Category Archives: Family + Friends

Bauer Family Fun Day

Saturday was a busy day for my family. It started in the early afternoon when my dad picked up Kris, Amy, Gavin and I from our apartment to celebrate Momma’s 16th birthday (not to be confused with last time she turned sixteen.)

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Kris immediately went to the piano to try out the new songs he learned. (Amy got him a keyboard for Christmas. He is a newbie but he’s picking it up fast.) Jim stepped in and showed him what’s what. Jim is a pro with a lot of instruments.

We had a delicious dinner of stuffed shells, salad and garlic bread. Somewhere around dessert time, Momma dove into her presents. One of them was a scrapbook of old photos. She talked us through each one of them.

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Later on we all spent some time by the fire. Momma went online, with some guidance from Jim and Kris.

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Gavin was playing Happy Street with my mom (not shown: sitting across the room) on his iPhone.

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Amy found a new use for the scarves we all got this year from mom – hiding from potentially embarrassing moments which are typically caused by my dad. (e.g. the “who’s your blog” incident from a few years ago which I promptly tweeted, or that 45-minute-long conversation about Dutch ovens, etc.)

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After Momma’s party (and some coffee), we rallied for the second family birthday of the day: Janice’s 31st birthday karaoke party in Korea town.

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Kris started us off, belting out some of his go-to songs.

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Janice took it from there. Gavin got into the duets. He and I sang the Aqua “Barbie Girl” song (soooooooo hilarious) and Bruno Mars’ “Marry You” (aw!) We stayed for awhile. Everyone got a few songs in, including her friends.

And then Janice opened her gift. Yay! More members of the matching scarf (or cowl, whatever it’s called) club.

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And, some also very awesome news: I tried out my new hair doughnut and it was fabulous. Amy put it in my hair for me. Check out that bun (above photo.)

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Post Holiday Activities

Everyone hung out in the living room while Kris and Amy worked “from home” on their laptops. Everyone in the room had some type of electronic device so it kind of looked like a LAN party- without the LAN. (Only Kris will get this reference.)

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At some point, Dad got us all upstairs to put the bunk beds together. It was an ambitious undertaking. But we did it.

I got inspired and started cleaning off all the surfaces I could get ahold of.

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Since it was snowing and Amy had no boots with her, she got a little crafty and made herself some plastic shoes. I went home in my pajama pants. (We is classy.)

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My dad drove the four of us back to Harlem. Kris and Amy took the train from there.