A Day at Lakeside & A Birthday Brunch!

Published on by Mackenzie

Hello hello & Happy Fridaayyy!! Spooky season has fully commenced & I am going to do my darnedest to get out these autumnal posts before it passes us by! 

I am fully invested in Stranger Things at this point (thank you all who endorsed that decision) & am currently listening to a Dateline podcast. I don’t listen to true crime stuff year round, but this time of year I tend to dip my toe in. 

Onto fluffier fall things! Saturday September 24th we surprised DJ for his bday. This was his big 3-0, so I was wracking my brain of how to make this extra special. He made me promise not to plan any surprise parties, so that was out of the running. But he said nothing about surprises in general ;). DJ has mentioned several times this year how he can’t wait for us to have more time to make it to Lakeside. This is probably his favorite place on Earth, and we were only able to make it there once this year for the 4th of July.  I organized with some of our family who have a cottage at Lakeside to use their home for the day for feeds. My mom and Pete also were excited to come along and help watch Quinn. 

I made him think since my mom and Pete were in town we were just going to have a family day (No studying allowed!)… Which was a partial truth- but when he found out where we were having our big family day, he was quite stoked! We were on the road by about 8 am with one mission in mind- to get there in time for Patio Donuts! These are some of the best donuts in existence.
We got a smattering of nearly all the flavors & Pete grabbed a hot chocolate. Tragically, I couldn’t have any this time due to the butter- but trust me, I’ll make up for it when I can have dairy again! Y’all are probably so sick of hearing me mention this haha. 
This girl knows good food when she sees it!
We grabbed the donuts and went to the dock to enjoy the fresh lake air, the views of the water and the melt-in-your-mouth donuts. While I couldn’t have the scrumptious little things, I still got to hold this scrumptious little thing :).
Quinn is just so happy whenever we’re near the water. 
After grabbing donuts, we went back to the cottage for a feed and then stepped back out into the perfectly brisk fall day. The kind of ‘brisk’ that begs you to hit up the nearest coffee shop. My mom and I dove into Coffee & Cream to get a couple cafe au laits with one pump of pumpkin while the guys got more donuts. Yes, you read that right. There was a flavor they liked in particular, so they went back to get a couple more. When in Rome Lakeside!

This felt truly like the first day of fall with the weather & the pumpkin au lait! 
Are we in the Chessboard Chamber from Harry Potter or Lakeside, OH? Hard to know!
For lunch before hitting the road, we went to a newly added restaurant- Slack House. 
It has a relaxed cafeteria sort of vibe with great quick options. Pete and I had their turkey burger, my mom had a salad and DJ got their chicken sandwich. 
Quinn did great with this meal out! She just sat on my lap the whole time. We really should try to venture out more with her. She does amazing in public (better than at home some may say! hah). She just loves looking around & I think the white noise of chit-chat calms her.

That night we had football on in the background & enjoyed an easy pizza night- meat-lovers for the guys and vegan for me & my mom. 

My mom and Pete insisted DJ and I have a date out while they were there, so we decided to sneak out for a brunch on September 25th to Cantine. 

I had been here once before with Rachel, and noted how yummy their brunch sounded! We actually had planned to go to another brunch spot that was closed, but this was a good back up plan. I designated this DJ’s bday brunch too (even though his birthday was still technically a couple weeks away). 

I started with some sparkling water with a little lemon and lime. 

For our mains- DJ got their Rise & Shine burger with an 8-ounce brisket and short rib burger on brioche bun, bacon, American Cheese, fried egg, and pommes frites. We both agreed the french fries were maybe the best part of the meal!

I had their veggie omelette which was very much… a veggie omelette lol. The side of potatoes left much to be desired. But overall- even if the food was not the best, it was still sustenance, great company and nice to get out together :).

Once home, Quinn continued to sleep on my mom while I finished laundry and prepped everything for work. Usually this would take all day, but it only took about an hour or so with that uninterrupted time. 

For dinner that night, I made air fryer filets with lemon garlic broccolini, sautéed mushrooms, mashed potatoes for the guys (I cheated with the mashed potatoes and used Bob Evans) & sweet potatoes for my mom and me.

Unfortunately, this day my mom got pretty sick with a gnarly cold so she went to bed early. They left the next day & it just felt like the time wennt wayyy too fast. Great memories as usual though <3. Can’t wait for them to come back!! 

Questions for you:

  • Does your coffee order change with the season?
  • Do you like surprise parties? 

<3, 

Mackenzie

14 thoughts on “A Day at Lakeside & A Birthday Brunch!”

  2. I absolutely love this! What a lovely way to celebrate Dj and to make memories with family. I am so sorry your mom caught a crummy cold, but what a stellar time! Those donuts. Wow! I just love sweet Quinn – she is unbelievably adorable! Girlfriend has such a perfect personality and smile, friend. Love all of your family photos!

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much, Kori!! It was treasured time for sure 🙂 <3. I really wish our girls could get together for a playdate- the two of them with their awesome personalities would just ham it up together, I know it !!

      Reply

      1. Oh they would!! I can just hear them babbling together, and I know they’d smile big. 🥰😍

  4. Hi there! Long time, no talk, I am glad to see you are doing well! Congrats on the new baby!
    What a cute little town! The food (especially the donuts) look delicious! Makes me miss NE Ohio!

    Reply

  5. Omg happy (belated) birthday to DJ! He’s about a month older than I am, I turned 30 this year too it’s kind of bittersweet lol. We didn’t do anything for mine except go out for breakfast, did some shopping and played video games all day 🙂 if the weather was nicer we definitely would have gone out lol

    I also love the look of Lakeside, it looks like such a cute place with so much goood food 😀

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Rossy!! Definitely bittersweet, but I hear 30s are just the best from so many people that are in them 😊 I know you’ll thrive!

      That sounds like a wonderful birthday!

      It really is so stinking cute. It’ll be fun when Quinn is old enough to really enjoy all it has to offer! Thanks for reading 🙂

      Reply

      1. Thank you 🤗

        I cannot wait to see your adventures when Quinn gets older. They’re so cute when they’re small and you just want to keep them that small, but when they get older too it’s so fun 🥰

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