Showing posts with label festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label festival. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Bienvenido a Miami

How to sum up such a weekend? Let me try.

Hotel.
Champagne poolside.
Spa.
Festivals on the beach.
Foooooood.
And all with great company.
 [Michael Symon, from The Chew]

That still doesn't do it justice, but we don't have time for an overload. This was one of the best weekends! Just long enough to have a relaxing few days with my hubby, but just short enough to get back to my babies. I really missed them.

As much as I enjoyed this weekend of paradise, [as crazy as it sounds] it's good to be back to reality

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The Best of 2013... into the New Year!

To accumulate all of the memories 2013 brought us, I decided to share them in photos.

Here are a few highlights!

1. The BEST vacation 2. Audriana's first haircut 3. Derby [faaaamous] 4. My Best Friend's Wedding
1. First day of Preschool 2. My first volleyball team 3. Fall festivals 4. First Halloween at the zoo
1. Family tailgates 2. New York babymoon 3. First gymnastics class 4. Disneyworld!
On November 24th, I was baptized...
1. First visit with Santa 2. A priceless expression on Christmas morning... my favorite.
Lastly, we ended the year the best way we could have thought possible. Breezing through all the holidays and holiday birthdays, our baby boy landed his own special day on December 28th. Audriana was so excited to meet her baby brother, and we were on cloud nine with the completion of our family.
This passed year has been filled with so many blessings.

Although I could relive each memory over again in a heartbeat, I'm more than ecstatic to begin our newest journey this coming year.

2013, you were good to us...


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Trunk or Treat

This weekend was full of Halloween fun. Saturday was our trip to the zoo, and Sunday was the annual "trunk or treat" festival at our church. A great compilation of kid activities, and volunteers decorating their car trunks in rows for the kiddos to walk around and collect candy. It gets pretty creative. The first part of the day consisted of a bounce house, inflatable slides, train ride (with her Pop, of course), and putt-putting. My sweet girl wanted to stick with the princess theme this year, so she wore her Rapunzel dress this time around.
Our church gets so creative with the activities. I just love it. Next we were moving on to the pony ride. In all honesty (a mother's confession) I was not looking forward to it; poop on the ground, repugnant smells, and the longest line EVER. Regardless, we do it for our kids, right? I know the pregnancy doesn't help with the patience on these things - it's a fact - but we manage. There for a moment she seemed to be over the long line herself! But when we made it to the front, she was revved up and ready to go.

Shockingly, we nearly had to beg her to go trunk or treating that day. She just wanted to play! By all means, my darling. I'll never complain about my daughter refusing candy... except that was the whole reason we came! Somehow we managed to ignite her interest by pointing out all the silly costumes we saw through the row of decorated cars. Our favorite was a family of minions.
Cars were lined about 5 rows across, and about 8-10 cars deep up and down. Now and then we found ourselves at a standstill. But all for the love of trick-- TRUNK or treating! :) She was having a blast, and it's funny to see people you know. For instance, Chris' aunt and uncle dressed as Duck Dynasty. Ha! 
Well it's Wednesday, meaning one day closer to Halloween, meaning two days closer to the weekend, meaning OUR ANNIVERSARY! Just thought I'd share that little bit of news. :) 

Happy Hump Day, everyone!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Harvest Festivals ::look book::

Well here we are three post days later. I'm getting quite good with that. Although, the excuse is exceptional if I do say so myself. As mentioned, this weekend was full of festivities and began on Thursday! Needless to say, I am exhausted. Nevertheless, the weekend was incredible and I'd relive it all over again. Except for the fact that I may or may not have gotten sick from all the food... literally, sick. Not that the food was by any means intolerable, just my stomach's intolerance to the over consumption. Moving on! I'm excited to share some of the highlights of this weekend. Given the amount of photos I gathered, I decided on a few look book collages. Get ready for a photo overload.

The following consists of the line for dumplings, our lunch after waiting in said line, Jess and her roasted corn on the cob, the children and the freaky pumpkin that Audriana was obsessed with, and lastly me and my girl.
A successful afternoon!
Next is our second day, split into two occasions. Earlier in the afternoon, Audriana and I met up with Jess, my mom, aunt, mother-in-law, sister-in-law. We had the usual for lunch (yes, more dumplings) and then enjoyed a few games for the little one. She attempted at the race car game, got some cotten candy and a balloon (a pretty sweet gumball machine) and lastly made her first sand art!
Second half (me in new attire, given I sweat my butt off that morning - hot!) we went back down for our last venture around the booths. Along for the final night was Chris, Audriana, my parents, my aunt and uncle. We like to make sure we take up the whole street when we walk through the crowds. Ha. Well no dumplings were consumed for this occasion, given we just had them that afternoon, but don't you worry, we already stocked up and had them in the fridge at home. This time around we enjoyed some roasted corn, pumpkin ice cream (not pictured), and apple dumplings. Mmmmm.
That concludes our Harvest Homecoming adventures!! Did you see the size of that cup? Those were the apple dumplings. Seriously, it's no wonder why my stomach ached this weekend. All worth it, though.

Next was our adventure to Gallrein Farms for another family festival. We're talking trains, hay rides, pumpkin patch, hay stack pyramids, face painting, bounce house, and pony rides - to name a few. It's open to the general public, but my husband's work reserved an area for their private party. Thank goodness for that, because in most cases that means clean bathrooms. I celebrate those little perks given my frequent potty breaks.

So moving forward from my pregnancy blatter nonsense. Here are some photos I was able to capture of our family fun day. It was a looooooong afternoon (1pm-6pm) but we survived! First we made our way to the pumpkin patch. There we found one for mommy & Papa Chris, then two of the smallest pumpkins I've ever seen for Audriana and her baby brother. :)
Next we had some lunch, and awaited the raffle drawing for prizes. No winners here, but we didn't walk away empty handed. Having children always means some sort of goodie bag. So a few candy bars later, we were now on to the general public area for more fun! 
Here the girls rode on a John Deer train, got their faces painted, rumbled around on hay stacks, and Audriana experienced her first horseback ride by herself - while I nearly had a heart attack.
So like I said... what a weekend!!! Luckily after a good bath and early bedtime, babygirl and I slept in till around 8am this morning. Much needed, at least for me. She was up and at it, ready to paint her and her brother's pumpkin! So that's on our agenda today. Oh yea, check out the size of this baby pumpkin.




They always say to count your blessings, and I certainly do everyday. I'm grateful for the opportunities God allows for days like these; beautiful weather, the gathering of friends and family. This weekend could not have been more perfect, and I find myself speechless in ways to describe my happiness.

I love my family, and I cherish these moments together. Tomorrow is never promised, so we should always be grateful for the current moments we embark on and take advantage of enjoying every second. He is good to us, and not a day goes by where I forget that.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Harvest is here!

Well folks, the time has come. Our town's annual festival is here!!! It's the week anticipated year after year. Literally, once the week is over I set a countdown for the next one. It's that serious. My husband kids me all the time, apologizing that he doesn't share the same thrill for this holiday (it should be). Nonetheless, he joins me on my food fest. Deep inside, I know he loves it too. Who can't?!?!

What makes this festival so special to me, is the overload of delicious food options and the inevitable reunion of old classmates; sometimes pleasant, sometimes not. For me I always enjoy seeing new/old faces, so I'd say it's a pleasant encounter. I can't wait to share the details of this weekend with everyone!

There will be an overindulgence of chicken & dumplings, sweet roasted corn, pumpkin ice cream, and apple dumplings; just to name a few. Mmm I just had breakfast and my mouth's still watering.
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