Invasion of the seven-year-olds

Hi there! I hope you are having a great Monday! I know I’m posting late again, but work has been crazy and I am just now getting to take a break. Phew! I kind of love these crazy busy days though because the time just flies by. I can’t believe it’s already almost time to go home! But anyway, let me tell you all about my weekend because it was a good one.

First, on Friday night Fabio and I went out to dinner at Sibarita, a Bolivian restaurant in Arlington. We got a coupon on our door last week for $3 off of silpancho, which is our favorite Bolivian dish, and couln’t wait to use it. Silpancho is a very thin piece of meat (like maybe 1/2 cm. thick. Seriously) that is lightly breaded. I suppose it would be something like chicken fried steak (not that I’ve ever tried that) only it’s about as thick as a piece of cardboard and not thickly-breaded. It’s traditionally served with rice, eggs, and a phenomenal tomato & red onion “salsa.” Delicious!

Though this steak looks huge (uh- that’s because it is) it’s not as filling as it looks since it is so thin. Still, I only managed to eat about half of it before I had to call it quits and hand over the rest to my Bolivian-steak-loving boyfriend. That guy is an eating machine, I tell ya.

After dinner we went home and relaxed on the couch since we knew we had a fun day ahead of us and we didn’t want to be hungover on Saturday. The reason? Brunch! Fabio and I headed over to El Centro in the U Street area of DC with a bunch of our friends around midday on Saturday. El Centro offers a really awesome brunch deal and for $35 you can get all you can eat (yum) and all you can drink tequila (you got me).

Everything was delicious! We enjoyed various flavors of tequila drinks including pineapple, watermelon, and hibiscus (hey- when they are unlimited you better believe we tried all three!). The hibiscus was my favorite and reminded me a bit of sangria.

The food was also really delicious and we all took turns sharing everything on the menu. The portions were pretty small, so it was really fun trying a bite of this, a taste of that. By the end of brunch I was starting to get extremely full, but I made room for some Mexican french toast.

Oh my gosh, you guys. This is probably the best french toast I have ever had. It was so custardy and soft. I don’t even know what kind of bread it was on, but it was phenomenal. Plus it was topped with fresh strawberries and a cinnamon/honey whipped cream. I was in heaven.

After brunch the girls split from the guys and we wandered around to a couple of stores (tequila + shopping = danger) but luckily I kept my wallet in my purse and didn’t buy anything. Phew!

After shopping we met up with the boys again at another bar, sipped a casual beer, and then headed home. I took a nap at this point (hello, alcohol) while Fabio went to the gym (the jerk. I should have gone too. ugh).

Later in the evening we pulled ourselves together and went back out with some friends. We had some drinks from our Rome shot glasses, courtesy of my mom’s most recent trip there…

And got ourselves all exciting for our upcoming trip to Italy! It’s only like two weeks away people!! Ahhh!! (BTW I’m am totally going to need some guest bloggers so shoot me an email if you’re interested- chelseaeatstreats@gmail.com)

Anyway, after using our fun shot glasses, we headed out to the bar and wound up at Mister Days, a fun bar in Clarendon. It was a great night for that bar and, even though it was packed, we had a blast just dancing with our friends. Successful night, I’d say.

[Sorry for the blurry picture. I was trying to show how crowded it was lol]

Then on Sunday, Fabio and I packed Jack into the car and headed over to my grandparent’s house on the Chesapeake Bay to celebrate their anniversary (I forget how many years- 57? I’m clearly a horrible granddaughter).

There is just something about my grandparent’s house that is always so warm and inviting. First of all, the inside of the house looks like this:

And all of those windows look out over the water. Then there is this view in the back yard:

Pretty awesome, huh? I always love visiting them because although it’s only about an hour drive, the atmosphere is so relaxing and I always feel like I’m on vacation when I visit. So fun!

Anyway, to celebrate their anniversary we boated over to a fun restaurant on the water called The Crab Deck.

We sat at a nice table by the water and enjoyed a couple of fruity drinks each. Then I ordered a crab melt (lump Maryland crab meat with cheese on grilled ciabatta bread) with roasted potatoes and mixed veggies on the side.

So good!

When my little sister asked me why I was taking pictures of everything I told her it was for the blog. Then I proceeded to snap pictures of her while she tried to evade me.

No such luck, girlfriend!

Gotchya! Haha.

Then we boated back to my grandparents house, took Jack for a swim in the bay, and headed back home.

Once we arrived home it was time for cleaning, laundry, etc. (all very boring) but I did get a little baking in. I even used up my weird patty pan squash!

Yummmm. Recipe to come tomorrow, kids!

So tell me, how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? Eat way too much hispanic food or bake with a weird ingredient? Please share

Hi everyone! Happy Monday…or is that an oxymoron? Haha well anyway, I hope you had a nice weekend! Mine was nice and relaxing a very family-oriented! I was planning to go up to New York my friend Kristen’s birthday, but last weekend my dad informed me that my little sister was having her annual pool/birthday party on Saturday. So, the weekend was filled with a ton of crazy seven-year-olds running around! Haha but it was fun!

First though, on Friday evening Fabio and I decided to barbeque outside with a new charcoal grill that his dad gave us. It’s been sitting in our living room just waiting to be used, so we finally put it together and grilled some steak and corn on the cob. Jack helped us, of course.

And by helped, I mean ate sticks.

I helped too. I sat and watched Fabio grill while sipping on a ~~glass~~ solo-cup of wine Only the classiest for this girl.

Dinner came out great and we had quinoa salad with tomatoes, onions, and avocado to go along with the steak and corn. It was delicious!

After dinner Fabio and I relaxed on the couch watching TV. It was nice to have such a relaxing evening after the stressful week I had!

Saturday morning was bright and sunny and Fabio and I started off the day by heading to the local bagel place to pick up some fresh-squeezed OJ and a spinach melt on a whole-wheat bagel to split. We took it with us to the dog park and ate it at a picnic table while Jack played with the other dogs.

It was delicious! Then we headed over to my mom’s house for some quality pool time and to hear about her recent trip to Italy. She just got back from Venice, Rome, and Florence and wanted to tell us all about it. It sounded like they had a great time on the trip, and it made me nostalgic for the trip to Europe she took me on last year. I want to go back now! Haha.

After lounging by the pool for a few hours, it was time to head over to my dad’s house for my sister’s birthday party. She just turned seven and had a huge pool party with all of her friends. Here’s the birthday girl pre-party:

Can you spot Jack and Max (my dad’s dog) in the background?

Even though the party was for the seven-year-olds, there were plenty of cocktails for the parents. Yay for fruity drinks!

Fabio and I took some pics by the pool before the chaos began.

And munched on some fruit

Kids started arriving around 5 p.m. and soon the pool was swarming!

My dad grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs for the adults and ordered pizzas for the kiddos. They were in the water for hours while all the parents hung out and socialized. Later in the evening my dad screened the movie We Bought A Zoo on a huge projector screen. The movie was pretty cute, and everyone was wowed by my dad’s projector haha.

The movie ended at around 11 p.m. and some of the kids were still there! It was a long, but successful, party

The next day we headed to my grandparent’s house to zip around on the boat. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time! We even saw a boat race take place around the Kent Island Narrows so we dropped anchor to watch the boats zoom by. They were going so fast!

After boating, we had a barbeque with grilled chicken, corn, and my grandma’s home-made deviled eggs. Yum! There was plenty of watermelon for dessert!

Then we walked Jack to the beach and had fun throwing sticks for him to retrieve. He’s such a quick swimmer!

After the beach we headed home to do some chores around the apartment (vacuuming, mopping, laundry, etc.) but not before walking up the street to get some froyo! Yum!!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend!

So, how was your weekend? Did you attend any parties (be they seven-year-old birthday parties or maybe an adults-only party haha)? I think I’ve had my fill of little kids to last me a loooooong time!