It may be 80* out.....

But tomorrow is September 1st, so happy first weekend of "fall", everyone!

 

Even though it's going to be 80 degrees with the after affects of Isaac headed our way {blegh}, it's still the first Buckeyes game so hey, it's fall! 

(Very) First Day of School

So. Yesterday my baby girl had her very first day of school. And? We survived. I fully expected Brooklyn to, after seeing her so happy and so excited at the meet & greet last week. What I didn't expect was how Dustin, Emily, & I were going to react.

 

In my mind, I thought I'd be a blubbering mess. Dustin would be comforting me. And Emily would be excited for a little "only child" time. In reality, I was the one comforting a teary eyed Dustin (who told me last night that while he could've gotten off work to take her to school that morning, he just couldn't. He didn't want her to see him cry. And then my heart melted & I fell even more in love with that man.) And Emily begged for her sister all morning & kept asking "Where's Brookie? Pick up Sissy, now?"

 

And yes, you read that right. I did the comforting. Didn't need comforted. You guys, I didn't cry. How couldn't I of cried?! What kind of mom doesn't cry when she sends her baby off to (practically) strangers for the first time?? I prepared myself to. Braced myself to. Bought a new box of tissues for the car. But it didn't happen (the day of. The days leading up to yesterday don't count, right? Because the eyes were puffy, my friends.)

I guess seeing her so excited & so ready yesterday morning was more heart warming than sad. HOW could I be weepy when she's so giddy? So instead? I felt proud. Proud that in the almost 4 short years since this little being has been on the earth, I've helped mold her into an actual person. Someone who wanted to hold Mommy's hand, but also wasn't afraid to let go of it either. Someone who wanted to make new friends. Someone who told the other kids "good morning" & gave hugs. Someone I was blessed to call my own.

 

I had knots in my stomach all morning. She did so well when I dropped her off, gave me a hug & kiss, and went on to play dinosaurs with the 2 boys in her class {uh-oh.} I just kept wondering how she was doing. What she was doing. Was she missing me? Wondering where I was? When I'd be back?

 

Waiting in the hallway to pick her up 3 hours later seemed like an eternity. But seeing her walk out of that classroom with her bookbag on, grinning ear to ear, was amazing. My girl reached another milestone.

 

My girl is growing up.

 

{and NOW I tear up.}



Wordless Wednesday: Her 1st Day

You guuysss. I die.

 

More tomorrow.....

Jewelry Swap Goodies

A few weeks ago on my daily blog roll read {aka: lunch}, I came across Melissa's blog & saw she was hosting a jewelry shop. As a costume jewelry hoarder, I thought this would be fun to do and was intruiged at what I would receive.

 

Rachel from Life in the Moment did not disappoint. Oh no. In fact, she spoiled me. Not only did my package arrive in style (hello metallic hot pink envelope), but inside was a sweet letter along with two necklaces AND a pair of earrings inside a cute zip bag.

 

I wear alot of gold jewlery (mainly because of my skin tone & love for fall colors) and I am SO ready for autumn, so this necklace was a really nice surprise. Love the long length & girly touches.

AND I also received this {seriously. spoiled.} Absolutely love this minty blue color & it's vintage look. How gorgeous would these look with a LBD or gray sweater?

 I cannot thank you enough for your generosity, Rachel! So y'all do me a favor & thank her too by visiting her sweet blog.

Instalately

We're soaking up the final days of summer here. And this momma is preparing herself for a few tears come Tuesday (MY tears, not Brook's. At the preschool meet & greet last Thursday she was an energetic ball of excitement....and barely noticed we were there :/ Definitely still not ready to let go yet, even for just a few hours a day...)

Change subject (clear lump out of throat.) Can y'all believe summer is almost over? It may still be 80 degrees outside, but come September 1st it's "fall" around these parts. So YES, I will be breaking out my rum raisin woodwick candles. My fall decor. And savoring a pumpkin spice latte. 

As always, I'd love for you to follow me on Instagram {ash6703}. And for you to Follow my blog with Bloglovin! Happy Sunday :)

confessions of a daddy's girl

Last week I was putting the girls to bed. Emily had skipped her nap that day, so she fell asleep almost immediately. But Brookie was wide awake, laying in bed in her nightgown and favorite Disney princess dress with a necklace & crown on.  She looked up at me as I was tucking her in.

"I have to tell you something, Mommy." Total serious face.

"Okay baby." A little worried. What had happened?

"I farted at the birthday party today."

Me/trying not to laugh, nod sympathetically.

"Twice."

Me/absolutely gone. 6 feet under. I think I actually had to wipe away tears from keeping my laughter in because this girl was dead serious about this predicament.

I know boy moms go through this on the regular, but I swear it's extra funny when you see a sweet little girl dressed in costume jewlery & a Belle costume say this.

Girl mommas? Tell me--what things come out of your daughters mouths that make you think "you ARE just like your father"?

I'm wide awake

From my weekend food coma, that is.

Last weekend the annual Bratwurst Festival came to town. What else do you do to celebrate a german sausage for 3 days? You eat the shit out of all kinds of yummy shit. And give your kids the go ahead to do the same. Then you take your stand on the mother of the year podium because you're pretty sure they just consumed more sodium in single snack than they had the whole week prior.

But? It's fun. And it's good.

Again, the parades were the highlight of the weekend for the girls.

With rides coming in a close second. 

And while typically the festival is all about the beer gardens for us grown ups, this momma had a post trip hangover until last Wednesday, so beer didn't really tickle my fancy. Know what did? These pretties.  

Yeah. Not one, but TWO. Does it make it any better if I said the left was from Thursday & the right's from Saturday? No? Oh well. Judge me. They were delicious.

Now that the festival is over? It marks the end of summer around here. Brookie's very 1st day of school is a week from today. She turns 4 in 2.5 weeks. Dustin & I celebrate 5 years of marriage a few days after. And Emily? Well that girl's vocabulary & imagination has grown like a weed these past few weeks. She's hilarious.

And obviously hasen't quite picked up on the wide awake memo....

Will.Not.Drop.Cheeseonastick.So.Tired.Cheese.Stick.Imout. 

It's the little things

Do you ever have days where you just feel great? The sun is shining. You found the lip gloss you swore you threw out in a Target bag of trash. The car in front of you paid for your coffee, and in turn you paid for the car behind you. Your favorite song came on the radio on two different stations during your car ride. Your husband sent you a text just to say hi and even put a <3 by it. The new People magazine came in the mail. You found Essie polish at TJ Maxx for 3 bucks. You walked in on your daughters snuggling.

Those days are my favorite. Where for no particular reason at all, I'm just...

happy.

Have a great weekend, everyone! 

this is the post that never ends

First weekend away alone? In the books. And this post? Long. Like looooong long.

So here goes. I've gone away with Dustin or with my inlaws without the girls before, but I've never had an entire girls weekend. Two states away at that. So needless to say, I was a mix of emotions last week. I'd met a few of the ladies going in Chicago already, but I was still nervous. There were going to be about 20 ladies there I'd never met before {well, face to face. believe me when i say when know each other.} Dustin had never been with both girls for more than a night, and while I knew he'd be just fine, I was still nervous.

You guys? I had no reason to be nervous. Because besides a little initial awkward silences that lasted a good 3 minutes, it was perfect. And my hubs? Was awesome while I was away. Like head of the class, gold star, Zack Morris awesome. Sent pictures & videos of the girls, went to the grocery store, cleaned our ridiculously dusty ceiling fans, and had my favorite meal ready when I came home Sunday evening. Let's not forget my momma (whom I see at least 5 times a week and talk to daily) Well, I think she took it a bit harder, me being 2 states away with "people from the internet". I'm sure she was super relieved seeing a text Saturday & Sunday morning simply stating "I wasn't murdered xoxo"

Now to what y'all really opened this post to see---PICTURES! and stories.

My "nestie bestie" Lyndsay & I decided to make the drive there. It was smooth sailing, filled with Twizzlers, McDonalds fries and chocolate dipped cones, and Cheez Its, until we actually hit Chicago and got stuck in traffic for almost an hour. It wasn't too bad because Lake Michigan was rather angry that day, so watching the waves was pretty spectacular.

After getting a group together at Caroline's and cabbing over to our haunted old (but seriously haunted) hotel, it was chow time. We were all starving. And where do you eat in Chicago? The place known for amazing pizza. The beer and our waiter were pretty amazing as well.

After a night of drinks in the hotel bar, cramming 16 women in a double bed standard room for more drinks, threats of being kicked out by a park ranger (more like 3 threats), and unsuccessfully attempting to blow up a queen size air mattress with one set of lungs, we were down for the count.

Saturday morning after a quick caffeine run, we all kind of formed into groups of who wanted to go where. I went with the Minnesota girls and Abbey for a walk downtown for shopping. (p.s. people from Minnesota should never.stop.talking. it's amazing. you betcha. dontchaknow.)

Can I just say holy beautiful/loud/busy city. It took us about 45 minutes to walk to the Water Tower to shop, and where did majority of us go? H&M (to shop for our kids) and Disney (again, to shop for our kids).

On the way back to the hotel, our group stopped by the Navy Pier. It was hot, crowded, and the lines were insane. So basically we snapped a picture of the ginormous ferris wheel, grabbed a McDonalds coke, and left to go get ready for dinner.

We had to make a quick stop before dinner though. Priorities (aka selfies) needed attended to, you know.

Now onto dinner. Ohhh dinner. Probably the funnest one I've had in....thinkthinkthink....forever? Reservation for 22 meant 3 tables on the sidewalk by the street. $20 margarita pitchers, chicken bacon (BACON!) avacado tacos. And free tequilla shots. Yeah, it would've been your best dinner too.



After dinner, we went to the Hilton bar. Main reason? A Harry Potter convention. Confession---I've never seen a minute of any of the 7?? movies, but I now realize these fans don't take this shit lightly. Especially since 4 from our group (2 successfully) snuck into Leaky Con, 1 who was groped by a greastastic fanatic. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up, but I'll let Caroline tell of her once in a lifetime experience ;)

Back in the bar (now i'm thinking i should've made 2 posts out of this....) majority  of us were rehydrating, some with water (present!), some with better stuff. And we busted out a tripod in a bar. Cause that's what we do.

Back to the hotel (but not room 547 for fear of our park ranger "old balls" coming back) we just sat around and laughed. And laughed. And maybe drank Arbor Mist.





After the reminding thoughts that we had a 6 hour drive back home tomorrow AND would have to work Monday morning, we headed to bed a little early (and i'm saying early lightly because it was almost 2am.)

Sunday morning, our last day there. We were bummed, hungover, missing our babies, sad to be leaving each other, and hungry.

After a coffee jolt & (more) selfies in the park, we gave out a million hugs and started to head home. Yeah, the drive there was exciting. The drive back? Not so much. Pretty sure Lyndsay & I would've paid a homeless man to drive us while we slept in the back seat.  

We made it home around 7pm, and I could not wait to squish my girls. They were pretty excited to see their momma....until I pulled out their gifts from my trip. Momma turned into old news once a stuffed Doc McStuffins entered the picture.

SO! End of the post! Great weekend. Great city. Great women. Great food. GREAT drinks. Amazing time.

Cleveland 2013? You betcha (see! it's fun!)