Hi-ya....
So I've heard from quite a few of you that have been anxiously awaiting a birthday recap post. I guess my dear husband's reputation precedes him, doesn't it? :) He's always so great at planning fun things for my birthday and those of you that have been hangin' around here for very long, are well aware of that fact. He's set the bar pretty high and yet, each time another birthday rolls around, he still manages to plan something wonderful that always makes me feel completely loved and appreciated. I'm a very blessed (and grateful!) girl.
Saturday morning (my actual birthday), we lounged around in the morning. He fixed breakfast and insisted I not help with it at all. It was my birthday after all, he said. :) He gave me a couple of Pandora charms to add to my ever-growing bracelet collection and then he told me I was gonna need to pack a bag because we would be staying the night in a hotel.
When we headed out, the first thing we did was get some lunch at Smash Burger. Birthdays don't have to be expensive, in order to be fun. Bartley knows I love those burgers and we don't have them very often, but he found a coupon in the paper a few weeks back and he'd been saving it all along for my birthday weekend! Buy one, get one free! Score.
After lunch, we headed to Hotel Phillips in downtown Kansas City. Again, Bartley got a great deal on the hotel room at Priceline.com. We like to have fun but we don't really want to spend a fortune in order to do it. *wink*
We had stayed at this hotel once years ago, so we knew it was very pretty. It's a 1920's Art Deco style hotel that was renovated back in 2001, but they made sure to keep a lot of the original details. I love that.
Follow me....I'll show you around inside....
When you walk in, this is what you see. Awfully pretty reception area, wouldn't you say?
If you look over to the right, you'll see these elevators. "This car up!" Love that. I also love the official "Letter Box" that hangs on the wall in between the elevators.
If you turn back around and look toward the front entrance, here's what you'll see. You walk in between those two staircases to come into the hotel.
After we got checked in, we headed out for a bit of shopping at one of our favorite Kansas City stores, Nell Hill's.
Nell Hill's is a gorgeous home decor store and they change things out quite often so there's always something new to see. They have lots of lovely little vignettes....gorgeous living rooms, pretty beds dressed to the nines, cozy little chairs to tuck into a reading nook.....
I loved this pink & cream ticking striped chair with it's toile pillow.
And how cute is this kid's decor room? Check out the tent over on the right!
After shopping for a bit, Bartley took me to dinner at Lidia's. I've told you before about Lidia's. In fact, some of you have told me that you've watched Lidia's cooking show on tv for years. I love it at Lidia's. It's where we went for Valentine's Day this year.
Here's the view when you walk in the front door at Lidia's. The bar area is on the right and you head over there to the left to sit in the dining room.
My FAVORITE thing about Lidia's is their Pasta Trio. It's always on the menu, however the pastas change from week to week so you never know exactly what the trio will be, but you can be certain that it will be delicious! This time, it was a mushroom ravioli, a penne with a bolognese sauce and a fettucine with shrimp, pesto and tomatoes. And the beauty of it (or perhaps the problem) is that it's all you can eat. There are pasta server men that carry around piping hot skillets of each of these pastas and they'll keep bringing you more of it until you have to be rolled from the restaurant or until you tell them no more! It's one of those meals that you just hate to quit eating because it's so darn good, but sooner or later, you reach the point where you're about to bust! Haha. Thankfully, I was able to say no, sooner rather than later this time, so I avoided having to be rolled out to the car!
Here's the pretty little garden just outside the front door at Lidia's. They've got flowers and herbs growing here. So pretty. Now, the really fun thing about this weekend was that Bartley had planned to make it a "Lidia's Weekend". He had dinner reservations there for Saturday night, and he also had brunch reservations there for the next morning! We hadn't ever tried their brunch before, so I was super excited about it......and what a thoughtful husband I have! I loved that he planned this. We had so much fun. And for the record, we would totally go there for brunch again. And just so you know, the Pasta Trio is also on the menu for brunch! Ha. (No, I didn't have it two days in a row. But I won't say I wasn't tempted a little!)
He also surprised me with a new camera lens I've been longing for, for quite some time now. Dear man. So I've been snapping piccies of things around the yard and such, practicing with my new lens. Here's Mr. Bluejay who visits me every day in the back yard. He's a pretty boy. I'm assuming he's a boy. I guess bluejays could be girls. However, to me, this one will always be a Mr.
The daylilies popped open this week.
The first of our 6 tomato plants now has about 6 tomatoes growing on it. Yay! Grow, little tomatoes, grow!
I have no idea what this pretty is called. We planted it for the first time this year....in fact, we planted two of them -- different colors -- but I can't remember what they're called. Feel free to let us know in the comments section, if you know what this is.
And of course, more pretty coleus. There's just something about bright pink leaves that makes me smile.
These last couple of pictures don't relate to our weekend except that I tried out the new camera lens on these sweeties this week. My sis and her clan came to town for the day on Tuesday and I managed to sneak out and spend a couple of hours with them while they were here. Zoey is growing like a weed and smiling all the time. Cutie patootie.
And look at these two. Ally & Malachi (ages 3 & 2) had just come in from outside, so they were tired and hot and ready to watch a movie. I love their faces. So focused. Hee. Chi is almost as tall as Ally now!
So there you have it......after brunch on Sunday, we did a bit more shopping and then came home to relax the rest of the day. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so happy to have spent it with my favorite person in the world.
Back tomorrow (late tonight) with a new crafty project for you!
Hope to see you then!
xoxo,
