SUSAN TAKES MANHATTAN: October 2009

With a bunch of apples from our trip upstate last weekend and a weekend trip to Dallas suddenly on the calendar, I needed to use up my apples! I made Apple Bars. They taste really yummy, but don't stay together in their "bar" shapes very well. They'll be great for traveling to Texas with me to share with the fam!

I had a Halloween party in NYC to attend before flying out Saturday morning. Seven guys in my church all live downtown together in a huge loft apartment (no, their not eligible singles...they're all babies). They were hosting the party at their place this year. It was a lot of fun! I decided a long time ago that I wanted to go as the Octo-Mom this year....super simple, yet funny and relevant costume. It was a huge hit!!

Ghost Cookies I made for the Party

(Nutter Butters dipped in white chocolate)

The guys HUGE loft apartment in a cute area of the

financial district was awesome. They even had a DJ for us.

Octo-mom with Jill (the one who

fell down the hill), aka Murph

With Mindy, The Raven

Ack! My babies are being attached

by a giant spider (Angela)

Karyn & Angeline

Cruella Deville (Amanda)

Kira, the Geico frog

Lucy and her Jelly Beans

Brennan as Where's Waldo?

The crazy housewife just stabbed

one of my babies! (Sarah Beth) She had the

best prop of the night...awesome trick knife.

Kristen is back in town for the marathon!!

It was such a fun fall weekend! I was so busy - maybe too busy - but, there were just so many great things going on....too fun to say no to for sure! The weekend started on Friday night with Erin's birthday gathering. We went to a Tapas restaurant in Chelsea. It was so good. Tapas has become one of my favorite meals here...there are so many good places and it's so fun to go with a group and try little bites of everything. Erin and a couple of her friends had been to this one before, so they just ordered everything for the table...I didn't try one thing that wasn't delicious. Afterwards, we went to Erin's friends', Diego & Scott's apartment that was just a couple of blocks away from the restaurant. A super fancy high-rise condo with Hudson River views...not so shabby. They had also picked up Billy's cupcakes and Peanut Butter Pie. Oh.my.goodness. I decided a while back that Billy's might have my favorite cupcake in the city, but that PB pie was TO DIE for.

The girls - Michelle, me, Erin1, Erin2, Robyn, and Kim

Saturday was the Junior League Fall Home Tour. I've wanted to do this for a while, just never got on the ball and did it. I went with Lucy and her mom and aunt. I LOVED it. It was a little pricey, but we got to tour amazing homes and it included breakfast, lunch, a cocktail reception, two fun gift bags and other little surprises along the way. I wish I could have taken pictures in some of the homes. They were all so different and unique. We got to go all over Manhattan - from downtown to the West Village to the Upper East Side. The only home with an owner that has any kind of claim to fame was that of the President of Estee Lauder. His home was definitely the most eccentric. The decor was quite crazy, but the home itself was huge and great. Some of the homes felt so removed from the city because they were so big and had great outdoor spaces. It was a fun thing to do, even though it was a rainy, humid day. I hope my mom can come next spring to do that one with me!

Saturday night, Rosella hosted a Vampire Ball at her apartment for her birthday. It was SO fun and gave us all a reason to get dressed up and wear some fangs. I had a lot of fun catching up with people I hadn't seen in a while and meeting some new people, too.

With Christina and Rosella, in true Vampire spirit

Cute Pic!

At first I thought Rosella had weird guy friends

who wear eyeliner. I later clued in that it

was part of the Vampire theme :)

Rosella, hostess with the mostest, had quite a

spread of appetizers & dessert for us!

Sangria con eyeballs

This is Rosella's friend, Reggie. He works for a company

in my building so I see him on the elevator sometimes

This is Cari, she used to live in my apartment.

With the cute hostess

With Blanca...she had some pretty

gruesome Vampire bites on her neck

Sunday morning brought church. We lost our worship pastor in September to Nashville...sad times. We are looking for a new one (know any Christian musicians with a heart for NYC???). We have very talented singers and musicians in our congregation (of course we do, we ARE in NYC) and they are doing a great job of leading us while we look for a full time worship leader. Today we had a guest from Texas lead our music...Matt Boswell. He was awesome!! I don't know if my church is looking at him as a possible hire (he has a job at a church in the metroplex), but he'd be great. He has written his own music and has a couple albums. I was just checking out his "Vintage" album; it's all old hymns and so good. His voice is so clear and perfect. Check him out!

After church, I left with some girls to head out of the city to go apple picking. We had so much fun. Just the drive out of the city was gorgeous. The trees were beautiful. We stopped for lunch at Panera (yum!) and then headed to the farm. Most of the apples were gone...we were a bit late in the season, but the weather was amazing. We just enjoyed being outside in the sun and cool weather and enjoying each others company. We were going to get pumpkins, too, but they were pretty picked over so we decided to pass those up.

Pretty drive to upstate New York