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Last Thursday this boy turned 11 years old!
While it doesn’t feel like yesterday that he was a baby, it does feel like yesterday that he turned 10! That year just flew by.
Birch and I picked him up from school with a bunch of Star Wars balloons and headed home for a scavenger hunt for gifts. His main gift was a Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset. He’s been talking about it for months, and couldn’t wait to play Gorilla Tag!
He also got matching Nike Frees with his brother as part of the #nike365 partnership I’m doing. These are his 4th or 5th pair, and they are the BEST athletic shoes for kids! No laces and easy to slip on.
Dinner at Public
Public is Mazen’s favorite restaurant, and he LOVES the steampot. It’s a mix of huge crab legs, shrimp, mussels, corn, potatoes, and sausage.
We also shared oysters – M tried two raw! He says he prefers them roasted. We also shared an heirloom and burrata tomato salad.
And key lime pie for dessert <3
Family Party
We also had a little family party for him with the grandparents and it was the first time we entertained in our new kitchen!
I’d say the kitchen performed very well. Of course we gathered around the island.
We had a classic cookout with burgers, corn, watermelon and tomato/basil/burrata.
And Nona made an outstanding key lime pie for dessert (Mazen’s favorite!) Whipped cream on top and a Biscoff / graham crust. Must get the recipe!
We’ll be celebrating more at the beach this weekend! Yes it’s late in the season for a beach trip, but it’s a Donne fam tradition!
More Family Dinners on the Porch
Pizza night!
Steak via Blue Apron
Also loving the Maker Wines! I shared this one with Ellen for a porch hang. Get 15% off with my link anytime!
Breakfast Foods
Look what I brought back! I saw it at Trader Joe’s and I think the Biscoff in the key lime pie set off a craving. Yes it’s more like dessert than breakfast, but dang is it good!
Protein Granola
I’ve been loving this protein granola Cascadian Farm sent me as a sample. It’s made with pea protein and the cluster crunch is great.
Bodos bagel with egg and cheese from Thomas!
Other happenings in da house
This little guy comes up to my room every morning as soon as he wakes up. We snuggle real hard!
He also had a big day last week: BIRCH was the Wordle! It has been my starting word before, but alas I started with something else. I did get a 3 and was glad I didn’t get an X on this day!
Work Hard, Play Hard
Thomas is still hard at work getting the exterior of our house to speed. You can see the half-built trash can storage deck he is working on. And there is mulch and dirt all over the yard to get the spots we excavated back to grass. Birch helped him unload some of the materials.
Look at that gaze of admiration!
Slow Flow Faucet
Also on the home front, our kitchen faucet – what a headache! It stopped working at full speed before we moved out and we forgot about it, so when we moved back in, it was still not working right (surprise, surprise). Water comes out, but it’s only a drizzle and you have to move the handle back and forth 10 times to get it to full flow for washing dishes.
We thought it was the valve and we spent a few hours one evening trying to get the valve replaced ourselves (this is why normally we’d just call a plumber! Time is money!) however after chatting with Kohler support, we finally got it. But turns out that wasn’t even the problem! They determined that our faucet is just broken. Luckily they are sending a replacement for free! I really hope this is the last move-in hiccup we have for a while!
On A Quiet Street
Finally, I just finished this book and it was SO GOOD!!!! A little creepy, a little thriller. Easy to understand and follow. Kept me up reading past bedtime because I couldn’t put it down. All the things I look for in a book! I just started the new Elin Hilderbrand about a blogger – Five Star Weekend. Excited to dig in!
