Three Ohhhh!

That's right, I turned the big 3-0 on Friday.  Gwen and I had a low key day - we went to the library for a playgroup and ran some errands.  When Justin got home, he surprised me with flowers and ice cream cake (my fav), and we ordered a pizza (also my fav).

On Saturday we went to the Harpoon Brewery with our good friends Rob and Stevie for a tour and tasting.  Afterwards, we went out to dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in Boston and then stayed at the Marriott right on the waterfront.  We had a great view of Boston and the harbor from our room.

3 September birthdays = 3 delicious desserts (and the sang to us!)

                                

the view of Boston from our room

view of the waterfront and WTC

This was a huge milestone for me, being my first overnight away from Gwen.  She stayed over Justin's parents house.  They were completely thrilled but it was hard for me to let her go when we dropped her off.  After we left I missed her, but I'm really comfortable leaving her with her Nana and Papa so I think I did pretty well.
The toughest part logistically was the fact that I've never been away from her for more than one feeding at a time, and she doesn't get a bottle very often, so I really didn't have a great idea of how much milk to leave - so I left all that I had - and she ended up going through it all!  So now to build the supply back up for a wedding we're going to in 2 weeks!
We had such a great night and we always have fun spending time with Rob and Stevie.   What an awesome feeling seeing my babe again on Sunday, though :)

Home Brew!

Attention: This post is NGR (Not Gwen Related)

I documented our first home brew experience, which culminated today with the first taste!  The most tedious thing about home brewing is how sterile everything has to be.  Apparently, beer needs to ferment at the same temperature that bacteria grows, so it's really important to keep everything sterile. There's A LOT of cleaning prep work that goes into it (fortunately, my job was photographer, and not cleaner).

Rob, Justin, and Stevie - ready to brew our first beer!

 Boiling...

We ended up using 2 different sets of directions because we couldn't decide which to follow.  Not the best idea ever, next time we decided to make things a bit less complicated and choose 1 set to go with...

There was nothing very appetizing about the entire process..

Morgan was not a fan of the smell

We were just about finished when the rubber grommet fell INTO the bucket (not good because of the whole sterile thing I mentioned earlier)

 Trying to fish out the grommet - did not work...

 ...so Stevie had to go in

 Success!

**Now the beer has to ferment for 4 weeks.**

Time to bottle the beer and let it sit for another week to carbonate.

Fast forward to today: The moment of truth has arrived!!!

This photo gives you an idea how much we trusted the beer that we made - we had a lot of back up, just in case:

The poor, and first taste:

 Holy crap, it's actually GOOD!!

A definite success! A new business venture? hmmm...... :)



OK, twist my arm... here's a pic of Morgan holding Gwen.  It was too cute to resist posting

Yay Friday!

The Friday before a long weekend is always the best kind! The past week has been a busy one.  On Saturday, Aunt Kristen came over to visit with Gwen for the day (this pic is from a while ago, but I forgot to take one while she was here).
















Justin went over Rob & Stevie's to bottle beer that we all made (first attempt) a few weeks ago.  It has been fermenting, and will be ready to drink this weekend!  Pics of the process and end result to come...


We went to an art festival on Sunday where we met a bunch of great local artists.  I carried Gwen in the Moby - it was the longest I've had her in the Moby wrap and I really enjoyed it.  She stayed awake most of the time, just looking around at all of the people and artwork.










On Monday, we met up with Stevie, Morgan, and Rena Lynn at a playground near their house.  The weather was supposed to be warm so we wanted to take advantage.  Turns out it was chilly at the playground so we didn't stay for too long, but here's a pic of the girls helping me push Gwen in her stroller.

After that, we went to a local cafe for some coffee and treats.  Gwen had a lot of fun hanging out with the girls!



It was so nice out by the time we got home, that we decided to take a little nap on the porch :)

Tuesday was a grocery shopping kind of day, nothing much to report.  We were supposed to go to the zoo on Wednesday with some moms and kids from a group I found on meetup.com.  The trip ended up getting cancelled because of rain (bummer), so we met some other moms and their kids out for coffee and breakfast.  There was a good range of babies and toddlers, and Gwen met a friend who is 3 days older than she is.  The moms were very nice, and we're looking forward to more get togethers.  Later that afternoon, we went to our breastfeeding group.  When we first started going, Gwen would mostly sleep through the meetings.  Now, she's awake and looking all around at the other babies and moms.  She has the best tummy times during these groups because she loves looking around and smiling at everyone.  


On Thursday, Gwen and I went to our 2nd week of Mommy & Baby Yoga.  I felt like I got a better workout from this class because I knew what to expect, and it really seemed like Gwen was enjoying it.



  










Nana and Papa S stopped over for dinner on Thursday night, and they came bearing gifts for Gwen's first Easter, here she is modeling one of the headbands they gave her:






















Now we're just hanging out and playing until daddy gets home.
Enjoy the weekend!! :)