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

My Birthday

I had such as fabulous birthday! It is tough getting older and especially this birthday as this is my last birthday in my 20's. Yikes - where did the time go??? Christopher and the boys spoiled me when I woke up and gave me their presents. I received two gorgeous Pandora Disney charms for my bracelet AND a gold Alex & Ani DVC bangle!

Then I met my mom for pizza at Romeo & Juliets. It was so great to see her on my birthday. I do owe it to her for bringing me into this world. Without her - there would be no birthday.

When I got back to my desk at work, I had this plaque and leather notepad on my desk. I had been recognized for contributing to Praxair's safety program!!! I was totally surprised and added to my wonderful day.

Also related to work, that morning I had to move offices! So I got to spend the morning sorting and organizing my new office. Yep - I have TWO windows! I am loving the natural light very much.

Then Christopher spoiled me some more and make reservations for my favorite restaurant - Left Bank. Dinner was absolutely perfect and delicious. Christopher ordered the steak and lobster (and shared both) and I ordered the Pork Tenderloin in the Grand Mariner sauce. My mouth is watering as I am typing this!

We then celebrated with both of my parents on Friday night. We went to Schnitzel's for dinner (also fabulous and highly recommend) and then went back to the house for some homemade dessert.

We then celebrated with the Musialowski's at Chef's for some spaghetti parmesan. And I finished my WHOLE parm that night. No leftovers for the birthday girl. We had a wonderful time laughing and catching up at dinner.

Also one of my best friends, Christine, took me out to lunch this past week too! I am one lucky lady! It is always so much fun catching up with each other. 

Rockin' my new kick ass heels at work today :) Huge thanks to all of my family and friends for wishing me a happy birthday. You all sure know how to make a girl feel special!

Easter Sunday

Christopher and I had a fun Easter Sunday. We continued our tradition of having Easter breakfast at home with the little boys. The pups got a wet breakfast and we had our traditional smoked polish sausage with homemade hash browns. Delicious. 

The Easter bunny also came to our house. He hid Christopher's basket but he left me a scavenger hunt with lots of fun riddles. We must have been good this year ;) After finding our baskets, we went to Easter Sunday mass at St. Mark's and braved the SNOW! Go figure we would have a white Easter and not Christmas!

 We then met the Leutze clan for Easter Brunch at Rizzo's Banchetti's. The food was scrumptious but the company was even better.

We then had dinner with the Musialowski's. Dinner was absolutely fantastic. We had an Easter ham, turkey breast, cheesy potatoes, veggies, dinner rolls, etc. We were so full after both delicious meals. Jonathan was home and my mom and the Kolesnick's joined us this year too. It was an excellent day!

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!