Weekend at Notre Dame

The Notre Dame Design school held a Design Conference the weekend of April 4th. Jeff was invited to speak as an honorary alumnus (he was actually a film major but took some design classes), so they flew him in from San Francisco. Sean and I drove to meet him there. We had a great time. Aunt Elizabeth took lots of photos on her camera, but we managed to get a few as well.

On Saturday the city of South Bend had a bunch of Easter-related activities downtown. Unfortunately we were "late," meaning that we got there on time but they had run out of materials (i.e., ceramic eggs to paint at the chocolate cafe, bunnies to stuff in the Bear Bus, places to sit on the horse-drawn cart, etc.). After a tense discussion with Sean about how the bus was closed,

we managed to distract him from the things that we could not do, and we found some other things to do instead.

Sean played with some other children on the field in front of the College Football Hall of Fame. He found the turf interesting for a while, then joined a quick game of football with some other kids.

Sean plopped down right next to this girl. I'm hoping she taught him that sitting still can be a nice thing to do sometimes.

Next we headed to the art museum where they had some crafts. I think I was more into it than Sean was. He did enjoy getting his hands all marked up though.

When the crafts got old we ventured into the walkway that goes over US31. I didn't even know this existed! My sister and I, who are both plant lovers but her thumb is much greener than mine, really enjoyed this part. I could have stayed here all day. It was nice and warm and sunny. Sean liked it too actually.

"Oh, no, I'm not getting into trouble!"

No plants were harmed (I think) during this photo shoot.

Back downstairs we took a little break for a snack and some Mama-climbing.

We checked out Robert Sedlack's exhibition. (Robert is on the faculty at ND and was the one who invited Jeff to speak at the Design Conference.) Jeff and Aunt E.B. looked around while Sean and I played with the window blinds and watched the river go by.

Later in the afternoon, there was an Easter egg hunt on the front lawn at Tippecanoe. There were too many people there for the amount of stuff they had, and for the amount of space. Here we are waiting for the guy to say, "Go!"

Sean managed to grab a purple egg with jelly beans inside. He liked them until he got to the black licorice one, then that was the end of it. Mom grabbed a little bag of South Bend chocolates. Yum! We got more too, but then we saw some other people who didn't get anything, so we gave away most of the rest of what we had picked up.

Look what else Mom found! Too bad it was empty. :)

We went to South Dining Hall for dinner, which was awesome. Pick whatever food you want, it's already cooked, go back for more, no dishes to do.... man was I spoiled as a student!

Sean had French fries, mashed potatoes, noodles, M&M's... all of his favorites. They even have a bean spread now, which I thought he would love. I got him a bowl of kidney beans, soybeans, and lima beans. He's my bean boy. For some reason he was not into it though. Those French fries are just not to be contended with!

Afterward, walking back to the car we found a rubber band ball on the ground. Sean played a little basketball with it for a while, until the big kids came and we decided to get out of the way.

I swear this kid could be a model.

You should zoom in (click on the picture) for this one.

We had an awesome time, and I am so glad we made it back to campus before leaving for San Francisco until the fall! Sean and I are heading out Saturday to join Jeff. The next post will be from California!