Hunting for Eggs

Last weekend we had a nice relaxing Easter in Wimberley with Peter's family. This trip has been somewhat of a tradition (with a 2 year hiatus) for the past few years, but this year we stayed somewhere new - a beautiful home that literally had a babbling brook in the backyard. Conley participated in his first Easter egg hunt (which consisted of him playing with two eggs we gave him while stumbling around the backyard), Heather led us in yoga by the river and we took a long walk by the adjacent farms and met some cute animals along the way. Lots of good food, wine and playing with cousins made for an enjoyable Easter weekend!

Fun in the water with Dad

Yoga class with Heather - what a perfect setting and nice, cool weather

A walk with the cousins

Hanging out with Ella

Our second Easter - such a serious little face!

Attempted cousin picture

My little Easter Imp

Conley and his 2 eggs

Conley and his new Easter Bunny!

Another Easter Imp picture - what a face!

Fun with Easter grass!

Conley's 2nd Easter

Flashback to Conley's 1st Easter

What a happy little guy, wringing his hands like Grandpa Pat :)
And his Easter outfit was way too big!

Our 1st Easter

Take a Seat...outside

So the outdoor office is still a work in progress - imagine that! I finally bought a print for one of the walls (see the NYC print from an earlier post this year) but have yet to find a frame for it. All in good time. A couple weeks ago we had an outdoor play set installed for Conley and did some quick improvements to the backyard landscaping while we were at it - a stone path to the back office, pulling out the dead grass and putting in limestone-bordered river rock in front of the office and planting a line of red tips along the back fence line which will hopefully one day be a line of shrubs (assuming that we don't kill them first or Oliver doesn't dig them up!) The nice, cleaned-up look to the backyard has re-motivated me to get to work on the outdoor office decor, especially the front porch. In my mind, I had pictured 2 kelly green metal chairs and either some side tables or perhaps some colorful planters. I've found a few colorful chair options and so now I just need to make a decision and get on with it!

An old find on my Pinterest board - don't know who makes them and the
link no longer works...but so bright and fun!

Love this collage of bright options - a few styles I repeat
below
merrimentstyle.com

The colors look a little off in this image, but have been eyeing the kelly
green rocking chair version of this chair for awhile now
Torran Bellaire 1950s Metal Lawn Chair 

Another oldie from the Pinterest vaults
Anthropologie chairs
by the style files

This is more the green I was thinking and leaning more towards this
style lately
Pinned from an Apartment Therapy post

Fun take on the folding chair
Argen Positano Folding Chairs

Acapulco Chairs - love the aqua one!
Another Pinterest post - source unknown

CB2 Ixtapa Yellow/Aqua Lounge Chair

Not a huge fan of yellow, but cute style
West Elm Bend Bistro

Love these - another Pinterest DIY find

Rainbow of chairs found on Pinterest

Conley in the Big City

Our annual NYC trip was a success as always! Conley was definitely a lot more active for his second trip but he was still quite the trooper being pushed around town every day. By night though he was ready to explore the hotel (ew!) - and I just had to let him seeing as he was strapped into a stroller or baby carrier all day every day. He got some good walking practice in as well - mostly assisted but sometimes venturing to take a few steps on his own. I sampled some delicious chocolate chip cookies, ate some great food, did a lot of walking and people-watching and drank lots of wine! Until next year New York...

Asleep at The Met

Snow in Central Park on our first day!

First of many pieces of bread - at Eataly

More bread and silly faces at Eataly

Lunch with the family

Walking The High Line...taking a pit stop

Family pic at The High Line

Mornings in Central Park

Admiring the water at Central Park

He spotted something he liked...a duck perhaps?

Fun times riding on Dad's back

Another shot from our morning walks in CP

Waiting for our table at The Breslin

I had the oven-baked 3 cheese sandwich - even better than I remembered! Conley had the whole wheat pancakes with apple butter and had a ball playing in the corner booth

From the rooftop in Williamsburg

A visit with Ruggero family friends in Williamsburg

Cab, please! in Nolita

See you later NYC!

A couple chocolate chip cookies and a hot chocolate shot from Birdbath

NYC Cookie Binge

While I used to be a cupcake junkie (and still occasionally enjoy a good one), my sweet tooth has turned towards chocolate chip cookies the past few years. Actually, I've always loved them, but I think ever since we lived in New York my infatuation grew. Probably because of all of the options there! And so now I pay homage to the greatest (that I have found to date) chocolate chip cookies that I plan to enjoy in a few short days. And here's to finding a new one this weekend as well!

Actually just discovered Levain Bakery in The Hamptons last summer and then visited the UWS location when we went into NYC - hands down, the BEST chocolate chop cookie I have ever had!

Look at all that chocolate chip goodness - the cookie is really thick too,
almost like a muffin.

A cookie this good deserves another shot....

And one more...I can't wait - Levain here I come!

This was one of my favorite spots when we lived here - didn't make in that often because it was in Chelsea, but loved everything about it - the food, the chocolate chip cookies of course (these are big, thinner and crunchier than Levain), a great selection of other cookies, and the hot chocolate!

The thickest, best hot chocolate I've ever had - Definitely a dessert all
it's own!

The famous Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie - I actually added the recipe to my Pinterest board before I tried this cookie on our trip last summer - another great one!

And finally...the Momofuku Milk Bar cookies. Lots of interesting combos like Cornflake, Blueberry and Cream and the one pictured here - the  Compost cookie - which basically has a bunch of stuff thrown in (pretzels, chips, coffee grounds, oats, graham crumbs and so on). I tried one in  Montauk last summer and their pop-up shop and have to say it wasn't my favorite. Maybe I'm just a purist, but with all the hype it's probably worth a second try!

Eats in NYC

So in preparation for our trip I'm starting the search for some new restaurants to try out - New York Mag's Grub Street Blog is my usual go-to source along with the actual hard copy New York Magazine I still receive every week. Sadly, these usually end up in the recycling bin without even being opened these days, but for the next two weeks I will flip through them cover to cover! This year I'm also going to check out some other food blogs and see what I can come up with. We really don't have that many open meals to try new places if we're going to make it to our favorites, so will probably only get one or two new places to try - but hopefully they are good enough to make it into our yearly rotation! There are of course a million great restaurants in NYC, but here are a few of our favorites.

It wouldn't be a trip to NYC without brunch  at Zucco Le French Diner in the LES. Can't wait for my quiche lorraine and chocolate chaud! 

Lil Frankie's at 1st and 1st is another regular - yummy thin crust salame piccante pizza,  simple and fresh arugala salad with parmesan shavings and raviolis with  the best cream sauce - and a bellini!

Vermicelli was our go-to neighborhood spot - the best Vietnamese food I've ever had and we would go/order take-out at least twice a week.

The best Bun Ga Nuong - haven't found anything nearly as good
 anywhere else!

Olive's - one of my frequent lunch spots during my Scholastic days -  and a good cookie stop anytime we were in Soho.

Didn't make it here on our last trip, but really cute restaurant in The Ace Hotel - and the oven baked 3 cheese sandwich with ham is the best thing ever! Hoping to make it by this trip!

The Meatball Shop in the LES - I checked out the website and there are now 3 more locations! So we actually sat in this front area when we ate here a couple years ago - will definitely have to go back so Conley can sample the meatballs - one food he loved when we made them for him!

Flipping Out!

The green home improvement store, Treehouse, had a meet and greet with Jeff Lewis and Gage from Flipping Out for the launch of his new paint line tonight. We got a picture with each of them and Jeff chatted us up for a few minutes - they were both super friendly and funny too! He even gave Mer some advice on choosing the paint color for her bathroom. The sad part was that Conley started feeling pretty sick as the day went on, so he wasn't his usual outgoing self and I felt pretty bad dragging him out. He was a trooper as always though. What a fun night!