Pac-Man Cookies ::: Life's Simple Pleasures

Every time I visited my grandmother in Rhode Island growing up, we made a special trip to the Vienna Bakery. She always had to pick up fresh bran muffins in a pink box tied with string pulled from the ceiling, a pack of "torpedo rolls" for sandwiches for my grandfather, and... a Pac-Man cookie for me.

It was the early to mid-80s. Of COURSE everything was Pac-Man. It was such a simple design, and yet, made so many kids happy to see that shelf full of yellow, sugary goodness. It made up for the fact I had to eat a bran muffin the following morning.

My grandmother still lives in the same town, but now in lovely facility around the corner from her house. As I've mentioned with all of my recent family photo finds, things are being cleaned out slowly. My mom spent this past week there going through everything and visiting my grandma on her birthday.

Well, on her way home, she surprised me this afternoon with the best gift EVER. Vienna Bakery STILL makes Pac-Man cookies. =) TRAYS of them!!!! And 30 years later, they taste and look exactly the same. Talk about the perfect comfort food!!!!



Do kids even know who Pac-Man is? My mother told the woman behind the counter that this would totally make her 32 year old daughter's day, and the woman was thrilled. But I have a feeling I'm not the only whose day is made by these cookies... they appear to still fly off the shelves. :)

Wedding ::: 07.11.09 ::: Farmington, CT

Super cute couple Jessica and Mike got married last weekend in a gorgeous church in Farmington, with a celebration afterward at Apricots restaurant, right on the Farmington River! Keeping the Julia yammering to a minimum, without a further ado... some of my favorite shots! =)





Dad gettin' the best man all squared away...


Yeaaaaah.


Such a beautiful day! How have I lucked out every single wedding this season so far?!








I get such warm fuzzies when I see this...


How great was this tapestry?


Seriously, how adorable are they?!




Married!!!!


Everything was pink pink pink!






=) Uncle caught between his two nieces.


Have you ever seen a happier bride? She was giddy!


It must have been infectious...


Some detail shots... the invitations and the placecards and the programs all had a Renoir theme, so each table was a different Renoir painting.








Such a cute group!




I didn't catch the band's name, but they were great!


Even a teeny 5 week old little peanut joined everyone for a bit!


And one last one... I love the two layers going on here. :)


Huge congratulations, Jessica and Mike! Thanks again for having me along!

All Gussied Down ::: Nicole trashes her dress!

OK, so bear with me... this is the first time I've ever done this. My dear friend Nik has been asking me to do this for years, and I finally caved last week. =) Eeeek!

For anyone following who is not familiar with this "event," a lot of brides are choosing to "trash" their dresses after their wedding. Because the dresses cost oodles of money and very few people seem to hand them down, they opt to do something fun and funky, be it in an old barn, run-down warehouse, or the beach as the case may be.

Enjoy the insanity!















It was a little unnerving... we had quite an audience. They kept yelling "What are you DOING?!"










Yeah, the two of us are soooo not serious.


This shot, to me, is "emotionally in focus" (to quote Sam Puc')... it just makes me laugh, which is apparently what I was doing when I snapped it. =)




Serious.


Not.










Hot!




And home in the waterlogged 50lb dress.


Thanks for convincing me to do it, Nik. :smooch: I've been such a chicken, and I had a blast!