Category: Holiday/Special Occasion

Birthday Celebrations & Labor Day Weekend in Maine

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Hi, hi! I hope you all had a nice long weekend! Although mine was fairly busy, it was really fun. Plus, there’s something about being home in Maine that just makes me feel relaxed, even if we are on the go a lot!

Since I had to teach on Saturday morning, I was around on Friday night and able to go out with Athena and her friends and gym friends for her birthday! Athena decided she wanted to go to The Asgard, which is a really fun bar in Cambridge. I had been once, but it was years ago, so I was excited to go back. I wasn’t necessarily excited about making the trek in from East Boston using public transportation, but I’m trying to save money where I can, so I did it! And, in all honesty, door to door was only about 40 minutes, which wasn’t that bad. It was nice to get to hang out with the YMCA gym ladies and also really nice to meet Athena’s friends in person, versus online (Slesh! I’m talking about you! haha)

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It was also nice to be served this ginormous goblet of vino from the bar tender 😉

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I only had 2 drinks while at the bar, but when I woke up on Saturday morning, I felt like I had had much more. I blame the goblet! Regardless, it was fun getting out and meeting new people and celebrating Athena’s birthday!

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After teaching on Saturday, Danielle, Chuck and I headed north. I was dreading lots of traffic on the trip home, but once we got onto 95N, it was smooth sailing and we were home in the normal amount of time. As soon as we walked into the house, we were greeted with LOTS of canning. I got dad a pressure canner and he and my mom have been canning their fresh garden veggies like crazy!

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I think it’s so cool that they are canning all of the veggies they grew so that they can enjoy them throughout the winter months!

For dinner, we made pizza’s on the grill- the best way to enjoy pizza in the summer if you ask me 🙂 It’s hilarious when we all get together in the kitchen; everyone wants to be RIGHT next to each other and everyone wants to run the show. It’s quite the site! Mom filled us up with wine and then we headed out to the barn to cook up the pizzas!

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On a side note, check out the collection of empty wine boxes in the barn:

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Like, really? That is a LOT of really classy vino 😉

The pizza’s were SO GOOD! If you’ve never made pizza on the grill, I suggest doing it.

On Sunday, I went for a nice 3 mile run and then helped dad pull potatoes. Pulling potatoes is no joke. I was actually sore from it on Monday!

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We headed out on Sara and Tim’s boat in the afternoon. I love snuggles with Zeke, but if he could stop growing I wouldn’t be mad. It’s crazy to see how much he has grown already!

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I also enjoyed a few Bud Light Limes (aka, BLL’s). I’m not a big Bud Light person, but there’s something about drinking BLL’s that screams summer!

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After the lake, we headed to the Mahoney’s pool for a BBQ. All I wanted all weekend was a REAL cheeseburger. Luckily, Colleen was manning the grill and cooked me up the best one! I didn’t take any pictures while were there, but the food was phenomenal (per usual). Mom’s peach-raspberry pie stole the show, though. Mom isn’t a big baker, but she nailed this pie recipe. It took serious self-restraint to not eat way more than 1 small piece.

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Would you guys be interested in me getting the recipe and sharing it? Aka, do I have an excuse to make this?? 😉

After the Mahoney’s, Danielle and I headed to my friend, Jason’s new house in Wells. We were seriously on the go on Sunday! We hung out with him and his HUGE (seriously, Maverick is REALLY BIG!) dog for a few drinks before calling it a night.

Monday I woke to crazy rain and thunder and lightning. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a storm that bad! Even though it would have been a good morning to snuggle up in bed, I got up and got in a good workout before heading to meet my friend Caitlin for coffee (iced tea for me- still haven’t had coffee since June!). Mom rewarded my workout with homemade waffles! Totally worth getting up to workout when you’re served waffles when you finish 🙂

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It was so nice meeting up with Caitlin and her little snuggle bug, Tucker. It’s amazing to see how much these babies have grown in just 3 short months!

And, that about sums it up! As always, a weekend in Maine was just what I needed to feel refreshed and relaxed. Even though we were on the go a lot (I also saw my friend Meredith for a short visit on Saturday), I’m happy I got to see everyone!

Questions for you: Did you go away for the long weekend? Do you have a hard time trying to fit it in to visit all your old friends when you go back to your hometown? What’s your favorite weekend breakfast?

Happy Birthday Papa Bear! {and 5 things I’m looking forward to this weekend}

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Hey there! Happy, happy Friday! And a very special Happy Birthday to my dad, aka: Papa Bear! Thank you so much for all your recent help with moving me into my new apartment and always being there when I have a stupid little question to ask your or need someone to keep me company while I walk home.  Also, since my dad is a twin, it’s only fair for me to wish a happy birthday to his twin, Uncle Joe! I hope you have a wonderful day with your family 🙂

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….

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been waiting for this weekend to come ever since Monday morning rolled around. I feel like I have so many unfinished things on my to-do list that I’m really looking forward to having time to at least cross some things off! On top of that, while I was in the shower, I realized there are lots of things I’m looking forward to, so I thought I would share 5 of them with you 🙂

  1. Cristina’s birthday get together at Tia’s on Saturday night. I always like having events like that on my calendar for the weekend because it’s a great excuse to get together with my girlfriends!

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2. Working from home today. There’s something so great about knowing on Thursday night that I don’t have to pack up my lunch and other bags and make the trek into the office the next day. Today is also my much-deserved rest day so it’s nice to not have to schedule in a workout.

3. Starting my Saturday with a workout that doesn’t include teaching (not that I don’t love it, but when I don’t teach I can get up and get my workout done nice and early! Or, not nice and early and do it later in the day… it’s nice to be on my own schedule) and then tackling my “to-do” and “to-get” list. Don’t worry, my Saturday won’t be filled with only errands; it’s supposed to be nice out, so I’m going to take a few hours to relax and sit by the Somerville pool since I’ll be in the area!

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4. Spending Sunday with my sister! We haven’t hung out since last weekend and I miss her (okay, and I need her styling advice with various apartment decisions I need to make).

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5. Exploring my new neighborhood a little more. I found a lot of things during my run on Tuesday, but I know there’s lots more to see! I need to get in touch with some of my friends who live in the area, too… it’s going to be great having people around!

Your turn!! What are you looking forward to this weekend? Any fun plans? Do you have any twins in your family?

Christy and Jamie’s Wedding

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If you follow me on Instagram, then you probably already know that I was lucky enough to go to Christy and Jamie’s wedding on Saturday, which was one of the best weddings I’ve been to in a long time! What made it even nicer was the fact that it was right in the city, so none of us had to travel or rent hotel rooms- win, win!

The ceremony was held at St. Mary Church in Charlestown, MA and since my friends Jessi and Cristina live in Charlestown, they invited us over beforehand. They had snacks and bubbly- two of my favorite things 😉

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The ceremony was at 2pm so we got there a little early to chat with friends and take pictures- duh 😉

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Big thanks to Jessi’s boyfriend, Chuck, for being the official photographer for us. We must have asked him to take a million pictures 🙂

The church was beautiful! Catholic churches are nothing new for me, but I always love seeing how pretty they are in the inside.

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Two of our friends, Nikia and Amy, were bridesmaids in the wedding and they looked beautiful!

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But, no offense girls, Christy stole the show. She was stunning! From the dress to her hair to her flowers to her makeup, she was everything a bride should be! I always watch the groom’s expression when the bride first walks in because I love to see their first reaction. Jamie was literally beaming from ear to ear as Christy walked down the aisle. Look at her, though! So pretty.

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I was seriously obsessed with her dress. I think trains really make a dress and the lace and little cap sleeves/straps were perfect.

The priest was awesome! He had us engaged and laughing throughout the ceremony (yes, it was a fully Catholic mass- it felt good to be there. I should do it more often). About an hour later, Christy and Jamie walked out as husband and wife.

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They had the cutest trolley waiting outside of the church for them! I loved this idea!

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Since we had about an hour and a half until the reception started, we went back to Jessi and Cristina’s to hang out and drink more champagne.

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The reception was held at the Harvard Club of Boston, which was amazing.

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Nothing like a reception on the 38th floor with views like this:

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Of course we had to take lots more pictures!

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Love all these ladies! The reception hour flew by and before we knew it, it was time to be seated for dinner. The bridal party entrances are one of my favorite parts of weddings. I love seeing what people come up with for their entrance “skit”.

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From that point on, I knew it was going to be a really fun reception. We started dancing before dinner was served, which is something I’ve never seen at a wedding. It was awesome! I’m glad we did end up sitting down to eat, though, as the food was delicious. Crabmeat stuffed shrimp?! Amazing!

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I didn’t get many pictures of Christy, mostly because she was dancing the whole night! I think it’s so fun when the bride and groom spend as much time on the dance floor as everyone else!

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Big props to Christy and Jamie for not doing any cheesy wedding songs or games- they just had a phenomenal band (literally, I was obsessed with them!) and let people dance! And dancing we did; the dance floor was literally packed the entire night, which I think is the number one sign of a good wedding, right?! We had circles and dance offs and trains. They had a box of leis and fun sunglasses so by the end of the night it looked like we were all going on a Hawaiian vacation!

Christy and Jamie organized a post-reception gathering at Carrie Nation, which was a bar I’ve never been to. I think it’s such a great idea when there is a post-reception party because I’m generally not ready for the fun to end when the reception ends! I didn’t stay long at the after-party, which was probably a good thing. I had had enough to drink at that point 😉

All in all, the entire day and wedding was wonderful. Christy and Jamie- thank you so much for having me be a part of your special day! You two have something very special- here’s to many more memories!

Questions for you: Have you ever been to the Harvard Club of Boston? What’s your favorite part about weddings? If you had to pick a signature drink to serve, what would it be?

Happy Birthday, Mom! (and other random things)

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Today is a very special day as it is Momma Gag’s birthday!!! I’m sure by the time she’s read this blog post, she has already had a day where she’s been spoiled by all of her friends, but she really deserves nothing less! I’m sure most of you regular B2B readers have seen my mom’s comments, which she does on almost every post, and I cannot thank her enough for her continued support in all my crazy adventures (there’s a new one that I’ll be sharing soon!!). I especially appreciate her always being there when I’ve “hit my wall” and call her in tears during the midst of a meltdown… there’s just something about talking to her that makes me feel SO MUCH BETTER! So mom, thank you for always being there for me and for being the cutest, sweetest, most fun mom around!

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(Like mother, like daughter… except I can’t even come close to holding my own around her!)

Anyway! I feel like I have lots of random things I want to share with you, mostly lots of pictures of sweet Emma at her 1st birthday party… gosh I just love that little girl. I headed home after teaching kickboxing on Saturday morning (I know, I know… you all probably think I go home all the time, but I hadn’t been home since the 4th of July! And, I love being home in Maine. Period. End of story:) ) and got caught in ridiculous amounts of traffic. Literally, I couldn’t even believe how much traffic there was. Shouldn’t people have been on the road early on Saturday to get to their vacation spots? Jeesh!

I finally made it to the party and couldn’t wait to snuggle all of my favorite babies! Zeke is literally a baby, not a newborn anymore. He has grown SO MUCH!

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And Sara seriously looks phenomenal. The “mom” thing looks great on her!

Emma was cruising around everywhere and watching her and Rozzie play together made me laugh so hard!

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Playing in buckets of ice… who knew how fun that could be?!

My favorite part was watching Emma go TO TOWN on her birthday cupcake!

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I so wanted to do the exact same thing, but people would have gave me weird looks so I contained myself 😉

After that, I met up with an old friend for dinner. We grabbed sushi and I would show you pictures, but there was really nothing picture-worthy about the food or drinks so I’ll spare you. The whole experience was hilarious, though, because nothing went right. One example, was when I asked the waitress what her favorite roll was (because I always do this when I go to restaurants- I want to know what the staff eats) and she responded “I don’t like fish so I’m not a good one to ask”. Ha! Why are you working at a sushi restaurant, then?! Anyway! Fun dinner other than that 🙂

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day in Maine. Summer without humidity is the most amazing thing! I had Danielle take pictures and videos for me that I used in my burpee post that I posted yesterday and then we went on a nice walk/jog around Shapleigh. It was fun to do that together!

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We spent some of the afternoon at the Mahoney’s pool (my favorite place to spend hot, summer days!) and then grabbed an ice cream before hitting the road. It made me remember how much I love ice cream 🙂

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And, that’s about it for my random musings/weekend catch up!

 

Oh, except for I forgot to tell you that my parents got a new kitten! Renee (little Renny, as we call her) is just the sweetest little girl ever! So fun to play with a kitten instead of a big (fat) cat like Charlie!
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Questions for you: Do you ask servers what their favorite meal is when you go to a restaurant? Have you ever gotten a cake in the face? What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

4th of July Festivities Continued

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As I mentioned yesterday, my 4th of July festivities continued throughout the weekend, which was awesome! Everyone at home was either retired or had Friday off in addition to Thursday, so we were all in “vaca mode”. Originally, I hadn’t planned to be around Maine all weekend since I had to teach my kickboxing class at 10am on Saturday, but my other plans fell through and the heat wave was still in full effect, so I decided to just come right back to Maine after teaching. For me, in the summer when it’s really hot, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be than in Maine- either at the beach, at the lake or at the pool.

I met mom and Danielle, the Jean’s, Colleen and Emma at The Backstreet Grill for beers and lunch. The BSG has a summer series going where every Saturday a brewery sponsors the afternoon and there’s a band playing and everyone hangs out on the patio. Saturday the brewery sponsoring the afternoon was Shipyard, so I was handed a Shipyard Summer immediately upon my arrival- loved it! We hung out there, listening to music, snacking on food and gabbing until about 2:30 when Danielle and I headed up to the lake to go out on the boat with Sara and Amy (and the rest of the gang).

There’s nothing like an afternoon on the lake! Especially when we get to snuggle the little Zeke love-bug!

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He’s just too sweet for words! Once everyone had had enough of the lake, boating and tubing, we headed back to shore. My parents were already at Chris’s “pre-gaming” for the BBQ. Ok, they weren’t pre-gaming, but they were enjoying cocktails on the deck waiting for all of us to arrive.

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I wasn’t far behind them with the cocktails- mom is so good at pouring me a wine right away!

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Chris left for a vacation on Monday, so she wanted to have all of us over to help her eat all the food she had in the fridge. She was the grill master! We literally had a little bit of everything- my favorite way to eat!

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Too stinkin cute! Almost as cute as this little one

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I FINALLY caught him with his eyes open! His little green and white striped outfit was too cute for words. He looked like a little frog when he was sleeping! I spent lots of time with Zeke so Sara could have some time to eat without a baby in her arms- it was fun playing mom for a little while, but I am certainly not ready for my own!

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What a fun night! We ate, we drank, we danced, we made s’mores. The perfect ending to an already wonderful 4th of July “vacation”. Monday was a rude “reality check”; I was not ready to jump right back into the grind of working. Whomp, whomp.

Questions for you: What was the best part of your 4th of July weekend? Any good BBQ’s? Did you see the fireworks? Do you like to burn marshmallows or slow cook them? I like to eat then “raw”, meaning I don’t like to cook them 🙂