Wonderful Summer

This summer so far has been wonderful. We have been able to spend time with family and friends and do fun things around the area. I know that I have been MIA for a little while - that is summer for you. But I hope to get back into the swing of things with the blog soon. For now, here are some pictures from our activities throughout the summer.

Dog days of summer!

Mom's Surprise 60th Birthday Tea

4th of July Party Snack - blueberries, watermelon, cheeries, raspberries and cheese

Tommy & Brandon's party

Lunch date with Miss Molly

One of the many new recipes we tried

Zoo day with Molly and Christine

I got LASIK!

2015-2016 planning time!

My favorite racer

Emma's 1st birthday party

The Simm Family

Lindsay's Wedding!

Bills preseason

Christopher took 2nd place in his category at a 5k!

Papa's 95th birthday

Our First Day in Walt Disney World!

So we flew to Orlando out of the Buffalo airport at 5:30am! It was an early morning flight, but totally worth it so we could have a full day of fun in the sun. We spent our first day in Epcot, which was walking distance from the first resort we stayed at - the Boardwalk Villas. Our room was ready when we arrived, which we were really impressed with considering it was only 9 o'clock in the morning! So we dropped off our carry-ons to the room and got ready to hit the park!

We got to ride Soarin', caught a sneak preview of Tomorrowland, which they were showing in the Captain EO theater (Captain EO was "down" for the special sneak preview) and one of our favorite attractions, Spaceship Earth. We walked around quite a bit to look at all of the gardens and topiaries, since we were able to catch the last week of the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. I even braved going into the Butterfly garden and no - I did not freak out when the butterflies landed on me (like I did last year - people probably thought I was nuts!). We got to see the new Anna & Elsa topiaries, which were quite exquisite. Mom and Dad's favorite topiary was the Lady & the Tramp one located outside of Italy. They said it reminded them of Marv and Jameson.

Speaking of Marv and Jameson, they "vacationed" with my parents, who decided not to join us on this trip. They had a great time and enjoyed chasing Buddy around.

A funny situation did happen while we were walking around World Showcase, Dad was taking a picture of Christopher and I in Japan and a Disney World security officer stopped Dad and gave him a ticket! No worries - it was a citation for him not being in the picture with us. We have never seen this in the parks before. The officer was very nice and funny, he even made Dad a Junior Officer to protect the magic, complete with a badge sticker! Dad was very proud and wore his sticker for the rest of the trip.

As we walked around World Showcase, we also sampled some of the food offerings for the flower & garden festival. We sampled the Crispin' Blackberry Pear cider, a cronut (Christopher's favorite", duck confit with parsley potatoes, smoked debreziner sausage and pineapple sparkling wine. All were yummy!

We had lunch at Via Napoli and split a huge pepperoni and sausage pizza. It was delicious and so fresh. Then we split tiramisu, which was so amazing and authentic. We really liked our experience at this restaurant and hope to return in future trips. For families, this was a very affordable option for dining.

We then took a little break in the afternoon and went back to the resort to unpack and freshen up. Christopher and I then took a little walk around Crescent Lake and he treated me to my pearl for the trip. I ended up picking an oyster with an 8mm pearl! I am one lucky girl!

Dinner was at Le Cellier in the Canadian pavilion. And it was of course fabulous. Our server was pleasant and from Ontario. Christopher and I split the famous beer cheddar soup and we all ordered the filet mignon with wild mushroom risotto (yes, even I ate the risotto - it was worth the headache). Mom and Dad split creamed spinach to pair with their steak and Christopher and I split the mac & cheese. We were too full for dessert (I know - the Maple Creme Brulee - next time!). Since our reservation was late (at 8:50 pm), when we left the restaurant, we were one of the last ones left in the park. Which is an experience in itself since the park is so empty and quiet.

It was such a wonderful first day at Walt Disney World. We all fell right asleep and got to sleep in on Thursday.

Playing Catch up

This week I am playing catch up on the blog! Let's see....

On Saturday, March 14th Christine and I had our date night! We went to Providence Social for dinner and then saw Megan Hilty perform at the BPO! Dinner was delicious! It was restaurant week in Buffalo and their menu was awesome. We upgraded, so for $30.15 total (not a piece), we got two cocktails and three small plates. We splurged and got dessert too. All of which was scrumptious. I will definitely be taking Christopher back. We did not even bother to look at the regular menu because the restaurant week one looked amazing.

The BPO performance was great too. Megan Hilty was awesome and funny. We were debating on the drive home who we liked better - Idina Menzel, Matthew Morrison or Megan Hilty and we couldn't really decide!

Then on Sunday we got together at Steve and Sheryl's house for breakfast. It was great to meet little Malcolm and see all of our favorite little girls! It has been so fun watching them grow so quickly this first year. They all have such cute little personalities.

It was a busy week for us with board meetings, committee meetings, etc. But we did a great job managing our schedules so our favorite little pups were never in their kennels for more than 5 hours.

One of Christopher's friends from the CHS Alumni Board asked us to join him at his table for GAMBIT. Soooo we ended up going to GAMBIT this year after all! Since Christopher's parents were not going to be in town and none of our friends were going, we decided to just make a donation and skip out on the formal event. But...we made our donation AND we still got to attend.

We also walked away with a lot of fun auction items!!! See all the pictures below. We are definitely a sucker for auctions. Good thing we left before the live auction items were done because we would have spent more money!

Coming up for us, we are starting to get ready for phase II of our renovation, Disney is in less than 50 days - yippie, and April is our big birthday month and Easter. So needless to say, a lot will be going on! More to come!

Fun Weekend

Last weekend we had the perfect combo of busy, fun and relaxing. Friday night we met Christopher's parents for a fish fry at Papa Jake's. Boy it was packed! At 5:30, we waited about 40 minutes for a table! But that was okay because we had a lot of catch up on and enjoyed some drinks at the bar. The fish fry was incredible and we could all see why there is such a long wait. And...by 7:30 they were all sold out of fish! Definitely Lent in Buffalo!

Saturday morning I worked on updating my etsy site and listing and ran errands, got my oil changed in my car and meal prepped a little for the week. Then we - all four of us - went over to my parent's house for some lunch, a visit and to show Dad how to use his new tablet! I am so proud of my Dad for trying to learn how to use it. He has never used a computer before and did a great job learning to use the tablet. The pups had a blast playing with Buddy and running around.

Saturday night we had a Netflix marathon of House of Cards - to catch up on Season 2. Yep - we are very behind - no spoilers! This week we are going to start on the newly released Season 3.

Sunday we had church, where we saw some friends and caught up with a former teacher of Christopher's - Fr Tom. I worked on some new merchandise for Ellegant Decor and Christopher is finishing up one of his refinishing projects for a friend of ours. It was a very productive weekend.

Then Sunday night, I played around with one of our families favorite and classic recipes - Cheesy Potatoes! I will have to post the recipe I used, but we swapped out the potatoes for zucchini and the sour cream for Greek yogurt and also added chicken. It came out delicious and even Christopher enjoyed it. It is also very similar to a recipe that one of my best friends Reese created too. I am loving making hearty bakes and casseroles - it has been way too cold out.

Valentine's Day Shenanigans

Valentine's Day would not be complete without some yummy treats! We made some heart-shaped cinnamon bun treats to give to our parents and bring to Jonathan for our visit.

I found a recipe for "Breakfast" cookies and I thought - why not! Basically a chocolate chip cookie made with banana, applesauce, oats, almond milk, vanilla and the chocolate. They were pretty yummy, but not as good as the real thing.

We received some Valentine's from our parents. The M's sent us some chocolate covered strawberries and my parents gave us our favorite chocolate - Reese's peanut butter cups and Dove milk chocolate. Boy are we loved or what!

Our little lovies :)

On Valentine's day we left super early in the morning for Kingston to visit J! We made it out as the snow storm moved into Buffalo and we are so glad we made the decision to leave early and spend the night. A HUGE thank you to my parents for watching our little Valentine's (see pictures above). Marv and Jameson got to spend some great time with Grandma and Grandpa and of course Buddy! And to Christopher's parents for booking us the hotel room so we could stay and make it back the next day.

We had a great visit with Jonathan. We played card games, went to the mall, saw the movie "The Kingsman" and had a great dinner at Olive Garden. It was so great to see him and hang out. Hopefully he will be sending me more pictures that I can post. J took along his camera and got some excellent shots during dinner. We also celebrated J's birthday and ordered TWO desserts (I know - we are getting crazy). It was a great time.

And of course there is my favorite Valentine - Christopher. We relaxed on Sunday, enjoyed a bottle of wine and each others company. It was a great Valentine's day weekend!

Middle of January Already?

I can't believe it is the middle of January ALREADY!!! Work for me has been super busy with year-end, PwC audit, export metrics and my SOX testing due - all at once.

Christopher is enjoying his new job at Nativity Miguel School and has started a "bow tie Friday" trend. I got together with one of my close friends and found out she is EXPECTING!!! Baby Urban coming July 1st! I can't wait to be an aunt again!

Christopher's brother Chet gave us his Bandits tickets while he and the family were out of town - Thanks Chet! We had a wonderful time and got to see the Bandits start their season with a win.

Little Jameson had his neuter performed. He is doing fine and was back to his normal self in...two hours. Seriously. He is resilient and was playing, eating and bugging Marv within a few hours of being home.

The rest of the month is busy and exciting for us too. We have our friends wedding "reception" party to attend. They were married the same weekend as Dave & Abby, but in Jamaica, so their family is throwing them a little party here. We have networking events, board meetings. I am looking forward to a date night with Christine!!! Woo hooo! And we are squeezing in a visit with the Simm Family in Rochester. Looking forward to meeting baby Emma!