ETC...

Weekend Edit: All things birthday+Easy summer recipes

top golf

Happy Monday! I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was already looking ahead to the July 4th weekend. I can see lots of pool time in our future – and an extra day added to the weekend. Feels like summer!

We had ourselves a wonderful (albeit hot) weekend to celebrate the birthday boy. I’m still smiling about all the love that people showed him this past weekend. Here’s what we were up to

Friday

bronze award

Friday was Aaron’s actual birthday. I was still coming off the good news of my bronze award the night before, but I worked my tail off all day.

Then, I took Mr. Simplywed out for dinner. We tried State of Grace, which is a mix of Latin, Gulf Coast and Asian. They are known for their oysters, but I’ve been told to only eat oysters in months that have an “r” in them. In other words, not during the summers (not sure why – but I think it’s kind of old wives’ tale). We had their hush puppies with blue crab to start and the octopus, which were both delicious. For our entrees we had the octopus pasta, the scallops and their eggplant. The meal was delicious, and I can assure you that we will be back.

baskin robbins

When we got home, we had an ice cream cake. Did I tell you how much the birthday boy loves Baskin Robbins? One of our worst habits we picked up during COVID (and I’m honestly embarrassed to even put this out in the world), was ordering ice cream from Baskin Robbins through Uber Eats. Desperate times called for desperate measures. 🙂

Then, we called it a night!

Saturday

Alice dropped off one of her homemade key lime pies for Aaron on Saturday afternoon. He says it was her best one yet, and he would know! Aaron worked for a little bit while Alice and I went to lunch. I like to let Alice pick, and she picked Pappy’s, which I had never been to.

golden retrievers

So, we ate, we chatted, and we had ourselves a wonderful afternoon. I let the Spuds do some pool time when I got home because it was so hot out. We are in a bit of drought here in Houston, and the weather this weekend was especially hot.

peloton

After I let the dogs dry off, I did a quick peloton workout. And, I hopped in the shower to get ready for our birthday Top Golf event!

crumbl

Aaron loves to go to Top Golf, so we invited our friends Mike and Amy to join us. They were so sweet to bring Crumbl cookies! Then, we all got our golf on.

top golf

Here we all are – happy birthday to Mr. Simplywed!

top golf

We played for about three hours, and we all had a wonderful time catching up! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Aaron and I have both been incredibly blessed to meet some wonderful friends through various stages in our life. These are two of our former neighbors (and they are our realtors)!

Sunday

Sunday was a whole lot of getting alllllll the things done in our house. I washed all the sheets in all my guest bedrooms, we folded and put away what felt like 6 loads of laundry. I cleaned up a bit, and we watched some church online.

Costco

After that, I need a whole bunch of household items at Costco, so we went and did a major haul. I’ll show you some of the fun things I picked up later this week. Aaron got an Academy gift card, so we swung by Academy after that, and I picked up my H-E-B curbside order.

heb

I’ve been loving the Peloton yoga classes for days when I don’t necessarily feel like doing a strength or cardio workout, but I still want to move my body. I swear by the fact that yoga and strength training are what helped me make it across the finish line for my first marathon. So, I opted for a 30 minute yoga class by Mariana Fernandez (I really am liking her teaching style). And, we ended our evening with a dog walk, some dinner and some Ozark. The perfect weekend, really.

Summer meals

If you are in need of some quick, summer meals to cook this week, look no further. I’ve got you covered with some ideas!

greek chicken salad

You must try my greek chicken salad if you haven’t already (I’ve got this on repeat for lunches).

three ingredient trader joes dinners

If you want a two-ingredient supper, why not try sweet potato ribbons with turkey meatballs with items you can find at Trader Joes?

simple summer shrimp recipe

Want some seafood? Why not try my simple summer shrimp recipe using seasonal veggies.

veggie enchiladas

And, last but not least, give these veggie enchiladas a try. They make two batches so you can freeze half the filling to use for an even easier dinner in a week or two.

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful week.

signature

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *