a bridal shower for katie

our friends katie and travis are getting married in may, and we are over-the-moon excited for them!  sunday was katie's bridal shower, and i was absolutely elated to be able to celebrate this special day with her.  even though it was pouring rain outside, it was so incredibly beautiful inside.  

i really regret not taking pictures because everything was so pretty (i only snapped a few photos).  

katie is a disney lover, so the shower had a subtle disney theme with disney character silhouettes at each table instead of table numbers (i was assigned to the olaf table).  everything was floral themed as well with the most beautiful spring flowers all over the tables and flowers wrapped around the mickey ear decorations.  (the servers even wore mickey ears!)    

katie looked beautiful in power blue (i'm seriously kicking myself for not taking more photos, i mean really, laurie!) and the venue took so many precautions to keep everyone safe.  we ate brunch and played several different games.  at the end of the party, there was the largest cookie display that i have ever seen with over 20 different types of cookies and dozens of each.  i was excited to bring my box of cookies home to ryan to share them together.  

even though i didn't know many people i still had a great time!  the shower was at the same venue where the wedding will be in may and they did such an incredible job, i can't wait to see what the wedding is like.

love, laurie

a virtual vacation is the closet we're getting to a vacation . . .

it turns out that march 30th is national virtual vacation day.  there's no chance of going on an actual vacation any time soon, so i'll have to settle for looking back at old vacation pictures today and pretending i'm at some of my favorite places.  i could easily go for hawaii, disney, or bermuda right about now.

in order to make myself feel like i'm at disney, i'll be over here on youtube watching all of the disney ride p.o.v. videos if anyone's looking for me.

love, laurie

saturdate

work schedules have been so odd lately and life has been so crazy.  with all of the running we do, it's rare that we get a moment to breathe and spend time together.  on saturday we carved out a little time in the evening after work to have a little date.  since it's staying bright outside a little bit later now, we were able to take advantage of the daylight and take a 3.5 mile walk around the lake.  it was very theraputic to get outside and breathe some fresh air.  we were hungry for dinner after walking, so we grabbed our favorite indian food for dinner and then ran some errands.  we capped off the night by stumbling across an ice cream shop that we had never been to before and discovering their sampler option where you can try 4 flavors.  yum!  it was so nice to have a little saturdate.

love, laurie

snapshots of life lately . . .

a few photos of . . . trying out a new mexican restaurant in our area, roses still going strong, a new jade kitchen plant, leko drying himself next to the dishes, watching the streaming concert that we filmed back in january.

love, laurie

enjoying early spring on the screen porch

the weather has been nice recently, and leko has been taking full advantage of every chance he gets to soak up the nice weather on the screen porch.  i can't blame him, i want to spend all my time out there too!

love, laurie

chilly morning cuddles

even though the weather has finally started to warm up and get nicer, the mornings and nights are still cool.  luckily, this guy always likes to cuddle when it's chilly in order to stay warm!

love, laurie

pizza oven!

for months and months, ryan has been talking about getting a pizza oven.  i mean, who wouldn't want a personal pizza oven for their backyard!  he considered getting one for christmas and then for my birthday in january, but we kept putting it off.  since the pandemic, they've been a little hard to come by since they're so popular.

last weekend we were shopping for something else when we stumbled across the make and model we had been looking at and it was on sale!  it was too good of a deal to pass up, so we bought it.  it was a busy week, so we didn't get a chance to unbox it and give it a go until this saturday.  since saturday was the first day of spring, it was the absolute perfect time for the pizza oven's maiden voyage!

this particular pizza oven (the ooni karu 12 multi-fuel) is awesome for a few reasons . . . what really sold us is the fact that you can choose between three different fuel options (charcoal, wood, or gas) and it's totally portable because it breaks down so small for camping and travel.  gosh, it's cute too (it looks like an old-fashioned airstream).  we bought the oven gloves to keep our hands safe and an infrared thermometer to read the temperature of the stone.  we ordered a pizza peel too, but it hasn't arrived in the mail yet.

in our opinions, the absolute best pizza in the entire world is neapolitan style pizza baked at extremely high heat (hello, 900 degrees F!) in coal or wood ovens.  thus, this new toy is a dream come true for us.

we gave it a go and got our learning curve on saturday trying it out with 4 different types of pizzas.  all turned out incredibly delicious.  we were positively giddy with ourselves!  we used it again on monday night, and we definitely got the hang of it.  (we'll balance out all of this pizza with lots of walks around the neighborhood now that the weather is getting nicer!)  

some pictures from saturday . . .

love, laurie

birthday celebrations

on friday we got together after work to celebrate ryan's mom's birthday at our house.  originally we were supposed to have an event at the theatre on friday night, but it was canceled last minute, so we moved the party to our house.  we had pizza for dinner and cupcakes for dessert.  it was nice to get together for a little birthday party!

love, laurie

happy birthday!

happy birthday today to ryan's mom!  we're looking forward to celebrating this weekend!

love, laurie

snapshots of life lately . . .

a few photos of . . . a little 50th birthday party at work for one of our favorite co-workers complete with justin bieber cardboard cutouts, a fresh coat of polish for spring, breezing out on the screen porch, a little b.o.g.o. sundae date, and patiently waiting for dad to come home from work.

love, laurie

happy st. patrick's day

i think ryan has the "luck of the irish" in him because he has such a knack for finding four-leaf clovers.  he's my "lucky charm."  he has found several over the years, and i have kept most of the ones that he found (by pressing them between two pieces of wax paper and letting them dry out.)

i've read that 1 in every 5,000 clovers has four leaves and that your odds of finding one are 1 in 10,000.  the four leaves represent hope, faith, love, and luck.

here's a few of our favorite st. patrick's day recipes from over the years . . .
- irish soda bread scones
- rustic cast-iron skillet irish soda bread
- vegan irish soda bread (with dried cherries)
- shamrock cut-out sugar cookies

wishing you all the luck of the irish today!

happy st. patty's day!

love, laurie

something extra special in our grocery bag!

after lunch at the cheesecake factory on saturday, we went to trader joe's for a long over-due tj's haul.  it has been way too long since we've had a chance to stock up on our favorite things from tjs, so we were really happy to go.  when we got home, we found a little something extra special hiding in our grocery bag!

love, laurie

will travel for cheesecake!

back in december, we bought cheesecake factory gift cards for us and our parents because there is an awesome promotion each december that gives you certificates for two free slices of cheesecake for every $25 gift card you purchase.  yes, please!

we had to use our certificates before the end of march, so time was ticking.  we finally were able to carve out a free day on saturday when we actually could get off work and it wasn't snowing!  we took a trip to the cheesecake factory and enjoyed a yummy lunch and dessert.  we even had leftovers to take home to enjoy later.

the lighting was dim so the photos are dull and blurry but you get the idea . . .

love, laurie

virtual concert this weekend

back in january the new york tenors came to our theatre to film their virtual charity concert.  the concert will stream online this weekend from 6pm tonight through 10pm sunday night (ticket info here).  here's a promo video for the concert.  we're looking forward to watching the final edited version of the show this weekend.

enjoy the weekend

love, laurie

let's break out the power tools!

i had to laugh when i saw that today is "national worship of tools" day.  i've never met anyone who loves working with tools and doing projects as much as ryan!  he certainly gets a kick out of breaking out the power tools!  

love, laurie

flowers!!!

when ryan came home last night after working a several-day long event, he walked through the door with a box filled with roses!  they were used as centerpieces for the event tables, and the florist was throwing them out at the end of the night to only take the vases back to the floral shop.  once they realized that the flowers were being tossed, ryan and a few other staff members grabbed some to bring home.  ryan brought home three bunches from three centerpieces.  since they were cut short, we put them in a small container.  all together there are a little over three dozen roses and they are so pretty.  leko enjoyed smelling them too.  it was the end of the night but we had to snap a few pictures because they were so pretty!  

(i'm a hot mess because i had just gotten off the elliptical, but the flowers matched my outfit!)

love, laurie

let's cuddle up!

this little man's cuddles are the absolute best.  i soak them up and they are the absolute best medicine for the soul.  it was chilly this past weekend so we had to cuddle close to keep warm.  looking forward to forecasted warmer temps this week!

  

love, laurie

let's make peace

today is international women's day.  on this bright sunny monday morning let's come together to support women instead of harass them.  

the theme of this year's women's day is #choosetochallenge.  we're responsible for our thoughts and actions, so let's consciously choose to lift each other up instead of knocking each other down.  please.

especially after this year-long pandemic, today on this international women's day, i'm hoping for peace.  let's give each other peace by not attacking each other.  together, let's make peace.

love, laurie

embracing the linguine today

it's friday and my brain is mush.  

so mushy that this buzzfeed quiz is about where we're at today . . . what type of pasta are you?  i got linguine which is so wrong and i don't even have the energy to fight it.  embracing the linguine today.

love, laurie