The Adventure Starts Here: year of dates

Showing posts with label year of dates. Show all posts

Monday, March 6, 2017

Weekend Recap | Celebrating 33!

I haven't done a weekend recap in a while. Probably because our weekends have been pretty low key recently, spending the majority of them at home in sweatpants. But this weekend was my birthday, so I figured it was worth documenting. It started on Friday (my actual birthday), with Chris taking the day off. Noah still had school, so after dropping him off, Chris and I went to breakfast just the two of us.

We then headed over to the mall where I had some returns to do as well as a few things I wanted to try on. It's rare for Chris and I to go shopping together, especially without Noah. It was nice to be able to take our time and be able to get Chris' opinions on things. A few weeks ago I started experiencing some minor problems with my phone (that's over 2 years old now). While we've been discussing upgrading eventually, I was surprised when Chris suggested we do it right then. Picking out the rose gold iPhone 7 was the easy part, but our visit wasn't without difficulty. We ended up spending quite a few hours at the apple store this weekend, but that's for another post. The important part is that everyone we dealt with was super friendly and helpful and we are all set for the week!

^^^ while we didn't buy the $250,000 Bentley, we did do our own fair share of shopping ;)

Chris then picked Noah up from school and took him to pick out some flowers and cupcakes for my birthday. Noah usually gravitates toward the artificially neon colored flowers, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that Chris was able to lead him to these pretty tulips this year ;) The cupcakes he picked out were a big surprise, and I had to wait until after dinner to find out what they were!

We headed back to the mall to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with my parents. But first, we had to make a pitstop at the Apple store... again!

After dinner, we all went back to our house for cupcakes, singing, and gifts. Noah was so excited to show me that he picked out Paw Patrol cupcakes for me. I love how he gets so into it... last year he picked out Ninja Turtle cupcakes. While my new phone had been "set up", I still hadn't synced it with my laptop to restore my last backup. I totally forgot that Chris had taken photos at dinner and doing cake using my new phone. So I lost all those photos when I hit to restore the latest backup without importing the new photos first. I was so upset that I made such a silly mistake! I'm usually really good at backing up my photos and pride myself on documenting all these little moments. Thankfully my mom did have this one photo (and proof that Chris was taking photos) and even took some video. But I was still disappointed that I didn't have any photos of us blowing out the candles. So we decided that we would do it again the next night and make sure to back those photos up ;)

On Saturday, Noah got to take Chris to his school for "Daddy Day". They spent 45 minutes in his classroom, going through their daily routine, doing a craft, and playing with all his favorite toys. Chris looks forward to this day all year, and Noah said it was the "best, best daddy day ever!". Meanwhile, I met up with a friend for manicures and pedicures. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning :)

Then it was one more trip to the Apple store before heading home to relax and build Lego towers. My mom then came over to watch Noah so Chris and I could go out for a birthday dinner, just the two of us. But first, we set the cupcakes up again, my boys sang to me once more, and this time we actually got some photos of it all. Chris and I went to Ruth's Chris for dinner, which has sort of become a birthday tradition. Dinner was delicious as usual, and we were still home in time to do bedtime with Noah. This birthday dinner also counted as our "March Date".

After a wonderful two days of birthday celebrating, I was happy to have a super low key Sunday. I went without makeup and contacts and stayed in my pajamas all day. I even got a few hours to myself when Chris took Noah to family swim. Besides having a headache, it was the perfect way to end my birthday weekend!

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

A Year of Dates 2017 | February - Once

For Christmas, I gave Chris "A Year of Dates". That means that each month, I have planned out a date for the two of us to go on. Each month, he will open that month's envelope to find out what the date is. We did this back in 2014 and really enjoyed going on a date each month. Since then we have found it easy to push date nights to the side when we don't have them planned out. That's why I knew it was time to do "A Year of Dates" once again. This past weekend we went on our February date, and unlike last month's movie at home, this one required a babysitter, aka my mom.

Three years ago when we first did "A Year of Dates", one of Chris' favorite dates was in March when we went to see Rock of Ages at the local theater in town. We didn't live in a huge town, but this theater got some pretty decent shows, everything from comedy shows, to kid productions, to shows that used to be on Broadway. So when planning the dates this year, I was pleased to find that the Broadway show "Once" was coming to that same theater. We never saw the show on Broadway or even knew that much about the story, but I had heard such great things about the music. Since this was not only our "February date" but also our Valentine's Day date, we decided to make an event of it all and grabbed lunch before our 2 pm show.

Before I get to the details of our date, let's talk about my outfit. It was a cold and dreary Sunday. If we didn't have plans, it would have been the perfect day to just stay inside all day. While I had originally thought of wearing a dress, I really just wanted to be comfortable and warm! This sweater with the floral back detailing was perfect. It kept me warm but had an extra feminine touch to make it a little more special for our Valentine date. A sparkly necklace and a bright pink lip completed the outfit. Not only was it cold, but there was freezing rain on top of that. Thankfully the roads were fine for driving, but the sidewalks were a different story. Some of the restaurants and stores had done a good job salting them, but there were quite a few patches of super slick sidewalk, causing me to have to hold on to Chris to keep me up. While these boots are super comfortable despite the heel, I learned this weekend that they don't have much traction. I felt like I was ice skating! No worries though, I still love these boots!

sweater (now 40% off), similar (more sizes) | necklace (similar) | jeans

brown boots - I ordered up half a size and in wide width based on reviews.

lipstick (Smitten) and gloss (Kissyfit)

Since the show was starting at 2pm, we opted to grab lunch before. Since living in Morristown, a few new restaurants have opened. One of which is a second location to a restaurant Chris' family has been going to for years. We knew we liked the food, so we were eager to check this location out. The funny thing is, it replaced a restaurant that we had gone to for our 2nd anniversary. We really loved that place and it's vibe (it's still around, just in a new town), so we were excited to see if the inside decor would be changed. They made some slight changes from the last restaurant there, but it definitely resembles the old restaurant more than it does their other location, which is a good thing.

Since we went on a Sunday, they were serving brunch rather than their normal lunch menu. We laughed when the waitress asked us the time when we ordered a glass of wine and a beer, since they can't serve alcohol until after 12. Not sure if that is a New Jersey thing, but we are used to this rule and already knew it was past noon before ordering ;) I think we both wanted warming up, I ordered the french onion soup and Chris ordered the chili... both were delicious. We then each ordered a grilled cheese, mine had short ribs in it and Chris' had avocado. And since we had some time to kill before the show started, and had no desire to waste time outside in the elements, we opted to splurge and get some dessert as well. A small sacrifice indeed ;)

I was a little nervous about the slippery sidewalks for our walk back to the theater, but thankfully the rain had stopped and the sidewalks were a little better. Still some icy patches, but at least I didn't feel like I was ice skating the whole way ;) While I usually prefer Orchestra seats, for this performance I was able to get some really good seats in the Balcony. My general rule is that if I can't be in the first few rows of the Balcony, that I'd rather be in Orchestra, even if it's the last row. We had 3rd row seats and on the aisle (which Chris loves). And we just so lucked out that there was an empty seat next to me, giving us a little more room to spread out.

The show takes place in Dublin and a lot of it is set in a pub. As we were waiting for the show to start, the stage acted as an extra bar where the audience could actually go and get a drink! It was pretty cool that you could go and really see the whole set up close. Since we were already in our balcony seats when we learned this, we opted against going up, but we still thought it was cool. And before the lights dimmed and the actual show started, the ensemble cast played some really fun Irish music as a pre-show. Chris and I kept asking if this was the real show and were so confused why the lights were still up. If you get a chance to see Once, I would definitely recommend it! The show, and especially all the music, was really amazing and makes me want to go to Ireland. You think I could get away with planning a trip to Ireland as one of our "dates" ;)

Stay tuned for next month's date. March is my birthday month, so I'm sure Chris can guess what our date will be ;)

Does your town have any good local theater?

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Wednesday, January 18, 2017

A Year of Dates 2017 | January - Movie Night at Home

I decided to plan a pretty low key "first date". With weather being unpredictable and the high probability of getting sick this time of year, I figured it was safer to plan an at home date for January. Chris and I used to go to movies a lot before Noah was born, averaging 3 a month! Since Noah was born, getting to the movie theater, especially for an adult movie, is pretty rare. So we have missed quite a few movies over the last few years. We've recently started watching a few shows (Gilmore Girls and Fuller House) on Netflix, so I thought it would be fun to stream a movie after Noah went to bed. I had a hard time remembering what movies we wanted to see, so I started browsing through lists of movies released in 2015 and 2016. I was very surprised to find out how few of the movies we were interested in are available for streaming. One of the movies on my list was The Intern, and Chris just happened to notice that it's been playing on HBO a lot recently. So we scrapped the Netflix plan and instead recorded it on our TiVo one random afternoon for us to watch this past weekend.

I'm happy to report that our at home movie date went really well. I always worry that when we plan to do something after Noah goes to bed, that he will either be up later than we want or he will wake up multiple times, disrupting our evening. Thankfully, Noah fell asleep early and quickly and stayed asleep the entire evening, no problem! I brought down the monitor just so we wouldn't be paranoid over every little sound we heard. It allowed us to snuggle up on the couch and enjoy the movie with a glass of wine in hand.

Last time we tried to watch a movie at home, we attempted to do it through Amazon Prime on our TiVo. Our internet was so slow that we maybe got 10 minutes into the third Hunger Games movie before it stalled and kept saying "buffering". Our movie plans were ruined that night and we ended up just watching random shows on our TiVo instead. Watching a recorded movie was definitely a better plan! And we both really enjoyed The Intern too! I am a big fan of both Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNiro and the two of them together was really cute. If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.

Stay tuned for our February's date. I offered to let Chris open the envelope at the end of our movie date, but he opted to wait until February 1st. So while he doesn't know what we will be doing, I'll give you a hint... it will require a babysitter :)

Have you seen any good movies lately??

Friday, December 30, 2016

Year of Dates 2017

Christmas 2013, I gave Chris "A Year of Dates". We had so much fun going on monthly dates in 2014, even though we kind of dropped the ball once October came. It came at the perfect time to remind us to go on dates more after having Noah. In 2015, I just assumed we would continue the trend of going on dates, and for the most part we did. But in 2016, we kind of slacked off again. That's why I decided it was time to give Chris "A Year of Dates" again for Christmas. And while I'm technically giving it to Chris, it really is a gift for the both of us. And I can't wait to start having regular dates again.

This year, I made 12 cards that each have that month's "date" printed on it. I put them into envelopes, with a calendar printed on the front. Each month, Chris will open that month's envelope to see what our date is. Some dates are already scheduled, while others are more flexible. Some dates require a babysitter, while others will be at home dates after Noah goes to bed. There's a mix of more affordable dates as well as some more expensive ones. The important part is that each month we will be making a point to spend time just the two of us.

I really hope that Chris likes the dates I have planned for us. And if he doesn't, I'm always up for changing things up as the year goes on. I plan to share our monthly dates on the blog, so I'd love for you to follow along.

For all of our 2014 dates, click here.

And while we are on the topic of gifts for Chris... today is his birthday! We will be spending the day celebrating both his and my sister in law's birthdays (who just happened to be born on the same day AND year!). We will also be getting together with Chris' parents tonight to celebrate Chris and his dad's birthday (which was on Tuesday). Even though Chris rarely gets his own celebration, Noah and I try to make sure he knows how special he is and how much we love him! Happy Birthday Chris!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

September Date | Baseball Game

For Christmas, I gave Chris "A Year of Dates". On Christmas, he opened a stack of envelopes, one for each month of 2014. Inside the envelopes are pre-planned (and some pre-paid) dates for us to enjoy each month. At the beginning of each month, we open the envelope and schedule a day to go on the date. I will be recapping our dates each month.

For this month's date, we went to a Minor League Baseball Game. I have to admit that many of my planned dates got moved to different months or the plans changed. I'm totally okay with that because the point of this gift was to get us going on dates, regardless of the activity. This month, we decided to bring Noah along with us again. I know, is it really a date if we bring the kid with us? But we really like hanging out with Noah and we both love watching him experience new things! We also love "breaking the rules" ;)

Anyway, we went to our local minor league game on Saturday night, and it was also Irish Night. By wearing green, we got $2 off the already affordable tickets. We bought the tickets at the gate and were shocked when we were able to get front row seats right behind home base. Originally we were going to get higher up seats to avoid being hit by balls, but since they had the net we were safe :)

scarf

^^^ trying to get Noah's hands out of his mouth... we all ended up looking silly instead ;)

I'm sure he will enjoy the actual game as he gets older, but right now Noah likes the same things about a baseball game that I do... the food and people watching! Noah was having a blast watching the pre game entertainment, eating some french fries, and playing with the net.

^^^ I skipped the corned beef and cabbage and instead went for my favorites... nachos and funnel cake!

Noah was interested in the mascot from afar, so we decided to bring him over to have a picture taken. Noah wasn't a fan but didn't freak out until after the picture was taken and the bear went behind my back to say hi to Noah. He startled him/scared the crap out of him! Noah jumped and knocked into the ice cream cone Chris had just bought him :( We cleaned Noah's hair the best we could, but Noah was so shaken up that he sat hugging me for the next while and wouldn't even eat the cone. Thankfully Noah calmed down once he saw that the mascots were on the field and not near him. Even when he saw him later, he was smiling and looking as long as the mascot was at a distance. He remained super cautious if he came close though!

^^^ Noah's face on the right is priceless... "I'm watching you buddy!"

^^^ Another "mascot"... General Admission! It doesn't look like Noah liked him much either

As for the actual game, it ended up being a pitcher's duel, as neither team scored in the first 5 innings. The home team Somerset Patriots didn't even get their first hit until the 5th inning. Also in the 5th inning, one of the players was arguing balls and strikes with the umpire, so he was ejected. The manager came out and ended up arguing fiercely as well, and was also ejected. He made the crowd roar though because as he was walking towards the dugout, he motioned with his hands that the umpire was jokingly ejected as well! The game ended with the away team winning 2-0.

^^^ the game was being streamed online and you can see us in the stands!

It was a really great night. We ended up leaving in the middle of the 6th inning around 8:45 PM. Noah was still in a good mood, but I wanted to get him home to bed. I was shocked when he didn't fall asleep in the car ride home... this kid is a real trooper!

Monday, September 1, 2014

August Date | Our 4th Anniversary

Happy Labor Day! It's weird how the calendar works with holidays, because 4 years ago when we got married, it was not Labor Day Weekend. Instead, we were on our honeymoon in Italy for Labor Day. This year we had a busy fun filled weekend at home :) Part of our weekend included going on our monthly date Saturday night. For our August date, Chris and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 4th Wedding Anniversary. We purposefully go on "early" dates so that we can still do Noah's naps and bedtime. My mom came over to watch Noah and we were able to get some family pictures before leaving. Noah loves to be outside so he wasn't even upset to see us leave.

We tried a new (to us) restaurant, called Verve. Our realtor recently gave us a gift card to this restaurant as a housewarming gift. We heard great things about it and the menu looked yummy, so we were excited to try it out immediately. We had 6 pm reservations and were able to sit outside. Their bread was warm and had this great oil mixture to dip it in. I got a cesar salad and short ribs and Chris got the lobster.

I had given Chris his gift early... a hydrangea for our front yard. Chris surprised me at dinner with a gift certificate to get a massage. It was a really great evening and I really value these dates!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

July Date

This month, I had a date with both my boys! I know that these dates were designed so that Chris and I would get out on our own, but this month Chris suggested that we bring Noah with us. And since this was Chris' Christmas gift, I was happy to oblige ;) Since we were bringing Noah mini golfing with us, we decided to go in the morning, when we figured it wouldn't be too busy (or too hot yet). Originally we planned to go at 9am, right when they open. But when we woke up, it was drizzling a little bit. Instead, we decided to run our errands first and then see if the weather improved.

So we started our morning out with a breakfast smoothie, a trip to Target and Costco, and then a quick lunch at McDonalds. So instead of getting ice cream after mini golfing, we got it before when we were at McDonalds. You can't beat a 49 cent ice cream cone!!!

Then it was time to golf! Noah was technically free and he even got his own ball and putter. He picked the red ball, though he really didn't like hitting it. He preferred to hold it and instead hit our balls ;) I have to say that Noah was really good! He even sunk a few putts (with our help of course) and was really happy the entire time. We only golfed 9 holes, but that was just because it was getting hot and we left his hat at home (bad parenting 101). We decided to be total kleptos and stole Noah's red ball as a souvenir ;)