Five on Friday!

Currently...

- ONE // EATING - Last weekend I threw together a Baked Spaghetti dish that fed us through 4 dinners this week. By last night I was pretty tired of spaghetti but Matt can eat pasta every night of his life so he was pretty happy. Anyway, I started with Six Sister's Baked Spaghetti recipe and adapted it from there, eliminating meat and onions, swapping out cottage cheese for ricotta, etc. I also was able to make two large meals from one batch and chose to freeze one for later.

Baked Spaghetti

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti

1 (26 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

5 tablespoons butter, melted

2 cups ricotta cheese

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs, Parmesan cheese and butter. Drain spaghetti; add to egg mixture and toss to coat. Place half of the spaghetti mixture in a large greased baking dish. Top with half of the ricotta cheese, sauce and mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover; bake 20-25 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

 - TWO // WEARING - Well, I'm not wearing these adorable items but I do have a little man who will be come July! This week we received our first few gifts for Thomas - seersucker shorts (Matt is ridiculously excited about matching with his son all summer) and a newborn hat from Infanteenie Beanie (here). I also picked up a cute Feltman Brothers outfit for him. I'm learning that boy clothes can be fun too!

- THREE // READING - I've already told you all about my obsession with Jim Gaffigan. In fact, Matt and I have already decided that our first date night after Thomas arrives will be the Contagious show in Charlotte on August 15. Anyway, lately I've been reading Dad is Fat (find it here) and laugh until I cry. For those of you who are parents, you will find this book especially funny.

 - FOUR // LISTENING TO - It only took 3 months but I'm finally on the last episode of the Serial podcast. This podcast has been perfect for listening to during those nights of pregnancy insomnia. But now that I'm about to finish the podcast I need recommendations on what to listen to next. Help!

  - FIVE // CHASING - This munchkin around...

Wanna join Darci, 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.

 

5 Month Bumpdate {Gender Reveal}

I am 19 weeks pregnant and the time is flying by. In fact, I wish it would slow down just a bit because we have done absolutely nothing to prepare for baby M2 except for signing up for the daycare wait list. Anyway, let's get down to the most exciting update...the gender reveal...

We officially received gender confirmation at my anatomy scan last week. To reveal the news to our families we gave them confetti poppers and an envelope containing the name...

Baby M2 is a...BOY! 

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome a little man to our family. And I am so hoping that he is a total mama's boy since Caroline absolutely favors her daddy. We'll see!

We knew we wanted to use another family name for our little boy and both of us agreed it would be so special to honor both of our dad's, so we chose Thomas Dean Marcellino. Thomas is Matt's dad's name (and also Matt's middle name) and Dean is my dad's name. We love the name Thomas Dean and both of our dad's were so excited and surprised when we told them. I also think "Tommy" is a really cute little boy name although Matt adamantly says he'll be called "Thomas". Oh, and although it's a total coincidence, Matt and I also met at Thomas Street Tavern (you can read that story here). Other less exciting pregnancy updates...

• Sleeping good and feeling good for the most part. There are definitely nights of pregnancy insomnia and days of extreme exhaustion sprinkled in but for the most part I am reminded of how much I love the second trimester, minus the lovely round ligament pains.
• The flutters have begun and I forgot how much I love feeling movement in my tummy!
• Craving carbs (bagels, pastas, french fries, etc.), ice cream and candy these days. I have also created a million excuses for not working out these past few months.
• I'm officially up 7 pounds and my regular clothes are no longer comfortable so I pretty much only wear dresses these days. While unpacking my box of maternity clothes I realized 60% of my wardrobe from my last pregnancy consisted of leggings. So I decided to purchase these, these and these on sale from Destination Maternity last week. 
• "Pregnancy brain" coupled with "mommy brain" is no joke. I forget a lot of things these days, feel scattered all the time and have done my fair share of dumb things lately.
• Lastly, we have decided we're going to let Thomas and Caroline share a room and see how it goes. This may be the worst idea of all time but we're going to give it a shot. Plus we would only have to buy an extra crib instead of furnishing an entire new nursery. Any mama's with room sharing experience, I would love to know your thoughts!

And for fun - 19 weeks pregnant with Caroline (post)!

Five on Friday!

Thank you all so much for your advice on my post earlier this week about gifts for Caroline's first birthday and car seat recommendations! You all are the best.

So this week was a bit of a rough one. Caroline came down with a nasty cold last Friday and it progressively got worse throughout the days that followed before it got better. She had the saddest cough (keeping her up all night), more snot than I ever thought was possible and a fever for 5 days. The doctor said all we could do was ride it out with Tylenol and Motrin (aka liquid gold), lots of snuggles, warm baths, Vick's Vapor Rub, a nighttime humidifier and frequent snotsucking (Matt's job). She is finally on the  mend and we are thankful!

On to the good stuff...

- ONE - Yesterday we had our anatomy scan for Baby M2 and are thrilled to confirm the gender! Our parents have already popped their gender reveal poppers and the envelope containing the name has been opened and announced! I can't wait to share the details with y'all next week! Until then, any guesses on a brother or sister for Caroline?

 - TWO - Last night I hosted Supper Club and it was such a good time. Since we ended late I didn't have time to write a more thorough recap. Post to come next week. Here is my tablescape...

- THREE - I'm the last one to the party on this one but I just discovered Cookie Butter from Trader Joes and it's an unhealthy new addiction for me. I seriously need to hide all my spoons.

- FOUR - On Tuesday we celebrated our first snow day! Well, it was mainly just an inch or two of ice, but still counted enough to stay home in pajamas! Even though Caroline was sick as a dog she perked right up once we got outside and plopped her in the snow. I think this was the happiest I'd seen her in five days. She loved it! For those of you who asked about Caroline's snow suit...it's the Cosy All-in-One from Baby Boden (Thanks, Grandmom!). This print is no longer available but you can find a similar version here.

- FIVE - I recently discovered the best trick to deep cleaning your towels! The other day I pulled out my freshly cleaned towels from the dryer and they smelled like they had been left in the washer for several days before making it to the dryer. Well, maybe they had but I did re-run the wash before drying them.    Anyway, here's the tip: Wash your towels in hot water with one cup of vinegar (only). Wash towels in hot water again with 1/2 cup of baking soda. Throw them in the dryer and enjoy your fresh towels!

Wanna join Darci, 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!

1st Birthday Gift Ideas {Advice Needed}!

To distract myself from facing the reality that my baby is going to soon be a toddler (in 11 weeks, 2 days) I have been thinking about what to get Caroline for her birthday. She already has more than enough small toys to play with so we're trying to decide on one big practical gift to splurge on.   Moms, I need your help! Out of all the ideas below, which gift do you think would be the best pick for Caroline's first birthday?    

Water Activity Play Table: Originally I thought Caroline would be too young for a water table but the past few weeks her teachers have been bringing one in to the infant class and filling it with soapy water for the babies to play in. Caroline is obsessed and her teachers have sent us tons of pictures of her happily splashing around in the table.

Radio Flyer 4-in-1 Trike: This ultimate grow-with-me trike offers 4 ways to ride to accommodate ages 9 months to 5 years by easily converting from a stroller to a steering trike, learning-to-ride-trike, and finally a classic trike. This seems like a practical gift that Caroline would not grow out of too fast. KidKraft Vintage Kitchen: The play kitchen in Caroline's classroom is where I find her playing every afternoon at pick up. This is my favorite gift on the list for her and I think she would use it for a long, long time. However, the only place in our house we could squeeze a kitchen would be between two chairs in our living room...which is also where Baby M2's swing will soon be. Sooo, there's that minor drawback... Radio Flyer Wagon:A wagon!! Every little one needs a wagon, right?! And this one just so happens to be fit for two! Also, I am kind of obsessed with the fact that you can custom build your own wagon (fabrics, storage, comfort, sun protection and nameplate options) through Radio Flyer here. Fisher-Price Infant-to-Toddler Swing: This is the item that Matt is most excited about. He's literally been talking about pushing Caroline in a swing in our backyard since before she was born. We also happen to have the perfect tree for a swing. Little Tikes Cozy Coup: A classic toy that I remember having as a kid too.    Those are the fun finalists in the running for Caroline's first birthday gift. However, one more option...   Britax Marathon Car Seat: The last option would be to go super practical and save our pennies for car seats...ergh. Car seat recommendations also welcome...

Would love to know your thoughts, mamas! Best gift for a one year old? What would you recommend?