weekends

Weekend Recap – Simple Fun

| The Bee Life

Sometimes the best weekends are the simplest weekends and consist of great friends and family and that was exactly our weekend!  With a road trip home to visit the fam we were automatically in for a good one.

Friday night we kicked off the weekend with a long overdue visit to see my forever bestie Kates and her hubs Travis.  We kept it simple with local pizza, salad and chicken wings… oh and bubbles, of course.  There was plenty of catching up to do with lots of belly laughs, it was a much needed visit. We also got to meet their newest addition to the family, their 6-month old puppy, Oscar, he’s a ball of energy and so darn cute.
Weekend Recap - 6.17 the bee life
Saturday we helped my parents out with some things around the house – my dad has been recovering from ACL surgery so he hasn’t been able to do everything he is used to doing!  We then went out for a later lunch and enjoyed the beautiful day along one of the finger lakes – the scenery and company was great but the food and beverages (sadly) were mediocre, but it was still nice to try someplace new while soaking up the sunshine.  From there we just enjoyed each other’s company catching up at the house and having a cookout!  Sunday of course consisted of a Father’s Day brunch, bloody’s and a few other things around the house with the rents before we hit the road.

These weekends always seem to fly by, and there never seems like enough time to catch up with everyone but it’s also that much more special for us to soak it all in and enjoy our time with everyone!

Local Love – Two Cafe & Boutique

| The Bee Life

This weekend I finally got a chance to visit the Two Cafe & Boutique in Chargin Falls. From the outside what appears to be your typical farm to table cafe, quickly turns into something special when you walk in. Two Cafe & Boutique is a training center for individuals with exceptionalities allowing these individuals real work experience and employment within a fully integrated setting.
Local Love - Two Cafe & Boutique - the bee life
So let’s talk about the cafe. With a full breakfast and lunch menu you’re sure to find something you’ll like. I ordered the Apple Peanut Butter and Bacon Toast with some organic brewed coffee. Both of which were phenomenal. Allie had the Avocado Toast with Chopped Egg and said she would’ve had another! In addition to a robust coffee menu, fresh smoothies are also available and a variety of pre-bottled beverages. The lunch menu also looked great, especially once I saw what a few other people ordered. So many options! So little time – a trip back is definitely in the books for the future.

The boutique has a variety of organic facial and beauty products in addition to candles, jewelry, clothing and kitchen decor – all sourced in line with Two’s mission and values.  They’re constantly sourcing new products in additional to updating their cafe menu seasonly!  There is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, the cafe is a great spot to grab something to go, hunker down on some work, or a catch-up with good friends.

As their website says; “The cafe is not only a place you can count on for healthy and local food. It is a place where you can truly make a difference in the world.”

Weekend Recap – April Showers

| The Bee Life

This past weekend was definitely the definition of ‘April Showers’ … the rain honestly reminded me of our wedding day, just nonstop and a complete soaking! But despite the rain, we had a pretty great weekend.

Saturday started with the new norm, waking up, a quick cup of coffee and then heading out to bootcamp, with B in tow.  He’s strong into his second month so it’s been fun having a workout buddy especially on Saturday’s!  We reluctantly pulled out from the white wicker for the front porch – but I figured maybe it’ll help the weather figure it out! We had a low key night in after church and watched the start of the NBA playoffs.
Weekend Recap - the bee life
We packed all our fun into Sunday! The morning started off with a celebration for our dear friend, E at her baby shower! It was ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ theme and I was lucky enough to be asked to help with some of the decor. I made a wooden sign with the theme’s slogan and then some fillers for the floral centerpieces – the whole room turned out great and was so E.  The food, sweets and company were all a perfect combination to celebrate the mom-to-be! We can’t wait to meet Baby T!

From the shower I made a quick stop at home, then B and I were headed downtown to go to the Cavs first playoff game! We had scored some awesome seats during the ticket pre-sale (before the game schedule was even set), although, the game was a bit rough as a fan. We saw a few clearings of hope, but never gained the lead.  Being our first playoffs game the crowd was electric and the energy throughout the game, even during the hard parts, was incredible.  Apparently, we just had to get some of our bad playing out of the way!

How did you spend your weekend?!

Weekend Recap – Easter 2018

| The Bee Life

Happy April! So glad to see a month that really makes you think spring – growing up March was always a bit of snow and a bit of sunshine, to be expected. But our Easter weekend was jammed back, yet so much fun.  With a much over-due trip to my parents, we headed in Friday to take advantage of as much of the weekend as we could!
Weekend Recap - Easter 2018 - the bee life
With a weekend full of delicious eats, like a NY fish fry, gourmet donuts with fried chicken, hometown pizza, bubbles with a side of friends and family it was all of my favorite things.  We caught up with K+T, Saturday morning and ventured to a hipster hot-spot called Boxcar and indulged on the finer things in life; donuts, coffee and fried chicken, among other things. It was so good and the perfect spot to relax, chat and people watch. We haven’t seen them since the wedding so it was great catching up with them and getting in person hugs!

Easter celebrations with the family consisted of some of the extended family coming over for some yummy pizza, laughs and spirits on Saturday – I always love that we can make time to see more of the family when we come into town, sometimes it goes too long! Church was super early Sunday morning, but worth it being followed up with some bloody mary’s, Mom’s homemade waffles and fully belly’s.

We ended our night with a super fancy Easter dinner… a bottomless bucket of popcorn at the Cavs game – yup we’re crazy, but they pulled out a good win.  It was an exhausting weekend, but so much fun and so great seeing everyone!

How did you spend your Easter?

 

Weekend Recap – Birthday Fun

| The Bee Life

These past two weekends have been full of birthday celebrations! It was great being able to celebrate my birthday two weekends in a row with family and dear friends, sweet treats and lots of bubbles… all of my favorite things!
21Weekend Recap - Birthday Fun - the bee life
When my family was in town we headed to Bar 32, a newer hot spot with awesome views of the city.  It’s a ‘rooftop’ bar on the 32nd floor with views for miles right along the lake, with a bit higher end menu of drink options. We enjoyed a few drinks here, the views and ordered a gigantic pretzel to share with the table, everything was so delicious!  From there we headed home grabbed some pizza, blew out some candles.

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of my birthday celebrations was the night before, B and I went out to dinner to one of our favorite spots in town and had some bubbles and a great meal.  It was nice spending uninterrupted time as just the two of us, and a great way to really kickoff my actual birthday weekend.
20Weekend Recap - Birthday Fun - the bee life I took my birthday off and enjoyed a three day weekend!  Started the day with an early morning workout with B, my birthday workout – and honestly the perfect way to start the day! From there I ran a bunch of errands and got some things ready as we hosted a bunch of our friends over for an informal birthday party. It was fun having our nearest and dearest friends over for more celebrations, and a great excuse to have everyone over.

This past birthday, I truly felt so special and spoiled by all of our friends and the family, it’s been so great to bring in another year without focusing on the actual number!

Cheers for another year!

 

Weekend Highlight – Paint Your Pet

| The Bee Life

This weekend was relatively low key, we saved all the fun for our Sunday! A few weeks ago we planned a double date with L + C to attend a local ‘Paint Your Pet’ class at a nearby studio. I jumped on the idea of painting our own keepsakes in a heart beat, since a lot of those types of classes are a little more cookie cutter.

We had sent the pictures of our Moz the week before (picking two pictures was tough!) and they were all set up and ready for us when we arrived with a rough outline of her face! The class walked us through about 6 different stages to paint our pups working to the finished product.
WH - Paint Your Pet - the bee life(1)
The class was a lot of fun, mainly in part to some great laughs with L + C, some bubbles and of course painting our little girl. It was so cool to see how everyone’s pups came out, the different styles and techniques. B and I’s pictures although different pictures of Moz are entirely different in style but they both look like our sweet girl!

After the class we grabbed some tacos and then went impromptu bowling for a round before finally coming home and being pooped. It was a fun yet still accomplishing afternoon and great way to spend time with B and friends while getting out of the house!

What was your weekend highlight?

4 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues

| The Bee Life

Staying busy and active in the winter months always seems much tougher than the warm summer months!  Here are a few winter activities that we’ve taken advantage of or have in the books, it’s helped us from going stir crazy, while keeping us active both mentally, physically and socially.
4 Ways to Beat Winter Blues - the bee life
Bowling. This is fun with a group of friends, for an early afternoon or evening!  Make it competitive with different stances or rules for each frame or split up teams boys vs. girls for some extra fun! Not to mention, have you seen bowling alleys lately? There are some fancy AF places that are so trendy to visit with full arcades, too!

Visit a Museum. We don’t nearly take advantage of the museums in our vicinity – it’s a rare occurrence, maybe a yearly event, we need to explore them more! We visited our Art Museum a few weeks ago to attend a special Jazz – Roaring 20’s Exhibit and it was awesome – not to mention the museum is completely beautiful, I feel like you could get lost wandering for hours, not to mention museums are free!

Find a Spin Class. This is on my list of to-do’s and activities to get back into! Although around here there are either gyms with spin classes or spin studios, both of which make you commit to a membership or multiple classes, and I haven’t found a dedicated spin studio I’m ready to commit to just yet.

Wine & Paint Class. This could be a fun date night or even a group activity with friends or the girls – these classes are becoming more and more original with ideas like Paint Your Pet!  We planned a double date for a Sunday afternoon to paint our pets, because we love our pooches, plus we can bring our own bubbles! Sunday Funday!

It’s easy to stay cozied up on the weekends, watching TV or vegging out – trust me, we definitely do it! But it’s important to take advantage of some fun activities that you might not want to do as much when it’s warm and sunny outside.

Here’s to some winter fun!

Weekend Recap – Fall Faves

| The Bee Life

Guys! It’s November! And we kicked off the start of wedding month soaking in all of our fall favorite things and got away for a nice little overnight getaway.   We headed east to our perfect spot when we just want to get away, and it just so happens to be close to our second favorite spot – Souther Tier Brewery.

We were able to leisurely wake up and enjoy the morning at home before hitting the road and grabbing a Starbucks including Moz’s pupachino! She now knows when we’re in the drive thru or spots our Starbucks cups and thinks they’re all for her, #spoiled.  Once we arrived at the cabin, we got settled in before heading to our spot for a few beers and an afternoon snack.
Weekend Recap - the bee life
We’ve been lucky enough to make this a little tradition the last few years, with Southern Tier Brewery being a must-stop, so we were so happy we were able to squeeze it in this year! We were really hoping their Christmas Ale (2XMAS) would be on tap, but it wasn’t just yet! So we settled for our other STBC favorites, B with his IPA and myself with the Porter. Yum!  The sun was shining and it was a nice afternoon for us to chat the day away and discuss our upcoming exciting events – it was good to get out of town.

When we got back to the cabin, we took Moz for a walk around the property and up to the nearby farm so she could bark at the horses and pigs – we even snagged some quintessential fall photos with the perfect foliage around us.  The drives were breathtaking with the beautiful orange, yellow and red leaves bordering the roads.  It was a perfect little getaway!

Weekend Recap – Annual Clam Bake

| The Bee Life

As the last weekend of October is behind us, it ended with another busy weekend full of friends, family and fun! The weather is finally feeling like fall too, I know I was complaining of not being in the fall spirit early in the month because it was so sunny and warm – definitely in the fall spirit now with the rain and chilly weekend we had.  It made for a cold clam bake, but that didn’t keep the party away.
2017 Clam Bake - the bee life
The clam bake is pretty much the same every year, with a few exceptions; like who is there, the sporting events being televised, and the weather.   Some years more family is able to join, while in other years it’s a smaller crowd.  We were hopeful that we might be doing some World Series watch parties at this year’s clam bake, but no dice – although the OSU vs. Penn State game made up for it. And although the rain cleared before the fun started, it was still a cool night which made for a lot of crowding around outdoor heaters and fires or frequent trips inside to warm up!

It’s always a fun time, an October tradition that I love – and this year it was essentially the last hurrah before our big day! Eek!