March Review

Happy April!  Last year, I loved doing these monthly reviews, and I hope to continue them this year, especially as life gets a little crazier in less than 2 months with Baby Boy.  I cannot believe I'm already at 32 weeks!

This month started with Mike's 33rd birthday!  I swear he doesn't always dress like that, but his birthday fell on "pirate day" for kickball theme weeks.  Of course, I made the same cupcakes I've made for Mike for the last 5ish years: inside out cupcakes.  They're otherwise called black bottom cupcakes, but we call them "inside out" so that I don't feel as bad when I don't frost them;  we count the chocolate chip cheesecake filling the frosting, and trust me, you don't miss the frosting on top - they're so sweet! 

Speaking of sweet things, we also visited the newest hotel in Charleston with the best French bakery.  Hotel Bennett's La Patisserie is amazing!  Mike got an apple and pear turnover, and I got a chocolate banana croissant (plus a toffee brownie to go - haha). 

The following weekend, we went to Disney World for the weekend to spend time with Mike's family.  They were spending a long weekend down there, and being only 5 hours away, it seemed like to perfect excuse to see them.  We stayed at the Grand Floridian for the first time as a little babymoon treat to ourselves, and it was amazing being on the monorail.  We also visited all 4 parks in 2 days and tried some of the new Disney food, including that "Up!" Dole Whip cone in the second photo.  The mango soft serve was so good!  Plus, it was Flower & Garden festival in Epcot, and it was amazing to see all of the topiaries and colorful blooms.

Halfway through the month we started celebrating St. Patrick's Day (and that went on for a good ten days!) including my last game of kickball before maternity leave. 

This month also finally brought the Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.  I literally bought tickets for this show a year and a half ago, so I've been looking forward to it forever.  I loved getting to see Elton one last time, and his energy was amazing!

Last but not least, we started with our nursery prep and got in plenty of walks around the city.  Roxy has become our little shadow every time we go into the nursery, and we have the crib and some of the furniture!  The nursery is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the house!

Oh, and the month ended with more birthday celebrations for Mike.  One of our friends thought we hadn't spent enough time celebrating yet, so we surprised him with birthday dinner, cake, and bowling - because why not?!  He's the best and deserves it!

September Review

September was a great month!  We went on a few trips, got super lucky when Hurricane Florence missed up, and enjoyed our 4th anniversary!

Darlington - To start Labor Day weekend, we went to a Nascar race at Darlington Raceway, just north of us in South Carolina.  We had never been to an Xfinity race before, and it was such a blast!

Ocean Course - We finished Labor Day weekend with a round of golf at the beautiful Ocean Course on Kiawah Island!

Florida weekend - My parents came to visit us for a week, and we spent the second half of the trip in Florida, visiting my aunt in St. Pete Beach.  We made a stop in Disney, visited a couple of breweries, and watched the most beautiful sunsets.

Hurricane Florence - Charleston boarded up and got ready for the Flo.  We got lucky this time as it slid north of us, but the northern part of SC and NC are both still dealing with intense flooding.  If you would like to help, please consider finding an organization to donate to here. 

4th anniversary - Our anniversary was low-key and perfect!  We decided on NO GIFTS this year and bought some chocolate-covered fruit to share.  We went out to dinner, too!

Richmond - We went to a second Nascar race last month!  This time, it was to the short track at Richmond Raceway with a couple of our friends for a Monster Energy Cup series playoff race. 

Pebble Beach - Our last trip of the month was for my work to California.  We had such a blast seeing Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, and everything in between!

Five on Friday: Florida Getaway

Happy Friday, friends.  We are expecting Hurricane Florence to hit us today, so much of this week has been about prepping and waiting.  I've seen a meme a bunch of times on social media that says, "waiting for a hurricane is like being stalked by a turtle."  So true with this one moving at 10 mph - haha!  It was supposed to be here yesterday morning, but it's kept slowing as it approaches the coast.  

For my Friday post, I thought I would throw it back it last weekend, when we were visiting my aunt in Florida.  Her back porch looks out onto St Pete Beach, and it is seriously my happy place!  Here's what we were up to during our long weekend.

1 ||| On the way down, we stopped in Orlando at Disney Springs to see all of the Halloween decorations.  They now sell Dole Whip in Disney Springs, so that was a must as well as the "millennial pink" champagne at Amorette's Patisserie.  It absolutely lived up to the hype! 

2 ||| While in St. Pete, we visited a couple of breweries: Green Bench Brewing and Cycle Brewing.  Cycle was definitely known for its stouts, which I appreciated but aren't quite my style, while Green Bench was more about IPAs.  They do a rotating FLIPA (Florida IPA) series, and when we were there, they had the Key Lime Pie version: tart, citrus, and a little cinnamon. So good! 

3 ||| On our way back from the brewery, I spotted the cutest mural!  Sunshine is so perfectly Florida, so of course we had to stop for a photo!  I decided to Google and see if there were others in the area, and it turns out that St. Petersburg has an awesome outdoor art scene.  We stopped at a couple more on the way back, and we will definitely make a whole tour of it next time we're in the area.

4 ||| Of course, we also made a stop at my favorite Italian market ever: Mazzaro's.  It's a cheese shop, wine shop, coffee bar, bakery, prepared food and deli counter; and they make their own pasta, pastries, and mozzarella.  I brought home some of my favorite cookies (rainbow cookies - in the bottom corner in that case below), a few dinners for the weekend, and my aunt bought an entire pastry bag filled with cannoli cream to pipe our own cannolis all weekend.    

5 ||| Last but not least, we visited another new ballpark!  This was city #11 for us, and we were excited that the Tampa Bay Rays were finally in town on one of our visits.  Tropicana Field is a dome and just turned 20 this year.  Nothing really stands out in terms of food or atmosphere, but the Mister Softee was really good, they have a sting ray touch tank, and I got a photo with their mascot, Ray!  Plus, there was no one there, so we were sitting in the fourth row by the fifth inning.  I was so excited that my parents could finally join us for one of our stadium adventures, too.

Another Week(end) Recap

Another Monday, friends!  This time last week, we were in Tierra Verde, eating doughnuts and enjoying the beach.  How things change in a week, and it was a busy one! 

From the Gulf Coast last Monday, we headed to Orlando for my organization's biannual network meeting.  There were representatives from over 150 chapters there, and I learned a lot.  We definitely always go for "work hard, play hard," and I'll be giving my liver a week or so to recover.

My team (above) and my date (below)

And the best part was definitely that the conference was only 10 minutes away from Walt Disney World.  We got a great discount on "twilight" tickets, and Mike and I spent evenings at Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  MK was all dressed up for Christmas (and filming their ABC Christmas special) and it was the last weekend for Epcot's Food and Wine festival.  We rode all the rides, took photos in front of the #purplewall, and ate/drank at 15 of the countries at Epcot. 

I'd like to think that this week I'll finally relax, but my chapter's biggest fundraiser of the year is this Friday, so it'll be another few days of go, go, go!  Have a great week!