Lily Loves Presents

But what two year old doesn't?

Christmas Party

We had our big fun Christmas party this past weekend! It was lots of fun! We ate tons of goodies and drank lots of delicious drinks all whipped up by my sweetie. Big, big thank you to all of our good friends up here who came to spend the night with us. I think I counted 30 give or take a couple at one point! We re-arranged most of our furniture to better accommodate everyone and it was perfect!

The Happiest Holiday wishes to you all!

Wedding Weekend

We made it home to Mississippi this past weekend for Sophie & Paul's wedding!

It was so sweet and really beautiful! Everything was simple but totally elegant and perfectly them.

I got zero pictures of Sophie and Paul in full wedding attire so that's unbelievable.

My blog is freaking out about pictures anyway... killing me blog.

Thanksgiving

Bryan and I had a pretty low key Thanksgiving this year! It was sweet, and we just spent the day together. We made a few things that we wanted to eat and tried a couple new recipes (as in fresh-green-beans-and-no-velveeta-green-bean-casserole). Bryan also pulled out all of the Christmas decorations for me!! I love decorating for Christmas!

In other news... Laura, my friend from Mississippi who lives just down the street from us here, has been battling a mouse the past few days. She really doesn't do well with tiny creatures in her living space, so I've tried to help her plug holes and catch the little bugger the last two nights. We thought that tonight would be round three, but the mouse got himself half caught in a trap we set last night and Bryan went over there this morning and valiantly and chivalrously 'took care' of the little problem.
I got there last night to find an 8 inch tape 'wall' blocking the little guy into a small closet. He started to scale the tape wall like a ninja so I whacked the tape with a coat hanger to get him off of it. He clung to the coat hanger, screamed at the top of his lungs (not unlike this), and then Laura and I screamed at the top of our lungs. It was terrifying. I'm pretty sure if Bryan had come over last night the little issue could have been resolved in the first half hour instead of ending several hours later with Laura and I drinking in her kitchen and the mouse cowering somewhere that we couldn't find him.

We are looking forward to a quick trip home this weekend for Sophie and Paul's wedding! We can't wait to celebrate and see family! It's been too long!

PedroTheLion

We went to the Brighton Music Hall last night to see Dave Bazan play through Pedro the Lion's Control album! It was such a good concert! I've seen him play (when he was still Pedro) at least three our four times and it's always a great show!

Control was my favorite Pedro the Lion album so I was really excited to go see it performed all the way through. They also played some old stuff that I haven't heard in a long time and one or two new songs that they are working on for a new album.

Between a few of the songs he would take a question or two. Someone asked "What's the key to a successful marriage?" and what he said really struck me as true. He said you have to take it seriously and if you leave a back door open for a way out or for a plan-B then it'll never work.

Birthday Weekend!

I've had the best birthday weekend!

Bryan took me out to dinner on Friday and we ate delicious oysters (and one oyster that tasted like the aquarium smells--- but mostly delicious oysters)!

Yesterday Bryan and I went to 'World's End,' a park designed and laid out by Fredrick Law Olmstead, the same landscape architect that created Central Park in New York. It was originally designed to be a subdivision but was never completed. There are no houses there but the trails and carriage roads and views are great!

We stopped by a ridiculous (and charming) tiki restaurant that Bryan has been eyeing for kind of a long time. It was weird and we were the youngest people in there by at least 45 years...

Last night we met up with friends for drinks!

Bryan got me an ombre hair do for my birthday! Woo!

And today Ian, Erin, Bryan and I went out to Hwy 1 to eat lunch at Hilltop Steak House... It has always looked amazing and apparently in the 60's it was one of the top restaurants in America. It was crazy and I was definitely not disappointed! They even sang Happy Birthday to me!
Again, we were the youngest people in there by at least 40 years...

Unfortunately this sign is dark... it is a giant (like tallest sign on the whole road)  cactus that says 'Hilltop Steak House'

There were cows out front... Enough said.

Haunted Bachelorette

Gina is getting married soon and what better way to celebrate than to become a Dia de los Muertos wedding party for her bachelorette?

We ate yummy dinner, played a game involving Jimbo, got gussied up and went out dancing! What fun! There were some amazing costumes out last night and we fit right in!

Elizabeth said we were scary and clogging our pores... True.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. People give freely to strangers and are kind to each other on the sidewalks plus it's a chance to play make-believe for a day (and eat a little candy too.)
What are you dressing up as this year?!

Photo Dump

I'm going to dump all the photos from the last couple of weeks! Woo!

I got to spend the whole day with two of my best girls a couple weeks ago! Can you believe how big they are!?

 I spent most of Saturday at the Head of the Charles Regatta with Ian, Erin and Nolan (Bryan was busy with a conference that he'd been planning for months! He said it went well!)

Lily and I have been spending all our free time outside lately. I LOVE autumn 'and all things autumnal' as Ben would say! But seriously I could be outside all the time right now if I could! The crisp air and the colors and the warm coffee and the strolls by the river and the apples...

We visited the New England Aquarium this week. The libraries here have a pass system where you can check out passes to different museums for free whenever you want pretty much so we get those when we can and get to explore all kinds of museums for free! It's pretty great!

The shark and ray touch tank!

And of course, we are getting ready for Halloween! Lily was talking to my sister, Aimee (hey, Aimee!), last week and Aimee asked Lily what she was going to be for Halloween. Lily said, "Ummm.... Michael Jackson!!" and this was the point at which I told Aimee that Lily was in fact going to be dressing up as a lady bug. The girl loves Michael Jackson. She can moon walk and everything!

She 'helped' carve a pumpkin yesterday. She was terribly disgusted by its guts but really liked the toasted pumpkin seeds that we made. She also really loved that he glowed when we put a candle inside him.

 This is my favorite playground because it has adult stuff to play on too and is right by the Charles and the Hatch Shell so it's has nice views! We went today and played for two hours.

Lily at the Hatch Shell

And this picture makes me laugh every time I've looked at it today. I happened upon Lily and her dad at the bakery near their house this morning, and I just had to laugh at her outfit! She's very hobo-chic, don't you think? She's got on polka-dot jammies tucked into white socks with pink crocks, a knit hat and a fancy leopard-print fur.
I like it. I like it a lot.