michigan shower

Some pictures from my baby shower, thrown by my beloved small group! 

Thanks to Ellie, Patti, Mandy & Andrea for all your hard work &

thank you so much to everyone who came and joined in celebrating Bo's life!

I felt so loved and had so much fun with all of you!
(Thanks to Mandy for taking all these pics!)

chatting with my hosts:

adorable table decor. an elephant-themed party with our nursery colors!

even the favors were elephant-themed! little hand sanitizers with elephants on them!

yummy, yummy food. asparagus wrapped in roast beef, asian noodle salad...

... mini pita pockets with chicken salad & grapes (LOVE)...

... and baguettes with cheese & apple. 

DESSERTS. Mini lemon & blueberry cupcakes. 

Chocolate-dipped "peanuts". Chocolate covered Ritz & PB cookies.

And fruit pizzas. 

Such an awesome night celebrating my little boy...

...THIS DUDE!!!!

(Picture from our official referral)

campfire trifle

The girls of my little Class of 2012 had a "Last Summer Bash" to say goodbye to everyone before they head off to college, and I signed up to bring dessert. I knew right away that I wanted to make a trifle because they're easy. I'm also increasingly obsessed with s'mores and thought, how can I make this a s'more trifle?? I brainstormed in the shower, obviously (my most productive thought time, for some reason), and came up with this bad boy.

Campfire Trifle

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix (& required ingredients to prepare)

1 box instant chocolate pudding (& required ingredients to prepare)

1 small container of Fluff

1 medium container of Cool Whip

appox. 10 graham crackers

Heath Bar, if desired

Directions:

1. Prepare box cake as directed.

2. Prepare instant pudding as directed.

3. Beat fluff & Cool Whip together.

4. Crush graham crackers.

5. Layer ingredients as desired & decorate the top.

Source: my gluttonous brain

Thoughts/modifications I'd make:

- Annie makes s'more cupcakes that I'm dying to try, and I think her marshmallow frosting would be killer in this. Plus, how amazing would the top the trifle look if you ended with the frosting and used a kitchen torch to toast it?!

- I knew I wanted more texture, so I added the Heath Bar. 

- I don't think you'd be able to refrigerate this overnight because the graham crackers would get soggy. This wasn't an issue, since I put it together 10 minutes before leaving... and we made pretty quick work of it at the party.

If you try it, let me know what you did! 

siblings.

I got to hang out with all of my siblings for a fleeting moment this past week.

A little back story about how that miracle occurred...

On the way back to Rochester from the Adirondacks, our car decided to die. 

We were about 20 minutes from Jer & V's house. 

Jeremy had been driving & all the sudden he couldn't accelerate anymore. 

We coasted off the next exit and into the parking lot of a Catholic school.

Well, we almost made the driveway. We had to push a little ways .

(As half a dozen vehicles just cruised by - thanks guys.)

Jeremy's brother came & took them home, while Doug & I waited for AAA to arrive "in 45 minutes". 

Well, 45 minutes came & went. 

AAA called to say that they had no idea when the tow truck could get there. 

Jer came and picked us up 

and we had amazing Mark's pizza at their house while we waited for another call from AAA. 

After awhile, Doug ended up calling AAA to tell them to just pick up the car whenever they could.

He had a meeting the next morning that he had to get back for.

So Ethan picked us up from Victoria & Jeremy's.

Then we borrowed Gram's car to get back to Michigan (at 4 in the morning).

Long story short - transmission's dead.

Our car was scarcely worth more than the cost of the transmission.

Thankfully, Doug was able to find someone to buy our crappy vehicle.

And I drove back to NY to return Gram's car.

It just so happened to be Fair Week, and Robert & Bailey were in NY for a few days. 

So we had one night at the Orleans County Fair to hang out and spend a little time together. 

It's been almost a year since we've all been together &
It makes my heart hurt to think about how long it might be until this happens again.

Ethan drove me back to Michigan (&borrowed my sunglasses) & stayed overnight with us.

So blessed to have such an incredible family.

ADK2012

After 5 years of trying to make it happen, Doug & I were FINALLY able to do an Adirondack trip with Jeremy & Victoria! Before this trip, I hadn't been to the Daks since I visited Kathleen there... which I want to say was when I was in like, 6th grade?? Shameful.

Back seat buddies:

Um, I'm obsessed with the following video. Would you look at this little musical prodigy?!

And then when he says "Adirondacks!" - AMAZING.

Beautiful scenery...

A little mama&son smooch.

The boys grilling up a delicious meal of Excelsior steak...

Post dinner walk down to Heart Lake.

Still can't believe this girl camps at 6 months pregnant...

Dad snapping pics of his little show off :)

The boys.

So, Colden is quite the little swimmer. And he also loves watching other children swim.

These next pictures he was just quietly watching in awe as a boy splashed around in the lake.

The next day, Doug & Jer woke up at 4AM to go climb 2 high peaks (Nye&Street). Crazies.

Then later that day, I made Doug climb Mt. Joe with me.

I haven't done a high peak yet, but this climb gave me a little flavor, and I'm pumped to do my first!

Handsome hiker.

Summit!

That afternoon, we went to Lake Placid, where we went to a bunch of fun shops 

& had delicious dinner. After dinner, we drove around Mirror Lake & took in the gorgeous sunset. 

Such a perfect weekend... 

(Um, minus the last 20 miles. Another story for another time.)

VJ&C - Can't wait to start planning the next trip with you guys!

color run!

Awhile ago, some of our neighbors (including my husband!) got into the crazy habit of running 5ks. 

Maria & I laughed about all the running insanity... until Maria discovered the Color Run.

And we decided it had to happen. 

And it did. And it was awesome.

Team Village People - Before:

After!

I don't know, we still look relatively clean...

Of course we have to break it down.

 And then we went to the celebratory "color toss"... 

Where we were much more sufficiently coated in color.

 Thanks for such a fun morning, Stickls! We love you guys!