Scenes from Saturday (Baby Shower Style)

April 28, 201313 Comments

Good morning! Yesterday, we had the pleasure of hosting a dear friend’s baby shower at our apartment. As you may remember, there’s a group of us (including our moms) who have been friends since, well, forever- we call ourselves the Shapleigh Girls. Sara is expecting a little baby boy in just 5 weeks and since we live with her sister and we have a big enough apartment to host a party, we decided to throw her a shower here. I love that we have such a big, spacious, open apartment that is perfect for these types of things. And, when we get it all cleaned up, it looks even better!

I didn’t get many pictures because I was busy playing hostess and writing down all of the gifts she received (and, boy, did she receive some amazing gifts!! She is one lucky momma, that’s for sure.), but here are some that I did get. Amy (Sara’s sister and our roommate) decided to do a themed shower where all of the food related to a children’s book. I thought this idea was SO cute and it made it fun trying to find what food/books to pick.

As you can see, the food was amazing! And the book theme came out really well. I am so impressed with Amy and her mom’s planning because it took a lot of time to get everything “just right”. I made the cookies for “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”, but they were nothing in comparison to the crazy-cute cupcakes that Amy made. They were almost too cute to eat. Almost, being the key word. I think the meatballs were probably my favorite (no surprise there), but the avocado deviled eggs were pretty amazing, too (we did avocado to get a green tint to go with “Green Eggs and Ham”). We sent people home with lots of leftovers, but luckily there was enough for us to keep some, too!

My sister and Sara, the beautiful mom-to-be!

My sister and sweet little Emma Jean!

Emma loved her Lovage baby food!

The original Shapleigh Girls

Mom and her girls! (yes, I know I look like a giant next to her)

My favorites. I cannot get over how amazing Sara looks for being just a month away from her due date.

Gotta have a belly grab photo!

So, there you have it. Yesterday afternoon was so wonderful. Sara was showered with love and presents and support… We are all ready for the little boy to come out, so hurry up!

Questions for you: Do you like hosting parties at your place? Any friends expecting babies soon? I have a bunch- it’s crazy!

Birthday Celebrations

April 18, 2013April 17, 20136 Comments

Ok, ok. I know. You’re probably all sick of hearing about my birthday, but I promise this is it! I want to have this as a reminder of how wonderful my birthday was this year. It was definitely one for the books. So many cards, texts, flowers, emails, Facebook notes… I feel SO blessed and loved. I wish it could be my birthday every day!

Most of you probably saw how I spent my Saturday, but if you didn’t, go check it out! It was a busy day for sure, but it was fun because I was able to pamper myself a little! Saturday night, some of my closest girlfriends and I got all done up and headed to The Brahmin for dinner before other friends met up for drinking. The girls know me so well because Jessi, Danielle and Amy all got me Prosecco! Amy also got me flowers:)

We headed to the Brahmin around 7pm so that we could eat and relax and not worry about the ridiculous line that forms there by, like, 9pm. It’s insane!

The food was really quite tasty and we loved that it was all tapas style since we love sharing food! The waitress brought over shots and I think that’s what got me going to a drunken place I don’t tend to go! Luckily, I remembered dessert! 😉

I was so happy to have so many friends around to make my birthday so special!

And, a gym friend even came! Of COURSE we had to bring the guns out… it’s a gym thing.

Not long after this, it was time for me to go home. Luckily, Rachel was nice enough and got me into a cab safely. THANK YOU, friend! JP sent me this photo the next day and it pretty much sums up the night and how happy I was:

…….

My parents came into the city on Tuesday for post-birthday celebrations. We totally lucked out and had gorgeous weather. The city was still a little somber after Monday’s Marathon events, and the security/police presence was bigger than I’ve ever seen it, but we still made the best of the day. I loved seeing all the marathon runners wearing their blue jackets. I wanted to run up and hug every one of them.

We opted to stay in the Faneuil Hall and North End part of the city, which was fine by me. We played tourist walking up and down along Quincy Market,

and decided to have lunch at the Salty Dog. Lunch was delicious (I splurged on a fried catfish sandwich!), the beer (first Sam Summer of the season) was so refreshing, but the company was the best part!

After lunch, we walked along the water and up the back end of Hanover street. My mom wanted to take some cannoli’s home, so obviously Mike’s Pastry was a necessary stop. I couldn’t believe it-the line was short! This is unheard of at this place. I got a red velvet cupcake and then later stopped and got a gelato. So tasty!

All that walking around really made us thirsty, so a stop at Bell In Hand was a perfect place to quench our thirst before my parents went to catch their train at North Station.

I was sad to see them leave, but so thankful that I got to spend such a fun day in the city with them. They are just the cutest little people around!

So, there you have it- my 28th birthday celebrations are FINALLY all documented! If you made it this far, thanks for sticking through this monster post!

Questions for you: What’s the most memorable birthday you’ve had? Do you play tourist in your city?

Girls Night!

March 24, 201312 Comments

Good morning, everyone! Going into the weekend, I had anticipated that I would wake up today feeling like I had had too much to drink. Lucky for me, last night ended up being much more laid back than I had thought and we were all home and in bed by 11:15!

For those of you who do not know me on a personal level, I live with my sister and our long-time friend from home, Amy. Only 2 miles down the road, lives our other long time friend from home, Rachel (she lives with her husband, but Rachel and I were roommates for the first 3+ years that I lived in Brighton). Sara is the last piece of the “Shapleigh Girls” puzzle, but she lives in NH with her husband (she is expecting a little baby boy on May 30th and we are all SOOO excited!!). Here’s all of us together at Rachel’s bridal shower back in December of 2011:

(From L to R: my sister, Danielle, our roommate, Amy, Sara- who is Amy’s sister- me, and Rachel)

Anyway, Danielle, Amy, Rachel and I try to get together for a “girls night” every month or every month and a half. We all have very busy lives, so it’s nice to get a night on the calendar where we all go out and catch up for hours! It’s always fun to figure out what restaurant we are going to go to, as well.

For Danielle and Amy’s birthdays back in December, we went to Sip which was amazing. The wine options and food options and prices were on spot and perfect for our ideal night: order lots of different apps to share and keep the wine coming!

Last month (I think?) we went to Gem which is in the downtown crossing area of the city. Amy randomly found this restaurant on a Groupon offer and we LOVED everything about it. The atmosphere and the service and the food were all perfect… and of course, the company was even better. I always feel bad for the people around us because we are SO loud and talk so much. Whoops! This was a super fun night because we went out to Brahmin after.

Last night, we ended up going to Scollay Square, which is on Beacon Street.

We had to wait a little bit for our table to be ready, so we grabbed a drink at the bar.

Shortly after we got our drinks, our table was ready. In typical Shapleigh Girl fashion, we got a bunch of different things to share. As we finished one item, we would put in an order for something else. I like doing this because it’s so easy to over order when eating out. By taking it slow and enjoying the things we order in a spaced out time frame, we can gauge our hunger and stop when we are pleasantly satisfied.

We started with the oven-roasted goat cheese and the guacamole (sorry for the dark photo’s…my iphone didn’t like the lighting in the restaurant).

Both of these were delicious, but I have to say that the oven-roasted goat cheese was out of this world!! We were just talking about how we needed to try to re-create that in our own home ASAP.

Next up was a Grilled Pear Salad with Chicken

Our final course was a hamburger (so random), which I failed to get a photo of. Overall, the food was really good, although we all agreed that it wasn’t our favorite restaurant that we’ve been to.

Post dinner, we decided to grab a quick drink at Mooo, which was right next door. Anyone ever been? It’s a bit on the swanky/upscale end of Boston restaurants, but definitely a fun place to grab a drink!

As you can see, these girls are my everything! We always miss Sara, but when we are all home in Maine together, it’s like nothing has changed. The best part, is that our moms are best friends, too. I mean, look how fun these two are!

(Christine, on the left, is Sara and Amy’s mom, and our mom is on the right)

We are all so lucky that we have remained such good friends for SO long. We were telling the waitress this last night because she was totally getting a kick out of how we were ordering and how much we talked and finished each other’s sentences. What can we say? We are besties!

Questions for you: Do you have any friends like this? Do you try to do a “girls night” every month or two? Any good restaurants to add to our lineup?

I am not sure what the rest of the day entails, but I am hoping some type of physical activity (probably keeping it light since today is supposed to be an active rest day) along with a Target trip and a Sunday meal! Also, my sister studied abroad in Greece at CYA and they are having a get together in Boston tonight, so I told her that I’d join her. Looking forward to it!