My Birthday!

On November 4^th, I had a wonderful 26^th birthday. It started out by me treating myself to a manicure and pedicure. I found a good deal on Groupon. Let’s just say it was mediocre. I think they do them better in the states J.

Kelsey and I then met up for dinner. I couldn’t think of a better place then CHIPOTLE. It’s my favorite restaurant back home and we decided to splurge on it! It’s a little different over here but mostly the same.

After dinner we had tickets to, “The Phantom of the Opera,” at Her Majesty’s Theater in Central London. We enjoyed a glass of champagne before the show and then found our seats.

We didn’t know much about the show, but we’d both heard fantastic things. Everything exceeded our expectations!

I’m not a theater critic or anything but it was great! The music, the costumes, the performers, the band… aces! We both thoroughly enjoyed the show and had a wonderful evening.

The night almost over, we came home and Kelsey surprised me with chocolate cake and tickets to see, “Thriller,” on Broadway on Thanksgiving! It was a very successful birthday in London!

Cupcake Decorating Class

 So I was just kidding about Courtney writing the next post about her birthday. She will eventually, but I wanted to write a short post about our cupcake class. Courtney and I saw on Groupon a great deal for a cupcake class. We signed up and went to it a few weeks ago. When we got there, everything was set up for us. There were tables for about 15 students to partake in the class. Our teacher was friendly and very informative. She taught us five different styles to decorate cupcakes using buttermilk frosting. She let us use different utensils, colors, and other decorations for our cupcakes to bring home. The night was a success and something we've never done before. We are eager to sign up for more classes that involve holiday baking!

Our kitchen table

Courtney's cupcakes

These are my cupcakes- notice the extra icing:)

Yummy!

I froze this one for Christmas!

Halloween

For Halloween, Courtney and I decided to dress up as cotton candy - or so thats what we thought it was called. Apparently, they call it candy floss. We got the idea on Google when we typed in 'Halloween costumes on a budget'.

 

Our costumes turned out to be really easy to make. We took a trip to the local fabric store and bought a few yards of tulle, and then we went to a dry cleaners and asked for two clear bags. We wrapped ourselves with tulle and stuffed the bags like crazy.  We bought white tights to look like the cone and bought actual bags of candy floss for accessories. Simple!

On the day we were dressing up for Halloween, we also met up with our new friend Lucy. We met her on our day trip to Oxford and since she lives in the city, we thought it would be fun to grab dinner. We went to a mexican restaurant Chiquito, which is very similar to Don Pablos. After dinner, Lucy knew Leicester Square very well so we just followed her to the next bar. We sort of got in a routine of grabbing a drink at one place, then moving to the next. It was great because we got a feel for the area. At random times at the bars I would hear people yell, "Hey! It's candy floss!" We couldn't help but laugh. Also, about five different occasions randoms would come up and bite me! Of course it scared the bejesus out of me and I'd yell "What are you doing?!" I'd have to admit though, these guys had charm because it was a great conversation starter!


Now lets talk about Courtney's outfit. When we weren't standing right next to each other, they didn't understand what she was. We assumed by the end of the night they just don't sell blue candy floss. After countless times of explaining what she was supposed to be, we just gave up and said things like a cloud, water molecule, smurf, cotton ball, etc. We had a lot of great laughs over this.


Overall, Halloween was a success! We had a great time figuring out how our outfits would work, actually wearing them around, and having many people appreciate the creativity. Even though we learned that Halloween isn't that big of a deal over here, we couldn't pass up the tradition. Spending time with our new friend Lucy was great as well. We actually planned another weekend out for her to show us another part of town!

I've included a few photos on here, but they're more on Facebook! The next post will be by Courtney about her eventful 26th birthday! xx

Our BMF Experience

 Being over here on a budget has made Courtney and I really grateful for the free things that come along. I came across a great workout put on by current and former members of the British armed forces. It's called British Military Fitness (BMF). It's basically an invigorating hour workout. They split you up into three colors based on your fitness level. Throughout the week they meet at Royal parks throughout the city- we went to Greenwich. They put on a free trial session, and at the end give you a pamphlet to encourage you to take further sessions. Not going to lie, it's very tempting to take them on their offer. These guys really pushed us to the limit, and they were very easy on the eyes! What better way to keep you motivated than to stare at some military men? :) During the session, we did warm-ups, ab exercises, arm toning, and various other activities. We haven't decided if we are actually going to join, but we are leaning towards no. It was fun while it lasted, but it's very expensive (plus we still feel pain in our abdomens three days later).

Behind Courtney was our instructor for the morning.

The army man in the background was so intimidating!