Throwback Thursday: NYC For A Night

Well, the last-minute laundry is finishing up and the bed is covered in clothes ready to be stuffed in a suitcase and placed on a plane heading to Europe! That's right, folks...Ryan and I are leaving the country Saturday night for 7 days of fun and exploration all over Ireland! 

While I wait for our clothes to dry, I thought I would participate in a little Throwback Thursday action by reminiscing on our fun one-night trip to NYC this past June. 

Every once in a while, I get to tag along with Ryan to work events and outings. While my favorite experience so far is our trip to the US Open a couple Septembers ago, this most recent outing is pretty dang high up on the list. This time around, I got to fill an extra seat at a Yankees game, and man, was that a pretty awesome seat to fill! Since we were going to be making the 4 1/2 hour drive in to NYC, we decided to make the most of it and stay the night. 

We got into Yankee Stadium about an hour before the game started. Our seats gave us access to the Legends Suite, where we were able to stuff our faces with some unbelievable food before hitting up the candy bar on the way out. 

If you look closely in the above picture, you can see Ryan's plate stacked a mile high with crab legs and other goodies. Meanwhile, I've got a little surf and turf going on on my own plate. Steak and Sushi for the win! 

We spent the next few hours baking in the sun watching some baseball before heading into Manhattan to check in to our hotel for the night and rest up before hitting the town! 

For dinner, Ryan and I decided to check out Ruby Foo's, right off of Times Square.

We were both still pretty full from the game so we ordered a couple of appetizers to share, which were delicious if I recall correctly. 

After dinner, we walked over to our evening entertainment of choice, the Broadway Comedy Club. We tried to get tickets to a broadway show, but the ones we really wanted to see were either sold out completely or sold out of the tickets that we could afford! The comedy club turned out to be fun though and we got to watch four different comedian's sets.

To finish off our night, we scoped out a rooftop bar off Times Square for a little while, taking in the gorgeous night!

This was such a fun little trip to kick our summer off! Thanks Dow for taking care of the spouses every once in a while!! 

Friday Favorites

Since coming home from my month of travel in July, I have been go-go-go every day. I cannot believe how fast summer is flying by! Before truly starting the weekend (although every day seems to feel like a Saturday...summer vacation, I love you so!), I though I would take a moment and share a couple of things that I've been loving lately!

1. This summer, I have truly been loving the "Leah picture of the day" I've been receiving from my sister-in-law Rachel! It is SO hard to be living far away from all of our family, even more so now that our beautiful little niece is here. The pictures help us see her growing every day and feel like a little piece of home! Thanks, Rach! 

                           

                    

                    

2. Ryan and I are taking off for Ireland in 8 short days and have been finalizing plans and stays for that trip! You better believe I am looking forward to exploring the Irish countryside with my husband in a little over a week!! We plan on visiting Dublin, Cork, Killarney, and Galway to name a few places! 

3. Ryan's softball team won their second playoff game last night and are now in the championship game on Monday night! I've been enjoying cheering them on from the sidelines this last week rather than from behind home plate!

4. Finally...last but definitely not least! As of yesterday, summer changed a bit for me. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before today because I wasn't quite sure how to, but my job as a paraprofessional at Nash disappeared towards the end of the last school year. Jill, the teacher I worked with was transferred to a different school, leaving Nash with one extra para then they needed. I spent the whole summer searching for a job in Weymouth and other neighboring towns before resigning myself to the idea of substitute teaching for half a year before beginning my student teaching in January. Yesterday morning, my friend Rachel sent me a text message to let me know that there was a para position available in Weymouth, which I immediately called admin to discuss. To make a long story shorter, I received a call back around 2:30 yesterday letting me know that the job was mine! I am now a 1 on 1 para to a third grade child at a different elementary school in town and I couldn't be more excited! 

Happy Friday, y'all!! 

Funfetti Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Man, these last few weeks have been super busy for Ryan and I- swim lessons for a friend's daughter, Super Summer Kids Week, Family Fun at the Beach, and cook-outs to name a few of the events filling our days and nights! Tonight is going to be the first night in over 10 days that we will be sitting down to a home-cooked meal (Spaghetti and Meatballs- YES)! 

After a swim lesson last week, I hosted my friends Candice and Rachel along with their children for lunch! Candice offered to supply the main course for lunch, but I wanted to make a fun dessert that the littles could help make! So, the night before I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies with a twist! The cookies turned out great and I the kids definitely had a blast scooping the dough onto cookie sheets....and eating them shortly after! Win! 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup Butter, room temperature
• 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 cups Funfetti Cake Mix
• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• 1/2 cups Sprinkles
• 2 cups Chocolate Chips
• 2 cups coarsely chopped Golden Birthday Cake Oreos 

Directions: 

1. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. 

2. With the mixer on low, add in baking soda, salt, flour, and cake mix, stirring until the mixture comes together. 

3. Add in sprinkles, chocolate chips, and chopped oreos. Stir until evenly incorporated. 

4. Chill dough in the refrigerator over night. (If you can stand to wait that long!) 

5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into balls, placing them onto a cookie sheet. 

6. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. Cool and enjoy!