Brunch

Weekend Recap – Farms & Firsts

| The Bee Life

This past weekend has been a busy one, B and I have been little social bees.  It was fun, yet exhausting especially since I am still fighting my summer cold. But I must admit this past weekend has only gotten me more excited for this upcoming weekend – just you wait! Eeeek!

The weekend was officially kicked off with a baseball game Friday night with most of B’s family to celebrate his cousin’s 18th birthday!  It was a perfect night for a game, not to mention it was dollar dog night and Rat Pack fireworks.  And after the hellish end of my work Friday a few cold Miller Lite’s hit the spot.

Saturday morning started with a Girl’s Brunch at A’s house. It was the perfect morning catching up with the girls from my previous job, the girls that are so near and dear to me. Not to mention we were able to see her beautiful house and beautiful farm.  They have chickens, cows, pigs and sheep! It was fun walking around the farm and actually seeing so much of what A has told us about.  It was also great getting some girl time outside of the normal city-scape and quick lunch meet-ups.

Sunday was all about Miss Avery as we celebrated her FIRST birthday, the first of many!  It was a Minnie Mouse theme, with pink all over and it was adorably perfect.  This being my first, first birthday party in my adult life, I wasn’t sure what to expect – honestly I was hoping for a bounce house. Maybe there will be one at her 2nd birthday *smiles* She definitely pulled a diva moment with her smash cake and wanted nothing to do with it. But quickly shaped up in time to open her presents, that-a-girl. She got ridiculously spoiled with adorable outfits, stuffed animals and toys; which I admit we participated in. The summer has been moving quick, so it was good to see B’s family all under one roof.

IMG_5291It was a fun, busy weekend full of family and friends.  This week might be a bit torturous to get through, only because the excitement for Saturday is going to start increasing daily!  No telling. You’ll have to wait and see but I’ll give ya a hint, wedding.

Have a good week!

Local Love – Jammy Buggars

| The Bee Life

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared some local love, so I’m going to highlight one of our favorite spots, Jammy Buggars. Or as we like to call it, Jammys or JB’s.

Jammy Buggar: British slang for a lucky individual, charmed, blessed, favored, serendipitous.

For as long as I could remember B and I have gone to JB’s for date nights especially on Thursday’s for their 25-cent wing night. Yum! It’s the perfect place for a cheap date, good food and a fun atmosphere and perfect for viewing games on the big screen.  We go on streaks of consecutive wing nights and like to get the loaded fries (definitely a splurge) to accompany our wings with blue cheese! Beers usually flow and the waitresses always remember us, which makes it more of a neighborhood vibe, where everyone knows your name. *winks*

Our friends also have a soft spot for JB’s which has also kept us going back.  Not to mention when we were painting and working on the our house (aka eating out a lot) JB’s take out was our jam.  Not only do they slay up some mean wings, they also have amazing burgers, juicy with a wide variety of toppings and the ability to customize as you please. Their salads are awesome too when you are feeling the need to eat healthier, you really can’t go wrong.

Within the last year or so, JB’s started offering brunch on Sunday’s… oh. my. god. It was like a win-win in our opinion, one of our favorite spots was now offering one of our favorite meals! Again, they knocked it out of the park with their brunch menu, you truly can’t pick out a bad dish. B and I definitely have our go too’s.  For me it’s either the Breakfast Burrito or Sausage & Gravy Benny with a bloody mary. Their potatoes are cooked to perfection.

Jammys is definitely our go-to place when we are itching to get out and have a nice little date night to chat about our wedding plans, catching up on the day, celebrating milestones and sharing with our friends and family. If you’re ever in the neighborhood or haven’t been it should definitely be on your list!

 

Weekend Recap: Easter Showers

| The Bee Life

This past weekend we headed north to my parents again for the weekend since it was Katie’s shower and a bonus of Easter!

Katie’s shower was Saturday morning, a brunch at a local country club. I got there early to help decorate with her mom, and having never been to the venue I was a little nervous about how some of my decorations (future post coming with some of the fun DIY’s I did for her day) would work in the space. Luckily everything worked out perfectly and looked great! Katie was so happy with everything, woo, success! It was fun celebrating Kates with the official countdown starting towards her big day. Having been friends for over a decade, it’s crazy that we’re at this stage in our lives! I can’t wait for her bachelorette party and the big day!!

It has been a few years since I’ve been home for Easter, and the first time since B and I have been together, I am usually dog sitting! My brother and sister-in-law came over Saturday and stayed over so my mom had a full house, she was beyond happy. Sunday morning, the six of us headed to church, which was full of Alleluia’s! After church we snapped some pictures at the house and then mom and dad got cooking brunch! Yes, two back-to-back days of brunch, it was terrible. =) They made their signature waffles, bacon and an egg souffle all to end with a triple layer carrot cake! #foodcomma

To top off the weekend, we found Hank a home! Our close friend’s parents ended up taking him, they came up Thursday night to see him with their dog and ended up taking him home- for a test run, and ended up falling in love with him! We’re so happy he is in a (permanent) loving home and is going to be so spoiled. That was a big relief, this past week was very stressful for B and I trying to figure out what we were going to do with Hank!

I’m looking forward to getting back into our routine and starting some workout classes! Here’s to a great week!

 

A Weekend of CLE

| The Bee Life

This past weekend was a busy one, but it was so much fun!

It started on Friday, with Cleveland Magazine’s 10th Anniversary Best of Cleveland party! This was the fifth year I’ve attended the #BestofCLE and every year it gets better. There was one point in the night when I was in complete awe, looking around at the hundreds and hundreds of people just dancing and partying – and thought “This is my Friday night.”

In case you’ve never been to the #BestofCLE; it’s a gathering of all of Cleveland’s best restaurants, boutique’s, bakeries, clothing shops, car dealerships, clubs, and apartments. Samplings of great food, drinks and beers, along with other little goodies and discounts!  This year, I was all about the sweets, so I really only consumed a number of cupcakes and sushi over the course of the evening (I know, a horrible combo).

My Stops: 

Campbell’s Sweets Factory – I grabbed one of their ‘Wedding Cake’ flavored cupcakes, because it’s my favorite and it is delicious!

A Cookie & A Cupcake – Mini cupcakes! I went for a chocolate and vanilla, this little shop in Tremont never disappoints.

Main Street Cupcakes – It was their birthday, which meant sprinkles all over their cupcakes, which in my opinion is a perfect combination.

Jack Frost Donuts – I did not have these, simply because I would’ve been in a sugar coma. They had full-size, elaborately decorated donuts they were impressive and so beautiful (picture below).

A bunch of our friends were at the party so we had a fun time catching up with them, dancing and singing and sipping some cocktails! This party never disappoints and my absolute favorite part was when DJ EV came out, I seriously could’ve danced the entire night.  The music was so good.

Saturday AM we woke up to run the Dawg Pound 5k – it was an unwelcoming 43 degrees out with some intense winds, although it was much better than the cold rain we had last year.  A group from my office met up early to go down to the start line, the weather did not keep away the sold-out crowd.  The course was similar to last year, a good route with minor hills,the wind definitely tempered down once you got running, which was a good thing! B and I ran the whole time to finish just under 30-minutes, not bad for not training!  Then the group of us went up to a favorite local spot, Nauti Mermaid for Bloody Mary’s and brunch! The Bloody Mary came out with a fresh fried, Lake Erie perch, it was surprisingly delicious, the food was amazing too.  It was a fun start to our Saturday!

After our jam packed fun, it was pretty low-key and relaxing for the rest of the weekend. The #BestofCLE and the Dawg Pound 5k are definitely two of the reasons why I love Cleveland so much and why I love the month of October!

Happy Monday!

Appendix:

click here: 2015 Best of Cleveland’s Participating Winners 

football & brunch

| The Bee Life

Yesterday was the perfect day for football & brunch so we hosted a “Brown’s Brunch” for the game yesterday – although it was an eclectic group of football fans, we had some Steeler’s and Packer’s fans thrown into the mix, but it was all in good fun. The focal point of the day was the food, amazing weather, and of course the game – that we ended up winning! Yay!!

Main Course
The Bar
Brunch Snacks
Brunch Sweets

Also, since it turned out to be a gorgeous day, we were able to pull some strings and got an outdoor screen and projector so we could watch the game in the garage and enjoy the sunshine! We also borrowed a corn hole board for the occasion  – it was absolutely perfect.

The fan favorite seemed to be the Mini Apple Pies, I will share the recipe on a future post, I used a combination of two recipes, and they came out so adorably perfect! The breakfast souffle and chili seemed to be a hit too, we have so many left overs … except champagne…mimosas were popular; I definitely got my daily dose of Vitamin C yesterday!  With my meal plan. a lot of the prep was done on Saturday; so there was little prep or fuss on Sunday, it was great, because I was able to enjoy the company of our friends and neighbors!

It was definitely a successful Sunday Funday!