Tuesday, July 5, 2011
July 4th Celebrations
After my birthday weekend getaway, we still had the Independence Day to celebrate! On July 3rd we went to the Mayor Pat Menna’s Kaboom party in Red Bank to watch the fireworks. It was raining on and off all day, but that didn’t stop the show. Red Bank hosts New Jersey’s largest fireworks display every July 3rd and we got the best view in town from the balcony overlooking the Navesink! It was a fun night out! On July 4th, our friends Irina and Vadik came down for an afternoon and we all went to Long Branch in the evening to watch the fireworks at the beach. We picked up Joan and David on the way to the beach, it was another fun night!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
My Awesome Birthday Weekend!
** Disclaimer: This post is going to be long! **
The last couple of years my birthday has been overshadowed by other significant events. Two years ago, on my 30th birthday, Mike was sworn in as Mayor. The people got together to celebrate at The Falls, but I couldn’t even really go, b/c Katelyn was only two weeks old and we just got home from the hospital after having Katelyn diagnosed with sleep apnea. She was on the monitor and no one yet knew how to take care of her with that thing attached to her 24/7. I went out for an hour to meet up with Mike while my mom watched Katelyn but that was it.
Last year was Katelyn’s first birthday party/our annual BBQ bash two weeks before my birthday. So again, my birthday celebration consisted of going to dinner at Rooney’s in Long Branch. The food was mediocre and coincidentally Long Branch mayor was there celebrating his reelection. So, again it turned out into a bit of a political event.
I’m definitely not complaining, but also so far none of my birthdays have been anything to brag about.
This year Mike planned a birthday weekend getaway for the two of us, and he went all out! He booked dinner reservations for us at Mediterra in Princeton and a room at the Lambertville Inn. We’ve always wanted to stay there but never did. We started out on Friday afternoon (my actual birthday) and stopped at Freehold Mall on the way to Princeton.I got to pick out a new purse, wallet and sunglasses from Coach store. It was a nice birthday surprise! After our quick shopping stop we headed to dinner. The weather was great, so we got a table outside (no line, since we had reservations!). We went for paella and white sangrias. It was a very nice and relxing dinner. It felt like we were on vacation!
We were too full for desert so we walked around and then got some cup cakes from The House of Cupcakes (they are a winner of the Food Network ‘Cupcake Wars’ show). They were pretty tasty, and the variety that they had in the store was quite impressive!
Across the street, there were people dancing in front of the library. It was the Princeton Salsa Club. We joined in for a few minutes, since after all of the sangria it seems like a great idea! After that we drove over to Lambertville just in time to see the fireworks over the Delaware River! We checked in at the hotel and got a bottle of wine from Unionville Vineyards and coupons for free wine tasting at the vineyard. The afternoon and evening alone were so nice that it exceeded any expectations that I may have had for the day. But wait, there’s more!
The next day, we had room service breakfast, and headed out to shop around town.
On the way out, Mike told me he had a surprise for me, but didn’t know if he should tell me what it was. I didn’t want to be left hanging, so he told me that he booked us a hot air balloon ride at sunset in Flemington!! I was very excited but at the same time a little scared. I didn’t expect to be going in a wicker basket high in the sky when I woke up in the morning and now the anticipation was starting to build! We walked across the bridge to New Hope, PA, and visited our favorite bookstore! It’s always a nice treat, they have a lot of gardening and cooking books that are always fun to look at. I bought Mike a new ‘Life is Good’ T-shirt. For life has been really good and for that we are grateful! We had lunch at another favorite place, the Triumph Brewery. It was another awesome meal. Mike had the beer sampler; we shared some calamari, a fresh salad and blue cheese burger.
We walked around some more after lunch and found a massage place, so to make the weekend getaway experience even more relaxing, we went for a 15 min neck, shoulders and feet massage! We still had a lot of time to kill so we decided to start heading to Flemington, and stop at the Unionville winery for a tasting. The wine we got at the hotel was just awful, it was a very dry white, and not to our liking, however once we got to the winery and tasted a few, we found that they did have a lot of decent wines, both white and red. We bought a bottle of each to bring home. After that still had a lot of time left before our hot air balloon ride, so we headed for the Flemington Outlets. We haven’t been there in years, and it changed a lot. More than 50% of stores were vacant, and businesses have moved out to strip malls along the highways in town! The kitchen store was still there, so I was happy. We browsed around and got a couple of small things. The time was nearing for our hot air balloon ride. We drove to the launch site, and we were there to watch them inflate the balloon. We had to sign a waver which was a little scary. The balloon was huge! I’ve never seen one this close. Mike looked tiny standing next to it.
We learned a lot about the hot air ballooning. Turns out you have to have an FAA commercial balloon pilots license and log at least 3 takeoffs and landings every 90 days to be able to fly people. Most people that do this do it for fun. They have regular jobs and the flying passengers just pays for the balloon and it’s upkeep. I never gave it any thought but after watching those guys blow up the balloon you realize how much effort goes into a single flight. There was four people (plus a teenager) on the ground helping to inflate the balloon. They helped us get in the basket and off we went - the two of us with the pilot.
The rest of the folks got into a chase vehicle and followed us as we drifted through air. There’s no way to control the direction in which the balloon will go. There was practically no wind, so we drifted very high up, the pilot was hoping to catch a wind current, and so we went one mile up in the air!! It was a clear evening so you could see very far! Here are some pictures from our ride:
It was a little scary at first, since you are just standing in a basket one mile up in the air! You don’t feel the breeze since you are moving with it, there was no turbulence and the temperature up there was the same as down on the ground. We descended lower and flew above the tree tops over some farm land. The scenery was very pretty! It was interesting to look down; it was if we were spying on the people below. The dogs were barking at the balloon, and a lot of people were coming out of the houses to wave to us and take pictures of the balloon. One family even offered us to come down for some pizza! It was really neat. The balloon ride lasted about an hour. The pilot kept in touch with the people in the chase vehicle via radio. They followed us the whole duration of the flight until a landing destination was selected. Turns out they just find a nice green backyard to land on, and if people are home they give them a bottle of champagne. The pilot said that most people don’t mind because it’s cool to have a balloon land in your yard, however he said that he’s encountered a few that were not so welcoming and tried to chase him off the property. If he had enough fuel, he said he just went back up in the air to the next person’s yard. If it was getting dark already or he didn’t have enough fuel, he had to just quickly pack up and call it an emergency landing. In our case, he picked a site to land; the chase team was waiting for us there when we started descending. The grass looked tall and it looked very wet, so he radioed that he’ll keep going. He pumped more air into balloon and we went up over the trees to land in a side yard next to a big house. Again, the chase people were already on the grass waiting for us to land, as soon as the basket was low enough for them to grab it, they held it down so that we can get out. They put the balloon and basket on the side, and disassembled it in pieces. We helped them fold up the balloon and load everything in the truck after which we drove back to the launch site for a glass of champagne and some appetizers. The people were very friendly and we had a great time hanging out with them before heading home. We were a little hungry, so we stopped at Outback for a quick appetizer and a drink before returning home.
Needless to say, this was a birthday to remember! I can’t believe all that we did in just one and a half day’s time! It felt like we were on vacation for at least 3 days! Mike really outdid himself, and I’m really appreciative of all of the effort he put into planning getaway for us. We really need to relax and this weekend accomplished just that!
The last couple of years my birthday has been overshadowed by other significant events. Two years ago, on my 30th birthday, Mike was sworn in as Mayor. The people got together to celebrate at The Falls, but I couldn’t even really go, b/c Katelyn was only two weeks old and we just got home from the hospital after having Katelyn diagnosed with sleep apnea. She was on the monitor and no one yet knew how to take care of her with that thing attached to her 24/7. I went out for an hour to meet up with Mike while my mom watched Katelyn but that was it.
Last year was Katelyn’s first birthday party/our annual BBQ bash two weeks before my birthday. So again, my birthday celebration consisted of going to dinner at Rooney’s in Long Branch. The food was mediocre and coincidentally Long Branch mayor was there celebrating his reelection. So, again it turned out into a bit of a political event.
I’m definitely not complaining, but also so far none of my birthdays have been anything to brag about.
This year Mike planned a birthday weekend getaway for the two of us, and he went all out! He booked dinner reservations for us at Mediterra in Princeton and a room at the Lambertville Inn. We’ve always wanted to stay there but never did. We started out on Friday afternoon (my actual birthday) and stopped at Freehold Mall on the way to Princeton.I got to pick out a new purse, wallet and sunglasses from Coach store. It was a nice birthday surprise! After our quick shopping stop we headed to dinner. The weather was great, so we got a table outside (no line, since we had reservations!). We went for paella and white sangrias. It was a very nice and relxing dinner. It felt like we were on vacation!
We were too full for desert so we walked around and then got some cup cakes from The House of Cupcakes (they are a winner of the Food Network ‘Cupcake Wars’ show). They were pretty tasty, and the variety that they had in the store was quite impressive!
Across the street, there were people dancing in front of the library. It was the Princeton Salsa Club. We joined in for a few minutes, since after all of the sangria it seems like a great idea! After that we drove over to Lambertville just in time to see the fireworks over the Delaware River! We checked in at the hotel and got a bottle of wine from Unionville Vineyards and coupons for free wine tasting at the vineyard. The afternoon and evening alone were so nice that it exceeded any expectations that I may have had for the day. But wait, there’s more!
The next day, we had room service breakfast, and headed out to shop around town.
On the way out, Mike told me he had a surprise for me, but didn’t know if he should tell me what it was. I didn’t want to be left hanging, so he told me that he booked us a hot air balloon ride at sunset in Flemington!! I was very excited but at the same time a little scared. I didn’t expect to be going in a wicker basket high in the sky when I woke up in the morning and now the anticipation was starting to build! We walked across the bridge to New Hope, PA, and visited our favorite bookstore! It’s always a nice treat, they have a lot of gardening and cooking books that are always fun to look at. I bought Mike a new ‘Life is Good’ T-shirt. For life has been really good and for that we are grateful! We had lunch at another favorite place, the Triumph Brewery. It was another awesome meal. Mike had the beer sampler; we shared some calamari, a fresh salad and blue cheese burger.
We walked around some more after lunch and found a massage place, so to make the weekend getaway experience even more relaxing, we went for a 15 min neck, shoulders and feet massage! We still had a lot of time to kill so we decided to start heading to Flemington, and stop at the Unionville winery for a tasting. The wine we got at the hotel was just awful, it was a very dry white, and not to our liking, however once we got to the winery and tasted a few, we found that they did have a lot of decent wines, both white and red. We bought a bottle of each to bring home. After that still had a lot of time left before our hot air balloon ride, so we headed for the Flemington Outlets. We haven’t been there in years, and it changed a lot. More than 50% of stores were vacant, and businesses have moved out to strip malls along the highways in town! The kitchen store was still there, so I was happy. We browsed around and got a couple of small things. The time was nearing for our hot air balloon ride. We drove to the launch site, and we were there to watch them inflate the balloon. We had to sign a waver which was a little scary. The balloon was huge! I’ve never seen one this close. Mike looked tiny standing next to it.
We learned a lot about the hot air ballooning. Turns out you have to have an FAA commercial balloon pilots license and log at least 3 takeoffs and landings every 90 days to be able to fly people. Most people that do this do it for fun. They have regular jobs and the flying passengers just pays for the balloon and it’s upkeep. I never gave it any thought but after watching those guys blow up the balloon you realize how much effort goes into a single flight. There was four people (plus a teenager) on the ground helping to inflate the balloon. They helped us get in the basket and off we went - the two of us with the pilot.
The rest of the folks got into a chase vehicle and followed us as we drifted through air. There’s no way to control the direction in which the balloon will go. There was practically no wind, so we drifted very high up, the pilot was hoping to catch a wind current, and so we went one mile up in the air!! It was a clear evening so you could see very far! Here are some pictures from our ride:
It was a little scary at first, since you are just standing in a basket one mile up in the air! You don’t feel the breeze since you are moving with it, there was no turbulence and the temperature up there was the same as down on the ground. We descended lower and flew above the tree tops over some farm land. The scenery was very pretty! It was interesting to look down; it was if we were spying on the people below. The dogs were barking at the balloon, and a lot of people were coming out of the houses to wave to us and take pictures of the balloon. One family even offered us to come down for some pizza! It was really neat. The balloon ride lasted about an hour. The pilot kept in touch with the people in the chase vehicle via radio. They followed us the whole duration of the flight until a landing destination was selected. Turns out they just find a nice green backyard to land on, and if people are home they give them a bottle of champagne. The pilot said that most people don’t mind because it’s cool to have a balloon land in your yard, however he said that he’s encountered a few that were not so welcoming and tried to chase him off the property. If he had enough fuel, he said he just went back up in the air to the next person’s yard. If it was getting dark already or he didn’t have enough fuel, he had to just quickly pack up and call it an emergency landing. In our case, he picked a site to land; the chase team was waiting for us there when we started descending. The grass looked tall and it looked very wet, so he radioed that he’ll keep going. He pumped more air into balloon and we went up over the trees to land in a side yard next to a big house. Again, the chase people were already on the grass waiting for us to land, as soon as the basket was low enough for them to grab it, they held it down so that we can get out. They put the balloon and basket on the side, and disassembled it in pieces. We helped them fold up the balloon and load everything in the truck after which we drove back to the launch site for a glass of champagne and some appetizers. The people were very friendly and we had a great time hanging out with them before heading home. We were a little hungry, so we stopped at Outback for a quick appetizer and a drink before returning home.
Needless to say, this was a birthday to remember! I can’t believe all that we did in just one and a half day’s time! It felt like we were on vacation for at least 3 days! Mike really outdid himself, and I’m really appreciative of all of the effort he put into planning getaway for us. We really need to relax and this weekend accomplished just that!
Fresh Garlic from My Garden
Last fall I planted about 20 garlic cloves in my garden for fun, and to my surprise, they all grew into healthy heads of garlic! I dried them out and we’ve been using our home grown garlic for all of the cooking! Really cool, will definitely plant even more this fall!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Katelyn’s Kitten Birthday Party!
Katelyn loves to meow like Cinnamon, so this year’s birthday party theme was a no brainer - we had to do a Kitten Party! I found perfect decorations/serving ware with orange kittens on purple backgrounds, so here’s what we came up with. For snack, I served fish crackers from a “cat” dish, as well as made my own cat food by mixing rice crispy cereal with chocolate flavored crispy cereal. We bought headbands with cat ears for everyone and my mom made cat tails for the kids.
For entertainment, we can a cat food eating contest, we lined up the kids on the sidewalk on all fours, and they had to eat “cat food” from a plate without using their hands. It was so funny to watch!! And then we had the ‘Step on Kitty Tails’ game. The kids chased after each over in the back yard, trying to step on each other’s tails. We finished the party with fish-shaped sugar cookie decorating and some yummy cake. I wish I had the time to make the cake myself, but this time we had to by it. I wasn’t terrible impressed with the decorating that they did at Wegmans, but it tasted good :)
Friday, June 24, 2011
Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Sweet Princess Katelyn!
Today Katelyn turned two years old! Wow, that went fast! She’s no longer a baby but a true toddler!
She gets prettier every day, and her personally outshines everyone’s. She’s very determined and stubborn at the same time. She’s fun loving and a trouble maker. Her energy is contagious, you can’t help but be happy and smiling when you are around her. There are times when she gets moody, but overall, she’s only happy little girl! Her hugs and kisses are priceless!
This week we took her to see her pediatrician, Dr. Yia. Katelyn weighed in at 28 pounds (75%), 36 inches tall (95%), and her head measured at 18 1/4 inches (25%). Her head has always been on a smaller side, but it’s nothing to worry about, as long as she stays on the same curve (~25%) it’s normal.
She got her hearing tested, which was normal. She was really well behaved the whole time and she’s not a fan of going to the doctor’s office. She’s met or exceeded all of the milestones, and physically is one healthy kid! I’m proud to say that she’s only taken antibiotics once in her life, and hasn’t had any other sicknesses, other than little colds that she was able to beat on her own!!
She can express her feelings pretty well now, especially if she doesn’t like something! She’s stringing together sentences and repeating everything that Ashley says. We’ve also started potty training, she loves to pee like a big girl, but so far she's not pooping on the potty. She can count up to 20 with a tiny bit of help, and loves to color just like Ashley! She is still very active, so jumping and running are her two favorite things!
For her birthday, we all chipped in and bought Katelyn a giant bouncy castle. She and Ashley absolutely love it! They can play with it for a long time and it gets them very tired, which is not an easy thing to do.
Here are a couple videos and pictures of them in the bouncy house:
Tomorrow we are having a Kitten Themed Birthday Party for Katelyn, so today we had just a small cake for Katelyn. We sang happy birthday and she blew out her candles all by herself on the first try!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Father’s Day 2011
This year for Father’s Day we decided to visit Allaire State Park. It’s one of Mike’s favorite parks. They have a steam engine train that goes around the park and a historic village from the 1800’s. It’s very quiet and relaxing there. Ashley has been on this train ride here before, but she doesn’t remember, and it was Katelyn’s first ride at Allaire! Joan and David as well as Indira came along with us. After the train ride, we walked around a bit, bought a few cookies to share and had a picnic. Ashley and Katelyn got to run around and go crazy before we headed home for lunch. It was a perfect family day!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Happy 11th wedding Anniversary to Us!
Yesterday we celebrated our 11th Wedding Anniversary! Typically every year we have a big BBQ in June to celebrate this occasion, however this year we decided to postpone it until September. The main reason for this decision was so that we can celebrate Katelyn’s birthday with our closest friends which is only one week after our anniversary.
For our anniversary we went to Bistro Ole is Asbury Park, http://www.bistroole.com. They serve Spanish and Portuguese cuisine and it’s a BYOB place! So, off we went armed with a nice bottle of wine from Finger Lakes!
When we got there, there was no wait, so we got to pick a table to sit at. It was a very friendly atmosphere; the owner of the restaurant was very loud and funny. He asked if we were celebrating anything, and once he found out that it was our 11th anniversary, he literally told everyone at the restaurant! We ordered an appetizer of Plantain Chips with guacamole. For dinner I got Mariscada en Rojo (Seafood medley in red sauce), and Mike had the Port a la Gitana (pork tenderloin with port wine, mustard and a cream sauce). The food was amazing, very flavorful, but not heavy.
About half our after we got there, the restaurant got very busy, and a couple came in with a older person in a wheel chair. The owner asked us to move to another table, since there were no other tables left that could accommodate them, so we gladly agreed. It was no big deal to us, but he told us that our dinner will be on the house and that all that we’d have to do was tip the waitress! We totally didn’t expect this, and then when they brought out our desert (fresh chocolate covered strawberries), the owner blew a whistle and screamed happy anniversary to us, and the whole restaurant sang happy anniversary to us!! It was a fun dinner, and we’ll definitely be coming back again! It was a memorable night :)
For our anniversary we went to Bistro Ole is Asbury Park, http://www.bistroole.com. They serve Spanish and Portuguese cuisine and it’s a BYOB place! So, off we went armed with a nice bottle of wine from Finger Lakes!
When we got there, there was no wait, so we got to pick a table to sit at. It was a very friendly atmosphere; the owner of the restaurant was very loud and funny. He asked if we were celebrating anything, and once he found out that it was our 11th anniversary, he literally told everyone at the restaurant! We ordered an appetizer of Plantain Chips with guacamole. For dinner I got Mariscada en Rojo (Seafood medley in red sauce), and Mike had the Port a la Gitana (pork tenderloin with port wine, mustard and a cream sauce). The food was amazing, very flavorful, but not heavy.
About half our after we got there, the restaurant got very busy, and a couple came in with a older person in a wheel chair. The owner asked us to move to another table, since there were no other tables left that could accommodate them, so we gladly agreed. It was no big deal to us, but he told us that our dinner will be on the house and that all that we’d have to do was tip the waitress! We totally didn’t expect this, and then when they brought out our desert (fresh chocolate covered strawberries), the owner blew a whistle and screamed happy anniversary to us, and the whole restaurant sang happy anniversary to us!! It was a fun dinner, and we’ll definitely be coming back again! It was a memorable night :)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Indira and Dan’s Birthday Party
Indira and Dan share the same birthday, June 11th! This year we celebrated the two together by having a party for them at our house. The plan was to BBQ and hang out outside, but unfortunately, we got rained out. Of course that I didn’t stop us from having some good old fun! We had plenty of good wine from our trip to Finger Lakes. Mike and Theresa brought over their iPad to play some silly games like Angry Birds and Face Melter. Not to mention Dan’s friends that came over with their puppy dog! Ashley couldn’t be more thrilled to play with the dog, but Cinnamon wasn’t exactly happy. We had to keep them separated, dog outside, cat inside, and then switch. Cinnamon got very territorial and was very stressed about the dog. I suppose the lesson we learned is that there’s no way we could get a puppy as long as Cinnamon is around.
At night the weather cleared up and we were able to sit by the fire pit outside and have some desert. Ashley didn’t want to miss anything so she stayed up pretty late just listening to our conversations. This is her new thing, she’s very intrigued by the grown-ups’ conversations. It’s kind of cute, but we do have to watch carefully that we talk about.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Katelyn’s Room is Finally Done!!!
We waited a long time to decide if Ashley and Katelyn were going to share a room or each have their own. The more time passed, the more we realized that it’s best to keep them separate, at least for now. They are on somewhat different sleep schedules, and we knew if we want to continue with nap time, we had to keep them separated.
After about 6 months of shopping for furniture, we settled for a cherry wood furniture set from Thomasville (our favorite store). We ordered a headboard for the bed, a dresser with mirror and a night stand. I didn’t like the satin nickel finish knobs, so I replaced them with the girly clear ones. Since Katelyn is still in her crib, we can’t set up her “big girl” bed with the new headboard. We don’t want to rush, since she’s safer in the crib and we like that
I painted the room, installed some cute curtains on pretty curtain rods, and also updated her closet to have a wall system for all her stuff. Katelyn’s room is now purple, with green and white accent colors, and the theme for the room is butterflies.
After about 6 months of shopping for furniture, we settled for a cherry wood furniture set from Thomasville (our favorite store). We ordered a headboard for the bed, a dresser with mirror and a night stand. I didn’t like the satin nickel finish knobs, so I replaced them with the girly clear ones. Since Katelyn is still in her crib, we can’t set up her “big girl” bed with the new headboard. We don’t want to rush, since she’s safer in the crib and we like that
I painted the room, installed some cute curtains on pretty curtain rods, and also updated her closet to have a wall system for all her stuff. Katelyn’s room is now purple, with green and white accent colors, and the theme for the room is butterflies.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Precious
No words needed, these precious pictures speak for themselves..
Katelyn stashing her crayons in a rain boot
Ashley after stumping rain puddles on our driveway
Katelyn stashing her crayons in a rain boot
Ashley after stumping rain puddles on our driveway
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