Milwaukee's Best

Last weekend saw the Happy Hour pack it's belongings into a bindle and hop the rails North to Milwaukee for Jenny and Bill's* wedding at the Intercontinental Hotel. It was a lovely affair; the bride was glowing, the ceremony short and (very) sweet, the steak medium rare and the beer and wine complimentary.

Things really started to look up at the reception when they wheeled in a black and white photo booth (a known HHH fave).** This, coupled with a 'candy bar' that could only be described as revolutionary, really upped the ante and took the proceedings to a whole nother level. Soon enough, I broke out my dancing shoes - dammit, I packed two left shoes again - and was moonwalking to 'Billy Jean' with a belly full of gummy worms and a beautiful, very pregnant wife (seriously, how lucky am I?) who dances down to my level so as not to make me look bad.

A great night for Jenny and Bill, and really the whole city of Milwaukee if we're being frank. The next morning, on their recommendation, we hit up Trocadero for breakfast and it did not disappoint. A kick arse outdoor patio, cool decor and awesome food and Bloody Marys. I would honestly put it up against any Chicago brunch place (and Chicagoans love their brunch) any day of the week.

A quick, yet fruitful trip up to the land of cheese and beer. Congratulations Jenny and Bill and thank you for letting HHH sponsor such a raucous gala!

*Loyal HHH readers may recognize Jenny and Bill from the New Year's Eve incident/debacle/helluva time, as chronicled here.

**Seriously, the photo booth was so cool, that I typed the name and website of the rental place into my phone. As if I'm ever going to need to rent a black and white photo booth. But dammit, if that time ever does come, I will be ready.

***Check back at noon for the photo booth pics. Ultrasound results tomorrow.

Glowing! And I'm not talking about me.

Our little one gets his/her first kiss.

Whoops, too late!

Left bank quiche, rosemary potatoes. I know dudes aren't supposed to like quiche, but I tried Katy's and it was legit.

Baby Bump - Week 20

Week 20
Milwaukee InterContinental Hotel

Ahh, Week 20...the halfway point. Am I excited or scared about that? Definitely a little of both!

Things are still going smoothly and over the weekend we hit the road to Wisconsin for our friend Jenny's wedding. I'm happy to report that the reception offered a "Candy Bar" table lined with huge jars filled with all different kinds of candies for this preggy lady to enjoy. And enjoy I did!

Other than that, we're anxiously awaiting Thursday morning's big ultrasound appointment. We also need to get on the ball to figure out daycare for this kiddo in the spring, but it just seems so intimidating...so I'm still in "research" (aka "procrastination") mode. Advice is welcome!

Frontera Grill, 8/7

Last Friday, we noshed at our favorite local restaurant, Frontera Grill, helmed by the 'can do no wrong', Top Chef Masters-starring Rick Bayless. Lots of inappropriate sounds coming from our table...think When Harry Met Sally. On the menu:

Entrems Surtido: appetizer platter of cheesy quesadillas, crispy chicken taquitos with sour cream, tangy ceviche tostadas, crunchy jicama salad and guacamole.

Pato en Mole Negro: adobo-marinated Gunthorp duck breast in classic Oaxacan black mole (made from chilhuacle chiles and 28 other ingredients). Black bean tamales, garlicky braised black kale. To drink, a margarita followed up by a Michelada. Yes. Oh yes. A table of out-of-town cougars sitting next to us asked if they could watch me eat it. A bit kinky, but I agreed via an awkward laugh none-the-less.

They don't list desert on the online menu, but this was some cherry tart/pastry with a goat cheese ice cream. That last part may sound sketchy, but it was great. I'm no scientist, but the acidity of the cherries worked wonders with the tanginess of the goat cheese in a way that no dumb goat could ever imagine.

More Pictures of Cute Kids and Animals. 2010 HHH Kitten Calendar in the Works.

Sidney and Addison

A couple of weekends ago my friend Jami and her family came up for dinner. Being our official "Kid Expert Friends", Jami and John were able to give us the low down on baby gear, and their little ladies entertained us with some singing and dancing. As we hung out in our backyard, our super-friendly hippie neighbor brought one of her hens over for the girls to check out. Who knew you could get such a Jack Hanna experience on the north side of Chicago?

Katy and Jami

John and Addy checking out our neighbor's chicken. We then forced the girls to eat chicken nuggets. Luckily, they didn't make the connection.

Two Small Children and a Shark

While this shark is impressive, if I were to choose my attacker, this wouldn't cut it. Throw it back!

The last weekend in July brought the arrival of the younger brother of the The Handfelt Happy Hour landlord, birth name Cory Handfelt, along with his wife by law, Gretchen and their two children of 2 and 4 years, Sienna and Griffin. Along for the ride were Sienna's blanket Ellie and Cory's rather crippling allergic reaction to Carmella.

Arriving on Saturday after dealing with Griffin's unfortunate bout of car sickness (I blame Cory's propensity for blasting Clay Aiken), we gorged ourselves on Piatto Pronto before doffing our shirts and heading to Foster Beach. It was an slightly overcast day, but there were an unreasonable number of children there to keep the little ones occupied (I'm always amazed at the sort of unspoken bond that little kids can form with other little kids - it's both endearing and alarming) and enough shirtless Handfelts to keep the parents eyes occupied. After that, we headed back to house and grilled some skirt steak fajitas, which we paired with Iowa sweetcorn and beergaritas. Check please!

Sunday's activities consisted of a trip to the Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier, the former of which proved to be more successful than the latter. The sharks, beluga whales, dolphins and Caribbean Reef display were all big hits with both the little ones and big ones alike, although I would have liked to see a trainer or two get attacked. Maybe next time. For dinner we managed to sneak in a good meal for the adults at Big Jones, where their upscale burger is good enough to put Ronald McDonald on suicide watch.

The urban safari continued on Monday with a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo, where various creatures of the furry variety were examined from a distance, with monkeys providing the chief form of entertainment, although it was the stoic cool of the tiger that won Griffin's heart and eventually translated into a stuffed animal purchase at the Gift Shop.

From there, the ladies all went for pizza while the men hopped aboard the choo choo (Griffin, undeterred by the powerful scent of humid urine, loved his first ride on the El Train) to Wrigley Field for the boy's first Cubs game. Our seats were nosebleeds, but the little one didn't care so long as we plied him with sugary sweets, pizza and decaffeinated soda. He lasted longer than we could have hoped, as we made it all the way to extra innings (10 innings!) and got home just in time to catch Alfonso Soriano's walk-off home run in the 13th to win it.

The gang all returned to Iowa on Tuesday morning, but good times were had by all (except for Cory's sinuses and general will to live) and the kids seemed to really enjoy their first foray into the big city. For a full video recap of their trip, click here.

Sienna and Griffin at the Shedd Aquarium at some sort of seashell exhibit. Look at the girl in the pink checking out Griffin. Inappropriate, girl in pink! This is an Aquarium!


Cory and Griffin at the Cubs game. Cory is wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates shirt. No one razzed him for it, because honestly, they just feel sorry for him.

Sienna looking ridiculously adorable in her stroller at Navy Pier.

Griffin: "Did somebody say 'ridiculously adorable'?"

Children dancing!

Baby Bump - Week 19

Week 19
Inside the Handfelt Kitchen

It may have something to do with the potato salad, but I think Baby H's bump has gotten considerably larger over the last week. Here I am wearing one of the tops that Ben ordered for me, while prepping for our dinner with The Chung Clan on Saturday.

Today the world got a good look at Baby H even more when Ben and I spent the afternoon at the pool. Ben chastised me for not going down the water slide and said that I seem very "buoyant" in the pool (I'm just going to take that as a compliment and call it a day). Meanwhile, I encouraged him to say the word "baby" as loudly and often as possible so that our fellow pool-goers would overhear and not think I was just desperately in need of doing some ab crunches, ha!

I've spent the week downing ice water like there's no tomorrow (the thirst never ends!) and reading Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy and a Fleetwood Mac biography. Clearly I'm done with my summer class and am now onto some lighter reading before my life is consumed by parenting books and Baby Einstein DVDs.

Check ya next week - when we find out if this kiddo has X and Y chromosomes or two X's!

Random Photos of No Particular Consequence

Katy and I on a water taxi from The Shedd Aquarium to Navy Pier. Katy called this picture "blurry". I called it "artistic".

Post work outing with (from L-R) Shane 'Beovision' Smith, Amanda, Katelyn, Sarah and me. Two pics were taken, but the second suffered from 'torso problems' for me, so this is the big winner. Shane's excessive body odor kept him away from the rest of the group.