Spring Has Sprung

And that means warmer weather, flowers and baseball!  The cold weather seems like it is finally on the way out and flowers are blooming everywhere!  It is so refreshing to walk down the street and see blossoming trees that I didn't even realize were there before.  Last week I was able to get out of the house a couple of days and enjoy the gorgeous weather.  

Mitch and I had his firm tickets to the Mets game last Tuesday evening, but the game got rained out and rescheduled for Thursday at noon.  Since Mitch couldn't make the noon game, Catalina and I got to enjoy the sunshine and incredible seats (four rows back from the dugout!). 

Then on Friday I met a friend at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  It was really overcast and not really the best temperature to walk around the gardens; however, cherry blossoms and daffodils were blooming all over the place.  Mitch and I will definitely be taking a trip back this summer; it is such a wonderful escape in the middle of the hustle and bustle of city life.

Charlottesville Visit

We had an amazing trip to Charlottesville last weekend!  While the weather did not cooperate on Friday and Saturday, it made up for it on Sunday.  It was a wonderful weekend of fellowship with two of our favorite couples, and Mitch and I both felt so refreshed after spending time with them.  We never expected to find such incredible friends during our time in Charlottesville, but the Lord blessed us with lifelong friends in the Smiths and the Michaliks.

I do not exaggerate when I say that our weekend was structured around food!  Charlottesville has wonderful restaurants, and we miss them so much!  We had every meal planned out, and Peyton and Emmaline were so sweet to accommodate our every whim...right down to the pregnancy move of grabbing a Dairy Queen blizzard on the way to the airport.  P&E (as I commonly refer to them) were wonderful hosts, and we stayed up until all hours just chatting.  They are the dearest friends, and as Mitch said when we were getting on the plane..."the weekend was just one long conversation."  

Now onto the pictures and the delicious restaurants.  Friday we ate at our favorite lunch spot, Feast.  It is located in a local market that has tons of local cheeses, produce, bread and dips.  Besides the food, the best part about going is all of the samples they have around the store.  So while you are waiting on your food, you can sample anything from candy to cheese.  My personal favorite sandwich is the grilled cheese with Virginia ham, and I top it off with the most divine salted caramel you will ever have.  After lunch, while I went to visit my former co-workers, Mitch tagged along with Peyton to the law school.  Below are a couple of pictures he took while he was there.

Friday night, we met up with Joe and Katherine and went to Mas for dinner.  It is a wonderful tapas restaurant in the Belmont neighborhood.  They have bacon wrapped dates that are by far the best thing on the menu, and we always order multiple plates.

Saturday, we had a lazy morning and made it to Bodo's Bagels at around 11:00 for our morning breakfast.  I LOVE bagels, and Bodo's will rival anything I have had up here in the big city.  My personal favorite is the everything bagel with butter; my mouth is watering just thinking about it!  After our late breakfast, we headed downtown to do a little shopping at a couple of the local stores; my personal fav is O'Suzannah.  And we bought our first children's book for the little naval orange that is growing in me. :)  After our shopping, we were ready to eat again, so we headed out to our old stomping grounds in Crozet to grab pizza.  Crozet Pizza is infamous in the area, and we were so lucky to live less than five minutes away.  After we stuffed ourselves with pizza, we headed to Veritas Vineyard where most of the group had a wine tasting.  It was just a wonderful afternoon of hanging out in such a beautiful place!  Finally, for dinner on Saturday night we decided to forgo our favorite restaurant in C'ville for a lower key place.  It was a tough decision, but in the end, it had been a long day and we just wanted to relax.  So we went to Mono Loco, which is a great Latin restaurant right off of the downtown mall.  We followed up dinner with a quick jaunt to The Flat creperie for a butter, sugar and cinnamon dessert.  Whew, that was a long day, but it was everything we wanted!

Sunday, we got up early and went to the early service at Trinity.  Oh how we love that church!  After church, we grabbed brunch at our favorite spot, La Taza.  It is also in the Belmont neighborhood, and it was every bit as delicious as we wanted it to be.  After brunch, we packed up our things and headed to campus for a relaxing walk before we went to the airport.  UVA has a beautiful campus and it was the perfect spring day to take a walk.  After our walk, we made a stop off at Barnes & Noble and at Dairy Queen on our way to the airport.  We thankfully got home without a hiccup and enjoyed rehashing the weekend on the plane.  It truly was a fabulous time, and exactly what the doctor ordered for this New York City couple.

Union Square

Union Square is one of my favorite places in New York.  It is only three subway stops away from my house and has so much to offer!  It has a lovely park and farmers market, but I would be lying if I said that was my main draw.  It also has great shopping and food!  The surrounding blocks have almost all of the stores that I like to frequent: H&M, Anthropologie, Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, LOFT, and DSW.  Not to mention these fabulous home and/or craft stores: ABC Carpet and Home, Fishs Eddy, and Paper Presentation.  And finally two great places to eat: Grey Dog Coffee and Pipa.  Grey Dog is usually packed and a little pricey, but the food is delicious and it is a great place to grab lunch.  Pipa is in the ABC Home building and is a fabulous tapas place.  It has beautiful chandeliers hanging all over the restaurant (you can see it from our girls weekend here) and it is such a fun place to go for an evening out on the town.  And do yourself a favor and order the sangria; it is delightful!

If you come in from out of town; I would say this is a must see area.  And I would be more than happy to be your tour guide! :)

Mitch and I are headed to Charlottesville tomorrow night for a long weekend, and we could not be more excited!  We are looking forward to a weekend of friends, fellowship and food!  I will post all of the happenings next week!

**Picture from islandwoo.com.

Spring Salad Dressing

Do you have a favorite salad dressing?  This is definitely mine; it tastes absolutely amazing!  It reminds me of spring and summer, which I need right now as we had a little snow on the ground during this first week of SPRING!!!  Go to your local supermarket and buy this delicious dressing; it will dance in your mouth.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it, so I think I will go make myself a spinach, strawberry and pecan salad for part of my lunch.  Seriously, go out and buy Briannas Blush Wine Vinaigrette; you won't regret it!

On the note of food, this baby has my appetite in full gear.  After I ate dinner last night, I found my stomach still felt empty.  How is that possible when you eat a meat and two sides?

Book Page Wreath

Remember my girls weekend back in December?  Those three girls are all incredibly creative, and we all read this wonderful blog.  Emily at Jones Design Company is inspiring and gives great tutorials, so the four of us decided to all make her book page wreath.  It was a lot of fun for me to make, even though a few hiccups along the way made it take longer than I would have liked.  I had visions of putting this on our apartment door, but due to these hiccups, my wreath was a little too bouffant for NYC.  Unfortunately, it intruded into our neighbor's space. :)  So I found an alternative place for it, and I think it turned out rather nicely.  Below are a few pictures to document the process and finished product.  If you decide that you want to tackle this lovely wreath, I can send you my suggestions and pitfalls.

Balloons

When was the last time you received balloons?  I think for me it was my sophomore year in college, when Ann, LB and Caroline covered our dorm living room in balloons for my birthday.  There is something about balloons that just makes you smile.  My sweet husband came home from work a couple of weeks ago with a big handful of balloons, and I was like a kid in a candy store...I couldn't contain my excitement.  What a fabulous unexpected surprise!

Drumroll Please

We are having a baby!!!!!  Baby McGuffey is due to enter the world on October 4th, and we could not be more excited.  The idea of being parents is definitely still setting in for us, but we are ready for this next big adventure in our life.  I am sure there will be many funny stories to come out of raising a baby in The Big Apple, and lucky you will get to hear about them right here. :)


Sorry I have been so blog tardy this past month; I am just so tired all the time!  I haven't had the energy to do very much this first trimester, but thankfully I will be onto greener pastures in about a week.  On that note, I want to applaud all the women who have a 9-5 job and are pregnant; I cannot imagine making it through this past month and a half without my mid-day two hour nap.  You ladies are my heroes!


The ultrasound was just taken on Monday, and we saw two arms, two legs and ten fingers!  In the picture above the baby's mouth is open and you can see its eyes and one little arm circling up to the face.  Do all baby's look like Curious George at this stage or is that just our baby? :)