Another Birthday on the Books

It's a week of birthdays!

I haven't really made mention of it on the blog, but yep, yesterday was this girl's birthday. Heather's little Avery was born just one day apart from me, and Mother's Day is only a few days later, so the second week of May will now forever be one big week of celebrations. Works for me! Side note - how colorful and fun is that cake? Funfetti just makes me smile.

Weekday birthdays used to be just bla, but this year my office started giving everyone their birthdays off as a new benefit. Talk about an awesome perk! At the last minute, Matt took off work too so I got to enjoy an impromptu morning of family time.

Riker even slept until 8:00 so we got to sleep in a bit. It's a rare day when I wake up and get to lay in bed reading with the covers pulled up and listening to the rain fall peacefully outside. Love that. Eventually Riker did wake up, and that boy goes from 0-to-hungry in about 10 minutes, so we rushed around and ran out of the house for a birthday breakfast at the diner.

Matt and I both ordered veggie omelets with cheese. I asked them to leave off the potatoes and bring a fruit cup instead. The omelet was good, but the fruit cup was a sham. They prettied it up with bananas, strawberries and oranges on top (yum) but underneath it was all melon. I can do without that much cantaloupe in my life.

After breakfast we dropped Riker off with my mother-in-law and then got a bunch of stuff done around the house. Not glamorous, but there are so many things on my home to-do list that never seem to get done on the weekends. It felt great to clear them off. And it was alright with me since I had big plans for the afternoon - a spa day at Simply Skin. I've had a gift card in my drawer since my baby shower ages ago, and finally got a chance to go use it. There is really nothing better than soaking your feet in a mineral bath while drinking a cup of tea, and then getting a nice long massage. I picked the Head & Foot Massage followed by a 25 minute deep tissue massage, and actually fell asleep toward the end of it. Total relaxation. And totally in fulfillment of my New Year's resolution to make more "me time".

And after tea comes wine. That's the proper order of things on your birthday right?

When I went to go pick Riker up, Matt's family surprised me with flowers, cake and gifts, and invited us to stay for dinner. Matt and I had planned to just go out for ice cream so we wouldn't have a whole cake in the house (trouble for us), but I will never turn down a slice of homemade birthday cake. Or a glass of white wine on a sunny day paired up with a big seafood spread.

Matt's mom made grilled pesto shrimp, steamed green beans, sweet potatoes and a big salad. We also had a giant pan of crab legs, which was the real focus of my attention. I just ate all the other stuff quickly so I could start crackin' those crabs.

I swear I could eat a whole tray of those things and not get full. They're so good! These ones were really delicious - salty, sweet and perfectly tender.

I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful extended family. They have always treated me like their own, which takes away some of the sting of not having my own parents and siblings live close by. Another great birthday in the books!

Birthday Beauty

The rest of the weekend here consisted of a little home redecorating and then a party with friends and family. Matt's been wanting a new summer quilt for a while and I've been wanting some art for my new office, so on Sunday morning we took a trip to HomeGoods to pick up some house goodies.

We ditched our wintery down comforter for a white warm-weather quilt, and I love it. Now if we could just get some consistent warm weather, that'd be great.

Around lunchtime we drove over to Heather & Kevin's to celebrate a special little girl.

Avery is turning 1 today! Look at those big blue eyes. She's such a beauty!

Heather planned a ladybug-themed party and it was adorable. Everywhere you turned there was something red and black.

Heather's sister even made ladybug chocolate covered pretzels - um, so cute. And delicious.

The weather was chilly but still sunny, so we spent most of the time outdoors watching the kids play in the backyard. The heat lamp came in handy!

The kids were so cute running around playing with each other on the swing set and other toys. Riker had a blast. It's so fun now that he's walking and can run around with the older kids.

For lunch we had sandwiches from my favorite spot and all kinds of salads (including my Mediterranean Couscous Salad, yum). I didn't snap a pic of my plate but I ate half a grilled veggie sandwich, some couscous and some pasta salad. Carby! And it didn't stop there...

I fully planned on not  eating a cupcake, even one of those super cute ladybug ones. But then out came a tier of fun flavored ones, including Corona, Mexican Chocolate and, my personal fave, PB&J.

They were the same cupcakes from Avery's big sister Delia's birthday party last year, and I haven't had one since then. I caved. And loved every last bite. So good!

Aren't they the cutest little family? Love them.

And now it's back to reality and on the veggie wagon again. And the work wagon - speaking of which, it's time to go wake up this child of mine who is totally oversleeping and is going to make me late. Eek!

Cheat Burgers

Yesterday started off right with another version of Norwegian Eggs Benedict. Instead of English muffins and Canadian bacon, I used big slices of juicy red tomatoes and slices of smoked salmon.

Look at those beauties! On top of the lox I piled up a mound of arugula dressed with lemon juice and flax seed oil, then popped a poached egg on top.

Cooking eggs is really not my forte, so Matt always cooks them when he's home. We're still new to poached eggs so I think he went through about 6 of them before they came out right. Practice makes perfect!

After breakfast we packed up Riker and Butters and drove up to Matawan to pick up a sweet Craigs List find.

Yes, that is Riker passed out in a hiking backpack. I'm pretty sure he would've stayed like that for hours if we didn't wake him up. We've been wanting a family hiking pack for a while now, but they're really pricey and I never wanted to pull the trigger. Yesterday we had plans to go for a hike at Hartshorne Park which is pretty rough terrain for even our jogging stroller, so I looked on Craigs List and spotted a nearly brand new Kelty kids hiking backpack for only $50. Score!

We took a 5 mile hike through the park and Riker loved it. He walked some of the time, but when he got tired we threw him in the pack and Matt carried him until he eventually fell asleep. I can tell this pack is going to come in really handy all summer.

The two hour hike and fresh air was good for all of us. Butters had a blast running through all the trails and was tuckered out by the time we got back to the car. It's a good day when you can tire that maniac out.

Before we got to the park we were hungry for lunch since we'd been driving around for a few hours, so looked for a good spot to grab some food and sit outside. We stumbled upon 25 Burgers which I'd heard great things about, and I saw some outdoor tables in the sunshine, so was sold. This place doesn't really offer any healthy options, but we chalked it up to our "cheat meal" of the week and went all out.

I loved that you could swap a veggie burger for a meat burger on any of the menu options, so I had lots to choose from. I ended up going with a veggie burger with lettuce, tomatoes, A-1 steak sauce (love the stuff), blue cheese, crispy onion straws and chipotle sauce on a Maui onion roll.

Oh man. It was fantastic. We split some onion rings on the side, which were definitely not needed but devoured anyway. The food was all made to order and really good, and I'm pretty sure that's what "fast food" was originally intended to be. That said, I felt like I had a lead balloon in my stomach after lunch so I was glad we were going on a long hike afterward.

On our way home from the hike we stopped off for iced coffees at a cute little coffee shop in Red Bank where they roast their own beans. They make each cup of coffee to order so it tastes super fresh.

It was so good I bought a whole bag of beans to remake it at home.

Matt and I were both still full from lunch, so we fed Riker some dinner but skipped an evening meal ourselves. Instead, we headed over to our friend Forrest's house for an outdoor fire with friends.

A perfect ending to a great day.