Visitors

This past weekend my mom & our dear family friend Mary Ellen made the trip to KC from South Dakota for a visit. It was a quick weekend but one that was full of fun & good food!

They arrived early afternoon on Friday & we decided to make our way to The Cheesecake Factory for a little lunch & of course some cheesecake! I wanted to try a new flavor so I opted for the Pina Colada Cake cheesecake:

It consisted of a moist white cake layered with cheesecake, pineapple, coconut, rum & sprinkled with coconut. And trust me - it did not disappoint!! My mom chose the Adam's PB Cup Fudge Ripple & Mary Ellen picked the White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut cheesecake....they both thoroughly enjoyed their picks!

We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling at home while catching up. For our evening plans, I had thought it would be fun to go to the New Theater Restaurant for dinner & a show. The Broadway musical "Hairspray" was playing & luckily none of us had ever seen it. The dinner was dee-lish & the show was so entertaining & so much fun - we all had a great time & enjoyed the evening!

On Saturday, we did a little shopping around the Overland Park area & had a great time at Hobby Lobby checking out all the Fall & Christmas decorations. Later in the afternoon we met up with the hubby & enjoyed a yummy lunch at Jack Stack BBQ.

That evening, my brother Steve, his wife Meghan & her son Caleb all joined us for supper. We ended up getting Papa Murphy's pizzas, salad & had Strawberry Cheesecake for dessert made by my dear friend Setson. It was a great time visiting with them & catching up. Of course we couldn't let the evening end without a few photos :)

On Sunday morning, we all had breakfast at IHOP & then said goodbye to my mom & Mary Ellen as they made their way back to South Dakota. It was a short & sweet visit but was an enjoyable one & I'm glad they made the trip. 

Another great weekend spent with my family!

Pedi's & Lunch

And the birthday festivities keep on going....

Today I met up with the game-night girls for a little post-birthday pedi's & lunch! We all met at BB's Nail's & they were really good at accomodating our group of 7 girls. Everyone got their toes & feet beautified - even Jilly - who had never had a pedicure before due to not liking anyone touch her feet. She did a great job & was a trooper through it all :)

(from the far end: me, Emily, Jilly, Erinn, Michelle, Keri & Melissa present, however she is taking the picture!)

After pedi's we all headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch on the patio. It was a gorgeous day out & a perfect setting for lunch outside with friends. After we ordered our food, it was time to open presents! These girls were so very generous & gave me such nice gifts! I am SO very blessed to have such a great group of girlfriends in my life!!

We all enjoyed our cocktails & lunch & just when I thought I was full - out comes a box of cupcakes from Gigi's Cupcakes that Jilly had brought. They almost looked to pretty to eat:

The flavors were Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Red Velvet, Italian Cream, White Midnight Magic (white w/choc chips) & Midnight Magic (chocolate). They were dee-lish & the frosting was the best part! Such a yummy treat!

After cupcakes & before we all left, we of course had to pose for our usual group photo. Thanks to Melissa for always having the camera for any photo op that arises:

Thanks ladies for a wonderful outing & for making an end to the week-long birthday festivities a fabulous one! So very thankful to have each & every one of you in my life!

Fabulous 40's

Goodbye 30's.....hello 40's!

Today is the day I leave my 30's behind me & embark on new adventures as a 40 year old. Ugh - it just doesn't seem possible but unfortunately, it is staring at me in the face. I am 40 & am now an official member of the "Fabulous 40's" club.

Honestly though, for as horrible as turning 40 sounds, I couldn't have asked for a better day. It began with a "happy birthday" & hugs from the hubby & a really nice card. I then made my way to work & was greeted with balloons, cards & a huge breakfast spread from Panera by my co-workers. We all enjoyed a nice breakfast together & then got back to work.

Lunch-time rolls around & my co-workers had all brought a dish to share for a "birthday lunch" which was awesome. There was a deli meat & cheese tray with bread for sandwich's, cheese dip/chips, cracker/dip tray, fruit tray w/dip & for dessert....

Strawberry cheesecake made by my dear co-worker Stetson. Mmmm - so good!
My co-workers are the best group of people & are so very thoughtful! I felt so very special after all the fuss they made making sure I had a great day! 

Then just when I thought the day was coming to an end, there was after-work birthday festivities. I was told to show up at "The Well" bar & grill at 5:30pm & was given no further instructions. I knew something was up but did as I was told.

When I got to the Well, up on the roof-top were my co-workers ready to "surprise" me, bearing gifts & ready to celebrate my birthday over drinks & appetizers. Can I just say how awesome this group I get to work with is?!

As the night went on, more co-workers kept popping in to say "happy birthday" & enjoy a beverage & it made me feel so very special that they were all there for me :)

 

Relaxing on the rooftop at The Well during a beautiful evening with wonderful friends was a great way to end a great day. I must say this "Fabulous 40's"club thing isn't so bad.....so far ;)

(in.gre.di.ent)

 

Tonight I met my friend Mindy for a pre-birthday dinner at a dee-lish restaurant called (in.gre.di.ent). It is located at Park Place behind Town Center shopping area & is a great place that offers over 75 fresh ingredients to create your own custom salads, sandwich's, unique wraps, brick oven pizzas or breakfast items. I always end up getting the salmon flats salad with a garlic chipotle dressing & it is SO yummy!

This place even has a cute little patio & sitting area where you can enjoy the outside, people watch & enjoy the view of the park & fountain. If you've never been before, it is definitely worth checking out!

Unfortunately, I failed to get a pic of the two of us before we parted ways :(

Buca di Beppo

It seems like just yesterday I was in Aruba with two of my closest girlfriends celebrating my 30th birthday. Hard to believe that was 10 years ago & now I am going to be celebrating my 40th!! I thought turning 40 would be as depressing as turning 30 was for me but I must say it was more traumatic turning 35 years old for some reason!? I decided earlier on during the year to just embrace it, enjoy it & that I did!

The birthday festivities started the Saturday before my birthday. My girlfriend Heather (HK) gathered the girls who all went to Destin, FL (minus Kari) along with our dear friend Anthony & his wife for a pre-birthday dinner gathering at Buca di Beppo. She surprised us all by reserving the VIP table back in the kitchen so we were able to see all the food made, put together & expedited by the servers which was a lot of fun.

HK managed to surprise me once again with an unexpected appearance by my dear friend Deanna. Deanna lives in Austin, TX & just so happened to be in Missouri visiting family during the week & made a special trip to KC for my birthday dinner. It was such a great surprise & as always, so good to see her & catch up.

Our dinner consisted of margarita pizza, stuffed mushrooms, fried calamari, chix parmesan, lasagna & spaghetti/meatballs & it was SO good! We were SO stuffed after it was all said & done but made sure to leave room for a little birthday dessert - tiramisu. This was of course after all the wait staff came & embarrassed me by singing "happy birthday" & made me blow out the candles on this huge candelabra.

After dessert I opened up all my gifts from my very generous friends & then we ended up taking a few more photos of the group. 

While everyone else decided to call it a night, me along with Deanna, HK & Camille decided to walk on over to the Cheesecake Factory for cocktails on the patio & catching up on the happenings of each of us since we were all gathered in Destin. It was a gorgeous evening to be sitting outside & before we knew it, it was 1am & time to call it a night.

It was a wonderful evening spent with such very dear friends & a great way to kick off the birthday week festivities :)

Concert

Earlier this week, my friend Jilly texted me & told me she had won tickets to the J-Lo & Enrique Iglesias concert & wanted to know if I would join her!? Um - twist my arm!! Of course I'll go to a FREE concert to see the beautiful Jennifer Lopez & handsome Enrique!!

We started out with drinks & appetizers at The Cashew & then made our way to the Sprint Center for the concert. We had gotten there a little early & had to wait outside a bit for the doors to open. While waiting, we enjoyed all the people watching & were amazed that we were the minority as most of the concert-goer's there were Hispanic people. I have never seen more big, curly hair, tight dresses (on women who shouldn't be wearing tight dresses), 6" stilettos & gay people in all my life. It was definitely fun to see & quite entertaining.

We finally made our way inside & ventured down to the floor where our seats were. They weren't bad seats but once the concert got going, Jilly headed up front to scope out some empty seats closer to the stage & she scored!! We ended up 10 feet from the stage & it was awesome! Front & center of Enrique - couldn't ask for much better :)

 

He ended up playing for about 1 1/2 hours & put on a good show. He did a lot of audience involvement which really got the crowd going & sang all his popular songs like “I Like How It Feels,” “Dirty Dancer," “I Like It," & "Hero".

 

J-Lo came on next - after about a 30 min wait - & her stage presentation kind of reminded me of Madonna. It was very elaborate, there were several wardrobe changes into beautiful costumes, there were skits, videos & virtual guests (Lil Wayne, Pitbull, Flo Rida), there was a light show, awesome choreography, confetti flying through the air & there was singing. Although she didn't sing more than 70 min, she put on a great show & her male dancers were amazing! At times I almost thought I was seeing the movie Magic Mike all over again :)

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/01/3744897/concert-review-jennifer-lopez.html#storylink=cpy

All in all, it was a pretty good concert - for free :) Thanks Jilly for inviting me & for a fun Saturday night out!! So glad I can be your "go-to" person when you are in need!!

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/01/3744897/concert-review-jennifer-lopez.html#storylink=cp