Golden Birthday

Today is my 30th birthday.  On the 30th.  Yeah, I just admitted it.  I'm 30.  Crazy!

Isn't it funny how much things can change in just a year?  For my 29th birthday, I lazed about on the sandy beaches of Jamaica, watched cliff divers plummet to the water at Rick's Cafe and didn't have a care in the world or a clue of what was to come that year.  This year, I'm writing this post as I'm covered in spit-up and spilled breast milk, functioning on little sleep and staring at my two-month-old son with a whole heart full of love.

While having a child restricts us from vacationing in Jamaica and such, the trade off was well worth it.  He might be a cuddly little monster, but he's the best birthday present ever.

Now bring on the cake!

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Thursday Loves + A Special Birthday

Need a blast of winter....fast?  These instant winter scenes from Etsy shop Kate's Cottage Shop will have you feeling cheery in no time.  

I need some snow in my life, can you tell? Isn't this winter barn absolutely gorgeous?  Via

The perfect snuggly sweater to wear while visiting the wintery barn, above?  I do declare.  And I love the price tag - $32.74!  Via She Inside

This hallway feels so cozy and I really wish that I could copy it into my own home.  Sadly we do not have a hallway of these proportions so mimicking it is merely a pipe dream.  I guess I'll just continue to stare at its beauty while pretending it was all mine.  Via

Last but certainly not least, today is my husband's birthday.  He is most deserving of the best slice of life there is and I want to wish him a very happy birthday in every way I can think of.  He's pampered me to no end throughout this pregnancy (happy halfway mark to me on Sunday!), rubbed my feet every night, cooked me dinner, taken the pooch out most every time, let me have the remote when I've had enough football, bought me flowers and he never forgets to tell me I'm beautiful.  David, you're the absolute best.  Via

29

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Today I turn 29.  One more year until my golden birthday, good 'ole 30 on 30.  One more year to check things off my 30 before 30 list.  The year is going to fly by.  

28 was a great age.  I moved from Chicago to Louisville, bought a house with my husband, got a doggie and got a new car, just to name a few.  Pretty great, right?  I think so.  

We shall see what 29 beholds.  I'm hoping it's pretty great, too.  With a marriage at 27 and a house at 28, there's really only a few things in this world that could top that...

Cheers, from the Carribean!

Weekend Recap

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Time flies.  Whether you're having fun or not, time flies.  And now it's Monday again.  Wah wah waaaaah.  I'm not sure how it happens week after week, but it feels like Friday night is here and the rest of the weekend is yours for the taking.  All of a sudden it's Sunday night at midnight and you're panicking because you're really not that tired.  And you know how that one ends...

Alas, it is Monday morning and we're back to it.  The weekend was lovely and peaceful (with some exceptions, which explains my absence on Friday) and I wasn't ready for it to end.  Some highlights include ::

• Fire & Ice - on Thursday we ventured to the water tower to watch our friend Alex draw with lasers.  It was incredibly awesome and the whole night was beautiful.  Not only did a crowd of people watch him draw with lasers in the dark on glow-in-the-dark paint (with everyone ooh and awe-ing) but among beautiful photographs and sculptures, there was ice sculptures and fire spinners (which we enjoyed with free beers in hand).  So much to love.  What was not so much to love was coming home to a dog who had diarrhea all night long (tmi, sorry) starting at 3 a.m. after hours of incessant barking.  Needless to say, the mister and I got very little sleep that night and I had to work the next day.  Boo hiss.
• Free pizza! America won the coin toss and we're Papa Johns members.  Free pizza for us, hoorah!
• The Ides of March - I love that Ryan Gosling's character was referred to as Stevie.  The movie was good but because of the utter exhaustion, I barely stayed awake.
• The mister hung all of the wainscot in our master bathroom.  Now we just need to hang the trim and chair rail, paint and touch some stuff up.  Hoorah!
• Raegan's surprise party - she had a hunch, which sucks, but we still had fun surprising her with dinner at Doc Crows.  Happy birthday, Raegan!
• Chill Sunday w/the pets.  Stevie really is such a sweet pup.  She's got that bell system down pat.  Now if only she would get a clue when the cat hisses at her.

How were your weekends? Excellent, I hope.  I'm excited about this week - our plans are minimal and it's the week of our dating anniversary.  6 years and counting!  So you can be sure to look forward to some romance-inspired posts this week :)

Happy Monday, lovelies.  Here's to a great week!

Weekend Recap

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Good morning, everyone!  Although I wish it was still Saturday morning, it's nice to say hello again to all of you.  The weekend was great - it flew by as fast as possible (as it always does), we had a lot of fun and I'm sad it's over.  Some highlights include ::

• Dinner + high school girls basketball - the in-laws treated us to dinner and took us to see my husband's stepsister beat their rivals in some bball.  It was pretty freaking awesome.
• Lazy Saturday - I wrapped Christmas presents, ate chilaquiles, took a long, hot shower and had a mid-afternoon cocktail.  
• KU victory over Ohio State!  Oh how sweet it was.  Then it was followed by IU beating UK and I was in heaven!
• Birthday dinner! The mister turns 30 on Tuesday so our friends came out to dinner with us and we feasted on deliciousness at Ramsi's.  
• Mini birthday party!  Just the way we like it.
• Christmas shopping - we're getting so close to being done now.  There are a lot of presents wrapped under the tree. Needless to say, there are some lucky family members, ha ha.
• Our Idiot Brother - it's really pretty funny (although, as with every movie in this genre, it gets cheesy/sappy toward the end) and I enjoyed the cast thoroughly.  It's the perfect movie for Sunday nights when you need a good laugh (we did, we watched the Bears blow a 10 point lead in the last couple minutes against the Broncos.  No good, Bears, no good.)

How were your weekends? Excellent, I hope!  Here's to a great week!

A Giveaway

Not only is it mid-September, which means I am celebrating my 2nd blog birthday, but I also reached 300 followers! Hooray!  And you know what that means...

It's time for a giveaway!!

Today's giveaway is from a lovely, little shop, an Etsy shop with fun and colorful geometric jewelry.  Chelsea has offered one lucky winner their choice of one item from the shop! Isn't that awesome? I think so.  You're awesome, Chelsea!

If I had the chance to win, I'd totally pick this ::

or this one ::

or this one ::

For a chance to win ::

1. Follow Mo Pie, Please with GFC or Bloglovin' or by email (if you already follow just say so)
2. Visit a lovely, little shop and let us know what you would choose if you won

For additional entries ::

1. 'Like' a lovely, little shop on Facebook
2. 'Like' Mo Pie, Please on Facebook
3. Blog about this giveaway

There you go, my sweet readers! Spread the word!  The giveaway will close Sunday and the winner will be announced on my weekend recap post.  Best of luck!

P.S. - sorry for the radio silence from me.  This new job is by every means a new job.  I don't know anything about the work but I'm enjoying the learning process so far. But it's left me completely exhausted the past two nights. The coolest part about it all is that I get to wear scrub-a-dub-dubs! Goodbye, business casual attire! Hopefully I'll be able to make it around to all of your awesome blogs this week but I apologize in advance for it.  Please don't take it personal :)

Weekend/Vacation/Birthday Recap

Today it's back to the ole' routine - vacation is over, my birthday is over and the long weekend is too.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bummed, but time marches on.  These past several days have been incredible, to say the least.  Some highlights of vacation include ::

• Delicious food every single meal
• The most perfect of views from the balcony at the condo
• The most incredible sunshine/beach/water you could ask for
• So much marine life - we seriously saw a shark right in front of us!  Not to mention dolphins, seals, a giant sea turtle and various other things
• Many delicious tropical beverages
• Perfect sunsets every night
• The best travel buddies you could think of

My birthday was pretty terrific too.  It was low-key, such a nice way to celebrate turning 28.  I had some stuffed french toast made by my wonderful husband, followed by mimosas, mini golf with great friends, a great dinner out and we ended the night hanging out with some soon-to-be-married friends who are in town for their big wedding this Saturday! Hoorah!

28

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Today I turn 28.  Which means, I survived the curse of the 27s!  I enjoyed being 27 and wasn't really looking forward to turning 28, but the time has come.  

We went to Florida this weekend for a sunny vacation on the beach.  It was absolutely perfect - so relaxing and enjoyable.  We met my husband's sister and her boyfriend there and stayed in their grandma's condo in Clearwater.  We had this incredible balcony to sit on with a view to die for.  Every night, the sun set directly in front of us.  Every day we could see things in the ocean to get excited about from our view.  I can't get over how awesome it was!  The first day we sat at the beach, I kid you not, a shark swam up right in front of us.  A man was jogging along the beach and stopped to stare; he said he had only seen one other shark in Clearwater in all the 20 years he's been coming there.  It was a small brown shark, but still, IT WAS A SHARK!  We also saw several dolphins (two up close while on a boat excursion), a SEA TURTLE and a group of seals swimming!  It was glorious.  

This past year has been incredible.  Since my awesome birthday picnic last year, I've gotten married, honeymooned in Italy and now we've bought a house.  What a big year!  I'm hoping that this next year will only be better.  

I hope you're all having a wonderful Memorial day/holiday weekend.  

Happy Birthday, Raegan!

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Happy Happy Birthday, Raegan!  I'm sad that I can't share a bottle of champagne with you or give you the cake you deserve.  I hope someone else in Louisville has taken care of that for you, as I'm sure they have!  Here's some big ole hugs from me to you.  I hope your day is awesome, and that your weekend is truly top drawer!  

PS - Do you like the picture? I tried to find you the weirdest one I could, I think I succeeded!

Happy birthday, Anna-Maria!

So many good times with you, A-M!  To one of my best friends, HAPPY FREAKIN' BIRTHDAY!  

Love,
Mo Pie

Ooof

I'm feeling a little on the slow side today, friends.  I've been stuck in a food coma ever since our 3-hour long dinner at the Hopleaf last night.  I think we both have.  It kind of put a damper on our cake-eating plans considering the fact that we got home at 10:45, completely stuffed to the brim with stilton mac-n-cheese, frittes with garlic aioli, cashew butter + fig jam and cheese sandwich, steak frittes (him) not to mention those Belgian beers we had.  Oi.  Seriously, we were both deeply induced in this coma so bad to the point that we opted to crawl in bed to snuggle it away, only to find ourselves passed out immediately.

Other than that, I think it was a good birthday for him.  Thanks for all your birthday wishes!

Chocolate cake with vanilla cream filling (which is what is floating, so you can dip your cake into the filling that didn't seem to thicken at all seeing how it spilled everywhere) and coconut cream cheese frosting.  Hopefully it's good, we'll find out tonight!

Birthday Birthday!

Happy birthday, husband.  I've told you this a million times and I'll tell you a gazillion times more - l Iove you.  


I'm gonna make you a cake now and it's gonna be gooooood.  I'll force you to eat it after we devour delicious food and drink imported beers at The HopLeaf.  So get ready!

Well what do you know!

I went and missed Mo Pie, Please's first birthday! 

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A year ago, give or take a few days, we decided it would be fun to start a blog about random stuff that we love and wanted to share with somebody.  It took awhile for us to get moving on it, to find an audience, etc.  But we did and I'm so happy and grateful!  I'll never forget when we received our first comment.  I felt like we were just blogging for each other and we only seemed to comment in email instead of actually on the blog (silly us).  But one night, Badger and I were watching Julie & Julia when my email alert went off.  Sure enough, as soon as we saw the scene where Julie gets her first blog comment, I did too!  It was probably a little more exciting to me because of that coincidence, but I enjoyed every last second of the feeling and that has not gone away ever since.  Thank you all so much for reading our blog and assuring us that people do like to read about things we love.  I'm so happy to have "met" so many of you bloggers and wonderful people.  You warm my heart each and every day and I've definitely learned so much from you all!

Here's to another wonderful year of Mo Pie, Please!

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10 years

I've been an aunt for 10 years now.  10!  I can't believe it! Just yesterday I was taking naps with baby Bree on my shoulder.  But it's cool.  She loves me, I'm the cool aunt that lives in Chicago and we have good conversations on the phone.  I love that little girl so much!  Happy birthday (yesterday) Bree!

We are goofy

Oof, what a day it's been.  Hopefully things will calm down and be back to some good posting tomorrow. 

Did you all have a good weekend?  We had a blast at the lake.  Hopefully I can upload our pictures tonight!

Happy Birthday, Ally!!!

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Today is my niece's 5th birthday! I just called her to wish her happy birthday and she was pretty funny on the phone.  Apparently, my mom made her pink pancakes with chocolate chips and a candle for breakfast, and she's busy playing with her dolls right now because it's storming in Kansas.  She's really an outdoor girl who loves the garden, so I bought her a worm farm for her special day!  I love love LOVE that my niece loves worms and dirt and things.  There's nothing prissy about her, that's for sure!

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How is everyone?!  It feels good to be back, kind of...back to blogging anyway, not so much the whole work thing.  This weekend was truly incredible.  I had such a great time and really love and miss my friends back home!  More to come on that!

Birthday weekend recap!

Friends, it was a lovely weekend.  Sure I had some laughable experiences.  Like Petrushka, the cute little orange cat who sprayed me, or like going to see a certain movie about four women that was absolutely awful and made us all want to gouge our eyes out. But aside from those things, it was an amazing weekend.  Even the cat spray was hilarious.  And walking to the theater on the 80 degree day with my lovely friends was super enjoyable, followed by a delicious Italian dinner and loads of wine and cards and cute animals.  Sunday brought about friends from NYC, mimosa's, delicious drinks made by my favorite Bortender and a picnic that dreams are made of!  Haha!  But seriously, it was 85 and sunny, we found the most perfect spot along the boulevard, the grilled pizza was the most delicious pizza ever and there was an adorable wedding taking place across the street!  The bridal party rolled up in style and we all clapped and cheered for the bride!  The day was perfect and I owe it all to my friends (and especially my Badger) who made me feel so special. 

Thank you all so much for the lovely birthday wishes.  It's been a great start to my 27th year!

27

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As of Sunday, I'll be a 27-year-old.  I always wanted to be 27.  Is that weird?  It just always appealed to me as the cool age to be.  I guess we'll see.  So far it's looking like the best year yet! 

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We're having a picnic on Sunday across the street along the boulevard in Logan Square.  We're going to grill pizza!  And eat delish food and cake and drink good booze, etc. I can't wait!

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Happy Birthday, Olive!

I can't believe you are turning one today, the time sure flies! 

Cake via coco cake cupcakes - incredilble!

A super duper special birthday...

Happy Happy Birthday, Raegan!!!

Happy birthday to one of my favorite people!  I enjoy having you as a friend more than you could ever imagine!  Sorry I thought your birthday was tomorrow!  I love you!!

(photos via ffffound, brown button)