Tag: mom time

Weekend Things

LaurenLeave a comment

I almost started this post yesterday, in which case, it was going to start with something like: I’m just going to say it — this weekend felt like spring!  But today it is cool and cloudy and windy as hell, so maybe it’s still winter.  Womp, womp.  But that little taste of spring — sunshine skies, warm temps, actual flowers popping up in our neighborhood — has me excited nonetheless.  And the spring preview made for the perfect backdrop this weekend, which I’m rolling out for you highlights style!

Ate All the Good Things!

Starting with happy hour at The Way Back on Friday — the ricotta gnudi was lifechanging, and to think we almost didn’t order it.  We may also have made a “Gnudi Magazine Day!” joke because we’re still children of the 90’s and Billy Madison is king.

Afterwards, ice cream at the new Sweet Cooie’s.  It’s an ice cream parlor straight from a Wes Anderson movie.  Which means everything is pastel, old-timey and somewhere between completely adorable and entirely creepy.  I dug the vibe and my peanut butter Oreo ice cream.

Best of all, my mom cooked us breakfast on Sunday and everything was so so good!  My mom and I are totally on the same page about chilaquiles.  She sent me over the recipe and I see breakfast for dinner in my near future.

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Why can’t the light be this good in my house??

Had All the Mom-Time!

Not only did she feed me the best meal but she gave me a massage on Saturday and we took a little mother-daughter trip to Home Depot post-breakfast feast on Sunday.  I was singing a little “I get to see my Mama on Sunday!” song in the car on Friday and Joey made fun of me then reminded me that I actually got to see her on Saturday too.

Bonus: I also got to see my little sissy, a sunshine-seeking pup and that gorgeous pot rack/new set of pots my mom just got.  Joey hung it and then we spent something like 20 minutes arranging them JUST SO.  Worth it!

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How crazy cool are those lids??

Watched All the Good Movies!

Friday: Sing Street — we loved it so much, because: Irish accents!  Catchy 80’s-style songs!  A cute feel good story line!  And just to give it some validity, Aidan Gillen is totally in it.  I think it’s the first role I’ve seen him in where he speaks with his actual accent.  Also, I like all the songs more than anything in La La Land, so there’s that.

Saturday: Tallulah.  Joey picked this one for us and he chose well!  We felt like something was off/missing but couldn’t place exactly what it was.  Also, I pointed out that this is the second movie Ellen Page and Allison Janney star in together.  They make a good team.

Sunday: The Fundamentals of Caring.  I’ll pretty much agree to watch anything with Paul Rudd in it.  Joey also picked this one for us and I guess I’m just going to let him pick every movie we watch from now on because he was three for three this weekend!  I think my favorite part was Paul Rudd saying “I’m getting a patty melt, I don’t give a shit!”

Did All the Relaxing!

I forwent formal exercise this weekend, in exchange for warm weather walks, backyard hanging and lots of reading time.  Felt good, felt right.  Joey spent some time working on the drywall in our living room so I set myself up on the couch, just on the other side of his homemade dust barrier and dug into my book.  I’ve got about 100 pages left of The Eyre Affair and I really really like it!  As an English major who took courses on Shakespeare, Victorian literature and detective fiction, I feel like this book really gets me on so many levels.  Plus, I just love a badass female main character  🙂

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What did you do this weekend??

Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

LaurenLeave a comment

Extended title for this post is “Thanksgiving Weekend 2016: A mixed bag, but mostly good.”  Because, uh yeah, it’s been a blurry roller-coaster type of deal for the past four and a half days.  And while I didn’t spend the entire time in the best of moods — I took a three day coffee break and I think my emotions are all over the place now that I’m back on the caffeine train — most of it was the custom food/family/fun explosion that makes Thanksgiving my absolute favorite time of the year.

Was that intro all over the place or what?  Oy with the poodles already!

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If Thanksgiving is my favorite day of year, then the three days leading up to it are my second favorite.  I get to tap into my plan -ahead, list-making, over-preparing talents and oh what a Type A high it is!  I looked forward to making this Salted Butter Apple Galette all day on Tuesday.  It turned out perfectly!  Pretty impressed with my apple slice feathering skills 🙂

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We managed to sneak out of work early on Wednesday, spent a couple of hours assembling/prepping dishes for the next day and made that one emergency trip to the grocery store, because something just HAS to go wrong when you’re cooking for Thanksgiving.  I totally made the Brussels sprouts with apple cider VINEGAR instead of actual apple cider and Joey had to pick up another two pounds so I could re-make them.  Yikes.

Crisis averted, we took ourselves to dinner at Uncle because after last year, I vowed to make ramen dinner our new Thanksgiving Eve tradition.  We people watched during the 45 minute wait, then sat in the exact same spot as last year!  What are the chances?

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THANKSGIVING ♥

Morning time perfection brought to you by a mug of coffee and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It feels so wrong to give up our Turkey Trot tradition, but it also so feels so relaxing and right.  Joey even had time to draw a little Christmas tree on our wall 🙂

Afternoon perfection brought to you by Meal #1, which involved the best turkey, the David Blaine special (I could not roll my eyes hard enough…), a nap for Jory and the Cowboys game.  They won, I guess.

Meal #2 at my parents’ made complete by festive cocktails, my sister ladling gravy onto her roll, MOM’S STUFFING (!!!!!!!) and James Bond.  We found a whole slew of the films on Amazon and went with Spectre.  Oh and that apple galette… YUM!

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On Friday, I watched Joey’s first game of the alumni tournament before heading off to Loveland with my family to see my brother & co. at their new house!  Guess I was too busy scootering with my niece, holding my nephews cup of coffee for him while he rode his bike (start em young, right?), sipping beer with brother and admiring the penguin cake my sister-in-law made to take any pictures.  Fail!

But afterwards, Mom, Joey and I headed back to our house for GILMORE GIRLS!  I got us matching shirts to celebrate the arrival of the revival (I wanted to say that so bad!) and while we only made it through two episodes together (they were 30 minutes longer than we had originally thought), it was still so fun.  It only makes sense to watch a mother-daughter show with your mother 🙂  Debating a full out post about the series, but we’ll see!

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Saturday started with pancakes (my turn!), progressed to the last episode of Gilmore Girls, followed by a run for me and outdoor Christmas decorations for Joey, who was just up on our roof when I got back from my run… normal, so normal.  Then we got ourselves together and headed over to the Denver Central Market!  It is BEAUTIFUL in there and I love all the restaurant/market stations, but I also think most people will use it to eat instead of taking advantage of the butcher, cheese shop and produce section.  I grabbed a tuna salad sandwich from Silva’s Fish Market and while the bread was Texas Toast-esque perfection, I kinda didn’t want to pay $12 to put the two halves together myself.

One major snafu later — paid $10 to park at the 16th Street Mall Pavilions only to discover the movie we wanted to see was sold out — we ended up in Arvada for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Okay, I ADORE being in the Harry Potter world but if you took away any prior HP knowledge and judged the movie on its own, it’s a lot less interesting.  I felt like the dialogue was so lacking.  Wait, was there even any dialogue?  Caught the winning end of the CU game afterwards though!

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Sunday started with breakfast tacos and ended with Thanksgiving leftovers pizza and that’s really all you need to know about that day.  Also, I’m guessing your attention is dwindling at this point.  Wishing you a quick recovery from this weekend hangover 🙂