Frontera

This is Rick Bayless. We love him. We loved him on Bravo's Top Chef Masters and on his PBS show, Once upon a plate in Mexico (We do realize that we are nerds). When we found out we were coming to Chicago, one of my first thoughts was..."I get to eat at Rick Bayless' restaurant,Frontera!" ...which we did on Saturday, thanks to a gift card from the Drs. Fuentes:) Our meal was so very delicious.

The Lamb Family's Day Off

Yesterday, we felt adventurous and took a train into downtown. We had such a great time and didn't get lost, which was a feat in itself. We enjoyed walking around Millenium Park, Grant Park, and eating at Frontera. We felt very urban...despite the big North Face backpack,stroller, camera around the neck, and map in hand.Chicago, we are beginning to love you.
Here are some pictures taken of the city.










These are the steps (we think) where the people danced while Ferris sang on the parade float....we think. Either way, it warranted a picture.

Oscars Party 2010

Words are hard to describe my mother's Academy Awards Party. She really goes all out and it gets bigger and bigger every year. It really is one of our favorite nights of the year. It is HILARIOUS and SUCH FUN. The rule is...You have to dress as any movie character from 2009
Which results in the following:
Cast of THE SQUEAKUEL

Cast of THE BLIND SIDE

Max from Where the Wild Things Are, Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog, and a castmember from Whip It

The party planner herself, AMELIA EARHART

Julie and Julia and Up in the Air

The Cast of The Tooth Fairy (an Oscar snub, for sure)

The Cast of WHIP IT, AVATAR, and AN EDUCATION

The Cast of THIS IS IT and INVICTUS

The Cast of JULIE and JULIA

The Cast of UP



The DECOR:

The MENU: With 10 pictures in the Best Picture Category, my mom had her work cut out for her..but her Martha Stewart self prevailed. She made a dish for every single Best Picture Nominee.
1. Blue Corn Chips/Guacamole with Tree of Life: Avatar
2. English Tea/Scones: An Education
3. Humvee Hummus Wraps: Hurt Locker
4. Potato Latkes: A Serious Man
5. Tuohy's Taco Bell Tacos:Blind Side
6. KFC Bucket of Chicken: Precious
7. Apple Strudel: Inglorious _____ can't bring myself to finish that title;)
8. Assorted Soft Drinks/Peanuts/Warm towels: Up in The Air
9. Balloon molded bowls of chocolate filled with berries, etc: UP
10. 9 layered salad with a side of prawns: District 9
Here are some pics of just some of the dishes:

Weekend in Big D

This past weekend, we traveled down to Dallas for numerous reasons. 1. My Aunt Molly was in town 2. It was the Birthday of 2 of our favorite people 3. It was my mom's famous (or infamous) Oscar's Party,which definitely warrants it's own post...stay tuned. All in all it was a great weekend, except for me getting Awful Sickness 2010. We were loved on....which we needed.

Here are some highlights from our weekend...
Happy Birthday Papa and Aunt Sarah!

John got Sarah an awesome cake for her Birthday...

Ryann's weekend highlight definitely was receiving early birthday presents from Uncle John and Aunt Sarah and from Heather and Robert. As you can see, we are all about princesses and dress up these days



And finally,I got to meet one one of my best friend's baby..Beautiful Christi holding Beautiful Greta

We also loved seeing our friends, The Woods...why didn't I take a picture?!?

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Today we embraced the cold weather and enjoyed Snow Tubing down a hill in the Blackwell Forest Preserve. Ryann absolutely had a BLAST and we definitely got tired of the words, "slide, again?" Mark and I had fun too...nice family outing.

We LOVE our Snow Bunny



Some Snow Tubing Action Shots



Ryann, bundled up in all her cold-weather gear...like the kid from A Christmas Story

Wheaton Weekend

We are embarking on our second week in Chicagoland. This past weekend we walked around Wheaton and looked all around the college campus. Such a beautiful campus, full of such rich history. We embraced our inner nerd and looked all around the Wade Center, which houses one of C.S. Lewis' desks, one of Tolkien's desks, and the actual wardrobe that was the inspiration for the Narnia series. Very Cool. We were so excited to see it, since we absolutely love all things Narnia.



The Wardrobe

Tolkien Desk

Eating our way across Chicagoland

Our waistlines are expanding.Too many fun foods to try and way too cold to run. Oh well, c'est la vie. Thanks to our friends, the Rioses, we were given an extensive list of restaurants in this area and beyond. Below are the Chicago "musts" that we have eaten.
The video is of The Depot Diner. Mark and I saw this episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives a long time ago, and when we got here, we knew we had to go to this diner. It didn't disappoint. We shared the Open-faced Pot roast sandwich for our meal and the homemade donut holes with mocha/chocolate dipping sauce for dessert. Really unbelievable. Both were some of the BEST things we both have ever eaten.The atmosphere was so urban and cool. We are definitely coming back.


This is a "Chicago" stuffed pizza. Delicious. This is from Giodornos.People are either Giodornos people or Gino's East people. The Lamb vote is 1 to 1. Mark votes Giodornos and Erin votes Gino's East. Ryann is just happy to be eating pizza.

This is the "Chicago" style hot dog from Portillos. If you know me, you know I absolutely love hot dogs and this one didn't disappoint. We wanted to be purists, so we got it the traditional way...but I don't know about tomatoes on a hot dog?