A Nautical 1st Birthday

Our real reason for heading south the weekend we stopped by College Station was to celebrate the first birthday of our friends' son.  C & C planned a beautiful red, white and blue nautical theme party for their son who was born just days before the 4th of July.  C utilized Etsy, DIY projects and some ideas from Pinterest to put together a great outdoor pool party at their house.

C's mother in law made a beautiful boat cake for all of the guests to enjoy while the birthday boy enjoyed his own smash cake made by his mother.

One of the projects that I helped with were the utensil packages.  C saw an idea on Pinterest that was perfect for this nautical party!  The silverware was wrapped in red, white and blue napkins and then tied together with a lifesaver.

So cute!  And I enjoyed having the lifesaver to pop in my mouth after eating from the delicious food spread.

Another project that Chris and I were tasked to put together were the red, white and blue fruit kebabs.  We used strawberries, blueberries and marshmellows to keep with the color theme.

Such a fun party and of course added a little bit more to the baby fever!

Have you used any ideas from the web when hosting a party?

30 Before 30: Medieval Times

Are you ready to joust?

Chris' second surprise for our Valentine's date was Medieval Times and I was beyond excited!  I may have even screamed a little in the car when I finally figured out where we were going.

I have always wanted to venture out to Medieval Times and was a tad bit jealous when my brother took a history field trip there in high school.  Chris booked the Valentine's package which included our dinner and show, flags to support our knight (go Blue!), a light up rose, keepsake picture, your choice of champagne or beer with souvenir glasses and a pass through the torture museum.

We arrived early, as they suggest, to check in and take advantage of our package add ons.  They must make a killing on all of the souvenirs and memorabilia that I saw parents buying for their kids.

Once the castle was cleared out (they normally have shows at 2:30, 5:00 and 7:45 on a Saturday), we were directed to the blue section and our seats with our pewter dining set.

 After a quick briefing from our server for the night, it was time for the show to begin!

During the show, the meal is severed.  The "bill of fare" for the night included tomato bisque, focaccia bread, roasted chicken, bbq spare rib, herb roasted potato and pastry of the castle.  To keep in line with the time period, there is no silverware.

We dinned and watched the knights compete in games and then joust.  I was really hoping we would have the winner for the night, but after taking down the yellow knight our knight fell to the eventual champion - the black and white knight.

We had such a fun night and I'm so thankful for a thoughtful husband that is helping me cross off my 30 before 30 goals!

TV Time!

What's that I hear?  Could it be the sound of our DVR ending it's summer rest and gearing up to record all of the new fall shows?

Yay!  This week begins the new fall TV schedule and I am so excited to finally see some new shows!  I sometimes get a little overwhelmed at the beginning of the fall trying to figure out what new shows to give a chance, hoping I don't get sucked into a show that will end up canceled in a couple of months (Lone Star or No Ordinary Family, anyone?).

This season I'm looking forward to:

Via Television Blend

-Up All Night on NBC. This looks like a funny take on first time parenthood, and I've loved Christina Applegate from her days as Sue Ellen.  We loved the pilot last week and can't wait to see more.

Via Yahoo

-Revenge on ABC.  Per IMDb -"Centers on a young woman who is welcomed into a community filled with people who don't know she's only there to exact revenge on those who had destroyed her family."

Via Yahoo

- New Girl on Fox.  I really like Zooey Deschanel's quirky sense of comedy.

Via Yahoo

-Person of Interest on CBS.  This is actually a DVR request of Chris', but it could be interesting even though I was not a Ben fan on Lost.

Of course I have some returning favorites including: How I Met Your Mother, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, Vampire Diaries, Criminal Minds, Community, Glee, Modern Family (congrats to all of their Emmys last night!) and Happy Endings.  As you can tell, our DVR gets a work out in the Fall.  Good thing we recently learned about the On Demand feature with Verizon Fios, so if we can't DVR it we could still catch it later.

What new TV shows are you looking forward to this season?  What are some of your returning favorites?

I Heart My Gamer

Chris is a gamer.  A pretty big gamer.  When we were tasting cake for our wedding, it was an easy choice as to what the groom's cake would be styled after.

Candy Haven knocked it out of the park on the recreation of Chris' Xbox 360, topped with the controllers of all of the systems that we currently have in the apartment - Wii, Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.  With a busy weekly schedule of work and school, he doesn't have as much time to play.  On the rare Saturday or Sunday off, I know that there will be a little gaming action in there.  

As his collection grows, I know that more storage will be in order.  Chris has voiced an interest in turning the storage into a DIY project, possibly building floating shelves or a new bookcase in the future house.  I love that he's as excited about future home projects as I am.

Do you have any hobbies that require additional storage?  What advice do you have for organization?

Reliving My Childhood

I know I can't be the only one that was in love with the TV shows on Nickelodeon when we were growing up. After many requests on social media, Nick has decided to bring back some shows from the 90s in a block they are calling the 90s are all that.

  Image via Teen Nick

While I love reliving my childhood (I can't believe that Clarissa and Doug were on the air 20 years ago), I'm a little upset at the timing of the block.  I would think that most of the people that would be interested in re-watching these shows all have jobs and can't stay up that late.  Good thing for DVR!  

Teen Nick has stated that they are testing out these four shows, but will start rotating in other classics like Family Double Dare, Hey Dude, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Are You Afraid of the Dark and my personal favorite Salute Your Shorts.  

Image via nickutopia

When I looked at the list and thought about all of the shows my brother and I used to love (SNICK anyone?), I really think Nick might have a viable source to start new channel devoted to shows of their past.  I know I would watch it (or DVR shows and watch them when I had a chance)!  For now, I'll just keep humming the theme song of Clarissa and think about how I wanted to dress like her.  Na na na na na, all right all right.... na na na na na, way cool.... na na na na na just do it!

What were some of your favorite TV shows as a kid?

Lovin' Summer Reality

Oh the wasteland of TV during the summer months!  It's hard to go without new episodes of our favorites like The Office, Glee, Criminal Minds, Community, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, The Mentalist... I could go on and on.  I don't know where we would be without the DVR and On Demand feature.

Criminal Minds via Blastingmind

While most (like my brother) hate the summer season chock full of reality programming, I actually don't mind.  In fact, I really look forward to some summer staples like So You Think You Can Dance (I think Melanie is the front runner to win it all) and Master Chef.  

Image via Sharetv

With the shift from wedding television (although I did watch every episode of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding), to HGTV and the DIY network, I have found some new favorites like Design Star and all of the Crashers series (House, Room, Yard and Bath).  I have to admit, there are some guilty pleasures thrown in there as well.  Hell's Kitchen, anyone?  Even though I hardly keep up with the new episodes of MTV's The Real World, I'll never miss an episode of the Challenge!

I would say that we mix it up a bit in the summer and catch up on movies from Netflix, but with the recent price increase Chris decided that it's not worth it and canceled.  It's not a huge savings, but as they say, every little bit helps.  Plus, there's always Redbox.

Do you enjoy any of the summer reality television series?  Were you a Netflix user upset over the price hike?