I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I really needed that 4 day weekend! Here are some pics to highlight this year’s festivities!

I still haven’t made it to the actual parade, but I did get to see some of the balloons get blown up this year! They blow them up literally half an avenue from my office so we ran over there on our lunch before it got too crazy!

How do they blow up the balloons, trucks of helium! The whole block was lined with these bad boys.

Insert me into a situation with balloons from the parade and see 5 year-old Anna come out ;-)

So glad I got to see Papa Smurf and Spiderman! Spiderman is HUGE! The weather was iffy this year, so they weren’t sure if they were going to be able to fly the balloons or not, but they ended up just flying them lower. Thank goodness, they’re the star of the parade in my book!

Now over to Long Island! We spent Thanksgiving with Chris’ family and Scoots came along for his second Thanksgiving with the Felicettas.

Scoots waiting for the guests to arrive!

This year I decided to bring my Aunt Di’s crab dip recipe! It’s one of my favorites and my mom had given me the recipes awhile back and I decided this was the perfect time to bust it out. No surprise, everyone loved it! 

I was kind of in a food coma for most of the day and forgot to snap some pics of our dinner, but I did get the desert table!

This was a homemade carrot cake that Chris’ brother made. So yummy and pretty too! 

And then here’s the aftermath. More football and 3 passed out people on the couches!

Even weenie was in a food coma. He got so many table-scraps that he didn’t want to eat his actual food! And if you’ve been around Scooter you know that he annihilates his food in about 10 seconds normally.

I hope your Thanksgivings were just as wonderful!

I’ve heard so much about how awesome Brooklyn Bowl is and I finally made it out there! Bowling was a go-to activity growing up and now that I don’t get to go as often I get so excited to go when I do! We went there to celebrate a friend’s birthday and had such a fun time! 

(PS: Had to borrow pics from online — a lot of mine turned out terrible since it’s so dark in there!)

When you walk in, The building has the old bones of an ironworks factory that has been re-done (and L.E.E.D certified for my eco’s) and decorated with the vibe of an old carnival. SO fun!

Once we secured our lanes we headed into the bowling portion, where our shoes were delivered to us and we plopped down on their tufted leather couches (which were super comfy by the way). Definitely a different level of service than you’re used to at an old bowling alley! After that the drinks starting flowing and we got our bowl on! The only thing that was kind of lacking was the cheesy graphics that come on the screen after you get a spare or strike! I didn’t think those added much to the game, but I must say I missed their cheesy-little selves!

After we’d bowled for a little bit we had worked up an appetite. Generally I wouldn’t tie good food and bowling together, but their food was fantastic! Like, I’d go back just to eat good. The only thing that got  a little messy was eating wings followed by sticking your fingers in bowling balls — good thing they had wet wipes! It really was delicious though and we ordered pretty much one of everything on the menu. Don’t worry, there was a lot of us ;-)

Not only is it a bowling alley and restaurant, the venue is also a concert hall! And not just for small names either, Guns N’ Roses, Snoop Dogg, and Kanye West have all played there. None of them were there on the night we were there, but there was live music while we were bowling which was pretty different and cool. 

When we were done bowing we hung out for awhile and listened to the bands too. All and all, a really awesome place! Since there’s a little something for everyone! Plus you can just go there for food and a concert without bowling if you want. :) 

We took a trip east to Long Island to celebrate all things apples! 

We started the weekend out at the Sayville Apple Festival! Once a year, the city of Sayville has a little festival, kind of like a mini little fair. 

Country music, fresh apple puffs, and some fresh air was just the way to start out the weekend!

Little Scootie was the star of the show too! I’ve never really taken him to anything like this so I was a little worried how he would do, but he was such a good little boy! Everyone LOVED him too! I guess weenie dogs aren’t as popular in the suburbs, because people acted like they don’t see them very often. He had herds of kids running up to him and one little girl even gave him a hug. It was pretty adorable.

This was also at the Apple festival. If I was about 20 years younger, you can bet I would have been bouncing around in that! Coolest. Bouncy. Castle. Ever!

After the apple festival we spent the evening with Chris’ family where Scootie got lots more love and more table scraps than he probably should have.

We continued our apple weekend at Harbes Family Farm for some apple picking! I’ve been wanting to do this foreverrrr so I’m so excited we finally went!

We had so much fun! We got lots of yummy apples, took a ride on the tractor train, and finished our trip at the farm with some delicious fresh apple cider donuts. YUM!

Such a fun trip out of the city! Our apple adventure wasn’t quite done after leaving Long Island though… I had to make use of all of our apples!

Apple pie and apple sauce, for the win! I’d never made apple pie before, but it ended up not being too bad. After the whole peeling process that is! Plus, I didn’t exactly go the homemade route on everything. I picked up the premade dough and used the recipe on their website. Completely homemade or not, it turned out pretty darn good I think!

Paired with some yummy vanilla ice cream, and you have the perfect end to our apple adventure!