Summer Vacation in Brewster, MA

Happy 4th of July!

 Over July 4th week, we rented a house in Brewster on Cape Cod.  As I've mentioned on this blog before, one of my besties Stephanie owns a house in Brewster (and you should check out all the home improvements she's done on her blog).  In the past, we've stayed at her house for the 4th, but with both of us having babies we opted for our own place this year. It was a great week- half the week was cloudy and the rest of the week was an absolute heat wave, but we still managed to enjoy the beach and lobster almost daily. 

Of course, on our first day we had Lobster and Corn on the Cob.  Have to start the vacation off right! We bought our lobster from local gourmet store Ring Bros. Marketplace in Dennis, MA. The place is absolutely awesome and family owned and operated for over thirty years! My good friend from work- her family owns the place- so we always make sure to go there for all of our grocery needs whenever we are in the area.

We also visited the local bay beaches in Brewster daily, even on the cloudy days.  Dylan absolutely LOVED the beach especially during low tide when he could walk up to all the boats.

Another great spot we visited quite frequently was JT's Seafood in Brewster, MA.  They had awesome Hot Lobster Rolls, Delicious Seafood and Ice Cream.  I highly recommend it!

We also made it to Grumpy's in Dennis, MA for breakfast a few times.  One of our favorite meals was this Lobster Eggs Benedict. 

I also shared these Oatmeal Belgian Waffles with Fresh Fruit and Whipped Cream with Dylan and he loved them!

On one of the cloudier days, we went on a hike through Nickerson State Park and Stef and I tested out wearing the babies on our backs. (It was fun, but heavy). The Park had great trails, campsites and small beaches where the babies and dog could run wild.

We visited friends in Falmouth one of the days and headed to their local beach...

But the highlight was definitely going on the boat!  Dylan has been on a boat before when he was only a month old, but I think he enjoyed it a lot more this time around.  I even got him that life vest for only 20 bucks at the CVS up the street. Score!

Dylan enjoyed the boat ride best from the Captain's Seat.

We drove to a private beach and the boys had a blast racing each other. 

We also got one of our few family pictures from the trip.

When the clouds finally disappeared midweek, we enjoyed some amazing sunsets from our lake-house as well as the local beaches.

It was such a wonderful week and the Cape is one of my favorite places of all time.  I absolutely love my home state, the city of Boston and the New England area.  There are very few places where you can get to the beach and the islands in under two hours just as easily as you can get to the mountains and trails of New Hampshire and Maine.  I am so proud to be from  New England- I love that vacationing doesn't require much more than a car ride.

 I saw this quote in the Improper Bostonian this morning and I loved it so much I just had to share:

"I love the city of Boston for the history, the wit and sarcasm of the people, the beauty of the neighborhoods and the passion of everyone that calls it home." 

~Chris Loper, General Manager of Forum

This place will forever be my home and the place I love!

Dylan's First Birthday Party...

This past Saturday we hosted Dylan's first birthday party!  A full year has gone by and our little man is now ONE! I wish I could say that I took a million fabulous photos and the whole party went down like a perfect Pinterest dream, but that is just not the case.  Truth is I barely have any photos that fully document the day and although I executed a pretty hilarious theme, "Pickles and all things that go with Pickles," I don't have much to show for it.  They say that the less photos you take, the more fun you had, so I'm going with that.  Who said that- I'm not so sure, but I think that saying is just perfect for this occasion.

As some of you know, we call my son, Dyl Pickle, or Picks for short.  My brother made up the nickname and it just kinda stuck.  Speaking of my brother, him and his family recently moved to Maryland (BIG TEAR) and they totally surprised me with a visit for the Pickle Party! It was so
amazing!

But let's rewind...when pinteresting ideas for Dylan's first birthday, I started to think of and pin foods that went with pickles.

I was pretty amazed with everything I found.  Gotta love Pinterest! After I came up with ideas, I found a caterer who was willing to go the extra mile for my theme.  I used Peppers Catering located in Northboro, MA and they were great to work with.  They were pricier than I expected and I was a bit disappointed by how much set up I had to do for how much money I spent, but I was prepared for that by my trusty planning coordinator in advance.  I ended up ordering a bunch of sandwiches and wraps, 90 different kinds of sliders that had many different toppings to go with them, an Italian Table Presentation full of breads, assorted cheeses, meats, olives, roasted red peppers, bean dip, etc.  In addition, I ordered a giant cake in the shape of a giant pickle (inspired by the one above) and a Smash Cake.  I also ordered pickle relishes for the pickle bar.  My friend Jamie also made 4 Large Mason Jars full of DYL pickles! I wish I could show you how delicious all the food came out, but I didn't take any food photos! I know! I guess when you're out of the food blogging world, it's easy to forget.

But before I go into too much detail about the party itself, check out my invite.  I found the wording on pinterest, changed it up a bit, asked my friend Meg to draw a "cute, happy, birthday pickle" and then I designed the rest of the invite.

(front)

(back)

Pretty fun (and a little ridiculous) right?

Well, the weather for Saturday was 93 degrees.  Right smack in the middle of a New England heat wave.  Now the last couple parties we've had, it's been raining so I was so happy it was a beautiful day, but I was a little worried that people wouldn't want to be outside.  I love my house, but it is not set up for indoor parties... at all. When people started showing up, everyone was coming inside.  My food was not ready and I was totally worried that my great outdoor party I had envisioned was going to turn into an indoor one. Luckily, at 3 o'clock when the party started (after naptime of course), my backyard is almost always shaded.  We rented a few round tables and chairs for people to sit at and the cutest little kids table with kids chairs.  I also had a large gymnastics mat for kids to play on, a water table, an inflatable pool filled with water and another filled with balls (mini-ball pit), and a swing and a slide.  There was definitely enough to do, it was just whether or not people could handle the heat. No amount
of shade would disguise 93 degrees.

But the kids loved being outside even if it meant the parents were sweating just a bit.

We set up the food in our 2-car garage.  Completely cleared it out and filled it with three large rectangular tables. Aside from the adult food, I also had a kids table where I put out pouches, baby food jars filled with cheerios and puffs, baby sun-tan lotion, bubbles and little toys for the kids to play with.  We also had plenty of water, sodas, and beers.

In our basement, we set up the dessert table. We had tons of cookies, brownies and blondies, the Giant Pickle Cake (totally ridiculous, but amazingly delicious), the Smash Cake, and Hamburger Pops made by Creative Confections by Lauren in Allston, MA.

I totally recommend using Lauren for the Cake Pops if you're local, they were so delicious!

I found these adorable pops on this post  and then starting searching for someone who could make pops like those in my area.  Lauren did such an amazing job.  I ordered two flavors- one with Cookies N Creme another with Confetti.  They were so delicious (and HUGE).

My bff Courtney also made the cutest little Hamburger cookies.  I found the recipe again on this blog, and it was something Court and I planned to make together on Friday.  But then my brothers family surprised me and I just wanted to spend time with them so Court took over.  (You're the best Courtney!) Aren't they adorable?  Made with Nilla Wafers, Thin Mints, Coconut with green food coloring and red and yellow frosting for the ketchup and mustard.

I think the biggest reason my pictures are such a disappointment (aside from the fact that I didn't take much) are that I kept my 50mm lens on.  The 50 is great for portraits, but not so great for sharing the whole scene.  Even these pictures I took of the basement only show what's on the table, not the awesome decorating done by yours truly and my BFF Courtney.  Hint.. mainly done by Court.  I'm pretty good at coming up with fun ideas, but not so great at executing.

 (thanks Court)

(instagram: LizzyKC11)

My decorations also included a tree decorated with pickle ornaments.  Yep, you read that right.  No pictures to show for it though. I also had 5 large 20X30 foam core boards printed of pictures of Dylans first year that we hung from the deck.

For centerpieces and to display what foods we were serving, I quickly put together these labels- I just photoshopped it together with the pickle from the invite.  We used skewer sticks and foam board to put it together.  We then placed the sticks in Mason Jars filled with rocks that I had leftover from my wedding (almost FIVE years ago!).

Okay, more party pictures!

Cake Smashing!

The delicious inside of the cake... that would be green fondant, marshmallow filling, marble cake with chocolate mouse.... mmmmm...

Naked Gift opening...

A funny, theme related gift (thanks Kerry!)

Oh... see the screen in the background? I also made a video of Dylan's first year.  It's 20 minutes long and I played it on the upstairs and downstairs TVs on a loop.  I'll spare you the whole video, but check out the end... it makes all those Monthly Photoshoots of Dylan wearing his Monthly Sticker worth it.  Watch my son grow up before your eyes!

And to finish off the day, our only family picture.  Dyl looks beyond excited right?

Happy 1st Birthday Little Man.  We love you Dyl Pickle!