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big apple bbq festival
As I mentioned, this past weekend was the Big Apple BBQ Festival. It happens every year around the second weekend in June, and I look forward to it all year long. That's mostly because my favorite BBQ from growing up and visiting my grandparents, Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur, Alabama, comes to the event every year with loads of pulled pork and their famous white BBQ sauce. And every year, it's the only BBQ I'll eat at the festival. (One year, I got my picture taken with the owner!) This year - as is the case every year - Bob Gibson's had the longest line, and Brendan and I stood in the line for over 45 minutes for a couple of pulled pork sandwiches. There's nothing else quite like it! It was worth every minute we waited. Until 2013, Big Bob...
[I took the picture of me eating Big Bob's just for GG and Anna Curl!]
scenes from the weekend
This weekend was a fun one! It was very busy with lots of fun things going on, and now I'm having to take a deep breath to take on this Monday. Sometimes the weekends wear me out more than the work week. But with summer here and lots of fun things to celebrate, I think I can handle that!
On Friday afternoon, I spent some time at the Great Lawn in Central Park before heading to my fave italian spot, Carmines, for dinner with some friends, which turned into a spontaneous birthday celebration for Nichole. Saturday, Brendan and I went down to the Big Apple BBQ Festival (another post on that) and then to Brooklyn Heights for a friend's graduation party. Sunday we went to a wedding shower for some friends (Brendan's first, which he loved) and then ended with dinner at my UWS neighb-fave Jacob's Pickles. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of summer weekends. Ah, my favorite time of year is finally here.
that wedding.
Last week I mentioned that I went to another wedding. And then I said that there was more to come later on that wedding. That "more to come" just meant I was biding my time until the bride & groom's first dance was posted on youtube. It turns out, the bride is a very accomplished actress on broadway. And she completely choreographed a spectacular flashmob for their first dance as husband and wife. To say it was amazing would be a gross understatement; my chin dropped to the floor the moment I knew what was happening. If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself at the video. Everything started out with a normal first-dance song to Dave Barnes' "On a Night Like This" and it quickly turned into THIS...I'm still smiling...I felt like I was at a broadway play....
surprise visitors
At the end of last week I got a text from my mom that said "I might be in New York next week." Given that I get my lack of spontaneity from my mom, my mouth dropped open. After having her pour out all the details of needing to bring my brother and sister-in-law some furniture in New Jersey, she told me she was also bringing Mayce and McKay with her for a day in the Big Apple!
They arrived, took the city by storm, and now they're gone. I'm still pretty sad about that last part, but it was fun having them here for a quick trip and a fun time giving them a lightning fast 1-day overview tour of the must-see New York spots (American Girl, Build a Bear...of course)!
another wedding.
That's all. Just another wedding. This makes #3 for us in the last month...with a few more in the pipeline.
This one was an absolute blast (and a spectacular view, as you can see)! More on that to come later.
look what I found:
Well. It's no secret that I don't like being in the spotlight or the center of attention. But one would think I could at least play it off a little better! At the end of the Blue Like Jazz screening, Donald Miller himself asked if the entire theater would shout "New York City loves Blue Like Jazz!"
Lucky me. Brendan, Bethany and I were front row and center. Literally. If you look closely enough - or not even very close at all - you can see the deep shade of red that is my face. I'm fidgety and playing with my hair...and shouting-ish. But not really. Brendan gave me a hard time, but he's no ham for the camera either! Luckily though, this video only made it onto Donald Miller's twitter page...and only has 704 views since Thursday. At least we didn't have to wear name tags...
book club: harry potter menu
As I mentioned earlier, we had the second meeting for my Gospel in Fiction book club this week. It was a lot of fun and the menu made it even better. As you can see above in the photo we had (clockwise from L to R): golden snitches, cauldron cakes, quidditch players pie, magic wands (in the background), butterbeer (I finally found a delicious recipe, which I will share in another post) and Deathly Hallows cookies. The best part is, we had even more than what is pictured here! We also had: chocolate covered worms, pumpkin ravioli, fish & chips, and Mrs. Weasley's rock cakes.
Can you even imagine a better menu?! Oh...yea, and the book discussion was great, too!
never tired of the view
I met some friends for dinner last night near Times Square and glanced over to see this view of the Chrysler Building as I was heading there. As much as this crazy city wears me out at times, I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing these sights on my way to a casual Tuesday night dinner with friends....
happy birthday LA!
Today is LeeAnne's birthday! And we had a great time this weekend celebrating her at a new brunch spot (new to me, anyway) in Nolita called BarBossa. It was a brazilian cuisine restaurant and was absolutely delicious! There were so many great options on the menu that I took a full 30+ minutes to decide, but that's nothing new...
happy, happy birthday LA (...and see ya later, January)!!
christmas baking party
I know, I know Christmas is over! But I never got around to blogging about this brilliant party idea. The week before Christmas my friend Kasey hosted a "Christmas Baking Party" in Brooklyn. She had all of the guests (it was a group of 7) submit their favorite Christmas dessert recipe to her in advance. She looked over the recipes, combined ingredients, and then distributed ingredients among everyone who was attending. In total, everyone only ended up bringing a 2-3 ingredients each (since there was a lot of overlap), and we baked seven wonderful and different delights! We baked all together at Kasey's apartment, and at the end of the night we each took home a container with a variety of everyone's treats. Not only do I love to bake, but getting to take home everyone's favorite holiday dessert...well, it took the cake! This party was a terrific idea and would be fun at other times of year, too.
ann-marie & jon's wedding
This past weekend, in a picture-perfect setting, my friends Ann-Marie and Jon tied the knot! They were married in a beautiful chapel on quintessential 5th Avenue and 55th Street with their reception in a spectacular building overlooking Rockefeller Center and the Rockefeller Christmas tree. I could go on and on about how beautiful the whole wedding and ceremony was (and how sweet it was to be a part of it), but I'll stick to letting the pictures be worth a thousand words.
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| my fellowship group at the wedding! (so happy to have nana back from CA!) |
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| the knott-craigs |
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| our view for the night. |
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| Rockefeller Center ice skating rink |
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| I took as many pictures by this tree as I possibly could... |
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| This photo was taken at 10:45 at night. And the streets are still jam packed! |
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| bride & groom's first dance! |
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| My friend Kristen from Auburn and Ann-Marie are first cousins. What a small world, indeed! |
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| me and Nichole with the lovely bride |
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| NY skyline! (I did the graphics for the wedding - the skyline and their names!) |
a little visitor
This weekend I had a little visitor. Actually I had a few, but one especially tiny visitor. Abbey! My sister and Abbey came to New Jersey and New York for a few days. They were able to come to New York on Saturday and get a quick tour of the city. We fit in Shake Shack, Central Park, FAO Schwarz, and then they finished out with the Empire State Building, American Girl Doll store, and dinner. When I met up to say goodbye in Penn Station, they looked like they had survived a very long, fun (and tiring) day.
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| Don't mistake Abbey's lack-of-smile as not having fun. Pictures aren't her thing; she was having a blast! |
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| Magic fairy dust in Abbey's hair at Alice's Tea Cup |
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| She asked if she could take the leaf home! |
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| Not amused by the man in gold. Even though his cane was make of sequins... |
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| Checking out the seals at the Central Park Zoo. |
more celebrations
This weekend for Brendan's birthday his parents made a quick trip down to NYC. It was fun getting to catch up with them over dinner on Saturday and brunch on Sunday. We went to a delicious french restaurant on Saturday night called Raoul's, and all of us got the exact same thing: steak (it was their specialty)! Brunch on Sunday at Le Monde (for Brendan's actual birthday) was terrific too. It was a fun time celebrating with the whole crew.
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| They brought this dome out and attempted to sing 'happy birthday' to B in french, spanish and english. |
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| However, we never quite figured out exactly what this dome was... |
weekend 2 update
I decided that no matter how behind I am, I am determined the post pictures from the last several weekends. Not only does it allow me to look at the pictures again, it also makes me feel like the weekends weren't actually that long ago.
My little Rose petals came to visit the first weekend of October! We counted, and in the three and a half years I've lived here, Rose has been to visit four times! And I still think that's four times too little. We had such a fun and relaxing weekend...and we didn't even leave my neighborhood. We spent a lot of time in Central Park and walking, thanks to the gorgeous, perfect weather. I think RL's feet were happy to be back in Alabama, though.
My little Rose petals came to visit the first weekend of October! We counted, and in the three and a half years I've lived here, Rose has been to visit four times! And I still think that's four times too little. We had such a fun and relaxing weekend...and we didn't even leave my neighborhood. We spent a lot of time in Central Park and walking, thanks to the gorgeous, perfect weather. I think RL's feet were happy to be back in Alabama, though.
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| Alice's Tea Cup for my favorite brunch spot. |
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| Saturday night picnic in the park: perfect! Chirping Chicken entree + Levain dessert. |
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| Sunday Central Park relaxation. |
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| Sunday night dinner at Carmine's. I can't think of anything better! |
[you can check out RL's recap of the weekend right here. Of course, she posted hers in a timely manner so you may have already seen it!]
Thanks again Rose for coming to visit!! I'm excitedly waiting for the next time!