Weekend Recap: August 9-11

It was an eventful weekend and super wonderful!

Friday night: dinner & drinks at Em's house celebrating my mom's birthday.  We had a great evening together and I officially think all birthdays should now be celebrated at home with home cooked meals, a signature drink (in this case, a blueberry mojito), and a chick flick!

 Saturday: Ryan and I took apart and redid the brick work around the tree in our front yard.  After completing that, we decided we wanted to do more...lol.  So we got back to it and added a planter box to the side.  Go us!  Later that night, we took Alex to the baseball game.

 Sunday:  My family headed up to Cedar Rapids for my sister's pinning ceremony.  I am beyond proud of my baby sister.  She has followed her dream, and jumped many hurdles to get to this moment.  She is a true inspiration and is going to make the BEST nurse.  Love you Em!!

 Coming up this weekend: Ryan heads out of town for a guys weekend so I have some more family time AND some much needed girl time in the works.  Happy Monday!

Alcohol(ics) Connoisseurs

So with all of the this dumb sequester stuff, Ryan will not be working more than 32 hours a week for quite awhile, so that's a dent to our normal income.  We were in the process of remodeling the basement, which definitely has to be put on hold for now.  So we had a super important decision to make.  Where were we going to put all of our alcohol since we will not have a bar to use for quite awhile?

Answer: That fancy, sliding-door cabinet in the living room of course.

Close proximity to the kitchen, utilizes previously wasted space, looks cool, etc.  And I'm sad/proud to admit, that since this picture was taken, a brand new handle of Tanqueray was purchased and added to the collection.

Happy Friday friends!

Trying New Things

...Drinks that is! I had a lot of fun this weekend with some good friends (and my sister!) sampling new beverages and making yummy shots!  My friend Ashley M told me about these Skinnygirl Margaritas, so instantly, I had to try them.  I am a huge margarita fan, but an even bigger one now that I can have a strong one for less calories.

Pros

Not as sweet as a regular marg

37 calories per 1.5 oz (1 oz of regular tequila is 70 calories alone)

Cute bottle :)

No mixing required, comes ready to pour

Cons

A little pricey, $14 for the bottle

All in all, it was worth it...but because of the cost, I won't be making it a regular purchase. I had fun with Ashley J on Friday though, we enjoyed our margaritas and chocolate chip cookie dough while watching the movie Flawless which was made in 1999 and has Robert DeNiro and Philip Seymour-Hoffman in it.  We really liked it, but read the synopsis before you watch it so you know what you're getting into! Haha.

Saturday night, unfortunately, my camera batteries died and they take FOREVER to charge, so I only got a couple of pics of the prep and none of all of us having fun!  Brooke and I decided that Saturday night would be Euchre and Shots night!  So Ryan and I found some good shot recipes and hit up the liquor store, we walked out with 5 bottles of liquor.  And if any of you know what our liquor collection is like, I didn't know how we could possibly need anymore!  We had to buy more vodka, and then we got amaretto, sour apple pucker, hot damn, and melon schnapps.  Check our some of our shot recipes:

We also made apple pie and cream soda shots. 

Favorites

Chocalate Cake (it was amazing how it ended up tasting like that!)

Cream Soda

Blow Job

Not so much

Broken Down Golf Cart

Apple Pie (but that's just me...I hate cinnamon apple)

Anyway, I got all of our shot glasses out and two shakers and was ready to get the party started.  Oh, did I mention that there only going to be six of us?  Originally, it was only going to be four, but then Emily and Brad came to town, and I'm glad they did!

When Brooke and Ryan got there, we played some Euchre (our favorite card game to play together).  Then, when Emily and Brad got there, we talked, watched some YouTube videos, and then played some classic family games..."Shit on your neighbor" and Spoons!  We had a lot of fun and I can't wait to have another night like that soon!  Though, I don't think I'll be buying any new liquor for awhile.