Friday Favorites

Ohhhhh Friday.  Sweet, sweet Friday.  I have been waiting for you since Monday morning.  This week I felt like this.every.single.day.

It's been a super rainy/stormy week, so I will blame the weather for my sheer exhaustion.  

After a busy few weeks, I'm really looking forward to just chilling this weekend.  And by chilling, I really mean cleaning and organizing.  I want to get the laundry room decorated and organized and start working on the bar area in the basement.  Our granite table top comes in tomorrow, and then I am free to decorate and fill the cupboards, cannot wait!!

Here are some of my favorites from this week...

I found this note that Alayna wrote for Emma's lunch, is there anything sweeter than this??!  And I love that she writes her last name!

After a super stormy day, this was the view from the porch, beautiful!!

Alayna had track and field day at school today.  Brad and I both went for the morning and we FROZE!!  Seriously, it was cloudy, windy and about 45 degrees, brrrrr!  We only got to watch her do the long jump.

She ended up coming in first place!!  She was so excited!  It was all the 5th graders from her school and 3 other surrounding schools.  We were pretty proud!

I forgot to post a pic of the pics that Emma made for me for Mothers Day, aren't these amazing??!!

And lastly, summer ball has begun!  Alayna loves playing softball, her team is really good and lots of fun to watch.

Happy Friday friends!!  Linking up with Andrea,  Erika and Narci

Kicking Off Summer!

This is my first time linking up with these ladies, this month it's all about Kicking Off Summer!



Oh summer.  When I think of summer, I think of lazy days by the pool, sleeping in, reading and just relaxing.  However, the older the girls get I feel like it's the busiest time of the year!!
This meme is what summer is like for me, lol!



This year we actually don't have much planned and I'm super happy about that!  I want the girls to enjoy summer and relax.  I'm really excited about having my house cleaners back, haha!!  The last couple summers, the girls have done all the cleaning and most of the laundry.  WIN!

So what do we have planned??

Making these ice cream sandwiches.



To go along with this strawberry lemonade...



After swimming for hours....



We cannot wait to celebrate the 4th of July , it's our second favorite holiday!



And enjoy campfires.  Can't wait!



I'm really going to work on getting Alayna excited about reading.  Reading isn't her favorite, so I am hoping to get her signed up for a book club at Barnes and Noble.  She will be so excited to get some new books.

So, that's what we're going to be up to this summer!!!

Mothers Day 2017

I had a WONDERFUL Mothers Day weekend!  It was busy, but full of family and fun...those weekends are the best!

Friday night we had Alayna's birthday party and Brad and I enjoyed a campfire while the girls giggled and watched movies.  Surprisingly the girls weren't too loud and actually were all sleeping by 11.

 Saturday was a gorgeous day out, I ran some errands in the morning and then we had the rest of the day open which was wonderful!  Brad and his brother were hanging doors, so the girls and I headed out for a walk in our woods.

We have 6 acres attached to Brad's parents farm.  It's so peaceful back there!

The dandelions were in full swing, and so beautiful.

We have a small pond that we like to go check out.  I would love to get a canoe to keep out there, it's so quiet.  We love coming back here, but with all the hunting going on, we don't get back there too often.

We had another bonfire that night, it was a glorious day enjoying the beautiful weather.

Sunday morning we relaxed and got ready for my mom and her husband to come over for brunch.  Brad always makes an egg bake and sausages and my mom brings Great Harvest bread.  So yummy!

After they left, the girls and I headed outside to soak up the sun.

Later in the day we headed to the farm to celebrate with Brad's family.  It was such a great weekend, I'm a very lucky momma to have such a wonderful family!

Rachel is all about the poses, so sometimes its fun to ham it up a bit.  :)

Alayna's 11th Birthday Party

We survived the last birthday party for 2017!!!  (My girls' birthdays are March-April-May) By the time May rolls around, my planning skills start to wane, ha!

We talked Alayna into an overnight party this year instead of a roller skating rink party.  The skating place in town is rough, and smelly and has CARPET on the walls.  Yuck.  She decided to have a movie theme, which worked perfect because I still had a lot of decor from Emma's Hollywood party a few years ago!

She had 5 of her little girlfriends over and they whooped it up!

They made mini pizzas for supper, went in the hot tub, sat by a fire (for all of 5 minutes and then were done, Brad and I enjoyed a nice night by the fire!!), had an ice cream sundae bar and then watched movies before being out like a light!

Of course I didn't get a single pic of her and her friends....Also, note the wine in the back, lol!!  Brad had picked up some of my faves on sale.

Happy birthday Mousey!!!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday everyone!  Oh my, what a week it's been!  Just one of those craaaaazy busy weeks.  Alayna started softball twice a week, her birthday party is tomorrow (6 little 11 year olds are coming overnight, pray for me, ya'll.), mothers day is coming and I'm plum running out of time!  It'll all be good, and we'll have an amazing weekend, but this chick is tired!

So here's what we've been up to....

Last Friday we had some friends over for Cinco De Mayo...I made a big batch of taco meat with all the fixins, and we made potato ole's.

Emma's sign she made, this girl is OBSESSED with making signs!

And, she made fried ice cream, it was SO good!

Sweet Brielle made cupcakes for mouses birthday (which was on the 2nd).

Saturday morning we cleaned up the house, did some laundry and then headed out to southern Mn for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party.  I laughed so hard at this pic of Alayna in the back!!

It was a GORGEOUS day and it was so nice to hang out with my aunts/uncles and cousins that we don't see very often.  Grandpa had what we think was a mini stroke on Friday, so he wasn't quite himself, but I know he enjoyed watching all the kiddos!

I absolutely love this pic of all the grandkids, the older kids are like "really right now"?" with trying to get the younger ones in the pic, haha!

My sweet mom (on the left) and her sisters with grandpa

 

This is my pain in the ass older brother.  I love him to pieces, but would like to beat him on a daily basis, if that makes sense.  Trying to call or text him is impossible, and making him commit to anything is but hilarious.  *sigh*.  However, he is probably the funniest guy I know, and just so fun to be around. 

We loved getting to spend some quality time with Grandpa, he is one special man!  So many wonderful memories with him and Grandma...

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms reading!  I am so grateful for this amazing little blogging community and friends I've found!

Hope you all have an amazing weekend!

Linking up with Andrea and Narci

Friday Favorites- Girlfriend Edition

Happy Friday everyone!  Linking up with Andrea, Erika and Narci for another rendition of...... FRIDAY FAVORITES!!

Last weekend we had our annual girls weekend, and it was a PERFECT weekend!!  Friday I left work at noon and we all met at Trisha's house.  We had NO idea where we were going, or what we were doing.  We ended going to Nisswa, which is about an hour away and full of lakes!  I loved the place we stayed, Good Ol Days Resort.  She was hoping to get us a small cabin, but they were all booked.  We stayed in their lodge (a lot like an AmericInn).  This was the view from our room.

We ate at Black Bear Lodge in Brainerd and then headed to our resort.  We spent the evening playing cards and having cocktails, it was so relaxing!  Until we decided to start a fire in the fireplace in the lodge.  I don't think the flue was open, and we ended up setting the smoke alarms off, we felt so bad!

Saturday we all got up and ate breakfast, got ready and headed into town.  It was gorgeous out!  There was a race in town, so lots of people, but we shopped and stopped for drinks and cards.  It's seriously so nice to just be able to do whatever we want.

We stopped at the Gull Dam Brewery, and it was such a cool place!  The outdoor area was amazing!  We played bean bags, and just hung out and enjoyed some delicious craft beer.

After that our next excursion was to do an escape room, and it was a TON of fun!  We did it with 2 other couples (that we didn't know) and we successfully finished with 4 minutes to spare!  So.much.fun!  I've done one other escape room, and this one was by far the best!

After the escape room, we headed to an old bar downtown and that seriously reminded all of us of the Cheers bar!  We got some drinks and played cards.  We were trying to find a place for a nice supper and another couple at the bar suggested Sherwood Forest restaurant, so I called and got reservations.  The food was amazing!  I had the pork carnitas, SO good!

Saturday night we just hung out in the room and chatted.  Nothing like girl talk!

Sunday we got up and had breakfast at the best little small town diner.  We tried doing more shopping, but nothing was open, haha.  We ended up going to Grizzlys for lunch and one more round of cards before we all headed home.

I was so happy to be home and see my peeps!  And, see the floors that Brad had done, he did the tile in the bathroom, laundry and my office.  They looked amazing!

Wednesday all the cabinets and counter tops went in.  LOVE it!!

This is the bar area in the 4th level.  We are still waiting for the granite to go over the wine barrel (that still smells like wine!!!) and the base to the right of the barrel.  We are so happy with how everything turned out!

This is the first time in my married life (19 years ya'll) that I've had a finished laundry room!  I seriously sit at work and daydream about how to organize all those cupboards in the laundry and the bar!!

Bathroom...Brad still needs to finish the shower.

All that is left is to install the trim and carpets and then we are DONE!!!!  Seriously, it's been over a year and a half of having my house in disarray. So worth it though.  Brad has worked incredibly hard to get all this done, I'm so proud and in awe of what this man can do!  Seriously, how does he know how to do all this??!!  One of the many things I love about him...

This weekend we are off to spend it with my extended family to celebrate my Grandpa's 95th birthday, cannot wait to see my family!!

I hope you all have an amazing weekend!!

Alayna #11

Today we celebrated my sweet baby's 11th birthday.  I can honestly say that I don't even know where to begin with this one.  Alayna is our "bonus baby" as my mom calls her.  We thought we were done at 2, but God had some pretty amazing plans for us!

Alayna is so many things.  First off, this kid is HILARIOUS.  She makes us laugh all day everyday.  Most suppers she has us in tears from her crazy dancing, or her facial expressions.

She loves school, and is definitely the class clown!  She loves playing outside, especially in the fort they made at the farm, but she also loves playing with her barbies. 

She loves her baby cousins to death, and is already such a good babysitter.  The funniest damn thing is watching her haul around Ellie who is 3.5 and just as big as Alayna!

We celebrated with donuts for breakfast and then Brad and I came to school to have lunch with her.  Emma made her this birthday sign, I LOVE it!  Her Grandpa Jerry gave her the nickname mouse because she's such a lil squirt.

For supper we went to Olive Garden for both her and Emma's birthdays.  She said it was the best birthday ever...her favorite gift was a gumball machine!!  I love that she's still so easy to please!

  I'll leave you with an epic picture of Alayna's personality, ha!!

We love you mousey!!