Friday, December 11, 2015

Five on Friday!!

There's officially two weeks until Christmas!!  It'll be here and gone before we know it...
 
Here are five of my top things from this week:
 
[one]
 
Did you see my post about the Vintage Circus Hospital Gala we attended last weekend?  SO fun.  So, so, so fun!  I loved getting all dressed up!  The entertainment, food and drinks were amazing!  Check out my post - lots of fun pictures!
 
 
[two]
 
We went and picked/cut down our Christmas Tree last weekend!  I haven't gotten a full post up yet, but plan to.  We go to the same place every year.  One of my favorite 'It's-beginning-to-feel-like-Christmas' traditions!
 
 
 
[three]
 
While at the tree cuttin' place, the kids actually talked to Santa!!  Well, Redmond did.  This is huge!  Redmond has been absolutely terrified of him until now.  Ashlyn is still quite uneasy about the big guy, but once Mrs. Claus said she had candy, Ashlyn was ok with her.  That girl will do anything for chocolate.  #shegetsitfromhermama
 
 
 
[four]
 
The weather has been completely cray-cray here in Michigan lately.  It's been in the 50's lately!  It's December, people!!  Every morning when I go outside I have to remind myself it's winter and not spring.  For real.  It's weird.  Since it's been so nice out, we made Oliver's day this week by letting the chickens out so he could visit with his friends.  #happyplace
 
 
[five]
 
Last night I went with Marie and another friend of ours to one of those painting classes that are all the rage right now.  I've done a couple before and it really is amazing that someone as completely unartistic as myself can actually create something recognizable!  We had such a great time!  And look at the snowman I made!
 

 

 
 
Well, that's it for this week!  Thanks so much for stopping by!!
 
~ Sara :)
 
I'm linking up with, Darci, AprilNatasha, and Christina for the Five on Friday link-up Party!
I'm linking up with A Little Bit of EverythingMomfessionals, and Grace and Love for my Friday Favorites!
I'm linking up with September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for the Oh Hey Friday linky party!
I'm also linking up with The Diary of a Real Housewife for Friday Favorites!
Also, I'm linking with Caitlin, Della, Tif and Katie for High Five for Friday!
 

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

A Vintage Circus Gala

 
Jason and I decided to attend a Charity Gala/Ball this year to support a local hospital.  We convinced Marie and her husband to go and we had a few other friends go as well.  I had no idea how much fun it would be!

The theme was Vintage Circus and one of my BFF's, Katy, was in charge of all the décor and entertainment.  She did amazing!  There were acrobats, a contortionist, magician, fire-breather, a guy on stilts, fortune tellers, great food, great drinks and lots and lots of fun!

Katy, Marie and I went and got our hair done in the afternoon and then headed to the hotel to get ready.  I loved getting all done up!  It was nice to trade in my yoga pants for a night ;)  Jason was looking quite dapper too!



Once it was time to par-tay, I broke out my selfie stick.  Yes, I am the owner of a selfie stick.  It was a gift.  No, really, it was!
 
Anyhoo, get ready for picture overload:
 
Myself, Katy, and Marie - ready to partyyyy!!
 
 
 
We had a delicious dinner and the drinks were a-flowing nicely.  After dinner, the entertainment began.  At one point the magician headed over to where we were mingling.  First, he took my selfie stick....
 
 
He was amazing!!  I even got to participate in one of his tricks.  He had me hold a deck of cards and then turned it into a glass block while it was in my hand!  I crack up every time I see this photo Marie snapped of me....giving him some serious side-eye.  Seriously, how'd he do that!?
 
 
The guy with the stilts was also amazing.  But, do you have any idea how hard it is to get a selfie with a man who is a couple stories tall?  Even with a selfie stick.  Marie and I tried our damnedest though...
 
 
 
 
I even walked the tightrope with Jason!
 
 
I don't think I've ever taken as many selfies in my life as I took on Saturday night...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
We closed the party down and rocked it out on the dance floor.  I know there is photographic proof of me attempting to Whip/NaeNae out there somewhere....I just hope it stays hidden....
  
 
It was an awesome evening Under the Big Top!!  Nothing like spending the evening with a bunch of clowns ;)
 
 
 
~ Sara :)

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Friday Favorites!!!

Hey everyone!  It's Friday and it's December!
 
Crazy!
 
This week I'm going to do a recap of what I've been posting about lately as well as a special visitor....
 
[one]
 
We travel to my sister's house for Thanksgiving every year.  We had such a GREAT trip this year!  I PR'd my 5k time, the kids played so well with their cousins, the weather was gorgeous all weekend and the kids did such a great job in the car!  Woo-hoo!
 
 
 
[two]
 
Speaking of traveling, I blogged about our must-haves for traveling with kids.  Lots of food, activities and more food are our secret weapons.
 
 
You can check out that post here!
 
[three]
 
Can you believe it's December already!?  Me either!  Why not join my girl Marie and I and come (linky) party with us this month?  Come join The Monthly Meet Up and post about any and all goals you have for the month!
 
 
 
[four]
 
You might have seen from Redmond's birthday post that we got quite the snowfall on his big day.  The snow has since melted and the temps have shot back up (not complaining, btw).  But, there is something about fresh snow.  I was looking through the photos on my phone and came across this one that I took on his birthday.  So beautiful!
 
  
[five]
 

 
Yep, just like so many other homes across the globe, our beloved Elf on the Shelf is back.  And, Ashlyn is terrified of him!  He is pretty creepy, I suppose ;)

 Hope you guys are having a great week!!
 
~ Sara :)
 
I'm linking up with, Darci, AprilNatasha, and Christina for the Five on Friday link-up Party!
I'm linking up with A Little Bit of EverythingMomfessionals, and Grace and Love for my Friday Favorites!
I'm linking up with September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for the Oh Hey Friday linky party!
I'm also linking up with The Diary of a Real Housewife for Friday Favorites!
Also, I'm linking with Caitlin, Della, Tif and Katie for High Five for Friday!


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Monthy Meet Up

It's a new month, and you know what that means - it's time for the Monthly Meet Up, y'all!!

My girl Marie , over at Family and the Lake House, and I get together every month to host a fun link-up party.  We want to know - what are your goals for the month of December?  Big, small, it doesn't matter.  Your goals could be any and everything.  Maybe you want to cut out fast food, keep a clean kitchen, exercise more, not go shopping, organize your pantry, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

You can be as ambitious as you like - maybe you only have one goal for the month, maybe you have 10.  Just join us and have fun!

Not only do we want this to be a great opportunity for you to gain some awesome, creative ideas from other bloggers, but we also want this to be a great networking tool as well.  So please, grab a cup of coffee, tea, water, vodka (we won't judge) or whatever you fancy and party with us.  It will be fun!!

First thing is first.  Just like anything fun, we've gotta have some rules.  Ours are short and sweet:
  • Link back to us - copy and paste our linky button on your post - we want your friends to join in the fun too!
  • Follow us!  We'd love to connect with you, and you to connect with each other!
  • We challenge you - visit, comment and follow at least four other partiers.  Are you up for the challenge?
  • By posting, you give us permission to feature an image or post on our blog(s).  We'll always give you credit and post links back, don't you worry!
Easy enough, right!?  So, grab our button, link up, and par-tay!!!


Here's a recap of last month's goals:

1.  Operation Red Dress.


I’ve done pretty well with this.  Not quite as well as I would have liked over Thanksgiving, but much better than years past!  The dress zips, is comfy and I am soooo excited for the Gala this weekend!!!

2.  Closets - Kids closets have been decluttered and cleaned!  This was something I was putting off for so long – I was really dreading it, especially Ashlyn’s.  Here is Ashlyn's closet before:

 
And after:

 
She has this great raised area in her closet that is perfect for playing.  It was full of clothes that the kids had outgrown.  I turned it into a baby area with a bin for her diapers and a bin for all of her baby accessories:


I forgot to take a before picture of Redmond’s closet.  It wasn't as bad as Ashlyn's, but it was still pretty bad.  Here is the after:

Ashlyn's closet has been a huge hit - it's the new favorite place to play!
3.  Downstairs - Well, again, not much has happened with our downstairs.  BUT!  But, we are getting carpet down there today.  Today, folks!  See:

Finally!!  So, we’ve finally got progress.  Woo-hoo!!  I can't wait for the kids to have their playroom back!!

4.  Name Change - I did it!
I had been debating on changing my name for quite some time, but was so nervous to do it.  I took the plunge and am so glad I did!  I think my new name is a good fit for my blog.  What do y’all think?

Ok, on to this month's goals.  It's going to be a busy month so I'm not going to be too ambitious.  Here we go:   

[One]
 
Guest Room.
Okay, confession time.  Remember alllllll that stuff in the before picture of Ashlyn’s closet?  Well, they’re clothes that the kids have outgrown that I need to sell/give away…..and they’re all now just sitting in the guest room.  So, technically, this is step two to cleaning out the kids’ closets…

[Two]

Toy Purge.
One of the silver linings to our downstairs flooding is that this gives us the perfect opportunity to do some much needed purging of toys.  We have so.much.stuff.  Time to clear some out!  The kids will each pick out toys for Santa to take (read more about that tradition here) and momma will be picking out quite a few to donate/sell too.

[Three]
 
Christmas Home Tour.
I've never done a blogger home tour before and I'm thinking that it might be fun.  I'm itching to begin decorating and am looking forward to sharing some of my favorite holiday décor with you!
Stay tuned!!

And that's all folks!  Keeping it short and sweet this month.  Hope you'll join us and share any goals you may have for this month!!

~ Sara :)

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Thanksgiving 2015

Our Thanksgiving tradition is to load up the car and drive to my sister's house in Virginia.  Depending on how many stops, and traffic of course, it takes us around 11 hours.  Thankfully, we've got two little great travelers on our hands which made the trip a lot less daunting.  (Check out my post with our must haves when traveling with kids!)

We left Tuesday morning and only had to stop once until we got to our hotel for the night.  We like to break up long drives at hotels with a pool.  The kids can get a lot of energy out and then they aren't in the car all day.  We got all checked in and the kids were bouncing up and down asking if we could go find the pool.  The look on Redmond's face when the woman at the front desk said "Our pool is closed"....it was heartbreaking.  Tears welling, bottom lip quivering.  Poor guy!  It was a huge disappointment to say the least, but Jason saved the day by suggesting we go find a park.

 

The kids even declared it was 'the best park ever!'

 
The next morning we loaded back up and headed to Maryland.  Jason needed to make a pit stop at his office there to work for a couple hours.  While he was working, I took the kids to a park that I used to take Redmond to almost daily when we lived in MD part time.  It was fun to go back there and explore.
 
 
 
 

After lunch, we got back in the car and finished the trip to my sister's house.  The kids slept the entire way.  Phew!  That was easy!


The kids were so excited to see their cousins!

 



On Thanksgiving, my sister, brother-in-law, mom, step-dad, my nieces, nephew and I went and did the local Turkey Trot 5k in my sister's town.  It's been a tradition since 2009 and I'm happy to report I beat my time from last year by about 35 seconds!  Woo-hoo!!!  It was the first year that my nieces ran the whole thing and they did great!  We celebrated with complimentary Krispy Kremes while we waited for everyone else at the finish line (we were the only ones that ran it - everyone else walked).

 
After the race, we headed back to my sister's house.  My sister and I got busy inside getting all the good food ready while the guys hung out around the infrared fryer outside.  We had the most gorgeous weather all weekend!
 


 
Redmond is obsessed with inflatables and he quickly convinced my brother-in-law to set up their Christmas inflatables.  Our favorite is this nutcracker.  Beer belly, tattoo, trucker hat - hilarious!
 
 
The rest of the day was spent drinking, eating and laughing.  It was a great, low-key Thanksgiving!
 
Friday morning I went out shopping with my sister and mom.  I found a few good things, but I was out more just to hang with my sister and mom.  Later that day we had "early Christmas" as the kids have named it.  Since we live so far away, we always do the kids Christmas gifts over Thanksgiving.  Always a hit!
 
 

 
That night, we headed outside for a bonfire and s'mores.  Great end to our trip!
 


 
 
 
When we woke up the next morning, it was Saturday already!  We got the car all packed up and hung out for the morning and through lunch.  Shortly after lunch we loaded up and hit the road.  Originally, we were going to stop and stay in a hotel and finish the drive home Sunday, but we decided that we would just drive straight home.  We got home a little after 11 pm and it was so good to sleep in our own beds!  We had a great time and can't wait for next year!
 
~ Sara :)