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Friday, February 27, 2015

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!!!


1. Ella and I made the mistake of hitting up our local Harris Teeter Wednesday night. 


HOLY CRAP. 
We were supposed to be getting 8-10 inches of snow later that night...and the store was a total mob scene. Like, people rushing around, almost no bread left on the shelves, crazy long lines...


2. How much did we actually get?! Ummm maayyybe half an inch! 


I mean, I'll take a snow day any way I can get one...but this was just sad! I was so excited for lots of snow, and instead it was a slushy mess.

3. My child was also disappointed in the lack of snow...although who are we kidding, this chick hates the cold! 


Bless her little Southern heart.

Also, something with her snowsuit (aka my snowsuit from 1985) makes her not be able to sit up...




Hahah...poor thing.

4. I'm finally going to see 50 Shades of Gray tonight with some friends!!!


I'm nervous....I haven't read any of the books, but I've heard they are....intense, shall we say?! If you have seen it, tell me...am I going to be super uncomfortable in the movie theater?!?

5. Also this weekend is the first sale of spring consignment season!! 


And I just got my first paycheck since last April...coincidence? I think not! 

Have a great weekend!! 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Life with Ella {Valentines, Snow Days & 2 Hour Delays}

Ok, ok. I know I said I wan't going to do any more weekly updates. However, I haven't had very much school recently, so that gave me a lot more time with my favorite toddler! (We had a workday Friday the 13th, Presidents Day holiday last Monday, snow days Tuesday and Wednesday, and then 2 hour delays Thursday and Friday! I've taught 10 hours in the last 10 days, ha!)

So anyway...let's back up to last Friday (the day before Valentines Day). Since we had an optional work day, I opted out of that and took Ella to on a Valentines play date instead! Everyone was wearing their pink and red and looked so cute!! 


Unfortunately, Ella missed the memo that Valentine's Day is supposed to be all about giving hugs and being nice to your friends. She thought it meant pull hair and bother anyone who was driving the cozy coupe! Here she is pushing poor Emmy out of the way...


Yikes, Ella! We need to work on the whole "gentle" thing!!

As if that weren't enough excitement for one day, then we went and opened Ella's very own bank account! She got so much money for her birthday, I was scared to put it in my account and "accidentally" spend it. So now it is safe in her own account!


Also: deposit slips are apparently delicious. 

The next day was Valentine's Day!


Of course we had to do a little photo shoot. 


Travis also got me these beautiful roses :)


Ella spread the love by helping Daddy with his beer...


...to distract him while she was hijacking the remote!


She turned on picture in picture, and had on some crazy channels. She is nuts! 

On Sunday, our friends Abbey and Brandon stopped by. Ella was especially interested in Brandon's keys.


Monday, we prepared for the gigantic snow/ice storm, by wearing our snowman bubble of course!


We also had to take my car in to get inspected. Luckily, we made it home before the roads got really bad!


Tuesday morning, we woke up to this:



I know it seems like a joke to my northern friends, but the roads really were a complete sheet of ice. Travis couldn't even go in to work!


Ella was NOT a fan of the snow/ice! Just like last year. At least she looks cute in my old snowsuit, right?!

On Wednesday, we had another snow day, but teachers had to go in for a workday. When I got home from school, I got Ella ready for the UNC vs Duke game (even though it started wayyyy past her bedtime)! She enjoyed shoving tons of Puffs in her mouth and looking out for any Duke fans. 


On Thursday, we had a 2 hour delay because it was so cold. After school, I had to go to the library to get some books for my class. It might not have been story time, but Ella still had a good time! Her favorite part? Pulling books off the shelves.


Friday, we had another two hour delay. At this point, I was wondering why we even bothered going to school at all this week. After school, we played with bubbles and had a dance party!


Saturday, we went out to dinner with our friends! We went to Stone Mountain Grill in Ballantyne. None of us had been there before, but we had a coupon so we decided to try it out. Everything was delicious and really reasonably priced!

{romper / tab}

We sat on the heated patio, where they had a big fire blazing in the fireplace, so Ella snuggled (or not) with her boyfriend after dinner. 


Today we just hung around the house. I ran a few errands and came home to find this:


How sweet, Ella and her daddy watching tv together! Until I looked at what they were watching...Nascar! UGH!!! What the heck. Apparently Ella was mesmerized by the cars zooming around. 

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and I don't think we are going to have any snow days this week...or 2 hour delays at that (its supposed to be relatively warm)! So this upcoming week will be the first full 5 day week I've worked since 2013!!!! I am not excited about it. At all. Add to the mix that I'm getting observed, and my kids haven't had a full day of school since February 12...it's going to be a funnnn week! 

Wine on Friday, anyone?! Or probably tomorrow night, and every night...who am I kidding! ;)

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Ella's 1st Birthday Party

Ok, so I am totally surprised that I am able to write this only 11 days after Ella's actual party!!! But since we didn't have school yesterday (and a workday today!) and my photographer got these back to me super quick....here are some of my favorites!!!

First, I realize that I haven't shown you the invitations yet!!


I ordered them from here as soon as we had gotten the pictures back from her cake smash photo shoot! :)

Moving onto the party decorations! I made most everything myself...because I am crazy and really enjoy doing stuff like this! 

{made by me...inspiration here}


Ella's cake was from Cheesecake, Etc., the same place that made our wedding cake! It was so delicious!! And then I made the cupcakes myself (Kathryn helped me frost them to look "fancy" haha!)!


{paper diamonds are from here}


For food, we had a fruit salad, meat, cheese & cracker platter, lemon blueberry coffee cake, mini quiches (Costco!), yogurt parfaits, donuts and cake/cupcakes. I wish we had gotten more meat and cheese because that was gone quickly!


One idea I saw when planning this whole thing was a time capsule. Each person writes a little note to the birthday girl for her to open on her 18th birthday! I read some of them after the party but had to stop because they made me cry!!!

{Chalkboard poster from here and printed at Walgreen's}


We had a wall where I displayed all of her milestones...


...and on the other side of the room, I displayed her monthly pictures!


I ordered a new tray and seat cushion for her high chair because the green ones we had didn't "match" (yes, I am that OCD) and also they were getting kinda dirty, anyway! I made the high chair skirt, but found inspiration here

My favorite part of the whole party (besides celebrating my sweet girl of course!)? The mimosa bar! Duh.


I found the small juice bottles at Target, the champagne glasses at Party City and everything else I already had (well, I borrowed the bowls from Kathryn). We got orange, pineapple, pomegranate blueberry and strawberry juices, and then had strawberries, blueberries and raspberries for people use as a garnish on top. Super easy and everyone loved it!



For our "guest book," I stamped Ella's footprints on a canvas (that was fun!) and had people sign their names with an aqua marker.


I made all of the signs with scrapbook paper and these letters. They are awesome!


For party favors, I just put a bunch of Hershey Kisses in baggies. The bags are from Target.


Homegirl got SO many presents! She is so freaking spoiled, but it's ok. She is the only grandchild, after all. 


She was still asleep for the first 20 minutes of her party, so when she woke up, she was a little confused about what was going on!


She also had NO interest in cake...she just wanted crackers!

Ella's hat, bib and onesie I ordered from here...she's the same girl who made her football leg-warmers and a few other things for me!

{#1 sparkler from here}

Bless her little heart. She hated her life at this point!


After we basically forced her to eat the cupcake, and she got some milk, she enjoyed herself a little more!


Then it was time to open presents!


I won't bore you with all of the pictures from that, but Ella cleaned up! She got 2 Lilly Pulitzer dresses, bows, a monogrammed dress, a stroller and clothes for her Bitty Baby, a new hook-on high chair, a water table, swimming pool, a play purse, tea set, dolls, books, toy camera, blocks, money...I am sure I am forgetting something, but gosh, she got a lot of stuff!!! And we didn't even have her open our big gift at the party! (We got her this play kitchen....Tiffany blue of course! It only took 3.5 hours of assembly. No joke!)


We took a few pictures with our families before it was nap time again for Ella. 


It was a great morning with our closest friends and family, celebrating our favorite one year old girl!!
And as always, I'm so grateful to Matt and Leslie from Elizabeth Scott Photography for taking pictures that we will treasure forever!!

Now....time to start planning next year's birthday party (and yes, I already have a theme and Pinterest board going)!!!!