Two Weeks, Two Broadway Shows!

After not going in to the city in 9 months, I have now been in two weeks in a row and seen two Broadway shows! This past Saturday my mom and I went to the city to see Beautiful The Carole King Musical. This was our Mother's Day present, and we had a great time. 

It was a perfect weather day so we took an early bus and walked around Times Square and 5th Avenue for a while before the show. We picked up a sandwich at Cosi and sat outside to eat and people watch. It was nice to relax for a few. When we got near the theater we saw that there was some sort of Indian festival going on. The entire block was closed to traffic and food vendors were set up selling Indian food. They had dancers and music in Times Square, too. Neither of us like Indian food so we headed in to the theater.

The show was another winner! My mom and I both love Carole King, so I'm sure that influenced our enjoyment of the show. If you aren't familiar with Carole King's Tapestry album, please check it out! It has been one of my favorites since I started listening to her in high school (I have odd music taste-anything from Justin Timberlake to Blake Shelton to Carole King). The show follows Carole's life from her days starting as a song writer through the release of Tapestry. There is drama, good music, impressive singing, and some fun dancing. The lead, Jesse Mueller, was incredible. It would be difficult to imagine anyone else playing the role. I definitely recommend this show to anyone who enjoys Carole King's music!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

After dinner my mom and I headed downtown to Eataly. I had never been before, and it was cool to check out. We ate dinner at the Pizza and Pasta restaurant. We ordered the lasagna al forno and penne rigate con pomodoro. It was good, but we weren't totally blown away. Everyone raves about this place so I would try it again, but order something different.

Overall, it was a fun day and a great Mother's Day present!

Taggies Toys for Babies

My son is almost 9 months old and it is always amazing the toys that he enjoys playing with. A while ago we noticed that he loves eating the tags on his toys. I have no idea why, but if there is a tag, that will be his favorite part of the toy. When he finally was able to sit in a regular high chair at restaurants, we took out the high chair cover we had registered for and received months earlier. We noticed that the high chair cover was by a brand called Taggies and it had a bunch of ribbons that were like tags. Ryan loved them! Since then we have found a few different toys by this brand and he loves all of them. A whole toy full of tags, what could be better?! It really is amazing what babies like. So, anyway, if you have a baby who likes tags as much as Ryan, I highly suggest checking out these baby toys :)

Girls Night Out at "Kinky Boots"

Last fall my friend M and I saw a scene from the Broadway play "Kinky Boots" during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and decided we HAD to see it. Well between the baby and work and time just flying by, it took us until this past weekend to finally see it. It was definitely well worth the wait!

M lives and works in the city so I took the train in to meet her for dinner before the show. Life has been so busy that this was my first time in the city since last December - so crazy! We had dinner at Cara Mia, a small Italian restaurant in Hell's Kitchen. The location was convenient and the food was pretty good, although the service was a little rushed. It was nice to get to catch up though!

After dinner we headed to the theater. We were both excited about the show, but I think we both enjoyed it even more than we would have anticipated. I loved the music, the dancing, the story, the costumes. I've been seeing Broadway shows since I was 8, and this was one of my all time favorites. I think it's right up there with "The Lion King", but it's too different to even compare the two. If anyone is looking for a fun show to see, I highly recommend "Kinky Boots!"

Another Playbill to add to my collection!

When You Wish Upon A Star...

60 days from today we will be heading to Disney World! This will be Ryan's first trip which makes it extra special and exciting (he'll be 10 1/2 months while we're there)! It will be me, my husband, Ryan, and my parents. I can't wait to see Ryan's excitement at everything. Even though he won't really know what's going on and, let's be honest, he gets excited just to walk around the mall, I know he'll love watching everything and seeing all colors. 

I've been doing my homework on bringing a baby to Disney. I'm planning extra items to pack, learning how we can ship diapers/wipes/food or order from Garden Grocer, and ordering a travel bag for our City Mini GT. I've been reading up on the Baby Swap and figuring out which rides he can go on. 

Well, today marks 60 days which also means today is when we can book Fastpass+ reservations. This is much more stressful than it should be. First we had to pick which park to be at on which days and decide which 3 rides we wanted to get passes for. Even 60 days out, there were days with no availability for the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or a Meet and Greet with Anna and Elsa. Luckily Ryan is too young to voice an opinion and we don't care about meeting Anna and Elsa since that seems to be the hardest one to book. While there were some days where we couldn't book the Dwarfs, we were lucky to get to book 1 pass for the whole family and 2 other passes for the days when my husband won't be there. I have to say, I miss the days of just hopping on whichever bus showed up or going where ever you felt like going depending on mood or weather. 

In addition to booking our Fastpass+ reservations, we have also booked a few dining reservations and a reservation for Ryan to have his first haircut at the Harmony Barbershop on Main Street! I am so excited for the haircut! Ryan has a lot of hair and could definitely use a trim :) But I'm excited because they give our Mickey ears that say "My First Haircut" as well as a certificate and a package of his trimmed hair. For dining, we are only doing 3 table service meals this trip. Since the baby's schedule may vary from home, we don't want to have too many meals planned. We will be dining at Garden Grill at Epcot and Tusker House at Animal Kingdom. My husband and I are also going to Boma for a dinner date night while Grandma and Papa babysit (thanks!)!

Can't wait for our trip! I'll try to share more updates and tips as I continue to plan!

The Perfect White Lace Tank Top

Do you ever find an item of clothing and buy it on a whim only to realize you will be wearing it all.the.time.? I recently got a white lace tank top from the Banana Republic Factory Store and I am in love with it! For starters, it comes in petite sizing which is great considering I'm only 5'. I tried on the regular length as well but was much happier with the fit of the petite. I also liked that it's more of a lace overlay and there is a t-shirt like layer underneath so I don't have to worry about wearing a camisole underneath which I just find annoying. Initially I tried it on because it was on sale ($50 but 50% off plus I had a coupon for an additional 20% off!), but I quickly realized that this could be a very well used item in my closet! 

I have been working on expanding my work wardrobe and thought it would go well with a pair of navy crop pants that I have. I've already come up with several other outfits based on this top, too. I have worn it with a camel colored pencil skirt, black heels, and pearls for some work meetings and with green khaki shorts and flip flops for a casual weekend look. I love versatile items like that! I'm even considering stopping at Banana to pick up another in case it gets dirty (shhhh!) :) If you live near a Banana Republic Factory Outlet, I highly recommend you stop in to pick up this top!

Victoria's Secret Sport Bra

The motivation for me to finally start the blog I had been narrating in my head for a while was being chosen by Influenster as a #VSSportTester to try out Victoria's Secret's Sport line. I have received various products over the last few years to test, but none of them was impressive enough to me to warrant the start of a blog. This time I received a #VSSportBra and crop workout pants and was actually excited enough about them to write about them!

The sports bra is from their Incredible line. It has a cute design, but more importantly it is supportive for a high-impact workout. I am a runner (although I haven't been running as often as I would like to recently) so I tested out this bra on a recent run. It's annoying that there is a clasp in the back (hard to do by yourself but luckily my husband was home to assist), but I have found this on other high-impact bras as well. I was a little nervous of how it would function during my run, but I found it to be very comfortable. The bra has molded, padded cups so you actually have a shape while wearing it compared to the usual squished uni-boob look. Come on, you all know what I'm talking about! Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised with the bra. It looks like it sells for $54.50 on the Victoria's Secret website which is a little steep for me. I usually get my sports bras from GapBody during clearance sales. I will definitely watch for sales at Victoria's Secret though and hope to pick up another bra during a sale. I would say the material and function were similar to my GapBody sports bras, but the Victoria's Secret ones gave a better shape which is a nice change.

A little post run sweatiness in my new #VSSportBra!

As for the crop pants, I haven't gotten to wear them to run yet since it's been too warm, but I did wear them around the house. They are a very nice, thick material-no worries of seeing through these pants! They have a small pocked in the waistband which will be great to hold my key during my run. I liked the length of the pants too. I'm short (only 5'!) so some crop pants come down pretty low on me but these did not.

I was so excited to be selected for this freebie. I will definitely be getting a lot of use out of both of these items!

**This is a sponsored blog post. Influenster provided me with complimentary Victoria's Secret products to test and review as part of a contest.

Intro

Welcome to my first ever blog! I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while and finally gave in. I figured I would start with a little intro about myself and what I will be posting about...I am a 30-something mom to one son, Ryan, and my family means everything to me! I am also a Civil Engineer, and I own a small engineering and land surveying firm in Orange County, NY called Civil Tec Engineering & Surveying PC. Family and work are my two main focuses, but I also love traveling, shopping, and running. This blog will be a little bit of everything - life updates, product reviews, baby stuff, travel info, and maybe even a recipe or two (I don't cook, they will only be recipes from someone else and will give them credit-trust me, you wouldn't want my cooking advice otherwise!). I look forward to sharing a little bit of me through this blog :)