Wednesday, May 30, 2012

European Vacation


London
It was our first trip to London (except when Brian was an infant) and our first impressions were gloomy because the weather was so grey and cold. We did have one or two peaks of the sun for an hour or so each day and at least it never rained. Brian really enjoyed the variety of beers offered at all the pubs and he tried a few cask beers, which come from a cask rather than a traditional keg, are served at room temperature, and are not carbonated. I had my fill of fish and chips with mushy peas and one of my favorite things was going to high tea at Harrods one afternoon. Seeing London in three days proved to be a difficult and exhausting task but we did it! I'm going to cover each day or theme in a new post. I'm glad we made it to Paris without the London Bridge falling down! 

Day 1
Saturday was a half travel day since we arrived in the morning and then checked into our hotel after struggling a bit to find it with out our handy iPhones, but more on this later. We decide to have lunch at the Ye Old Cheshire Cheese (yes that was the actual name of the restaurant) which was a 1667 tavern who once served pub grub to Dickens, Samuel Johnson, Yeats, etc... Brian said it was "A dungeon of an establishment, the perfect starting point for a pub crawl, and it has cheese in the name so I knew I would like it before even entering." Despite trying to sleep the entire way on the plane we were still pooped by mid-afternoon and decided to take a cat nap followed by an espresso at the Tate Modern Museum. Although, we did still manage to see a handful of weird art. After a trip around the London Eye and dinner at a pub near our hotel we called it a night.
Damn iPhone
 Lets Look at a Map!
 I'm sad I just want to get there already!
Maybe this phone will be more helpful!
It's hard to tell from this picture, because it was so dark, how awesome this pub was.
On the way to the Tate we walked over the Millennium Bridge and the dome in the background is St. Paul, the church where Princess Diana and Prince Charles wed.
NAP @ the Tate Modern!
Weird Art...





The London Eye: It takes 30 minutes for one revolution.


The View of Big Ben from the top



Thursday, May 17, 2012

Derby

We started the month of May as we always do cheering on horses for the Kentucky Derby. This is the first year we haven't been in Louisville for the best two minutes in sports since we have been married. So we decided to have a big Derby party to celebrate. I love throwing parties and may have gone a bit over board but it's all about the details right?
I ordered the official Derby glasses to serve mint juleps in and then for everyone to take home as a party favor. The hardest thing about throwing the party was finding things that they don't sell in NYC, like derby pie (which I ordered) and benitictine spread (I made it from scratch.) I tried to be authentic with the menu and had:
Lil Smokies
Meatballs w/Henry Bain Sauce
Benedictine Sandwiches
Mini Hot Browns
Veggies, cheese, fruit
Derby Pie
Bourbon Balls
Cookies in the shapes of horseshoes and fleur de lis
Cupcakes that looked like roses 
Sweet Tea
Mint juleps
Lilly’s
It was a lot of work but I had so much fun.













Our friends wanted to bring something that would fit into the theme of the party and if anyone has ever been to the infield they know that a vodka infused watermelon was perfect!







I ordered copies of “My Old Kentucky Home” and we all 
joined in and sang before the race.



 Horses from the Pool


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

April 2012

We were busy the month of April and now it's mid May and I still haven't blogged about April so I'm going to just touch on a few of the highlights in order.

1. NCAA National Championship
Cheering on UK and sporting the 3 goggles. Congrats to all the UK fans and alum for a much deserved win! We had so much fun watch the tournament this year.



2. Most of our friends already know this but in early April we celebrated Match Day for Brian's fellowship. We are moving to L.A. June 2013. We are very excited and thanks to all of our family & friends for support and encouragement. Look for Brian courtside at the Lakers games for the 2013 season. All visitors are welcome and we are hoping to find something "right by da beach, boyie."



3. Clementine turned 4 and we celebrated with her at her party in the park.

I made C’s invitations with my Cricut!







4. My friend Mandy threw a wonderful surprise party for her husband’s birthday. He was so surprised and she did an awesome job with all the little details for a perfect party.




4. Enjoying the beautiful weather and hanging out in Central Park with our new park blanket I made from our old tee shirts. The shirts consisted of old jerseys, dance team, Male, Kentucky, Fudpuckers, our honeymoon, various vacation shirts, etc... I was really proud of it because it was a lot of hard work and the project was all over our apartment.


5. We have also just been enjoying dinner with our friends and hanging out on Sunday Funday, and going to a Yankees game.