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Monday, September 12, 2016

friday in nyc

i have been wanting to see cirque du soleil's paramour on broadway ever since i first saw an advertisement for it last year.  i'm a huge fan of cirque, and this show is themed around the golden age of hollywood, so i knew immediately that we had to see it!  the show just opened in may, and i have been waiting not so patiently to see it.  i've been watching sales and hoping for a deal to come through.  the middle of september is broadway's 2-for-1 ticket week, and we knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity, so we jumped on the tickets as soon as they went on sale.  we bought tickets for friday evening's performance, and took the day off work so that we could spend the whole day in the city.

while we were in nyc on friday, we started off our day by going to the gaynor minden boutique in chelsea because i needed a new pair of pointe shoes for the start of the dance season.  afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch at westville in chelsea and stopped for a doughnut for dessert at dough in the flatiron district.  we jumped on the subway and headed up to the upper east side to spend our afternoon at the central park zoo.  we ran through the museum of modern art, grabbed dinner at forty carrots in bloomingdales, and then saw paramour.  it was a really great day!

^this was my second time visiting the gaynor minden boutique.  it is just so awesome in there.  when we left, i couldn't resist recreating my pose on the front steps from when i was there in november.^
^westville has been on our list of nyc restaurants to try for years.  there are several locations, but we ate at the chelsea location since it was only a few blocks from the gaynor minden boutique.  i had an awesome vegan quinoa artichoke "burger" patty and ryan had a grilled chicken ruben sandwich.  we both absolutely loved our lunch and would definitely go back!^
^gazing out the window intently watching all of the delivery guys loading up the to-go orders on their bicycles.  we determined that neither of us would want to be a bike messenger or bike delivery person in nyc!^
^we split a mocha almond crunch doughnut at dough for dessert.  it was a fluffy doughnut topped with chocolate glaze with roasted coffee and sprinkled with crunchy almond streusel.  their doughnuts are so humongous, you have to share them!^
^a fork and a knife are a must for a doughnut this big and messy!^
^we spent our afternoon at the central park zoo and we loved it. for all of the times that we have visited nyc, we have never been to the central park zoo. i took so many photos, i'll share them tomorrow.^
^we visited moma two years ago when we were in nyc for our anniversary.  moma offers free admission on fridays after 4pm, and we were walking past the museum when we realized that it was right after 4pm, so we decided to pop in for a little bit to kill some time before dinner.  i'm so glad we did because the last time we were at moma i didn't get to see van gogh's "starry night" which is one of my all-time favorite paintings.^
^forty carrots is a restaurant located on the seventh floor of bloomingdales.  we would have never even known it was there if someone hadn't recommended it.  forty carrots is known for their famous frozen yogurt.  we had dinner there (ryan had a salad sampler and i had the vegetarian lasagna) and then we split the peanut butter frozen yogurt for dessert.^
^paramour was beyond awesome and we totally loved it!  it was absolutely jaw-dropping.  the acrobatic stunts were unlike anything that we have ever seen before.  if you are in nyc, it's a must-see for sure!  we loved all of the music from the show too, and kept singing it all weekend long.  now we need to get our hands on the soundtrack!^

love, laurie

Friday, September 9, 2016

mystery plant


recently, we noticed a plant growing in a random part of our back yard.  a few leaves popped up out of nowhere and we initially thought that it was a weed, but as it continued to grow we realized it looked a bit like a squash plant.  it just kept growing and now it looks like a pumpkin plant!  we certainly didn't plant any pumpkin seeds there, so we're starting to think that they may have been deposited there by an animal.  regardless, it's growing and growing and growing!  ryan snapped a picture of it on his phone last week and since then, a bunch of little flowers have bloomed on it.  maybe we'll have a little pumpkin by halloween?!

even though this week was a short work week due to the labor day holiday, it was a crazy and stressful one at work.  i'm grateful that it's friday and that it's the weekend.  classes at my dance studio start back up for the season bright and early tomorrow morning.  i'm looking forward to getting back into the regular swing of the dance season after having a few weeks off from dance classes.

have a wonderful weekend!
love, laurie

Thursday, September 8, 2016

hawaiian dance lessons for summer campers

a few weeks ago, the director of my dance studio and i visited our local civic center on their "hawaiian hullabaloo" day to teach the summer campers hawiian dance lessons.  it was really fun to meet the campers and to share our dances with them.  we taught approximately 70 campers in 4 different groups (ranging in age from kindergarten through 8th grade).

we started off by teaching each group a hand drill which we did sitting down, and then everyone stood up to learn how to hula dance.  the campers and the camp counselors all did a really great job.  many of them were even dressed to fit the theme of the day in grass skirts and flowers.  we're so glad that the civic center had us as their guests on their hawaiian hullabaloo day.  here are a few photos that the counselors took during our visit . . .

love, laurie

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

la festa italiana 2016

my favorite summer tradition is going to our local italian festival each year on labor day weekend.  it's so special because it is where ryan and i went on our very first date and we always look forward to going back annually.  it's the perfect way to close out the summer too.

we headed down to the festival with my parents on sunday to walk around, eat, and watch the fireworks.  we had a bunch of delicious italian food for dinner, then we sampled a few different italian sweets for dessert.

ryan and i went back down to the festival again on monday for an early dinner.  it was much less crowded than it was on sunday, so it was nice to walk around and soak it all in before the festival came to a close until next year.

^sporting my t-shirt that i bought when we were in rome in 2008, and posing with my eggplant parm.  not pictured: the two awesome types of pizza we tried.  after we ate them we remembered that we forgot to take a picture.  oops.^
^we absolutely love pizza fritta (italian fried dough).  ryan and i like it topped with granulated sugar and my mom prefers powdered sugar.  it's interesting how different regions top it differently.  my mom can never find a stand at the festival that makes it with powdered sugar, so she orders it plain and then brings her own powdered sugar from home.  she's been doing that for years, but it still cracks me up every time!^
^we brought our folding camp chairs along with us so that we could sit out in the evening to listen to the entertainment on the main stage.  afterwards, we turned our chairs around and watched the fireworks .^
^when we went back on monday, ryan had a sausage and peppers sandwich and i had an eggplant parm sandwich.  we also got a cannoli to share too!^

the countdown is on for next year's festival!
love, laurie

. . . 

previous trips to the italian festival: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

labor day weekend 2016

we got together with our families on saturday to celebrate labor day weekend.  we all gathered at my parents' house for a picnic lunch on the deck.  my mom put together a really fun and delicious build-your-own-personal-grilled-pizza bar.  after lunch, we walked around a local town's labor day festival and then came back to my parents' house for dinner on the deck.  it was a good solid weekend filled with family, festivals, and a whole lot of food!

love, laurie

Monday, September 5, 2016

happy labor day!


it's labor day and we have the day off from work today so we plan on enjoying it!  
have a great labor day!

love, laurie

Friday, September 2, 2016

hello, three-day weekend!


labor day weekend always seems like the end of summer to me.  i'm not ready to say goodbye to summer this year because it feels like it went by way too fast, but i do love the fall season and i'm excited about doing the things on our fall bucket list.  (we already started working on #9 last night!)  we're really, really excited for the three-day labor day weekend and we plan on enjoying every minute of it!

love, laurie

Thursday, September 1, 2016

fall bucket list 2016


i can't believe that today is the first day of september already!  as soon as september comes it feels like fall is here since september 1st marks the first day of meteorological fall.  yet, i always think of labor day weekend as the end of the summer season to me, so i guess i'll be in a summer/fall limbo for the next few days.

since it's september and it's officially fall, i decided to make a seasonal to-do list.  i made a summer list back in june, but i'm sad to say that this summer was so crazy that we only crossed off 4 of the 10 things on our list!  40% is pretty sad, so i'm hoping to do better with our fall list.  i love the summer (it's my favorite season) but there is something special about the fall season that i love too.

here are a few things on our fall list that we definitely plan on doing this season . . .

1. plant mums in our front yard

2. decorate our house for fall

3. pick apples at our favorite apple orchard

4. visit our local cider mill for fresh cider (and cider doughnuts)

5. take a trip to roba's farm to play in their corn maze

6. grill as much as possible before the weather turns too cold to be outside

7. hike and bike to enjoy the colorful fall foliage

8. make a bunch of apple and pumpkin desserts

9. redecorate one of the rooms in our house

10. paint the outside of our back porch (as soon as the humidity breaks)

what's on your fall list this year?
love, laurie