Sylvie and Miriam in Princeton!

Sylvie arrived at my place on Thursday night and attended a conference at Princeton on Friday and Saturday. And Miriam drove up from DC to surprise her after work on Friday night. By the time I got there on Saturday afternoon Miriam was hanging out at my house and Sylvie was still at her conference. Miriam and I went to the Whole Earth Center to get some late lunch and pick up some bananas and then picked up Sylvie from the conference. We got to hear all about Sylvie's day and then headed out for a great vegetarian Thai dinner at Tom Yum Goong. When we got home we decided to play Mille Bornes. It was so fun to just hang out with two great friends in my house. Here is Sylvie figuring out how to play:

For breakfast on Sunday we headed to the famous PJ's Pancake House on Nassau St. in Princeton. We had to wait in line outside (which is normal for a Sunday morning) and then ended up getting seats at the counter. It was a delicious breakfast and we all, of course, had at least a taste of pancakes. I now understand why people wait in line.

After breakfast we went on a little tour of campus to show Miriam around since she had never been there before. We took her into the beautiful chapel and on our way out came across this undergrad dressed as a squirrel. It was her "offering" for being in some club (Sylvie got the whole explanation). She was the happiest undergrad I've seen. We, of course, had to get a photo:

We continued our tour of campus and by the time we were done and got back to the house it was already 1pm. It's amazing how fast the day goes when you sleep until 9am. This is not something I'm used to.

We packed up the car and headed to my parent's house to meet up with John and Jill and the kiddos to celebrate my Mom's 60th Birthday (!) and Sebastian's 4th birthday. Here they are, two peas in a pod, cutting their cake:

We had cake and ice cream and presents and then the adults played Bananagrams (Sylvie and Miriam had never played before) and then we had a great dinner and stayed around to watch The Amazing Race on the big TV. It was really fun to get to show Sylvie and Miriam where I grew up and for them to meet John and Jill and my nephews (they had already met my parents in Boston). Here are the three of us in my parent's house:

I have to admit, it was tough to say good-bye to Sylvie and Miriam on Monday morning. It was so great to have such wonderful friends to hang out with and to have them in my house. Every time someone comes to visit it just makes it feel more like home. When I got home on Monday evening, I noticed this awesome message on my white board:

Yeah, it's still there.