HSB Goes...to Idlewild Park

Ok, so here we are.  It's the middle of August.  Doomsday, I mean, the first day of school is drawing ever so close.  And with summer coming to its inevitable end, Hooch suggested we take the kids to Idlewild Park for one last hurrah!  It was the perfect idea! Hooch and Stonf got to the park about an hour before I did, and spent some time at the Soak Zone water park until we arrived.  Once we got there and met up with everyone, we set out to ride as many rides and see as many things as we could.  Here are some of the pictures from our day! 
   Note: My "9 months pregnant" status kept me from riding anything and I assumed the role of photographer for the day.  Unfortunately, I don't have any lovely pictures of me waddling around the park or riding the benches or hunting down my favorite craving, Blue Raspberry ICEEs. 
   One of our first adventures...the "Rollocoaster".  All of our kids were big enough to ride along with an adult, and with a little bit of convincing, all the kids decided to give it a try.  What you do not see pictured are the faces of the kids AFTER the ride.  We'll just say the 2 out of the 4 kids were not exactly happy with their decision. 

One of my favorite parts of Idlewild is Story Book Forest, and since it closed before the rest of the park, we made our way over there next. 

 

 

After Story Book Forest, we stopped at Jumping Jungle.  Tons of fun for everyone...except Hooch's husband!  Let's just say, Climbing net - 1, George's sandal - 0.  Fortunately, over at the water park, he was able to buy replacement sandals so he wouldn't have to walk barefoot the rest of the day. 

 

Last, but not least, we took the kids to Raccoon Lagoon (kiddie land) where all the rides are for kids between the height of 36" and 56"...aka My amusement park paradise! (I'm not going to lie, even if I weren't 9 months pregnant, I wouldn't be riding any rides.  As much as I love watching my kids enjoy them, I am NOT a fan!)

This has to be my favorite picture of the day!  I just love the before and after expressions.  Obviously, someone wasn't sharing the wheel!
 

 

Another favorite...love their faces in this one!

All in all, we had a fun day!!  And, you know, we wouldn't be keepin it real if we didn't have to run to our cars in the pouring down rain at the end of the day!

HSB Goes...to Biba Part 2 Taco Tuesday!!

Hello friends! We are well into summer now, and life has gotten busy and it had been awhile since HSB has gotten together (without kids) for a business meeting.   Meaning, business meeting = out for a fancy dinner of course!  So before we get even busier with vacations and such we decided we needed to go out. And where else would we go but our new favorite eatery, Biba!! If you are an HSB follower you know from our previous post here how much we love this place! Every Tuesday they run a Taco Tuesday special where they feature two different kinds of tacos for $5. For weeks now they have been teasing me on their Facebook page with these delicious sounding tacos, so we decided to try it out...for professional blogging purposes!
I arrived first and it was busier than I had ever seen it. We didn't make any reservations so I was nervous we wouldn't get a table, but my buddy Jeffery squeezed us in! So if you plan on going to Taco Tuesday it would be wise to make reservations. Once we all arrived and opened my already open bottle of Moscato we were ready to eat! First we ordered my favorite Guac and Chips with smoked blue cheese and apples.

After I had this the first time I went I tried to make my own blue cheese guac....it sucked! I'll just get it from Biba from now on. Hooch also ordered the Skillet Fries, but for some reason I forgot to take a picture of it. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that they looked awesome! (I didn't taste them though....they had bacon on them.)

Next we had Crabcakes with cucumber carrot salad and Sriracha mayo. You can't go wrong with a good crabcake and to say these were good would be an understatement!

 

 

Finally, it was Taco time! Hooch and I had the chicken tacos with goat cheese guac and pineapple. B  had the pork tacos with cucumber carrot salsa, Sriracha mayo, and cilantro.

 

Seriously these crappy phone pictures of mine do not do it justice!

Now for dessert...and we got all three desserts that were offered. Don't judge. Hey, if you want an accurate review we have to try them all...right?! So we ordered the Churros with the chocolate habanero sauce (which we already had before, but we had to make sure they were still good...they were!)

Next we had the Brown Butter Pound Cake with goat cheese whipped cream and strawberries and blueberries. Oh my was that goat cheese whipped cream delicious!

And lastly was the Banana S'mores Bread Pudding. Holy moly was this delicious! This was by far my favorite.



So if you haven't been yet, you should definitely go soon.  Taco Tuesday is an awesome deal! Thank you again to the chefs and wait staff for another enjoyable evening! And also a special thank you to the table next to us for corking up our wine!

I think this dining experience can be summed up by Hooch's quote of the night "I'm in hog heaven!"

HSB Goes...Blog Hoppin'

Hey there! Just wanted to stop in and let you know that I am guest posting today on Ashley's blog The Domestic Wannabe...I'm sharing a typical day for me on her "a day in the life" series. Click here to check it out!

Thanks so much for having me over Ashley! :)

HSB Goes....to Biba!

Let me start by telling you that Stonf was the first one of us to stumble upon Biba. After her first visit, she convinced me and Hooch (not that it took much convincing) that we had to try this place out!
Biba is a lovely little restaurant located on the main street of Beaver, PA.  With a short list of menu items that changes weekly, the chefs send out plates that are nothing less than perfection.  From the atmosphere to the polite wait staff to the amazing food, it made our "Mom's night out" seem like we were whisked away to another side of the world.  We would like to take you on our extraordinary food journey we so thoroughly enjoyed!

Our first course was Guac and Chips made with smoked blue cheese and apples.  Now, I can't say that I would choose this just by reading it on the menu, but Stonf had been dreaming about it since her first visit, and she promised we would love it, so we tried it!  Wow, what a combination of flavors!  Delicious! 
*As you can see in the right side of the picture, although she is not a huge fan of guac to begin with, Hooch did give it a try! As for us "guac lovers", we were in heaven!

We were then treated to a chef's special, a single Sweet Potato Fritter topped with mascarpone cheese...Oh my, melt in your mouth goodness...the only problem is that we only got one each!

Next came my Skuna Bay BLT Tacos made with salmon, bacon, tomato, greens, and chipotle aioli.  These tacos were as amazing as they look.  So delicious!

For our main course, Hooch and I both ordered the Chicken Enchilada with sofrito, queso, black bean sauce and rice.  Stonf ordered the Seared Scallops with black bean cakes and Yucatan fruit salsa.  The only problem now is that my eyes were bigger than my stomach while ordering, and I was already getting full when our main course arrived.  Needless to say, I still ate my meal and it was worth it!  Hooch loved her enchilada and Stonf said her scallops were some of the best she's ever had...especially paired with the fruit salsa.

Last, but certainly not least, we had to have dessert.  If dessert was on par with the rest of the menu, we knew we couldn't pass it up!  Hooch ordered the Vanilla Bread Pudding with peanut butter sauce and chocolate ice cream.  Stonf and I shared an order of Churros served with house made chocolate habanero ganache.  It was the perfect ending to our meal!

From the outstanding food to elegant atmosphere, we loved every bit of Biba!  We highly recommend you give it a try, you won't be disappointed!  Just make sure to call for reservations!  Maybe we'll see you there sometime!

For more information and menu selections, visit http://www.bibabeaver.com/ or check them out on facebook.

HSB Goes...RUNNING!

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting a new series on the blog that we will refer to as "HSB Goes..." The plan is for HSB to try new adventures from time to time and report back to our blog readers! For our first "HSB Goes" adventure, we participated in a local 5K run in support of breast cancer that was held this past Sunday.

Before we get into all of the dirty details, let me start by giving a little bit of background to how we got to this point. About three weeks before the 5K, I met up with S and B for lunch at one of our favorites, the Pizza Hut lunch buffet. As we sat around the table stuffing ourselves with pizza, B brought up a goal that she had of running a 5K. She had started running in April and was hoping to get a 5K in before the weather got too cold. Believe it or not, I had already successfully completed two 5K races before, so I agreed to join B for the run. Stonf, on the other hand, wanted no parts of the running because, according to her, she has "weak ankles." LOL Instead, she agreed to come out and cheer the two of us on the day of the race.

Flash forward three weeks and B and I find ourselves standing outside in forty degree weather waiting to run 3.2 miles. B was nervous but was feeling prepared, but me, not so much. Even though I had ran two previous 5K races, one thing was different for me this time around. My first two races I had trained pretty extensively in order to survive them...for this race, the last time I had officially ran was back in July! I do go to the gym about 3-4 times a week, but lately, instead of running I have been putting in about 2.5 miles on the elliptical machine. I was about to find out that working out on the elliptical does NOT equal running 3.2 miles on pavement!

Stonf showed up with our cheering squad before the race got started. She was nice enough to take these very flattering pictures of us stretching before the big race! (insert sarcasm here)

Soon after we finished stretching, the time had come for us to head over to the starting line. As you can see from the pictures below, B was very serious about her starting position, while it looks like I had decided to take a seat right on her head (I promise its just a bad angle and I did not actually stick my bum in B's face!)

And...WE ARE OFF AND RUNNING!

Stonf did a great job of cheering us on at the beginning of the race, even holding up homemade signs that she had created especially for race day

But, as the picture below proves, her excitement soon started to fade by about 30 minutes into the race...leaving her wondering where the heck we were (in our defense, we never claimed to be fast!)

Soon after, B was seen making her way through the finish line...she did it!!

And a couple of minutes after B, I finally crossed the finish line. Although, I have to admit that unlike B, I wasn't running in victory through the finish line...Instead, I could be heard saying "I am so done with this race! OVER IT!" haha

In the end, it may not have been my best 5K performance but what counts is that we both finished the race and even more importantly, the race raised money for a very good cause. I also wanted to end with a quick shout out to B...you did awesome and Stonf and I are super proud of you! Goal accomplished!!

Have you ever ran a 5K or accomplished a goal that you had set for yourself? Tell us about it in the comments!