Birthday Spook-tacular

I spent this weekend working on a birthday monster bash for my 2 sweetheart nieces. They both have birthdays in October so having a joint party makes a lot of sense.

Here are some of the highlights.

 

A frightfully good time was had by all.

Firsts

Today was the first day of the rest of her academic career. I can only pray that the excitement and optimism she had this morning will stay with her throughout the years.

Good Luck today, my love...Knock em dead!

Father's Day Fun

This Father's day was a blast. A good time was had by all. When the other half came downstairs he was greeted by this banner the mini-me and I put together.

We went to Carpe Diem for brunch. It was OK but I am a bit hard on restaurants that serve brunch because brunch is my favorite meal. We will  go back to give it another try however, I am going to make sure I go after 12.30 when I can order a Mimosa. What's brunch without a Mimosa??

We then went to see Kung Fu Panda 2. There was plenty of action and the story has such a good message. I recommend it for kids of all ages. We had a bit of fun with the PO cut-out.


Now, I know I said I was going to grill some fish but it's my prerogative to change my mind. These lobster tails were on sale and they are pretty close to fish. So Yum.



Grilled Lobster Tails

 As if lobster wasn't decadent enough I also made Crab Mac & Cheese. Yum



Crab Mac & Cheese

 No matter how hard I try I can't seem to fight the urge to grill a big juicy steak. I guess growing up just outside of a Meat & Potatoes town had a lasting affect on me. 






Dinner was the end of a fantastic Fathers Day.

Sandcastles

When we were in Hatteras we visited the lighthouse. It was nice to take in a bit of North Carolina history.

The  lighthouse was beautiful.

Twelve Story Climb...needless to say I was not CRAZY brave enough to take a 4 year old on a 12 story climb.

 The mini me wanted to become a junior park ranger. Super Cute!

 

 My mini me loves the beach but hates the ocean. It is the weirdest thing but I am hoping she will grow out of it. It's not that she dislikes the water because she loves the pool but something about the ocean turns her off. Sandcastles are her new favorite past time. Ever since we returned from the beach she can't stop talking about them.



All in all a great day enjoying the Sun, Sand and Surf.

Beach House

I mentioned that my family and I went to the beach this past weekend for a friends wedding. Well we stayed in this fantastic beach house and had a blast.

This is the front of the nine bedroom ten bath beach house.

 This is the back. The views from the top deck is amazing.

 Looks a little like this -minus all the smoke rolling in from the wildfire that was burning in the national forest.

 The winds shifted so it cleared up on the day we were leaving. The smoke didn't damper our spirits at all.

I spent quite a bit of time on this deck.

It was such a nice place for a getaway.

I took the mini me to the beach and she had a blast.  I have plenty of pics to upload so I will have other posts coming soon.

A Week Late

NO, NO, It's not that...My Mothers Day gift came a week late this year. I was traveling over the Mothers Day weekend so the hubby gave me my gift this weekend.
It involved a little of this

Some of this...

All in a room that looked like this...

Which provided views like this...



You could also see Stone Mountain from the room. Not sure why I didn't take a pic of that...oh well.

  It was complete bliss.

Thanks to my hubby I had a relaxing "Mother's" Day.

Weekend Recap

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. I have been traveling quite a bit in the last few weeks so it was nice to be home for a change. The weekend was jam packed with Family, Food and Fun. Just the way I like it. Here is a photo recap of the weekend.

 The flowers in my "Garden" are so pretty. This is my current fave

 Grilled pork tenderloin, potato salad, and corn souffle= YUM

 What can I say about this that the pictures don't already say. Homemade cream cheese frosting. I got the frosting recipe here.



 My mini me has the cutest cousins ever.

Everyone had a great time on the egg hunt. No Golden Egg (Golden Egg=CASH) for the mini me. Next year, I will make sure she has a bigger basket, her eggs feel out of the basket faster than she could put them in..lol

The hubby can be so sweet sometimes...he went out in the middle of the night and picked up these lovelies for me. It was nice waking up,coming downstairs to make breakfast and seeing these on the table.
I think I'll keep him around.

How was your weekend?