Time Machine [Thursday]: Kirsten’s Bachelorette!

So my [second] bachelorette party is coming up on Saturday!  (Visit my first one here!)  I can’t believe it’s actually here… that means that the wedding is really close right?  (Answer: Next month.  NEXT MONTH!)  To pump myself up for it, I wanted to flashback to an amazing weekend this past summer where we celebrated my MOH Kirsten’s Bachelorette Party in Avalon, NJ.

The bachelorette was a surprise for Kirsten, who thought that only our SJU girls (me, Kir, Georgia, and Mariola) were coming down with her sister for a girls weekend on the beach.  Kir’s sister, Ashley, and I coordinated efforts to get her out of the house and sufficiently surprised.  This is what greeted Kirsten when she pulled up to the house!

Ashley and I designed these cutie shirts to commemorate the occassion…

After Kir got home, we headed out to the beach to get some sun.  We couldn’t resist asking some cute lifeguards to take our picture

After a relaxing afternoon, it was time to get dolled up for dinner.  Here is the SJU crew, ready to celebrate!

We headed to the Rockin Chair for dinner, where I had an unbelievable meal of Crab Risotto and a Caesar Salad.  So good!

After dinner, we (drunkenly) headed home to change into our Bachelorette Shirts.  They look good, right?

And we headed out.  From here, I’ll let the pictures do the talking… but make sure you play the song of the evening in the background to really set the scene.  This song seemed to be on in every bar we were in, and now whenever I hear it, I think of the fun we had!

At the end of the night, we crawled back to the house, and devoured a special cake made by my dear friend Mariola.  The cake isn’t quite blog-appropriate, but damn, it hit the spot after a girls night out!

Looking back on all of the fun we had gets me so excited for Saturday.  I can’t wait to share all the fun with you all

Time Machine Tuesday–BWBP

A lot of people will tell you that they have THE BEST FRIENDS EVER OMG.  However, I’m here to tell you that they’re lying.  My friends are the best ever.  And this is why.

I am lucky enough to still be close friends with most of my girlfriends from high school.  And while I didn’t follow any of my friends to college, a good number of them went to school together, and made very close friends there too, who have now become my friends.  A lot of us have moved away, but we still come back to see each other as often as possible.  Even if we go a long time without seeing each other, I know for certain that there will be one weekend a year where I get to see all my girls… Bitches Weekend.

Bitches Weekend started in 2007, and has been a yearly tradition of drinking, eating taco dip, making each other breakfast, and sunbathing.  (Sometimes too much sunbathing). 

(the first bitches weekend, circa 2007)

The same crew comes back year after year, and it’s such a routine for us now that we all know who we’re driving with (Leslie), what time we leave on Friday (after a half day of work), who brings what (Les and I always get the alcohol!), and what bed we sleep in (back bedroom, next to Leslie.)  Perfect.

I didn’t think anything could get much better.  But, you see, I’m the first one of my friends to be getting married, and apparently they wanted to do something special for my last Bitches Weekend as a single gal.  And special doesn’t even begin to cover it.

It didn’t start much different than any other bitches weekend.  We had been planning to go out in Atlantic City on Saturday, so we’d been talking for weeks about all the cute dresses we were going to wear.  This didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

On Friday night when Linds and Lili arrived, they went grocery shopping.  This didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

On Saturday when some of the girls and I took a walk, and the rest of the girls went home to get ready for Church, that didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

When we walked back to the house, and the back gate was locked, I just thought “hmm so much for wiping off the sand, I’ll just use the front door.”  That didn’t seem out of the ordinary.  (Damn I’m naive.)

It wasn’t until I walked through the front door to see this (well, plus all my gorgeous friends), that anything was out of the ordinary.

And then I cried.  And then I was presented with a tiara. 

And Bitches Bubbly, and yummy snacks.

And beautiful necklaces that my beautiful friend Whitney made just for us.  And this amazing pint glass, that couldn’t have been more perfect.  (Yes, I still drink out of this at least once a week!)

We got ready…

and headed to AC.  The girls had put together a very detailed and amazing scavenger hunt that we started on in the car, and we reconvened at Carmines for dinner.

The rest of the night was a blur.  We drank girly drinks and I just soaked up the love that I felt from all of my friends.  There are no words to express how I felt that night, and how I feel when I think about that night.  It was such a sweet (and perfectly executed!) surprise, and I just can’t thank all of the girls for the most perfect Bitches Weekend Bachelorette Party a girl could ask for.

What was the sweetest thing that your friends have done for you?

Time Machine Tuesday – Just Watch the Fireworks

Usually I don’t do much to celebrate the 4th of July.  As a kid, we’d go to the lake and hang out with our friends.  Once in college,  I’d go to the apartment pool, drink frozen drinks, and try to get tan.  This year, Robert suggested we go up to Rockaway Beach, where he grew up.  His friend’s family was helping to throw a block party on the 3rd, so we decided to join in.  But this wasn’t any block party – or at least any block party I had known growing up!  Growing up, the neighbors all pulled their grills around front and grilled out while all us youngsters rode bikes around the cul-de-sac.  This block party came complete with tents, a DJ, and a 3 course meal put out by each house.  Did I mention there was a DJ…?

(blog, meet Josh.  Josh, welcome to the blog.)

And besides, where else could I spend 4th of July experiencing the sunset over Manhattan?

The next day was spent in a place where every 4th of July should be observed…

Ahhhh sweet relaxation… and tons of people – just like everywhere else in NYC.  But seriously, you can’t beat 4th of July on the beach.  (Gosh I wish I were on the beach right now!)  Later that afternoon we met up with Robert’s best friend (and best man!) and his girlfriend to play some beach bocce.  We got demolished.  Luckily there’s no photographic evidence haha!

And in case the  weekend hadn’t been perfect enough, we finished up the celebration with fireworks on the beach.  I have always loved  fireworks, and my Dad and I always make a point of going to see them whenever there’s a fireworks show.  I couldn’t let dad down, even from 100 miles away, so when the sun went down we headed towards the water.  Now this whole time, everyone has been talking about the fireworks on the beach, and since I grew up in a town with rules (there are no rules in NYC), I assumed that the city floated a barge loaded with fireworks out into the ocean.  Oh – how I was wrong!

We got a seat close to the beach wall, and waited for the fireworks to start.

Imagine my surprise when the fireworks started being walked in – right in front of us!  (Man, I’m such a goody-goody!)  And there were so many… there must have been 3 or 4 vans of fireworks, which resulted in dueling fireworks shows.  And we were maybe 20 feet away?  Sure there were times when the sparks might have come a little close, but I have never seen such an amazing fireworks show.  If only Daddy had come to Rockaway with us – I know he would have loved it!

It doesn’t get much better than that, folks.  It was such an amazing, relaxing weekend… I’m so grateful that I was able to spend my 4th of July at the beach, surrounded by friends and fireworks!

Do you remember what you did for 4th of July?