Category: Holiday/Special Occasion

Happy Mother’s Day: A Tribute to My Mom

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Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mom’s reading my blog!  I am so happy that I have been able to spend some extended (lately, anything more than 24 hours at home is “extended” for me) time at home and with my mom; she is just the absolute cutest, sweetest little lady around, so it seems only natural for me to dedicate this post to her!

As most of you know, my mom reads and comments religiously (literally… mom is a really good Catholic!) on Burpees to Bubbly. It always makes me smile when I hear from other readers how cute my mom is, but I mean, how could you not say that?! Look at her!

retiredMom retired a year ago, but she is still actively subbing in the school on a daily basis, volunteering at the church, and being the little social butterfly she always is. Seriously, this lady has more of a social life than I do! If you thought my birthday celebrations were a bit much, I think mom celebrated her 60th for the whole summer. She may be 60, but she is still a ball of fun and energy… always looking for the next party and social event!

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Mom is also quite the little dancing queen. I cannot even begin to count how many “dance parties” we have had in the kitchen at our house- thank goodness for her “dance” cd; I don’t know where we’d be without that. From Zumba to Party Boot Camp to weddings to bars, Sue Gags knows how to have a good time and to have a circle of guys around her. After all, she is a “guy magnet”.

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Mom can be serious, too. And she is a terrific reader. Every Christmas Eve, we I make her read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and she has got that story down pat!

mom readingMy mom is one of my biggest supporters and is always there to listen when I have issues, provide feedback when I need it, “practice” my workouts with me and tell me what type of modifications I should offer, and then, when all of that “business” is out of the way, offer me wine, because as she always says “wine isn’t going to make you feel worse”. Well said, Suzie Q, well said!

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always offering wineHolidays are always the best in the Gagnon household. There is nothing in the world that’s better than being surrounded by family, laughs, good food and lots of wine… and I mean LOTS of wine.

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As you can see, my mom is a pretty amazing woman with so many wonderful qualities. No wonder why she is so popular! As I get older, I have started to appreciate her more and more. We have so much fun and she always knows what to say to make me feel better and for that, I thank you, mom. Thank you for your unconditional love and support- none of that ever goes un-noticed or unappreciated. I hope you have the most wonderful day because you deserve nothing less! XOXO

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SOWA Open Market & Cinco de Mayo

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Hi! How are you doing today? Have you ever been to the SOWA Open Market? I had never been until Sunday, but I can tell you that it won’t be my last time, that’s for darn sure!
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Someone sent me an invite on Facebook earlier in the week and ever since then, I had been looking forward to checking it out.  It was a perfect weekend to do it, too, since I stayed in and didn’t have any big plans the whole weekend. Danielle and I got up on Sunday, had breakfast, I blogged while she watched a movie, and then we cleaned the house. By this time, it was 11am and we decided that since it had warmed up, it was a great time to head to the SOWA Open Market. Note to self: next time, do NOT drive. After driving around for a little bit, I did end up finding awesome parking, but it was a bit of a hectic mess prior to that! Well worth it once we arrive in the parking lot full of Food Trucks. Oh my goodness. I was in absolute foodie heaven! So many trucks. So many things to choose from!

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We decided to do a big lap and look at the menu’s at all of the different trucks, cancelling out all Mexican (we had a Mexican meal planned for dinner) and things we could cook or order regularly (burgers, grilled cheese, chicken sandwiches). We wanted a savory crepe, but they were all out of the one we wanted:( Option #2: Greek/Mediterranean food! This whole thing was only $6! What a steal.

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Danielle got us truffle fries to share, too… they were to die for. It was kind of funny eating lunch sitting on the pavement in a big parking lot, but it’s what you do when you’re at the SOWA market, I guess!

After lunch, we walked around the non-food part of the open market, checking out all the different vendors and letting our food digest a bit. All while knowing that we were going BACK to another crepe truck to get a Nutella Crepe. Back when I was studying abroad, I went to Paris and couldn’t get over how amazing Nutella Crepe’s were. Sunday’s crepe was nothing like that, but it was still pretty freaking delicious! Overall, it was such a fun way to spend a beautiful, Sunday afternoon. I foresee many more Sunday afternoons spent in the South End!

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After walking and eating our way around the SOWA market, we came home and got dinner together. I say “we,” but really it was all Danielle tonight! She found a crock pot Mexican recipe from Iowa Girl Eats that she wanted to make, and she ended up combining it with a recipe from Rachel to create quite the tasty little meal!

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While she got everything together, I made us Skinny Margarita’s.  Well, I tried to make us skinny margs. I found a recipe from Cookie and Kate and had all of the ingredients except for Agave Nectar. In baking recipes, I’ve always seen that you can sub Agave for honey or maple syrup, but let me tell you this now: do NOT sub out Agave for honey in this drink recipe. You will regret it. Needless to say, I had to add lots of sugar and other stuff to try to kill the sourness from the limes; it wasn’t pretty. I only got halfway through mine before I had to switch to a Sam Summer. Oh well, better luck next time!

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Dinner, on the other hand, was delicious! I ended up eating mine in a bowl and used some chips to scoop it up. I could’ve put it in a tortilla, but I am a sucker for chips, so I decided to skip out on the tortilla and use chips instead. Plus, Danielle also made guacamole and I was absolutely eating that with chips!

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Mmm… homemade, fresh guac- holy yum!

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In the end, this crock pot dish almost came out like a chili, but that was certainly not a bad thing. This was full of flavor and texture and totally hit the spot for a Mexican, Cinco de Mayo meal.

Questions for you: Have you ever been to the SOWA Open Market? Do you have a favorite food truck? Do you make your own margarita’s or buy the mix? Favorite Mexican dish?

Scenes from Saturday (Baby Shower Style)

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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.

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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!

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

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My sister and sweet little Emma Jean!

032Emma loved her Lovage baby food!

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027The original Shapleigh Girls

040Mom and her girls! (yes, I know I look like a giant next to her)

041My favorites. I cannot get over how amazing Sara looks for being just a month away from her due date.

035Gotta 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

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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!

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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:)

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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!

033The 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! 😉

020I was so happy to have so many friends around to make my birthday so special!

031And, a gym friend even came! Of COURSE we had to bring the guns out… it’s a gym thing.

030Not 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:

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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,

016and 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!

025After 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!

024All 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.

020I 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?

Birthday Week!

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Hey everyone! TGIF,right?! Remember how I said the week wasn’t going by slow? Yeah, I was so wrong. As soon as I wrote that, my weekly drastically slowed down and I felt a day ahead. But! Good news is that it is Friday! Birthday weekend officially kicks off at the end of the work day today. Woohoo!

Catching up…

Wednesday was a great workout day. Actually, the whole week has been awesome. I have been pleasantly sore all week, which hasn’t happened in a while so I must be doing different things this week that has “shocked” my body. Love that! Before class, I managed to run 3.25 miles. Nothing like being a sweaty beast before class even starts:)

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I taught UXF, but was able to incorporate some moves from Wednesday’s April Arms Challenge workout. I switched up the moves a little bit, but we got it all in!

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(Took this from Sunday’s 3-2-1 circuit. New favorite move!)

007(We just did side lunge and biceps curls, so I switched it to an isometric side lunge & 1-armed triceps extension. 30 seconds each side, 3 rounds)

008(Finishing off class with 3 rounds of 30 second wall sits & hammer curls, followed by 30 seconds of high knees)

The whole trip home (I have to get back on the T and then take a bus from Davis… really not that fun), I brainstormed what I could throw together for dinner. I am usually good at having enough leftovers from “Sunday Dinner” to get me through until Thursday, but not this week. I ended up throwing together a Caprese Omelette, which, even though it didn’t look that good, tasted delicious and was just what I wanted!

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Yesterday, my friend/coworker took me out for a birthday lunch at Miel which is the French restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel (remember when I went there for a massage?). French cuisine is my absolute favorite (I blame it on the sauce and cheese that accompany every meal!), so I was really excited about this lunch. JP got the French Onion Soup to start and he said it was delicious (I mean, how can it NOT be delicious when it looks that cheesy and gooey?!)

015I usually get the Cobb salad, but yesterday I splurged on the Croque Monsieur. Best.Decision.Ever.

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And, no birthday is complete without dessert, right?

019This was a flourless chocolate cake and it was to die for! I am usually not a huge fan of flourless things, but this was amazing! I was thankful that I was teaching a double after work! haha

As for today, I am not digging the gloomy weather! I just hope it’s nice for tomorrow since I am celebrating my birthday at the Brahmin and want to wear my birthday dress without freezing to death. Tonight is the first night I am NOT teaching, and, I just don’t really know what to do with myself! I am pretty sore from workouts this week, but since it’s mostly my lower half, I’ll be fine to do today’s A.A.C. workout… and maybe some light cardio? Who knows!

I’ll check back in soon! To all my other April Birthday Buddies, I hope you’re having a great month!

Questions for you: What is your favorite cuisine? What is your favorite restaurant? Any good workouts to share this week?