Sports Days + Starry Nights

I love you too, Gus <3

Happy Monday! We had a sunny summer weekend packed full of fun! Compare this to the dreariest February weekends, and this explains why summer rocks.

On Friday night T and I went to Orzo and were pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be restaurant week. We shared some mussels and grilled mozza-pesto toast to start. Followed by a delicious caesar salad.

I was craving pasta, so I had the spicy sausage pasta with lemon ricotta on top. It was amazing, and I brought half home for Sunday night’s dinner! T’s salmon was epic as well.

We shared a chocolate pot de creme for dessert, and Thomas had to roll me outta there.

Once home, we watched the finale of the Handmaid’s Tale – OMG. Those of you who haven’t started it yet, I promise it’s worth a Hulu subscription to watch. It’s been one of my favorite series ever. I can’t say I was happy with the ending (that’s not what I would have done!), but I sort of understand why June did what she did. Can’t say more without spoilers!

Thomas impulse bought some easy bake cinnamon buns for weekend breakfast, and we had those with eggs and pear in the morning. Pretty tasty!

Later on we took Mazen to the driving range so the boys could hit balls. (I hit a few of them, but it’s pretty hard for a lefty to swing right handed!!)

The littlest boy and I sat in the shade and watched 🙂

Afterwards we went to Bellair Market for lunch. Sammies all around. Plus chips!

Our next stop was Target for a bunch of household items. We got Mazen a back-to-school Minecraft backpack…

And a tennis racquet! He’s been learning to play at camp this week and seems to really like it.

We also brought up a desk from downstairs to his room. He’s been begging for a desk for a few weeks now and likes to sit there and “work.” (Hope doing homework is this easy!)

He’s also been begging me for a babysitter. With our coparenting schedules, we don’t have too much of a need for sitters, but every now and then Matt and I are both booked and we have one. Mazen LOVES college girls and was thrilled when I told him he’d get to have a frozen spinach pizza and a babysitter’s attention on a Saturday night

Thomas and I went out to Veritas Vineyard for their monthly summer event, Starry Nights.

We met two groups of friends there – a handful of Thomas’s buddies and another group gathering to give our friend Claire a farewell night out before she moves to San Francisco (sniff).

John assembled this beautiful cheese board from JM Stock provisions.

It was a little sad that I couldn’t indulge in a few glasses of wine – but all in good time!

Veritas offered Thomas and me two complimentary tickets to the “Moons” buffet for dinner that night. While you’re allowed to bring picnics to the event, it was so convenient to know a special reserved table and 3-course dinner were waiting for us!

Here were the courses. They have a more formal seated-and-served dinner as a third option, which would be awesome if you had a group of 6-8 all participating together.

We loved the hazelnut relish (pesto?!) that was great on the salmon and rice and the gazpacho!

And I especially loved the dessert – perfect blend of summer fresh and sweet ending.

We enjoyed conversation, live music (a Beatles cover band!), and fireflies while all the stars came out.

On Sunday, we went to Kardinal Hall to watch the World Cup final. Good thing we got there 45 minutes early because the place was PACKED! Mazen was with us for the first hour until he got itchy and went to the pool with Matt.

We enjoyed a nice brunch (and some of us enjoyed giant mugs of beer!) It was a great action-packed game. (That fruit plate was so delish!)

We spent the rest of Sunday at the gym, napping, and prepping the house for the week ahead.