End of Summer Adventures

Unfortunately, with Labor Day weekend this coming weekend I think it is time to admit that summer is almost over.  The good news is we have been trying to pack in a few adventures while we can.

The first adventure was a trip to Indianapolis for a baby shower for my wonderful friend Gabie.  Nick stayed at home for the weekend but I had a wonderful time seeing college friends that I hadn't seen in almost a year!  Katie, as always, did a great job as photographer and captured these wonderful pics of the 4 of us:

 I hadn't seen Sarah since she became a mom to the adorable little Hugo almost a year ago so we had to squeeze in a little trip to see the little man as well.

Seriously, how cute is that little guy?

Any day now Gabie will be adding a second little man to the crew.  Hopefully it won't take me a year to meet him!  

When I got home Sunday evening Nick and decided to have a date night before he had to leave for the week for work.  The Missouri Botanical Gardens had a Chinese Lantern Festival all summer that we finally had some time to go check out.  It did not disappoint and was absolutely spectacular:

The only downside was that it was incredibly crowded but luckily we ran into a very nice volunteer on our way in who gave us some tips on what to hit up first before the huge crowd got there so it wasn't too bad.  

Our last adventure was a bit on the nerdy side.  Nick's brother is back in the states from his deployment in Germany and was going to be at his parent's house this weekend so we decided we would head to Decatur for the afternoon.  Since he wasn't getting in until early afternoon we decided to make a stop we have been talking about making for what seems like forever, The Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield.  The museum was incredibly well done and very educational.  Most of the places in the museum you can't take pictures but we did snap one with Mr. Lincoln:

So there was the end of our summer fun.  Hopefully with the craziness of fall and the election we will still find some time to squeeze in some fun this fall that I will be sure to share as well!

Mustache Party

About a month ago we had a wedding shower/going away party for our dear friends Austin and Amanda.  Nick and Austin used to be roommates and Austin and Amanda were recently married and moved to Syracuse with the Army and for graduate school.  We did a simple mustache and lips theme with some diy decorations.

We also tried to serve food that reminded us of the two of them.

The whole spread

Austin's I'm too Poor PBI (in the shape of mustaches)

Raisin Bran Cookies
Don't Feed them to Wrigley Austin...

 Wrigley and Austin have a very special bond and when Nick and Austin used to live together Austin would regularly share his Raisin Bran breakfast with Wrigley which is where the Raisin Bran cookies come in.

Who doesn't love a Cupcake?

Amanda's Smoothie in Salad Form 

Cheesy Quinoa Bites
Healthy & Cheesy, just like Amanda

Amanda's I Make it Classy Chicken Salad (to compliment the PBJ ofcourse)

Our gift to them even stuck with the theme, matching mustache Tervis cups  and the mustache sandwich cutter we used for the PBJ sandwiches.

It was a great night celebrating two great friends who we already miss a lot!

28

Last week was my 28th Birthday.  Unfortunately I had to work.  Yes I recognize that most people have to work on their Birthdays but when you have a July Birthday and summers off you don't expect to work on your Birthday.  Luckily it wasn't too bad of day.  After work Nick and I went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Brio and it was quite delightful.  Prior to dinner, Nick came home with these beautiful flowers:

Saturday he also surprised me with a kayaking trip.  We have been talking about this for a while and it was a great surprise. It was a great 7 mile trip down the river.

Some highlights:

It was a pretty low key birthday but we had a great time and so far being 28 isn't so bad!