{Easter 2011}

Easter 2011 was a sweet one! Praise the Lord for sweet days~

Easter came at the end of my spring break. I had spent the first weekend in DC with my sister and her family and had gotten to see Hannah, too. I'll post about that later this week, but I had to put my Easter pictures up first! I had anxiously awaited Easter so I could hang out with Caitlin and Carson, and of course sweet Eve. They had gone to Rocky Mount to visit Daisy (Carson's mom's grandmother name...........oh and the rest of the family) most of my spring break, so I was SO excited to get to see them. [And, can I just say "YEA! for loving in-laws"? I don't know how many people you know who have issues with inlaws, but I KNOW, personally how great it is to wonderful in-laws. AND I'm SO grateful to the Lord for the gift he gave Caitlin when she married into the Guy clan. What a blessing to have a sweet family on "the other side"!]
OK---back to the post at hand! A post in pictures, I think!

TABLE!!!

I went a little casual this year---I found this tablecloth at Target in the Easter section, but it was out of place and I just happened upon it---I LOVE a nice tablecloth for $12.99!

And, of course, everyone needs a placecard at a party table....and EVERYONE needs a chocolate bunny on Easter. I didn't have time to make much for this celebration, so I went to Lindt and picked up a tasty "placecard" and then made a quick tag---

I had a combination of flowers from Caitlin and Carson for my birthday and then a fresh bouquet of roses from Fresh Market. I just wanted the table to be happy and bright and it was!

FOOD!!!

Appetizers---healthy---well, the fruit and veggies were healthy....not necessarily the dips! BUT THERE WAS HUMMUS---a healthy alternative!

Here is a close up of the appetizers---that fruit dip up above---DIVINE! Recipe will follow in another post! I didn't get a picture of all the food, so I'm just not going to post the rest---but, it was yummy----capped off with a Key Lime Pie from Winston's Grille---one of my favorite restaurants in Raleigh. You can read more about it in this post.

A few things were left at my house for Eve---I have NO idea how this happened...

Joshua got a few different things in his Easter basket--one of them was this basketball hoop and NUMEROUS games of horse have already been played....a fun indoor activity! He's having so much fun with this! (Of course it helps that he's generally playing with me and I'm REALLY AWFUL!)

PEOPLE!!!

Carson has one of Eve's gifts in his pocket---this little bunny was from Hannah. She picked it up on her trip---maybe in India? I'm not sure---it's a quirky little bunny!

I thought this picture was so sweet of them! Eve was getting pretty hungry at this point, so she was getting fussy.

My mom---"Grandy" with Eve---how sweet is this?

The Guy family!

I love this picture! I was just able to catch them trying to settle Eve down--sweet!

Taylor joined us for lunch---YEA!!! She's holding Eve here---her namesake!

I have several posts to type up---we'll see how much I get done in the next few days---tomorrow is yard day---SO. MUCH. TO. DO! We'll see if I get it all done! I hope your weekend is a great one~

{Something crafty....finally}

 {HAPPY}

 {SPRING}

My mantle is REALLY long and really shallow, so I have a hard time decorating it. Just recently, I decided that I needed to make it a seasonal thing instead of just a year round, one time only ordeal. I always LOVE my mantle at Christmas, so I decided to do something similar several times a year---seasonally, to make it look like I want it. I have had the dies to make these banners for several months, but I haven't had the opportunity to use them until now. I wish these photos were better, but I've included pictures of the individual letters since they aren't-- I so enjoyed making this. It's been so long since I've had the time or creative energy to make anything. I started these almost 6 weeks ago, but didn't get them finished until a week or two ago---just NO TIME! I will put the details at the bottom if you are interested in any of these products---they weren't hard to make since I had the dies that cut the shapes out---it was really a matter of cutting things out and then putting the pieces together. Great products really save time---anyway, here are the individual pictures of the banner pieces for your springtime enjoyment! ;D

 

{---I used these brackets to separate the words

 H

A

P

P

Y

}

{

S

P

R

I

N

G

}

{Happy Spring} Banner Details:
Dies: Boxy  Banners, Banner Borders, Mat Stack 1, 4 & 5
Limitless Layers, Doily Details Collection, Butterfly, Love Lives Here Collection, Flower Fusion
Ink: Chamomile & Chai Blend Vintage Touch Inking System
Accessories: Vintage Buttons , Twine, Bookprint, Rhinestones, Thickers, Cuttlebug

{I heart NYC!!!}

There is so much to love about New York---the shows, the art, the museums, the numerous languages you hear as you walk down a street, the busy streets and sidewalks....and so much more. But this post is about food! NEW YORK HAS GREAT FOOD!!! I didn't even get pictures of everything because I didn't want to totally embarrass my family. I would have taken pictures of every bit of food that each one of us had---but I used some restraint! Here are some pictures of SOME of the food we ate and some SERIOUS endorsements of our restaurants!

After we picked up Hannah, we went back to the hotel and dropped her luggage off and then headed out for a walk and an early lunch. We went to Ray's pizza for lunch....we had heard about Rays---we prefer John's, but we were hungry and the sign said, "75 cents a slice"---so we thought, "SCORE"----yeah, we're suckers that way. Don't get me wrong---the pizza was good and HUGE slices---BUT, it cost us $69....and no, we didn't eat 92 pieces of pizza between the 6 of us!!!! Uh, some of our pieces apparently cost $5....so that "75 cent" thing---it worked for Ray that day! Oh well, it's New York and Hannah was with us and we just didn't care.  Can I just say, one piece of Ray's pizza is probably enough, or one and a half at most---here, Joshua is living with the reality of two pieces of Ray's pizza....

We had to have Starbucks break after our pizza....I think there is a Starbucks ON EVERY CORNER in New York, so  you sort of feel obligated to go to at least ONE! Yeah, this picture isn't great----but it does show that we went there....it was raining and we were waiting inside while David and Joshua hailed a cab for us....I promise Caitlin and Carson really aren't mad at me....or I didn't think so!

Friday night we went to a little Italian Restaurant near our hotel---we wanted something affordable, but not fast food. Our concierge recommended a family friendly little place around the corner called Amarone. We had a good meal in a quaint little place--linen table cloths, but not linen prices!  David had mussels. He really likes them and these were good. This is one place where I only got one picture and it's this one.....yes, next time I'll just take whatever pictures I want....yeah, I probably won't, but I like to talk tough!

Saturday morning we went to my favorite little place in NYC for breakfast: Le Pain Quotidian! They have the BEST CAPPUCCINO in NYC! And, I must add, I think they have the best oatmeal I have EVER eaten, too. David loves their bread and meat plate....he's not a breakfast fan, so this is right up his alley. There are others around the country, you should try it if you ever find one.....honestly......LOVE the cappuccino! Everything is organic and fresh---it's really a great breakfast (and they serve other meals as well, we just love their breakfast)! They have a communal table where you sit right next to someone you've never seen---there's something wonderful about that! It's a HAVE to for me when I go to New York!

We went to a show Saturday night, so we ate dinner really late. We just went to a little restaurant on the corner of 48th right in the middle of the theater district, Sombrero.  The Nelson's will always try a mexican food place---and it was pretty good. 

Sunday morning we had a quick breakfast in the room and then headed out for an early lunch. We went to my favorite deli in New York-- Carnegie Deli. The Pastrami is A.MAZ.ING! Honestly, it's so good. Hannah LOVES a turkey sandwich----and THIS is a turkey sandwich!

She took half of the meat out so she could get her mouth around the sandwich, and still took half of the sandwich back to the hotel and had it for dinner that night! 

This is a picture of the pastrami sandwich, (photo courtesy of Carnegie Deli website) but we had it  made with swiss on rye bread. David and I split it and there was still pastrami on both of our plates when we finished. Caitlin and Carson had a roast beef sandwich, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Joshua is not a deli sandwich fan, so he ordered a hamburger----OH.MY.GOSH!!!

I couldn't resist taking several pictures of this burger and the progress he made. 

I did use my phone instead of my big camera....just to keep my family happy!

And finally---as if you aren't FULL ENOUGH after that sandwich, you HAVE to at least try a bite of their world famous cheesecake! We only got one piece to share because we were just too full. They actually have their Cheesecake recipe on their website if you are interested.

So, there it is---the food we had in New York on this trip. We really didn't plan our meals for this trip because we knew we just wanted to hang out and didn't really care where we ate....but we still were able to get to two of our favorites while we were there. 

So, what are your favorite places to eat in New York? I'd love to know so I can try them the next time I'm there! More NYC stuff to come......thanks for stopping by!

{A visit with the traveler!}

Oh my---it finally happened! On April 1st, we rose early and headed to New York City to see Hannah for the first time since September 8, 2010. She had the entire weekend off and we got to hang out with her all weekend. Her group arrived at JFK from South Africa at 7:30 that morning. We were at the hotel by 10:00 AM and they arrived around 10:30---it was a sweet reunion. Most of the families were there and they greeted their children with squeals and screams and tears. We did a lot of fun things while we were in New York---but here is the initial reunion. I'll share some other pictures of the weekend later.

Meeting Eve (who looks just like Hannah's baby pictures) for the first time!

I love this picture of Hannah and Carson. So sweet~

Poor Hannah---just off of a really long flight and mom is flashing pictures.

Sweet!

.....ummmm, yeah, this is what happens when you send your child overseas for a really long time---she wears socks with her rainbows and thinks it's OK........NOT OK! ;D