Last week I visited my parents' house and had some friends over for a s'mores party! My brother built a campfire and I created a quick and fun menu of different s'mores for us to try. We made PB&J s'mores, bacon s'mores, salted caramel s'mores, and even a bananas foster s'more!

La Crema sent several bottles of their Pinot Noir and we had such a great time by the fire, drinking wine and eating way too much sugar. My friend Chad was even in town from Connecticut, so I got to see him for the first time since my wedding--and I hadn't seen my friends Matt or Tony since then, either. The whole thing felt like a big, awesome reunion (with roasted marshmallows). 

This post was sponsored by La Crema. Thank you so much for your support as I continue to work with brands. Visit the La Crema blog to get the recipes for all of our s'mores creations!

And for La Crema, the end of summer also means wine grape harvest! Now you can participate in this exciting time of year in Wine Country by signing up for La Crema's Virtual Vintner program. Join the virtual winemaking community and set the course for a totally new crowd-sourced creation from La Crema.

Photos by Photo + Love for Freckled Italian.

The other day Rob and I went to dinner at Cowbell with a couple friends, and we loved the food so much that we came back the next week for lunch on the patio! I love anywhere that takes pride in their burgers, so this "burger and whiskey bar" has pretty much met (and exceeded) all my expectations.
 

I got the NYC burger without a bun, which has pastrami, sauerkraut, and the most delicious sauce. It also comes with swiss cheese, which I skipped. Rob got The Melt, which looked awesome. Also, sweet potato tots.

I'm so excited to explore (and share) more restaurants around the area! If you have any favorites, please let me know.

We spent a lot of time at our new apartment this weekend, unpacking the things we brought along with us in the car. It's mostly wedding gifts, so finally opening them for real was pretty fun, even if there's nothing to sit on while we did it.

On Saturday we went hiking with Rob's parents, and we got to visit them for dinner on Sunday. It's really nice having them (and Daisy the golden retriever) in the same city!

Our place is a quick walk away from one of the light rail stations, so we took the train into Uptown for the Charlotte Pride parade yesterday, which made me smile and cry (so many huge corporations sponsored the event and it just made me feel really good about the world--I'm a sap).

Tomorrow I'm off to Richmond before heading to Delaware for a super long weekend celebrating my best friend Tina's bachelorette festivities! I've been looking forward to it for so long; and despite spending so much time enjoying our new neighborhood with my sweet husband, it's been a rough past few days for me personally, so I think some time at the beach with girlfriends will be really good.