Oh Baby!

I am not one for details in planning events -Themes? No idea? Color schemes? Oops, am I suppose to have one? That's the kind of party planner I am, but fortunately the baby shower went off without a hitch this past weekend.

We had the party at my sister's house, and my mother and I made all the food which was delicious if I do say so myself :) I generally think shower games are silly so I limited it to one game so that her guests could catch up and chat instead. We played "Poop or chocolate?" which was hysterical. We melted 8 different chocolates into diapers and then had people guess what kind of chocolate it was. Rather a simple game, but really funny to watch!

Poop or chocolate?


I also had another activity on hand to ensure that people didn't get too bored watching my sister open presents - decorating baby onesies. I bought a bunch of different sized onesies and had fabric markers for people to write and draw special messages for the new baby. This activity turned out really well and I highly recommend it for baby showers. It was easy to put together, everyone enjoyed the activity and the baby will have fun keepsakes!

Decorated Onesies


Also, I always think party favours are useless...what am I going to do with a candle that has your name on it? So I chose to do a blue themed candy buffet instead. Who doesn't love candy? AND, how adorable are the baby boy ducks?


All in all it was a lovely day. Only 6 more weeks- I can't wait to meet this little guy - over Gchat video- I'm not going over for the birth :( ...boooooo

My sisters and I


The Baby Mama cutting the cake

Welcome home Haiku

Red eye from New York
Landing in the freaking SNOW!
Straight into work - Barf.

Preparations

Only one more day until the baby shower!

My sisters and I getting the feast ready

A short weekend away

I'm back in the US for my sister's baby shower, but I have my priorities down.

First day
- Immediate trip to a Vietnamese restaurant (didn't matter where, just the first one I saw)
- Drive through NYC - right through the Garment District/Fashion District (I'll have one of everything, please)
- An amazing walk through Target- WHY does a store like Target not exist in Ireland?
- Topped off with dinner at Pizza Hut (preggers DEMANDED it!)

America... I've missed you!

Feed my Face, please!

Vietnamese on the lunch menu today at work!!! Spring rolls, soy noodles, vegetable soup and pork belly. Bliss!

Along the Liffey River

BF and I have been running around like crazy every weekend and work has been nuts as well. We finally were able to have a relaxing weekend this past weekend. The sun was shining - toes were painted, magazines were read, football and rugby matches were watched. It was glorious! We walked through town with a "smell the roses" kind of attitude and saw several rowing team practicing on the river. It brought me back to my freshman year of college in Boston when I was on the rowing team (5 feet tall? Clearly a coxswain!) Waking up at 4 in the morning for a little jaunt along the Charles river. I LOVE watching rowers (especially when they are all in sync).

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona!

Enjoy your pints and potatoes!

Póg mo thóin...

and the English translation of this Gaelic phrase - Kiss my... Donkey?!?!? Tee hee hee...


The Big G is celebrating early because, we have tomorrow off - it being a national holiday and all. There's a big old Irish celebration down in the cafeteria with a traditional band, Irish dancers and of course corn beef and cabbage - although no one ever eats that here on a day to day basis.

Happy almost St. Patty's day!

The trad musicians

Day Drinking

There's nothing I love more then day drinking and what better way to start it this past Saturday morning then at brunch with my favorite ladies at our favorite restaurant, Saba. We eat there so often that they start making our favorite cocktails before we even order them. We had a lovely meal, then left to find a pub to watch the rugby match.

We ended up in Sheehan's which I had never been to. My friend M from America was in town this weekend so she met us at the pub as well. We ended up moving from bar to bar (obviously to give M a good tour of Dublin). Finally after drinking (ourselves sober!) all day, we ended up in the most Irish place possible... TGI Friday's. HA! Who says I'm not a good tour guide?!

My Lovely Ladies


Irish Flair at TGIF

Irish SpiderMan

This video has had me laughing all day. Every time I watch it I get the giggles.

Expoloring Dublin

So I've been here over a year now and yesterday was the first time I actually walked around Trinity's campus. Slacker!

We had a team event yesterday which was a fun crime scene treasure hunt. I felt very Jack Bauer receiving all these clues through our phones and in random places around the city. We scoured Dublin for the "criminal" and in the process I got to see some sights that I usually just walk past quickly to get to my next pint (kidding, well, kind of).

Additionally, we had ANOTHER celebrity sighting. Six members of the rugby team were having dinner at the Exchequer pub downtown. I recognised only a couple of them (Tommy Bowe, Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara).

After we solved the crime, the team (that's us, not the Rugby team) headed over to Messer Maguires for some pints. (It always goes back to the pints!)

Blast from the Past

Last night I went to the Dave Mathews Band concert at the O2 and throughout the concert I had flashbacks of
- summer BBQs
- road trips to nowhere
- Driving to Rehobeth Beach in Delaware (Yes, I went to high school in Delaware, random, I know.)
- Tailgating in the summertime
- Studying for exams
- My friends back in the states (tear)

The performance was great, as always (He's sooo hot!), but I was a teeny tiny bit disappointed cause he played tons of new songs and very little of the classics. Still it was a lovely evening with my friend C.

The band


My Favorite Song Junior Year in High School

a-DOR-able

Look at my lovely sister! Here she is knocked up at 30 weeks, and she doesn't even look it from the front (except for the massive boobies.) I'm headed to Hoboken, NJ in a little over two weeks for her shower and cannot WAIT!

30 weeks

Gorgeous

16 days...

until Jersey Shore hits the Dublin shores!!! I just saw the ad for it this morning on MTV. I put it in my planner so I won't forget.

Birthday Boy

er... I mean Man... It's BF's 30th birthday today!!! I wanted to throw a big old house party with friends, and cocktails and cupcakes but BF put his foot down and was adamant about not celebrating his old age. So I secretly decorated the kitchen this morning so he could have his breakfast in birthday glory!



I took his picture this morning but he had just gotten out of the shower so er... not really blog appropriate. Instead here he is in all his birthday glory 5 years ago in Costa Rica. Such a baby face!

In the kitchen...

I just had some with milk. a-MAZ-ing. I think they are generally hard to come by in Ireland although I can't be sure cause BF doesn't like the snack aisles when we go grocery shopping so I have to sneak my junk food in at work. :)


BTW... I just discovered Picnik for enhancing pictures so you may see some funky ones in the upcoming weeks though I'll probably get lazy and resort to un-enhanced pictures shortly.

Come birthday with me

Yesterday, the girlies and I had a come dine with me at my friend Michelle B's house. It was, as always, amazing! She had made crepes and let us customise what we wanted in our crepes. There was bacon, cheese, roasted veggies, berries and cream. I had a little bit of everything and could barely leave the table because I was so full!

It was also our friend, Michelle F's, birthday so we celebrated with candles stuck in crepes -not a typical birthday cake!

Happy Birthday!

Come on Spring

Happy March 1st! It's lovely and sunny in Dublin and has been for most of the weekend. Walking to work this morning, I started seeing little flower buds popping up from the ground.

We survived the coldest winter in Ireland for 18 years without ONCE turning on the heat. There was one weekend there when I was tempted, but BF just told me to put on a long sleeve shirt instead of wearing a tank top around the house. Spoiled.