Belated Valentine's Day, that is. I started this post yesterday but couldn't manage to find the time to finish it. It's review time at work, and at home we're playing the all-consuming, time-sucking, silly, manipulative car buying game.
We're not doing much in the way of Valentine's Celebrations, but we did have a lovely family weekend in Boston this past weekend. We found a cheap hotel in South Boston near UMass, so after crashing for the night, we started out our Saturday in a local establishment.
It was called the Galley Diner which I had found via Yelp. You couldn't beat the local atmosphere, and the staff was very welcoming. The food was just okay.
Check out these two neighborhood thugs.
After that, the girls and boys parted ways. The boys went to the JFK museum and library while we girls hopped on the T to do some shopping.
Doesn't she look like a pro?
We got off at Park street and headed straight to Windsor Button where I got 10 bucks worth of bulk buttons and some pretty Malabrigo lace weight yarn. I asked there if there were any fabric stores nearby (which I had totally researched before hand - I wasn't about to leave that to chance!). The super-friendly guy behind the counter gave me excellent directions to WinMil fabrics which was just a five minute walk away.
As much as I LOVE quilt shops, it was nice to visit a store that seems to specialize more in garment fabrics. Addie was being a bit wild, so it was hard for me to concentrate on picking the right things, but I found some hot pink, nice heavy wool for a jacket for her and a couple of selections to try to make something for her older sister. After that, it was all about shopping for the girls.
After being dragged around for a while, I needed a break, so we stopped at a cute little cupcake shop called "Sweet". The decor was really cute, and it was very quiet in there.
Yes, those are Addie's socks on the table. Maggie was helping her change into her new socks and shoes.
It was very pleasant and relaxing to sit in there for awhile and look at the pretty view out the window. You can't tell from the photo, but there was just a bit of snow falling lightly.
We continued to shop and ended up at Quincy Market. I think we hit just about every shop there including Baby Gap where Addie modeled this hat.
Right in front of the boys underwear. Cute.
We finally headed to Chinatown where we were due to meet. The boys had moved on to the science museum and were still there when we arrived, so we hung out with some shady looking characters at MacDonald's while we waited for them to catch up.
Once we met up, we walked a few blocks to get Dim Sum. I had it once in Hong Kong over 10 years ago then one other time in Boston and have been wanting to get my family to try it ever since.
The boys were really good sports about trying it. They (including my husband) liked the pan-fried pork dumplings the best. My favorite, hands down, are the sweet sesame balls.
My oldest was a pro with the chopsticks. My younger son, not so much.
But I guess if you can't bring the food to you, bringing yourself to the food works.
My oldest, Joe, spent almost the entire meal trying to get Addie just to try a bit of the dough around the pork buns. No luck, but it was fun anyway to get the family to experience a bit of food culture. I'm sure there are several good places for Dim Sum in the area. We ended up at a place called Winsor Dim Sum Cafe which again, I had found via Yelp. We were quite happy with it. We had a nice big table. The service, food, and atmostphere were all great. What more could you want?
Once we got back to the hotel, the girls chilled out in front of the TV while the boys conquered the world with a game of Risk.
I'm not sure whether or not the Ukraine was weak in this game, but 10-year-old, Frank was quite pleased with his first ever success in world domination.











