Mother's Day 2017

We had a wonderful and relaxed Mother's Day. We had brunch at Nana's house in the morning.

In the afternoon I visited my mom for a little while and ran some errands by myself, which was pure bliss.  Michael made a delicious lasagna and the big boys each picked out a cake for me. They each made their own cake, with assistance from Michael. Peyton picked out funfetti with pink icing and Patrick picked out strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. They were so proud of their cakes, it was precious. 

Peyton made a cute little picture at school for me

And Patrick, who was very sweet in his responses.

Thanks for making my day so special boys!!

Patrick and Peyton's Birthday Celebration

We had Patrick and Peyton's birthday celebration this weekend.  If you are thinking that their birthdays were a couple months ago, you are right! The boys really wanted a joint bowling birthday party and I could not find a Saturday where we did not have sports both in the morning and afternoon. The bowling alley was booked every Sunday that I checked, so Saturday morning in late May was our only chance to do a birthday party for both of them. There is not a bowling alley in Nashville any more, so our only option was Franklin. They have mini lanes with tiny little balls called Highway 66 bowling. I thought it would be perfect for the boys!

Apparently I picked the worst weekend to do a birthday party! We had a few regrets early on, but we had a good amount of acceptances too. A couple days before the party (when all of the responses started coming in), I started to try and figure out how many we would have. I thought we would have about 15 kids at the party, which seemed like the perfect amount!

The morning of the party, I woke up and started prepping for everything. I had spent a few days beforehand getting everything ready. The big boys helped a lot. While we were getting everything ready the boys both asked which of their friends were able to come. They were both really excited about it. We hopped in the car and headed towards Franklin. I pulled out my phone on the way and saw there were a lot of RSVP updates. Well can I just go on a small rant for a minute? We had 9 children back out as we were driving to the party!!! Seriously?!?  I walked into the party feeling pretty upset about it because I was worried that no one would show up at all. A birthday party is a big deal to a child. Had I known that not many people were going to come I would have tried to pick another time. I just think it is very rude to respond a few minutes before the party. I realize that the party was 30 minutes away, but if you RSVP yes, I really think that you should try and attend the party if possible. I completely understand that there will be circumstances that pop up, but for 9 kids to back out at the last minute was crazy!

Now i'm not one to get fired up about things (at all!), but I seriously felt as though parents just didn't want to put in the effort to take their children. We make every attempt to attend all of the birthday parties we are invited to (it's important to that child!) and we go out of our way to attend. It provided a good opportunity for me to teach the boys how to be appreciative of those that came and to shake it off and have a great time. Patrick had 2 friends show up and Peyton had 4 friends. It was a small group, but we had a blast!

Michael thinks I am ridiculous, but I couldn't just show up for their party. I love to put a personal touch on their party and I think the boys really do appreciate the extra effort. We had about 20 minutes to set up for the party. I prepped everything in advance and just pulled it together really fast once we got there. It was tricky trying to come up with ways to make it creative, without hanging anything. The red birthday backdrop is a tri-fold display project board covered with fabric I already had from a previous party. I also just printed out a quick birthday banner and stapled it to the board.

The boys and I searched google and picked out a birthday cake together. We had been pretty busy so I didn't even think about placing the cake order until about a week in advance. Since this was a big weekend for graduations, I had a hard time finding someone to make the cake. I normally go with Publix, but I thought this cake might be a little tricky for them. So, I called bakery after bakery and every single one turned me down because they were at full capacity. I think I might have called 7 bakeries. I went to talk to Publix about doing the cake and they said they were booked solid. Publix booked solid, seriously? Finally, someone mentioned that the cool springs Puffy Muffin normally has availability and can do elaborate cakes. I was afraid their price quote would come in really high, but it was surprisingly cheaper than what Publix can nomally do! 

I was so impressed with the cake! They will definitely be my new go-to for the boys birthday cakes!

The party favors were mini bowling pins with Starburst jelly beans

They were so cute and delicious

I made a couple of quick centerpieces for the tables

The lanes are just so cute and perfect for this age!

My serious little bowler. He LOVES bowling. He is also really good. I think his score for the first game was 136. I'm pretty sure he would beat me every time! 

Peyton likes bowling okay, but loved running around with his buddies in the arcade the most. I made their shirts at about 11:45pm the night before and I think they turned out great. Nothing like some last minute printing and ironing the night before a party :)

Peyton has the best bowling technique. It is so funny! He can't be persuaded to bowl any other way. 

Playing some air hockey with friends

Family picture. Can we just talk about how precious my big boys are for a minute? They are the best of friends. Do you spy them holding hands in the picture below. SO cute!

I asked the boys if they would take a picture and they came up with these poses themselves. My heart could explode with how much these two love each other. 

Happy birthday to these big boys!

And here is the post party ride home. I think this little one had a lot of fun

We had fun celebrating you Patrick and Peyton!

New Orleans Trip

Michael had a healthcare conference in New Orleans last week and we decided to go a day early to enjoy some time together without the kids. The healthcare conference came at a tough time of year, with both the big boys last day of school ending on the day we got back. But, we were determined to make it happen! In the past 3 years we have only had one night away from the boys, so it was much needed!

We took the 7 am flight on Tuesday morning and arrived in New Orleans about 9am. We were able to check into our room and then we headed to our brunch reservation at Brennan's. It is a bright pink building and the inside is very elaborate with bright pink and green walls. Michael's favorite dessert is banana's foster, so when I saw that banana's foster was invented at Brennan's, I knew we had to try it out. They do the banana's foster tableside and tell you about the history of the dessert. It was a great brunch and we thoroughly enjoyed indulging in banana's foster at 10am :)

Michael booked a couple's massage at our hotel, Hotel Roosevelt, after brunch. I was a little surprised when he booked the massage because I do not think he has ever had a positive experience. I had a great massage, but I kept hearing Michael sound like he was in pain the whole time. He had a large lady doing his massage and I think her idea of a relaxation massage was quite different than Michael's. She just kept saying breathe, breathe, breathe over and over again. Michael was so sore the next day he could barely move....poor guy! We relaxed and enjoyed champagne in the relaxation room. It was pretty heavenly for me, but Michael was downing some champagne to try and dull the pain of the massage.

After the massage we went up to the rooftop pool and relaxed some more by the pool. It was a gorgeous day.

Michael's not one to order a sweet drink, so I was a little surprised that he loved their very fruity rooftap bar specialty. It was even too sweet for me! 

After the pool, we headed to an early dinner at GW Fins. I think this might have been my favorite meal of the vacation. They have a biscuit man that just walks around the restaurant with hot, buttery, cheese biscuits. He gets a fresh batch every few minutes and they are divine. I am not a fan of fish, so I went with one of the non-fish choices. I ordered the pork with balsamic strawberries and a bourbon cane glaze, it was seriously amazing!  Michael ordered the Scalibut, which is one of their originals. 

Whenever we go on vacation, I try and research a few unique things to do in the city.  Everyone knows that New Orleans is known for its food and drink, but we wanted something a little different to do. One of the top rated activities was a ghost tour. I was seriously skeptical of taking a ghost tour. But, I started reading all of the reviews and they were all awesome. We decided to give it a try and were so glad we did. We will definitely not forget the experience. We took the 5 in 1 Voodoo Bone Lady Tour. It covers voodoo, vampires, ghosts, witchcraft and pirates. We took the tour from 8-10pm at night and our guide was really great. We did not go in a cemetery and I think I would definitely try that out next time. Although, that does sound extremely creepy! Now, I'm not sure I believe the stories, but they were interesting and it was a very entertaining couple of hours. 

Our guide also threw in a couple of "lagniappe's" about New Orleans. He told us the story of Touchdown Jesus of the statue in St. Anthony's garden that reflects of off St. Louis Cathedral at night. Pope John Paul blessed the statue in 1987, immediately before the Saints had their first winning season. Now people lovingly refer to it as "Touchdown Jesus."

We stopped at the haunted Lafitte's Blacksmith shop for a break during the middle of the haunted tour. We got the purple voodoo drink, which tasted like purple cough syrup.  I would not recommend ever trying this drink. It was much too strong for me, but Michael managed to choke it down. 

I must mention that Michael was a great sport during the tour. The Predators playoff game was during the middle of the tour. I did not know about the game when we booked the tour. Poor Michael was following the game on twitter while on the ghost tour. Luckily, they won, so Michael was ready to go out and have a little more fun! We both love dueling pianos, so we headed to Pat O Brien's to listen to some dueling pianos. We were front row and center. It was a wonderful end to a fun day!!

We slept in a little the next day and then we headed to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. I stuffed myself silly. It was delicious.

After Cafe du Monde we walked around Washington Artillery Park, the moonwalk and Jackson Square.  It was a gorgeous day. 

We also toured St. Louis Cathedral. It is gorgeous and so ornate.

We had originally planned to try a swamp boat tour or take a gondola ride through city park, but with only 48 hours in the city and a work event for Michael that night, we just didn't have enough time this trip.  One of the other items on our bucket list was the Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone. The bar spins very slowly and there are only 25 seats. I knew it was tough to get a seat at the bar at night, so we planned to go when it opened around 11am.  It was such a fun bar and we spent about 2 hours just talking and trying their signature drinks. It was really fun! 

We really enjoyed one of the Carousel Bar's specials called the Pim Cup. It was delicious!

After the Carousel Bar we headed to the Gumbo shop for some delicious gumbo. I had a tough time deciding which one to order, so the waitress brought me the trio so I could try them all. Even after trying them all I could not decide which one I liked best. They were all delicious. My dad also adores the Gumbo Shop, so Michael snapped this quick picture to send to him. 

After the Gumbo shop we planned to tour the WWII museum, but after so much eating and drinking we were exhausted! Since we rarely get a nap at home, we decided that napping was the best use of our time. We will definitely have to make time for the museum on our next trip! After our glorious nap, we had about an hour before we needed to get ready for the work dinner. We headed back up to the pool bar and soaked in the sunshine. It was perfect weather!

We headed to Antoine's, one of the oldest restaurants in New Orleans, for Michale's work dinner. There was a large group of us, so I didn't embarrass Michael and take any pictures. I am pretty sure we ordered everything on the menu to share and it was all delicious. The hit of dinner was the after dinner drink called Cafe Brulot Diabolique. The server makes this drink tableside and actually throws fire on the wooden table. I have no idea how they are so confident that this will not set the entire place on fire, but somehow it works! 

After dinner, we took a tour of Antoine's. It has been run by the same family for 176 years. The history of the restaurant is really incredible. It was a fun experience!

It was on our list to listen to some live Jazz in New Orleans so after dinner we headed to Fritzel's Jazz Club. It is definitely a hole in the wall, but so fun. We were seated in the first row, so we were right up there with the band. It was a great way to end our trip to New Orleans.

And one last picture to wrap up a fun trip!

A big thanks to Nana for watching the boys and to Allie and Big for watching the dogs. And just for fun, here's a little picture of Michael and I's first trip to New Orleans in 2007. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton for a wedding. We sure do look like babies!