Wanderlust Wednesday-Seven Presidents Park

At the recommendation of a co-worker, this past weekend we checked out Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch, New Jersey. The park itself is a County-run beach front park, but the special gem is Tony's Place, an amazing playground. 

A Week in Our Lives-October 22nd

I can't believe that October is rapidly coming to an end. Where is all this time going!?!

This weekend was full of relaxing family time. We went down to Bartek's parents' house to celebrate my father-in-law and brother-in-law's Names Day , which falls on October 24th. We had lots of delicious food and yummy cake in celebration and spent some time vegging with each other.

Just chillin' on this tiger here.

Sweet Tooth Sunday-Apple Bread

Yummy smells filled the air of our apartment today. In keeping with the fall apple theme, I made apple bread. It's a take on banana bread, but filled with delicious, in-season apples and some apple pie spice.

Tee Pees for Kids

We cannot wait to move into a house. Living in a one bedroom apartment with a baby and a dog is pretty tough. There isn't a lot of room for things as it is, but I'm hoping that when do have a house that we can have a play room, or at least a place space. And in that play space I would put a tee pee.

MyPoppet.Blogspot.com.au

I found this Tee Pee DIY here and here. It looks so awesome! I can't wait to build it for Landon. 

Just think about all the fun you would have as a toddler in your own tee pee!

Book Review-No Easy Day

While I'm more of a beach-read, cutesy romance kind of girl, I just had to read about the Navy Seals mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. 

I was just 17 years old when 9/11 happened. My entire adult life has been affected by that single event. It turned everyone's lives upside-down. The world is such a different place than it was on September 10, 2001 and in a lot of ways, I feel like it has forced me to grow up. I think we've all become cynical and critical. Life has gotten serious. 

When the news first broke about the death of Osama Bin Laden, I was home by myself sleeping. Bartek was away in Las Vegas for a bachelor party, but he still called me and woke me up. This wasn't something that could wait until the morning. I was a few months pregnant, so life had changed so much from ten years ago. That night, I stayed up for hours and hours flipping back and forth to different news channels and obsessively reading Facebook to see what people were saying. I broke down into sobs, maybe it was the hormones or just the relief of knowing that he was gone. I wouldn't say that I felt safer after hearing the news, but I definitely felt different. 

When I found out a year later that there would be a book about the mission, morbid curiosity struck me. I was so glad to be able to hear what really happened instead of what was being speculated on all of those news channels. 

Penguin Group USA

Written under a pseudonym, although everyone knows his real name by now, Mark Owen delves into the Osama Bin Laden mission. It also focuses half of the book on his training and career as a Navy Seal. The Bin Laden mission is seldom talked about in the first 150 pages of the book and because of that it was tough to get through the first half of the book, but when I finally did, I couldn't put it down! I needed to know what happened next. It was interesting to hear about how Owen's team adapted their plans after their helicopter crashed inside the courtyard of the compound and to hear about the fire fight between the Seals and Bin Laden's courier. Owen tells about what really happened, step-by-step, and it is so interesting to read.

Although it's tough to read through sometimes because of all of the military phrases (that really just go over my head!), I really recommend reading this just so you can learn and feel like you are there as history is being made.

A Week in Our Lives-October 15th

Sorry for the week-long hiatus....we only have one computer and Bartek has been pretty busy with school work. I've also decided to take a few days off for some sanity. This week held a lot in store for us. 

Friday, after a quick trip to the dentist, I brought Landon into the city to see my coworkers. He was super shy and clingy at first, but eventually opened up. He loved running around with my coworker's little boy who was also in the office. 

On Saturday, we met up with our friends at Warwick Valley Winery for some lounging in the sun on the grass with a bottle (or twelve) of wine. The temperature was supposed to be in the mid-50s so we were worried that it would ruin the day.  But maybe it was sitting in the sun or the wine that kept us warm. 

A Week in Our Lives-October 8th

This past week has been indescribable! First and for most, my beautiful nephew, Wyatt Rhys, was born this afternoon, weighing in at a hefty 9 lbs, 8 oz. Mother and baby are both doing great. Look at all of that hair!

Sweet Tooth Sunday-Apple Cider Donuts

There is nothing better than visiting an apple orchard in the fall and picking up some fresh-made apple cider donuts! A few weeks ago when we went apple picking, my parents bought a bag of donuts to share with all of us and that inspired me to make some at home.

First Haircut

A few weeks ago, it was time to cut my boy's hair. It was getting ridiculously long over his ears. I had read somewhere that it's bad luck to cut a baby's hair before their first birthday. If it's cut earlier, they'll be cursed with bad hair for life.  I waited till about six weeks after his birthday, so hopefully he'll have beautiful hair for life.

The night before the haircut...look at all those wisps

Needed a cutter, a distracter, and a whole audience for his first haircut

Wanderlust Wednesday-The City of Chicago

Our trip to Chicago was so much fun that I'm already making a list of things I want to do when I go back. I wish we had one or two more days there, but that just leaves more for us on trip number two.

Chicago was such a great city. A few things I noted while I was there: 1.) it's so incredibly clean. Chicagoans take great pride in their city and it's clearly evident. No trash on the streets, not too much graffiti (except near the train lines), and all of the parks are pristine. 2.) The people of Chicago are the friendliest people I have ever met. Just take a ride on the subway and you'll strike up at least a conversation or two with someone you've never met before. On the subway platforms, they'll come up to you and ask where you're going to make sure you're in the right place. 3.) Chicago is incredibly walkable. If we had the time and maybe were baby-free for a day, I'm sure Bartek and I would've walked up and down the city. On a side note, and I suppose note # 4, people in Chicago don't jaywalk. It was baffling. I wasn't sure if it's something the police really crack down on, but there we were with the rest of the Chicagoans, waiting and waiting for the crosswalk to change to the walking man, while there are no cars in sight. It was really trying my New Yorker patience!

Bartek and Landon on the "L" train. It's incredibly easy to navigate

Roast Me Good

In what has to be the BEST imitation/parody of the EL James hit, is Fifty Shades of Chicken. I'm so over Fifty Shades of Gray. I stopped following one of my favorite mommy-websites because they beat (pun intended) the subject to death! Every day they would post at least 5 Fifty Shades-related blog posts and still do to this day. Make it stop!!!

Since those books made it big, there have been so many erotica-filled wannabes and just as many parodies. This has to be the best parody yet, in the form of a cookbook. I can't wait to pick this up. Besides making fun of all the cheesy lines in Fifty Shades of Gray, it also has real recipes to use! Check out the excerpt below:

A Week in Our Lives-October 1st

Wow, I can't believe it's already October. September really flew by...maybe because we had so many fun things to look forward to. There's lots of fun coming up in October too, it'll be the end of the year before we know it!

This week it really sunk in that Bartek is back to school. He had a nice long break since his class in the summertime, but now it's back to the grind for him. It stinks because Landon and I see him less during the week but we know it's for the best. And it helps us to make the most of the weekends.

This weekend, Landon and I met up with my friend, Tanner, and her niece, Cali, to do some apple picking. Since we are still loaded up on apples from two weeks ago, we were more like "apple assisting"...aka, walking around with them and making sure the apples weren't poisoned.