happy independence day!

happy july 4th! hope you have a wonderful time with your family and friends. we are going to a wedding sunday night in a big white tent. it should be a beautiful day. can't wait!

do you have any fun traditions that you do for july 4th? i usually have a large cookout with my family and we go water skiing/tubing etc. then see fireworks at night. last night dave and i twirled around some sparklers and will probably go get some more at wal-mart. they were only $2 so you should add some to your weekend!

anne of avonlea

anne of avonlea is one of my favorite movies. i used to watch it all the time when i was younger and still watch it once a year with my mom. i always rewind the part when gilbert asks her to marry him at the end. it's the best movie scene ever (especially after sitting there watching it for 3 hours). check out this cute video from youtube with highlights from the movie.

this is the house they filmed the movie at. i have never been to prince edward island but i hear it is gorgeous.

i always loved all the white, lacy dresses in the movies. the way they did their hair and the dainty shoes they wore were so romantic. i wish we could still wear clothes like that.

this story of anne and gilbert is the best of course. i love how sweet he is and you can always see how much his character loves her. if you haven't see the movie you really should. i need to buy the DVD because i only have a VHS.

mattapalooza

i hope you had a good weekend, this weekend i went to the beach, had a nice dinner with dave, and hung out with a ton of good friends. two of my friends are named matt (one has a blog here) and they decided to throw an "epic" party they called mattapalooza. they even made this promo video.

the party was awesome and even included a bounce house, tons of outdoor games, and a lot of yummy food. thanks guys for an awesome party!

tougas farm

if you are ever in the eastern massachusetts region, you should check out tougas farm. they have all types of fruit picking, from strawberries to peaches apples, and have a petting zoo, horse rides, and food.

this past weekend dave's mom took me strawberry picking there and we picked 11 pounds! it was only $2.19 a pound, which i thought was pretty decent, and they taste so good. we have had strawberries for breakfast, lunch, and dessert ever since. i think the small ones are my favorite.

happy 50th dad!

(my cousins and i taped the balloons to the back of the chairs. it looks like a mad hatter party!)

it was my dad's 50th birthday today and his brother's 48th so we had a little family get together. since my parents just moved to maine to be closer to their family, i figured my dad should have a maine-inspired party.

 i think the hat was a great hit, although my uncle wasn't too pleased about wearing it.

oh to kayak

do you ever go kayaking? i have been a couple times in the last few weeks and it's been a lot of fun. you should try it out. we went to a state park and rented them for an hour, which was kind of on the pricey side ($20/hour), so make sure you shop around.

now let me give you a little tip. instead of venturing out on your own kayak, you should share one with a friend or significant other (tandem kayaks). than you can put your feet up and relax. dave paddled me all around the lake and i got to sit in the sun. it's not a bad way to spend the afternoon. just be ready for teasing. i got made fun of the rest of the day for "helping out" on our little excursion.

corn on the cob cupcakes

i got this idea from martha stewart for a baking contest we had at work last week, aren't they cool? so i tried to make them myself. my creation is below. i thought they turned out pretty good. they only problem is you need a million jelly beans. i had three bags and could only make four cupcakes.

i found jelly bellys at the dollar store, though, so it didn't cost much at all. the corn on the cob holders were there and the laffy taffy (butter) was also. instead of using black decorative sugar i used choclate jimmys. i didn't win but i did get points for our team, which was all that mattered since we won field day!

the waffle house

to many outsiders, the waffle house doesn't look like a very nice place to spend a morning. if you decide to venture inside, however, you will enjoy a quite interesting and (hopefully) fun experience.

this video is from my trip a week ago. i felt like i was in a movie. it was so much fun.

fun things to do with Twister

do you like the game of twister? well if you do, there are some wild and wacky things you can do with the game. here at work, we had someone make us a twister mat vest, which is worn periodically during the week.

there are some less ridiculous things that you can do and would be really funny for a child's birthday party. parents magazine recently did an article on a twister themed birthday.

here are a few of their tips:

Create 8-inch dots in the four Twister colors by using a handy circle cutter. Adhere them to the floor and wall with painter's tape. Craft multiple garlands using circle punches, glue dots, and fishing line.

The dots on this cake are just rolled-out fruit chews.

Dip twisted pretzels in melted white chocolate, then sprinkle with blue, red, yellow, and green sugar.

they have a lot more party ideas with game themes. check them out here.

ps. even if you don't have children, this looks like fun. think of ways you can make it relevant to adults.

play-doh creations

look at these awesome creations i found from the facebook play-doh page. they look so real. i can't believe someone took all that time to make the corn kernels and the pasta! when i played with play-doh when i was young, i used to eat it. my mom started making dough (lots of cool recipes here) for us because we always dried ours out. it was never the same though. did you ever play with play-doh? i always wanted to spaghetti maker but never got it...

an adventure

we went to Goddard State Park this weekend, ate combos on the beach, and found the biggest swan's on earth. it was a really relaxing time and i had so much fun traipsing through the woods like a 7 year old.

the bugs were certainly out but so were all the buds on the flowers and trees. it was even warm and i didn't have to wear 15 coats and sweaters.

this is where we found the huge swans. dave and i got up really close. later we found out swan's are mean. good to know...

happy april fools day

after i walked into my office i got about 20 calls. it was hilarious. i put everyone on speaker phone and more people called. did you do any pranks today? i heard about one guy who's dad put saran wrap over the toilet seat...what a mess!

waterfire

we went to waterfire on friday night, have you ever been there? it was a great way to spend the warm evening (70 degrees!) and we had some delicious cake at pastiche. i had their classic vanilla. i get it every time. dave got carrot cake and my grandmother got lime mousse pie or something like that.

before dave ordered he whispered, "it doesn't actually taste like carrots, right?" i assured him it didn't and, thankfully, he enjoyed every bite.

is it saturday again?

i had so much fun this weekend. i don't think it could have been any more fun/relaxing. we went to blue man group, ate at teatro (so, so good) and went to anthropologie.

i hope you had a good weekend too!

wisdom teeth

dave's getting his wisdom teeth out today, poor guy. i already had mine out in highschool and it wasn't bad at all. he's getting all four out. i am going to pick up some ice cream, chicken and stars soup, and gatorade for him. i don't know what else would help. any ideas?

some people didn't like this video but i thought it was so cute/funny. i think this is exactly how we all feel after the dentist.

eight plates.

my friend has a pretty cool idea i wanted to pass along. if you decide to try it out let me know your ideas.

what: eight plates

when: once a month

where: each consecutive couples place

each month, a couple will be in charge of coming up with a menu/theme and will host the other three couples. we will be using this site as a starting point but can do anything we want. it's the perfect amount of people and won't be hard because each couple makes dinner 3 times out of the year.

if dave agrees, i think it would be fun to try foods we/i have never cooked before. since he usually only cooks stir fry or eggs i think we will have a good place to start. here are some cool recipes i found for ideas. let me know if you have any favorite yummy dishes that would make a good theme.

jasmine rice pudding

beef tenderloin

pink peppercorn thyme soda

pepperoni pinwheels

(these don't go together, they are just random ones i liked)

have a good weekend.

(my birthday week is officially over now i can say i am 23!)

birthday party

(melissa and christina)

these two wonderful friends put on a little party for me the other night. it was nice to relax and eat lots of food (i am going to get some tahini humus tonight!).

these napkins are from crate and barrel that melissa uses at every birthday party.

we had lots of yummy dips because they are my favorite including, buffalo chicken dip and homemade spinach artichoke. the best was the cucumber water!

melissa even made cupcakes with no frosting so we could pick between all the flavors. she's so sweet.

date with sydney

i take my 7 year old cousin out about once a month to do something fun. it gives me something to surprise her with (i love surprises) and we started to make a tradition out of it. the first time i took her to this huge field at the end of summer when it was dark out and we watched fire flies (so cool!). other surprises have included getting our nails done and a goodwill/olive garden date. this past week was a late night friendly's stop. it was fun. she gets so anxious to find out where we are going.

(video)

this is right before we went. she is quite comical. i tried it after i put down the camera but it hurt really bad.

christmas fun!

(my parents Christmas morning. mom has snazzy new pajamas!)

i hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new years! i am quite exhausted from all the traveling and shoveling (6 snow storms in a week). for Christmas i went to rhode island to visit my parents and brother. than we all trekked up to maine and new hampshire for a week of family, friends, and lots of eating. this is my cousin erin and her fiance. they are getting married in july! the theme is "the beach" so i'll be putting together some inspiration for that soon! (blake and hailey)

i am so glad my brother is home from college! i missed him. he is going to a Christian college in florida. he gets to go to the beach all the time...not fair.