Birthdays & {James} Bay

April is a busy month when it comes to birthdays in my family - my cousin Carmela on the 4th (you'll remember her from this post), my mother-in-law on the 11th, my grandmother on the 13th, my father-in-law on the 24th, and then Macky on the 28th and Mel on the 30th. Last week was filled with merriment as we made sure to mark both Macky & Mel's birthdays with a little celebration, with a touch of entertainment and plenty of food!

Mel threw herself a birthday brunch at Poco NYC in the East Village. The place isn't very large, particularly since Sunday finds it filled with rambunctious and hungry visitors eager to partake of their special brunch offer. During certain hours, the drinks flow freely - and taste just delicious when paired with any of their brunch offerings. I had the Poco Benedict, which is "poached egg with chorizo and manchego cheese on a crispy arepa, topped with pimento hollandaise sauce." In other words, it's delicious!

Poco Benedict + mimosa || sisters at brunch

On Tuesday, we went down to St. Mark's Square to eat at The Bao for Macky's birthday dinner. We had some chocolate steamed buns and five types of dim sum to start, and then had crispy beef, kung pao chicken, regular soup dumplings and lobster soup dumplings. I was certainly partial to the chocolate steamed buns, but the clear star of this dinner was the crispy beef! We visited Big Gay Ice Cream afterward to grab some dessert. (Their Salty Pimp is delicious - and their current special flavor, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, is also a hit!)

dinner || with the birthday boy || ice cream || the gang at dinner

On Wednesday, I was unexpectedly invited to join my sister Mel and one of my best friends Danica to see James Bay live at Irving Plaza. I'm a little bit obsessed with his track "Let It Go", so I obviously jumped at the chance to catch him perform it live! And the concert was awesome. He sounds just as phenomenal live as he does on his record, and I can seriously say it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. (I'm also thrilled I was able to share the experience with Hannah via a few Facetime calls!)

James Bay

On Thursday, Rachel, Mel & I went to Bill's Bar & Burger to have a little birthday lunch. It was seriously surreal that the three of us were able to be together in one place, because it's been years since that was a reality - so I really enjoyed lunch. I had a campfire shake (which was seriously delicious, and I'd totally go back for that) and the mushroom and Swiss burger. It was a nice way to celebrate Mel's actual birthday!

Campfire Shake || Mushroom & Swiss burger

To top things off during the birthday week, Macky, Rachel & I went to a screening of The Avengers: Age of Ultron that night. It was such a treat to be able to see all the characters I'd loved from the first movie come to life again, and to be complex and frustrating and even more real because of the situations they had to wrestle with. Even though I didn't love it as much as the first film, I definitely think it was a good film, very entertaining and excellent build-up to the future Marvel movies.

Whew! Last week was clearly a whirlwind of fun, as writing this post has reminded me. So glad that I was able to celebrate the birthdays of two of the people I love best in the world - and with some panache too!