Party Week

It's been a week of festive fun around here! Today is the day of Riker's 2nd birthday party - which I still can hardly believe - so I've spent the last few nights getting things ready and having mini celebrations along the way.

Earlier in the week I started cookie baking and goodie bag making for the party each night after work. Riker's having an ocean themed party so all the food and decor are fish themed - angel fish and whale cookies, Goldfish snacks, Swedish fish...you get the idea.

Matt's been on dinner duty most of the week while I was baking and crafting, and we kept things pretty simple with soups and cauliflower crust pizza. We used a new recipe this time, though and it wasn't as good as usual. Oh well, still can't go wrong with sauce, cheese, olives and mushrooms.

Wednesday night was spent baking cupcakes for Riker's daycare birthday party and putting together his present, which Matt and I are both pretttty excited about.

We got him a battery operated Ford F150 truck. It's actually the exact model Matt wants to buy in real life, and I always wanted a battery operated car when I was a kid. Talk about a lucky little boy! He's in love with it already and I'm sure it's something he'll use for years.

Thursday was actually Riker's birthday, but Matt and I both had to work that day and I had my office holiday party, so Riker spent the day celebrating his birth at daycare and at the grandparents' house. Matt met me in the city that evening for my company party and we had a really nice time out.

I adore New York at Christmastime. It's so pretty all lit up and everywhere you go is warm and cozy. Love! I of course forgot to snap any pictures of people or the festively decorated restaurant, but I did remember to take a few shots of the food.

I ordered wild mushroom soup for my starter, sesame crusted salmon with horseradish cream and spinach, and then chocolate raspberry cake for dessert.

That little praline bowl holding the ice cream was actually the best part of the whole plate.

After a short work week, Friday came, woot! We actually both took off work Friday to spend a little family time with Riker since we missed his real birthday. The morning started with breakfast and presents, and then in the afternoon we met up with my sister-in-law Missy, MomMom and my in-laws for a trip to the local aquarium. You know, keeping with the fish-themed birthday and all.

Riker loves the aquarium and he had a ton of fun running around. I like our local aquarium too because the majority of animals there are rescues and are either being rehabilitated for the wild or will be kept there to stay safe if they're injured.

After the aquarium we all took a quick trip to the arcade across the street before heading to a pizza place for dinner.

Matt and Riker are just two peas in a pod. ;)

Such a nice little afternoon/evening.

Now I've gotta start packing up all the birthday party stuff while Riker is napping. We're hosting the party at an indoor pool so all the kids can swim and have fun, and I've got exactly one hour before it's time to go. Enjoy your Saturday!

Wonderful Life

Eek, another whole week since I've posted. With the holidays in full swing and work being busy, it's been tough to find any bit of extra time lately. But with the unexpected blizzard Jersey got yesterday, Matt had a 2 hour delay at school this morning which meant I could steal some time away from my usual morning mom duties to catch up with you all.

All last week we spent our evenings decorating in and outside and doing some Christmas shopping here and there. The house feels so warm and cozy now!

(Riker is so excited about the holidays this year and it just melts my heart.)

Cooking time was sparse, so to get us through the week I made a big pot of escarole, cabbage and tomato soup, which honestly I ate for lunch and dinner at least three times. It was really good, especially when paired with an Ezekiel bread and Cabot cheddar grilled cheese, but it's safe to say I'm done with it for a while.

Friday came around quickly, and I have to say it was a really good one. It was one of those weekends where I felt like we got to do a little bit of everything - home time, family time, friend time - and I woke up this morning feeling happy and refreshed.

On Friday night Riker was a little tired and went to bed early, which meant dinner & a movie for me and Matt. I made our favorite shell-less tacos, and we ate them on TV trays watching Christmas Vacation. It's not the holidays until we watch it!

While grocery shopping this week Matt spotted a new Guy Fieri chipotle salsa he wanted to try, and I'm so glad he picked it up on a whim. This stuff was seriously good and it made the tacos. It was smokey with a kick but not too much heat, so it didn't overpower all the other fillings.

Saturday was a really busy day, jam packed from 7 am until midnight. I mentioned last week that Matt totaled his 4Runner, and our insurance only paid for a rental car until Friday, so we were under the gun to buy a car like, that day. Can't have just one car in this crazy household. We originally had plans to visit family in south Jersey, so we looked up some dealerships in that area and made an appointment down there so we wouldn't have to miss any family festivities. Ambitious, huh? Well, we made it work. We left here at 8:30 on the dot, dropped Riker off at my in-laws' for the morning (they met us down there in the afternoon), and drove the 1.5 hours south to go car shopping. After 4 hours at the dealership - it's never a quick process, as much as I'd love it to be - we drove away in a Chevy Equinox mini SUV. It's definitely smaller than the 4Runner was, but it still has plenty of room for Butters and all our ski equipment and it has waaaay better gas mileage than the big old Toyota.

Side note: It was most definitely the car salesman's idea to take a picture of us in front of the car. I declined multiple times but he insisted. Cheeseball, I know.

Car shopping done, we met up with Matt's extended family in his aunt's town for a little Santa meet & greet for Riker and all his cousins.

Clearly Riker wasn't really into the whole "sit still for a picture" thing.  It took us about 50 tries to get a family shot, and it still came out blurry. :/

We had an early dinner back at his aunt's house before hitting the road again. I didn't snap a pic, but I had a helping (ok, two) of homemade mac and cheese, a bunch of salad and a gingerbread cookie. Yum. All of Matt's cousins were there and it's been a while since we've seen them, so it was fun catching up. It's also so nice that all the kids are old enough to play together on their own now, while us adults hang out in the kitchen doing our thing. Love it!

And thennn we got back in the car for the 1.5 hour drive home, just in time to head out to Seaside for a night out with friends. 

One of our good friends' girlfriends unfortunately had a bout with cancer over the summer, and she's been such a trooper fighting it tooth and nail. She was recently declared cancer-free, so everyone got together for a big celebration. I can't think of many better things to celebrate!

This is the picture on the invitation we got. Tell me this girl isn't amazing. 

Such strength and beauty. You're awesome, Casey!

 ***

Since Saturday was so busy, I was really looking forward to a relaxing Sunday, and it was perfect in every way.

Coffee and homemade banana walnut pancakes for breakfast.

Christmas shopping for all of Riker's presents (my MIL took him for an hour so he wasn't there for the gift choosing), and walking out of Toys 'r Us to this. My love for snow is unreal.

A family lunch with Matt's mom and Missy.

(That would be Riker and my MIL listening for reindeer.)

Wrapping presents and watching Elf while Riker napped, with the snow falling outside.

Playing in the snow and watching Riker's joy as he tried to build a snowman and make snow angels.

And topping it all off with Riker's very first mug of hot chocolate, ever. I loved pulling off all his cold, wet gear, hanging it to dry and then sitting him on the counter to help me make the cocoa. It just seemed like the epitome of parenting, and I remember how much I loved those moments when I was a kid.

It's a wonderful life. <3

***

Time to head upstairs for work now. I hope you had a great weekend!

Home Sweet Home

Well Thanksgiving is over and it's officially the Christmas season. I'm so excited! This is easily my most favorite time of the year. We arrived home from Vermont yesterday around 5:30 and immediately unloaded the car so we could go pick out our tree. We were too tired to decorate last night, but it's our annual tradition to get our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we weren't about to change that.

This was the first year Riker actually got involved with picking the tree, which made it even more fun.

Vermont Weekend

We arrived at my parents' last Wednesday, and my sister Amanda and her boyfriend Justyn came the next morning. My parents are planning to move south within the next year, so a few weeks ago they sold their house - my childhood home - and moved into an apartment downtown until they are ready to leave New England. I was a little sad and worried that the new place wouldn't feel like home, but my mom made the apartment all cozy with a mix of new decor and things from our old house; with all the family there, it really still felt like home.

Our three days consisted of a lot of family time, relaxation, cooking and eating (of course), movies, games and bundling up like marshmallows every time we went outside. It was only 1 degree on Saturday morning! Our weekend looked a little like this:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Sunday started with a breakfast casserole and berry pancakes made by my grandma and mom, and we were on the road by 9:00 am. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted this weekend, so needless to say it was a smoothie and salad kind of Monday here.

It felt good to gobble up a bunch of veggies.

Time to wind down now and settle in for the night, I am off to the city for work tomorrow. Gotta get back into the old routine.

How was your holiday weekend?