Views from the weekend

My weekend was a good one. My book club got together on Friday night. We drank wine, ate appetizers and talked about our latest read, The Nightingale. It's a book about two sisters in France during WWII. They both handle the presence of the Germans in their home very differently. I highly recommend it, especially if you are a fan of Historical Fiction. If you read and loved The Girl You Left Behind, you will love it! Our next book: The Boston Girl. Have any of you read it?

In our house, weekends equal big family breakfasts and staying in our jammies until 11 because we can. Saturday we woke up to snow....in April. We took Aiden to a Discovery Center inside a new shopping center, which meant play time for him and shopping for me. If you take in a bag of old/worn clothes to H&M over the next few weeks, you can get 30% off your purchase!

Sunday we booked our flights to South Carolina and spent some time looking up restaurants and places to site see. I can't wait to be on the beach again in less than two months!

What were some of your favorite views this weekend?

BBQ, Oktoberfest, Cheap Books & A Visitor

This weekend was jam packed. Whenever I have a visitor I like to go all out and give them the full Cincinnati experience. One of my college friends was here so we made the most of our weekend. First she got to experience Montgomery Inn...

Then she experienced IKEA (We were obviously too overwhelmed to take pictures.) Then we hit up Oktoberfest and ate our way down 5th Street.

We also stumbled on the most amazing book sale of the year. Half Price books was having their annual clearance sale and it just so happened to be right up the street from my house. We both walked away with bags of books and movies. #Winning

And somehow we made time to make a Pioneer Woman recipe. It screams fall and I'll be sharing it with you tomorrow. You won't want to miss it. It's easy and incredibly fall-tastic.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend friends!

Beer & Wine Festival

Every September Glendale has a fabulous Beer & Wine Festival complete with hundreds of beer and wine vendors and food trucks! You pay money to get a glass and 5 drink tickets that you can turn in to try beers and/or wines from all over! We were excited to try the seasonal flavors. I love pumpkin everything!! Here is our night in a few pictures...

I think I need to start my own grilled cheese food truck business.

I think I had my caloric intake for the week in one night. Oops.

Have you ever been to a beer or wine festival?

Linking up with Sami! 

Weekend Wrap-up {Birthday & Baby}

This weekend I celebrated my friend Bekah's birthday and got to meet my friend Andrea's new baby boy! A monumental weekend if I do say so myself.

Friday night we went out to a place called The Art of Entertaining in O'bryonville. They have wine tastings on Friday nights, which also includes a 3 course meal made in house. They were very generous with the wine and the food was fantastic. We had a wonderful time. I will definitely be going back for another wine tasting there!

Saturday I laid on the couch and did nothing and it was a dream. I had Chipotle for dinner and caught up on episodes of Revenge. Definitely not a photo worthy evening, but still wonderful.

Sunday I got to meet my friend Andrea's baby, Jack. I took over Mexican Lasagna, which looked amazing and got to snuggle with little perfect Jack. sigh

I hope your weekend was wonderful!

Linking up with Sami.

My weekend in instagram 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

This weekend was absolutely beautiful...so beautiful that I left my camera in it's case all weekend and just soaked it up. The weather felt more like fall than summer and it made me so happy! Here's my weekend via instagram...

5. I got a new to me mountain bike and my husband and I took our bikes for a spin ending at the Whippy Dip to treat ourselves to some ice cream.

4. Another Whole Foods Wine Tasting followed by seeing Despicable Me 2. Drew and I laughed out loud multiple times.

3. Celebrated my dear friend Andrea's birthday with pizza and homemade spice cake. I also tried and liked coffee for the first time and no you don't need to know how much sugar and creamer I added.

2. Had a scrapbooking and Panera date with my friend Alison.

1. A church picnic followed by some deep conversation with my family on our back porch. My brain hurt after that so I had to go home and bake. I made mini chocolate chip cheesecakes and they were divine. I'll share the recipe later this week!

I hope each of you had an amazing weekend! And if you need a blog post idea for this week you can join me in my first link-up on Thursday! I'm going to do a Hello, Goodbye link-up where I say goodbye to one month and hello to another. See this post for inspiration and link-up with me on Thursday August 1st if your little heart desires!

Linking up with Sami today!

I'm ready for a nap now...

My weekend started on Thursday when I scored free tickets to see Sister Act at the Aronoff! My friend Bekah and I went and loved everything about the show! We are becoming regulars at the Aronoff lately...so cultured we are.

Friday night was a low key night, which was perfect after a crazy week. Drew and I got take out from a hole in the wall Thai restaurant and then we had our small group over.

Saturday I met my friend Stephanie at Panera for lunch and we treated ourselves to pedicures.

Saturday night we kicked off our Mother's Day celebrations by having my family over. My sister and I made dinner and dessert for my Mom and grandma. Derby pie was for dessert...that stuff never gets old! I am so incredibly blessed to have such a loving and supportive mom who has taught me so much about joy and loving the Lord.

Sunday we went to church and cooked out at my parent's house. Then we met up with my in-laws for dinner at Buca de Beppo to celebrate my Mother in law aka my second mom. She is lovely inside and out and I'm forever thankful to her for raising such an amazing son!!!!

And now I'm ready for a nap. Do I haaaaaaaaave to go to work today? Someone please tell me no.

Celebrating birthdays, horses and Mexico

This weekend was all about celebrating. Celebrating the birthdays of two of my friends, celebrating horses and all things Southern and then celebrating Cinco de Mayo. I think I need a day off just to recover and come down off my sugar high.

Friday was National Founder's day at Frisch's so if you dressed up like the Frisch's Big Boy you got free food. Drew was all over that one since he was Big Boy last year for Halloween. Then my friend Betsy got into town and we went out and celebrated our friend Nate's birthday at Washington Platform downtown.

Saturday was our 2nd annual Derby party. We had such an amazing evening...hats, mint juleps and all, but I'll save the details for another post!

Sunday we went to church and then out to one of my favorite Mexican spots to partake in the Cinco de Mayo fun. Then my friend Betsy headed back to Indiana, which meant sweat pants, grading papers and leftover Derby pie for dinner.

What did you celebrate this weekend??

The weekend where my cousin won free tickets to Kings Island...

This weekend was full of sweet surprises. My friend Courtney came in town on Friday and we had a date night at one of my favorite local restaurants called Grand Finale. We sipped on raspberry martinis and went all out with salads, amazing meals and desert! I loved every second of our date.

The game plan for Saturday was to weed the front yard and paint the ceiling, but then enters my cousin who won free tickets to Kings Island opening day. The weeds and the ceiling had to wait because we spent all day Saturday at the park riding rides, chowing down on Cincinnati foods, and eating Smurf ice cream. It was amazing. 

Sunday I had Mexican food for lunch (good thing I didn't count calories this weekend or I'd be depressed) and graded another round of my student's stories. It was such an unexpectedly fun weekend.  The weeds and the ceiling weren't happy to be neglected, but I was glad to put them off for another few days. Did you do anything unexpected this weekend?