Five on Friday || Life Lately

Happy Friday! Five recent happenings...

one. The weather has been gorgeous in Charlotte lately so we've been spending a lot of time outside. Last weekend I picked up this adorable push car for the kids and they've been fighting over it ever since. I'm not sure why I waited so long to get one of these. It's way easier than pulling two kids in a wagon and it doesn't have pedals for the kids to get their legs caught in (I'm looking at you, evil tricycle). 

We also finally picked up the second seat kit for our stroller and are also kicking ourselves for waiting so long to do this. It's only been two weekends and there are no less than 2 boxes of raisins and 3 sleeves of crackers crushed in the bottom of the stroller already.

two. Triple Date Night! Last weekend Matt and I went on the most fun triple date with two other couples. We kick off the evening at Exit Strategy, a 60 minute puzzle you have to solve to escape the room! (Charlotte friends -- we did the Murder Mystery room and loved it). I am happy to report that our team of friends solved the mystery with minutes to spare! We can't wait to go back and do another room next!

 Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious dinner in a private wine cellar in the basement of an old church.

Matt and I started with fried green tomatoes topped with pimento cheese, followed by steaks and lots of cocktails!

It was an awesome night out with friends.

three. I love this little snap I took of the fam walking to church last weekend. Caroline has been loving Sunday School. And Thomas has been hating it. I swear he acts like we're never coming back for him when we drop him off. Also, a huge shout out to the nursery crew for catching Thomas's contact that fell out while he was there last week. I didn't even tell them about him wearing contacts so I was ridiculously impressed when I received a text during church saying "We think a contact just fell out of Thomas's eye?" This blew me away. In the almost two years that he has been wearing and losing contacts regularly at school none of his teachers have ever recovered a contact! So grateful!

four. While transferring my 235983405 photos from my phone to my computer I realized I forgot to post about our recent impromptu happy hour date night at Heist Brewery. Matt and I had an event to attend after work a few weeks ago and realized when it was over that our kids would still be very much awake. So we took a detour on our way home and ended up in NoDa for an early dinner. I am certain that happy hour dates are my new favorite.

five. Our daycare recently moved one of Thomas and Caroline's old teachers into Thomas's class! It has been super awesome because she is one of our very favorite teachers ever and loves our kiddos so much! It was an amazing surprise and we've already seen so much growth in Thomas in the past few weeks! He is drinking out of cups without spilling his milk everywhere, saying a lot more words and is now obsessed with books. So I'm wrapping up today's post with a few favorite pictures of Thomas that his teacher sent me this week!

 

February Supper Club (& How It All Got Started)

One of the most common questions I'm asked anytime I post about Supper Club is "how does your Supper Club work?" So today I'm going to share about how we got started...

How it All Got Started

I've always been a people gatherer. Bringing people together (especially fun people) is a passion of mine and it always has been. In high school I loved hosting my best guy friends on the football team over for pancakes on game day mornings. In college I led bible studies for my sorority. On winter breaks I hosted annual pasta parties back home with my best high school friends. I've always been the party and vacation planner of all my friend groups -- and I love it.

After graduation I moved to Charlotte where I knew NO ONE -- and so the pursuit began for some solid girlfriends. Lucky for me, I made some pretty incredible friends right away through my new job. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have met my husband! I also joined a bible study and made a few more friends there. And I made friends with their friends. Then Matt and I moved to a new neighborhood and made a few more friends. And so I was feeling pretty good about all these wonderful groups of people in our life and we found ourselves planning vacations with these friends, hosting them over for dinner, going out for drinks together and more.

And then I had a baby.

Shortly after Caroline was born I quickly recognized how much less time I had in my life for hanging with friends. Things changed so much after a little person came along and began monopolizing all my time not spent at work. Then my friends started having babies too and it seemed like getting together was nearly impossible. And honestly, it was a bit lonely. I missed my friends. And I definitely missed late nights of funny, inappropriate conversations over too many glasses of wine. My biggest challenge was making time for each group of friends -- work friends, bible study friends, neighbor friends, etc. It was difficult to keep up with them all regularly and still have time for my family.

Then one night I told Matt I was going to start a Supper Club -- and he loved it and encouraged me to do it. And it's honestly been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. 

So I approached each friend separately and asked if she would be interested in joining a supper club. Through these discussions I learned that I wasn't alone in feeling like regular fellowship with gal pals was certainly missing. And although some of the girls did not know each other well, there was a resounding "YES!" from them all to kick off the club. And so I did...

How It Works

Once I rallied enough girls together we flushed out the organization and the process: 

ORGANIZATION: At the beginning of the year each member selects a month she would like to host Supper Club in her home. We have liked using Sign-Up Genius to plan out the year because it's first come, first serve for grabbing a month and the website automatically sends reminders to the host when her turn is coming up.

We also agreed on the third Thursday of every month at 7 pm so the timing is consistent and the girls could plan accordingly (several of the girls have husbands who travel and need to secure babysitters for the night).

We have 11 girls in the club which leaves one month open each year. The past few years we've used this month for a girls night out. However, this year we're trading our open month in for a girl's beach weekend!

HOSTING: A few weeks before the next Supper Club the hostess sends out an evite so she can collect RSVPs and plan for the night. The fun part about hosting is you can literally do whatever you want -- create an ultimate salad bar, require pajama attire, make a large pot of chili, go fancy, celebrate babies, throw a party under the stars, grab takeout, celebrate birthdays, etc. The only rule is the hostess provides all of the food and each guest brings a bottle of wine. It's that easy!

If you aren't in a Supper Club, don't be afraid to start your own! I can speak for our entire group when I say that this club has been a blessing to each of us. So many friendships have evolved over the years -- from weddings to birthdays, we've celebrated countless events together, welcomed 11 babies (and have a handful more on the way), started a weekly play group for the kids to get together, share a group text that dings all day with mom questions or funny stories, been there for each other in the toughest of times and many of our husbands even get together on a weekly basis for beers and trivia. 

***

February Supper Club

This month I hosted Supper Club! I kept things as simple as possible with a crockpot meal and prepped far in advance because Matt had an event the same night. Thankfully, my bestie Mel came straight from work to help with the kiddos and last minute dinner prep. 

For the tablescape I threw a lightly shimmered tablecloth down and ran a $3 roll of pretty gold dot wrapping paper (from Target dollar spot) down the center of the table. Then I crammed as many gorgeous tulips as I could into 3 of my coffee mugs and set out some gold votives. Easy.

For fun, I sprinkled some fun TableTopics across the table. In typical fashion we were too busy chatting away about everything that we didn't really get through too many of the cards but they were still fun!

 

Sticking with my "easy" theme, I picked up a log of goat cheese, a round of boursin cheese and crackers from Trader Joes for an appetizer.

Caroline desperately wanted to hang "with the ladies" as she kept saying, so I let her party with us through dessert with only a few ear muffs along the way. Once Matt got home he scooped her up and put her to bed. But the very first question she asked when she woke up the next morning was "are the ladies still here?!" 

You're welcome, Lisa.

For dinner I served Sausage & Cheese Tortellini Soup that I slow cooked all day in the crockpot (adding the tortellini and the spinach in the last hour of cooking). Alongside the soup I served fresh bread I picked up from the Teeter and warmed in the oven for a few minutes. Then Mel sliced it for me while I put a screaming toddler to bed. Thanks Mel!

For dessert I whipped up some homemade ice cream sandwiches! I kid. I kid. I unwrapped a box of M&M ice cream sandwiches and arranged them on a plate.

And finally, may I introduce the cutest little new member to our Supper Club? To the right we have 6 days new -- baby Belle! She is pure sugar and enjoyed her first party with the ladies.

As is standard, my Supper Club ran late into the night, many bottles of wine were drank, dinner was devoured and I kicked the last 3 usual suspects out just before 11 pm and collapsed into bed. Another successful Supper Club in the books!

My Previous Supper Club Dinners

2016 Supper Club Loaded: Baked Potato Bar

2015 Supper Club: Taco Bar

Five on Friday!

I've been meaning to write a "life lately" post to share some of our most recent happenings but instead I'll condense it into the top 5 today!

- one - I am happy to report we are still sticking to our new year's resolution to escape from the kiddos for a monthly date night. Last Friday we tried a new restaurant, Comida, that I'd been dyyyyying to try in one of our favorite neighborhoods. It was somewhat difficult to get a reservation since it's only been open for two weeks so we gladly accepted an early dinner. It was sooooooo good. The margaritas were served on snow cone ice, we enjoyed some yummy nachos and the taco choices were unreal. We will definitely be back! After dinner we decided to walk down the street to a new bar, The Workman's Friend, for a fancy prosecco cocktail for me and a whisky drink for Matt on the patio. Our last stop of the night was at our old stomping grounds - Whiskey Warehouse. Apologies if you were still viewing my snap chats at this point. Ha! It was a super fun night out!  

- two - We celebrated Supper Club at Lisa's house this month on St. Patty's Day! She is the best hostess!

For dinner she made quinoa stuffed peppers and pear salad. She's made this exact meal for my family after Thomas was born and it is super duper delicious. For dessert she baked a homemade hummingbird cake too!

- four - In bittersweet news, I am saying goodbye to my beloved Jetta. After some fun years of whipping around the city in my compact ride we are turning it back in. We leased this car three years ago thinking we might be pregnant or have one munchkin towards the end of the lease. Ha! Two kiddos later my backseat is at max capacity with two ginormous car seats and a trunk just big enough to hold my stroller. And with the exception of daycare drop-off and pick up (half a mile from the house), we don't normally take my car anywhere with both kids. True story, I've put less than 8K miles on my car in 3 years! We know VW makes really safe cars too (which is why we originally picked the Jetta) but after Matt's accident we just prefer to tote the kiddos around in his monster truck. 

We really weren't sure what to purchase for our second car. Would we bite the bullet and get the inevitable minivan? Or would we still try and pretend we're cool for a few more years? We just didn't know! And seriously, minivans are so dang expensive!!! Anyway, it was perfect timing that Matt's parents were getting ready to purchase a new car and they offered to sell us his mom's car at a suuuuuper incredible deal that we quickly said "YES!!!!!!" to. We are so grateful and will absolutely be driving my sweet new ride until the wheels fall off.

- five - We just started our HelloFresh deliveries back up! We skipped a few deliveries while my mom was here post-surgery and while things were a little wild. I'm technically still not supposed to be doing much in the kitchen but Matt is a super hubby and does most of the work. So here is my recent most favorite HelloFresh meal - Fiesty Fiesta Fish Tacos with grapefruit, avocado and cabbage slaw! And you can make them yourself! Just search for the recipe on their website!

Want to try HelloFresh? Use promo code MG8GKD for $40 off your first box! That means you can try out HelloFresh for $29 and then cancel after your box arrives or keep on going.

Also, I received another promo code to give my friends a FREE box of HelloFresh meals! I'd be happy to send the first FOUR people to leave their email address in the comments a free week of HelloFresh to try!

- bonus - Couldn't stop at five! A few weekends ago I got to celebrate April's little babe on the way! Her shower couldn't have been any sweeter and April looked gorgeous. I absolutely cannot wait for this baby to arrive!

Wanna join April, Natasha and I on the Friday fun? You can link-up on any of our four blogs every Friday! All you have to do is...

1.) Write your post about five things you're lovin' this week (or any five things you want to share!).

2.) Share the logo on your blog and link back. 

3.) Link-up at the bottom of the post so some new readers can check out your five things and say hello!

Supper Club

February was my month for hosting Supper Club! Last Thursday we had 9 girls around my dining room table chowing down on tacos, passing many bottles of wine late into the night and laughing until our full bellies hurt. Such good memories were made with truly amazing friends. I am so lucky.

On Wednesday I began my Supper Club preparations. I set the table, prepped as much of the food as possible, cleaned the house and hid all of the baby stuff to get ready. Our dinner date happened to land just a few days after Valentine's Day so I was able to score 4 bouquets of flowers on sale for $4 each (originally $16 each) for my dining table.

One of the most important things to me about hosting guests is not being stuck in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, but instead actually enjoying my party! So to keep things simple and to make for easy clean up I ordered my favorite disposable plates and disposable forks a few days beforehand from Amazon. I already had everything else on hand from previous dinner parties so the tablescape was a breeze.

The rule for Supper Club is the hostess prepares all the food - appetizers, dinner and dessert. Everyone else brings a bottle of wine. And even though 1/3 of the girls in attendance were pregnant, we still managed to go through a ton of wine!

For the appetizers I set out chips, salsa, guacamole and queso. I made a pound of queso and by the end of the night it was completely gone. The recipe was super simple and delicious. In a small crockpot I melted a large block of Velveeta cheese with two (undrained) cans of Rotel. Once it was melted and well combined I just kept the crockpot on the warm setting and it was good all night!

For dinner I prepared a taco bar. Who doesn't love tacos? Our taco bar included crockpot chicken (recipe), ground beef, black beans, corn, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese and sour cream.

For dessert I made the yummiest individual Strawberry Shortcakes. These were easy to prepare ahead of time and also looked pretty. Oh, and they were tasty -- very, very tasty.

For the Strawberry Shortcakes I cubed a cream cheese pound cake (from the freezer section), added some diced strawberries (tossed in turbinado sugar), topped with whipped cream and repeated the layers to fill the glass.

  Of course, we snapped a quick picture of (almost) all the girls.