about 8 other mommies and restless babies out in the lobby to wait for the ceremony to conclude. Oh well! We got to see what we came for! I'm hoping to have some more (and better) family pictures that our friends Feng and Rona took. (Also: this picture is as prime example of why I'm suddenly motivated to get back on the weight-loss bandwagon. Yikes. I still look very pregnant!) :-(


Our good friends from college, Michael and Kristen, drove in from Minneapolis that afternoon, with their 11-month-old daughter, Sarah, in tow. (Zoey's BFF!) We're so glad they were able to come celebrate with us! After graduation, the whole gang went to L'Bistro for dinner. It was good, and probably one of our better L'Bistro experiences, quite honestly, but Grand Forks is REALLY missing a family-friendly upscale restaurant. We have Toasted Frog, but it's 21+ only. Sanders is definitely not somewhere to take a baby or toddler. L'Bistro has the ambience, but the food is lacking. Bummer. We are getting a Ruby Tuesday soon, so even though it's a typical chain, it's at least a little nicer than Applebee's or Texas Roadhouse.

The gang at L'Bistro:



Zoey did great, even if we did keep her out past her bedtime...


Saturday was the long-awaited shindig I've been planning for Aaron. We went all out for this party - I rented a pavilion (they call them "shelters" up here) at one of the city parks; we got two kegs of beer; the lunch was catered; and a local bakery made a great cake, plus fruit and cookie trays. The only problem? It was supposed to rain allllll day. Yeah. I left Zoey with Aaron for the morning, while I first headed to Happy Harry's to pick up the Boulevard and Honeyweiss kegs we had ordered. I got to the park, got out of the car, and realized they had only given me one tap for two kegs. Back in the car, back to the liquor store, pick up new tap, back to the park. Slight panic when I realize that the pavilion is wet, even underneath the roof. Fortunately, the rain stayed pretty light, so we were able to use a broom to get rid of most of the standing water. I kind of got organized and got some decorations going, when my parents showed up to help. They were a huge help! Mom and I arranged the tables and got the decorations set up, while my dad got the beer kegs ready (of course!). The only major snafu (other than the weather, which turned out to be fine--we'd rather be confined to the pavilion because of light rain than roasting in the heat!) was with the caterer. 100%, without a doubt, the ONLY reason why I went with them over other options was because they grill their food on-site, rather than preparing it beforehand and serving it in warmers. Well, when I called the guy to confirm everything the day before, I warned him of the rain, and apparently that equals no grilling. Honestly, it wasn't a big deal, and the food was still great, but it could have been better, and I would have liked to have had that communicated to me so I wasn't totally surprised the day of, when the food showed up in chafing dishes. Oh well. Here are some pictures, of course...















1 comment:

  1. LOVE the cake, and the buttons and mugs, what a great idea! Looks like a fabulous time was had by all! Happy Graduation to Aaron!

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