Weekend Things: April is here!

If I told you I ate tacos (twice), a lamb burger, spicy fried chicken, duck (also twice), soft shell crab and my body weight in chips and salsa this weekend, would you judge me?

It’s finally April!  Which means baseball is back, birthday celebrations are the norm and warm weather is here to stay.  Please please let that last part be true!  I could probably feel gluttonous about this past weekend, but instead I’m feeling happy because this time of the year is just the best and there’s too many fun things happening to not get caught up in it all.  April, I am so glad you are here.

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I texted Joey Thursday night and told him I was declaring Friday the start of his birthday, meaning we were gonna ignore the stuff we “needed” to do and just have fun from then on.  I also told him we could do WHATEVER he wanted and he wanted a red velvet cake.  And that’s how you end up carrying two sticks of butter in your purse.  Full cakes are intimidating but I’ve vowed to perfect it by the end of the year.

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Oh and Joey also really wanted me to get a lunchtime manicure on Friday 🙂

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We skipped out early, for the traditional birthday weekend happy hour at Root Down (In actuality, this is only the second year we’ve partook in that “tradition,” but it should most definitely be a yearly thing.)  We were lucky to grab two spots at the packed bar, then proceeded to order most of the menu.  I wish I could get to the root of it (see what I did there?), but for whatever reason, sitting in the sunshine on a Friday afternoon, sipping a Spicy Paloma and eating lamb sliders and duck wings with my favorite person just makes me the happiest girl in the world.

In true, J&L form, we left Root Down saying “we should go there EVERY Friday!”Read More »

Celebratory Weekend Things

Joey loves when his birthday and Easter coincide and after what I would call an A+ weekend, I can see why.  Family gatherings, lots of good food and awesomely warm spring weather!  Plus baseball’s back and I can’t be mad at that 🙂

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I got Joey all the makings of an Old Fashioned and I’m pretty excited that we get to play bartender with giant ice cubes now.  Oh and I made a mad dash to Whole Foods to pick up a surprise Chantilly cake while Joey was in a meeting.  I think everyone at work liked it…

Only felt kinda serial killer-y toting that giant knife around.

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At 3 PM, Joey had decided he was over work so we ditched that place and took ourselves to Root Down for a pre-birthday dinner drink.  We sat at the bar and tried to take note of Old Fashioned-making techniques.  I ordered a Pepper Blossom which is totally not on the HH menu but totally worth full price because it’s INCREDIBLE.  P.S. New boots!

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IMG_7584I took Joey to Harman’s Eat + Drink for dinner and the food was so incredibly good!  The drinks?  Not so much.  I was the DD so I didn’t really care, plus I was distracted by teensy tacos, celery root tots and the juiciest pan roasted chicken there ever was!  I would totally recommend (the food at) this place!  For real, I had to force Joey to go get ice cream with me after dinner.  Who does he think he is?!

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The first half of Saturday was spent at Joey’s dad’s for springtime birthday celebrating/early Easter.  We brought a buncha cupcakes from a bakery near our house and I think they went over well!  Second half of the day was spent celebrating Joey’s birthday with his mom.  Annual Mexican dinner at Los Arcos.  Would you check out that look of pure delight on Joey’s face when they put that sombrero on his head.

Afterwards, we had his grandparents over to see our house for the first time ever then we convinced his mom and brother to go on a mini brewery crawl with us.  Full disclosure: I left my purse at the first brewery, didn’t realize until after the 20 minute walk to the second brewery and basically bereted myself the entire walk back to get it.  Yeah, for those of you keeping track, this is the third time I’ve done that…

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Easter Sunday was busy!  Okay, not really, we just got coffee (iced, duh!), roasted A TON of veggies (because it’s gonna be a busy week and having grab and go lunch options is going to be key!), I went on a run and then Easter dinner.  Mom knocked it out of the park food-wise.  That asparagus!  Both our mothers spoiled us with Easter basket gifts galore — yeah, we got Sea Monkeys! — and I provided Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.  How pretty does it look on Mom’s china?  I tried my hand at coconut whipped cream and it turned out awesome.  Though that’s not actually it in the above picture 🙂

This Week: Rockies Opening Day, a fantasy baseball draft, dinner and Motown the Musical, probably another dinner out for Joey’s birthday and the Rockies HOME Opener!  Yes, yes yes!