Last night while watching Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour on Netflix alone waiting for the New Year to come along I found myself feeling nostalgic for 2018. As much as the world has was a dumpster fire in 2018, personally 2018 was a good one. So while I may have rung in the New Year alone (like I did last year) it isn’t a complaint or a sign of a bad year, it just means my husband is “I can’t stay up till midnight years old”.
My goal for 2018 was to have an adventure each month and I like to think I achieved that.
January
January is always a tough month for me. The holidays are over, winter looms long. I was feeling particularly unnerved with the world so I went to the local Women’s March with my friend Leona. It was a last minute decision but gave me hope for women and humanity.
February
My blog has brought me many amazing experiences, opportunities and friendships throughout the year but this year it brough me the most life changing. I was offered LASIK eye surgery and wrote about it in a series of posts. I had surgery on February 2nd, 2 days later my whole family had the stomach bug and our Philadephia Eagles won the Super Bowl. I drank whiskey and paced my house cloroxing everything in sight.
In February Jack and I also went to visit my parents in Marco Island, Florida. My post about Marco Island is my most popular so I followed it up with a post about what to do with kids in Marco Island.
March
March was a busy month! Jack participated in the school STEAM Fair, Grace turned 2, John and I went to the Atlantic City Beer Fest and celebrated Bag Day. I was also moved to full-time at work and I traveled to Pescadero State Park in California for the Sway Retreat. One of the highlights of the retreat and the whole year was standing inside a group of redwood trees with a co-worker and being amazed at the beauty. I work for a great company full of smart, savvy women and I’m so proud to be a part of it.
April
In April I finally did something that I have been saying I was going to do for years and that was plan a Girls Weekend. I started planning this back in January and in April my friends and I spent the weekend at my parents house in Sea Isle. We had leisurely meals and shopped and drank and danced till 2am. It gave me the feeling of “why didn’t we do this sooner”.
We also celebrated John’s birthday, went to Legoland Discover Center in Philly over Spring Break and I started playing charity Bingo’s with my neighbors.
May
May was another busy month. We went to the Tuckerton Seaport for their Truckerton event and took the kids to Smithville for an afternoon. We spent a lot of time outside getting the pool ready for summer and playing in the back yard. We also had Jack’s school field trip to the Cape May County Zoo and Fun Day at his school.
Our local CSA Farm Share at B&B Farms started this month and we spent a lot of time at the farm picking strawberries, herbs and peas. I instantly loved that time on the farm and it was a great way for me to unwind after a long week.
June
June is one of John’s busiest months and I spent a lot of time on my own with the kids. Jack spent a week at my parents and didn’t look back. It made me realize how much he is growing up. We went in the pool and to the boardwalk. I went to Brooklyn for work to set up an event we did for a stroller client. It was exhausting but exhilerating and Brooklyn was beautiful.
The kids decided their new favorite thing to do was pick fresh flowers at the farm. We also had a few great nights out with friends checking out a new bar in Atlantic City and sipping cocktails on the water. Jack also played his last soccer game of his career.
July
Birthday month for me! July was full. I took Jack to Sweet Suite: The Biggest Night of Play in NYC. We got to preview all the new toys coming out for the holiday. He had an amazing night and I think he might have a future as an influencer. I brought last minute cheap seats to see Taylor Swift at the Linc with my best friend. We sang our hearts out and the show was phenomenal. I celebrated my birthday in Atlantic City at Back Bay Ale House and The Wonder Bar.
Then a week later I was off to Ireland with my Aunt and cousins to travel to the town our family was from for a reunion and then spend a few days in Dublin. The trip was once in a lifetime and I got to spend some time with family that I don’t see nearly enough. I loved every minute of it and would go back in an instant.
August
I got back from Dublin in early August and was itching to get away again. Luckily so was my friend Jessica and we planned an end of August trip to Ocean City, MD where we did as much as we sat on the beach, enjoyed the rides, took a boat ride and discovered that OCMD has the best kid friendly dining (can we say playground on property and swing chairs for the adults).
We also enjoyed one of our favorite local places, Landshark Bar in AC and day drank in the rain and took approximately 100 pictures trying to get the AC ferris wheel in the background. We also went to our first gender reveal party and learned that my kids first cousin was going to be a girl.
September
Back to school! Jack started Second Grade and Grace started Toddler 2. We also celebrated our friensds Mike and Rory’s wedding, enjoyed our neighborhood 1/2 way to St. Patrick’s Day poker crawl and took a family nature walk on our anniversary.
I had 2 girls nights in Atlantic City. I relieved my 90’s teen years by belting out Alanis with friends at the Tropicana. And I had a classy dinner at Amada with my girls followed by an epic evening.
October
We celebrated Halloween more times than I could count between neighborhood parties, trunk or treats and school parties it was a fun month of costumes. We also went to our neighborhoods annual Oktober Fest and annual Halloween party. And took the kids to Storybook Land for their fall festivities and got lost in a hay maze.
We went to a beer tasting dinner in Cape May with friends and enjoyed local beer and lots of laughs.
November
We loved our April girls weekend so much that we did it again in November. This time we did 2 nights and had a more low-key time playing games and drinking wine.
For Thanksgiving, we went to Disney World. We started the trip with 2 days at the parks and then went on a
December
We filled December with holiday fun and took the kids to Storybook Land, Disney on Ice and took Jack to see his first play, The Grinch. We made cookies and ornaments and had holiday movie nights. While we decorated before Disney the holiday season still didn’t feel long enough. Between parties and
We welcomed my niece Gianna on December 17th and a few days later I got to spend an afternoon snuggling her.
John and I ended the year with an overnight trip to Philly to see John Oliver. We stopped in a holiday bar and had a great dinner and enjoyed exploring the city without kids.
2018 was a great year, 2019 has some big shoes to fill.
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