Le Weekend.

I figured it's been a while since I shared a weekend recap, and those are some of my favorite posts to read on other blogs!

First of all, please tell me -- am I the only one who falls asleep on the couch at an embarrassingly early time Friday nights? I was dozing off at 8:30. Ian was like -- April, really?! But after a long week, and an awesome dinner that I didn't have to cook (Ian grilled wings for us), and laying back on the couch with the fireplace on and a cozy blanket ... I didn't stand a chance to make it any later than I did.

Saturday, I went to a baby shower at Napa on Providence.

The baby shower menu was so delicious that I was stacking food on top of food.

We can't wait until this little miss makes her appearance and Camille can have a new playmate!

Later that afternoon my little teddy bear and I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for a yummy meal.

I took Natasha's suggestion and made the copycat Mongolian Beef from PF Chang's for dinner ... holy deliciousness. More to come on this later!

Sunday consisted of making a baby bikini top out of Mama's eye mask ...

... and was later followed by a family walk around the neighborhood, a visit with our friends/neighbors, a little football watching for Ian, some mimosas, and a playdate at our house with Camille's daycare "boyfriend." It is a hoot watching those two together ... they are ten days apart in age and have so much fun hanging out with each other and getting into mischief. 

This will be a short work week for us ... we have a little family getaway planned later this week!

Our Green Jacket Cookout

Saturday was just beautiful, and Ian and I decided to have a little group of friends over for a casual cookout. Thank goodness for the ease of a quickly texted invitation from Red Stamp. This is one of my favorite apps on my iPhone. With just a few quick customizations, you can easily create pretty invitations or cards and then text them, email them, upload them to social media sites, or even have them printed as postcards.

We kept the food really low-key with little pimiento cheese finger sandwiches (I snagged the quick photo before the last of them disappeared), hot dogs on the grill, watergate salad, a bean salad, pasta salad, and a charcuterie plate.

Before throwing the hot dogs on the grill, we spent a great amount of time outdoors while the guys watched the Masters tournament on the screened porch.

old navy dress: here

So although I didn't watch a bit of the Masters on Saturday, I did have a magnificent time with the friends :) Hope your weekend was pretty spectacular as well!

Our NYE Celebration 2014

This New Years Eve celebration was one for the books!

The morning started out with Ian telling me that we had a personal chef coming over to prepare dinner for us at our friends' home. He did such a great job of researching local chefs and getting a menu selected... all as a surprise. Our friends were so gracious to open their home for this awesome dinner and had the dining room set up beautifully.
 
I was originally planning to wear a dress but ended up going with a favorite (non-maternity) top and some black satin capris.

This group ... I just love them so much. We had five couples for dinner and it was such a perfect way to end 2013.

   

The dinner was prepared by Chef Garrett Tallent at Bon Vivant Culinary. Chef Tallent and his sous-chef Chad were extremely professional and friendly. They refilled our cocktails and wine (and sparkling cider) and kept the kitchen clean and tidy while preparing an absolute feast. Menus were at each place setting describing each of the four courses. Chef Tallent and Chad also came to the table to present each course, describing it and seeing if there was anything we needed.

We started off with Maine lobster ravioli ...

... and then made our way to a beet salad ... 

... and ended up with sorghum-glazed pork tenderloin with hoppin' john and collard greens with an onion marmalade.

Oh my goodness ... it was all so delicious. And as we ate and chatted, Chef Tallent and Chad washed all of the dishes and had the kitchen sparkling again. These guys were absolutely on it.

  

Dessert was a course that we went light on, but boy were these little tartlets tasty!

 

We will most definitely be using Bon Vivant again! If you are in or around Charlotte, I can't recommend this company enough. Everyone decided unanimously that we'll go this route for New Years next year, too!

 

Before midnight, we headed out to the patio and got ready for the countdown to midnight! I was thrilled that I made it this late ... especially with Welch's sparkling grape juice as my drink of choice (which hasn't been a part of my New Years tradition since I was 20 ... or 17 if we are really being honest, haha).

We all counted down together as the ball dropped, and we ended the night with smooches and hugs! I know 2014 will be a great one filled with a lot of new adventures. I can't think of a better way to ring in the new year!