Tuesday, April 30, 2019

White House Egg Roll

My friend Sarah gave me 6 tickets to the White House Egg Roll (which happens the Monday after Easter) and I was soooo excited!  Kevin was already going back to Charlotte Sunday evening after Grady's baptism and Easter.  I postponed my return by a day and we headed to DC which is about 2.5 hours from my parent's house.  Since we had 6 tickets and only my parents and children, we asked my cousin to come with us and that was such a blast!   

Here is Jenni and Molly Anne!  This was after we had been sniffed by the Secret Service dogs and gone through TSA metal detectors which is what's going on in the background of this!


Look how cute my parents are!  Mom had to walk a ton and that was a lot for her!  We dropped them off right at the entrance gate but it was still a lot of walking for anyone really!  



I'm going to be honest, the parking situation was kind of a circus that I hope to never have to relive again.  I tried to valet at a couple of nice hotels but it was all full.  I begged at the JW Marriott valet for them to tell me where to go because I had two children that needed the potty badly.  #momlife  I took our sequoia into an underground garage where the height limit was quite tight and I ducked down the entire time I was in there - anyone ever done that haha?!  I've parked in tight garages before but this was one where you had to honk around every corner - it was that tight.  And where I parked, I had to do a legit 20 point turn to get that bad boy out of my parking spot. Ahh! 

But check out these views and we had the most wonderful time! I'm cracking up at Molly Anne in this picture because I had no clue she knew to do that haha!


We were in Group B which is the only group where the Trumps came out!  We were the last of Group B to get in but it was worth it because....


we got this picture!


There were about 35,000 people expected all day and 5 groups so about 7,000 people per group probably.  But oddly it didn't seem THAT crowded!



My children don't even know how lucky they were to be there but I will tell them one day! 



I grew up going to DC for field trips and have been thankful to have been in the White House several times before 9/11.  It's much different now so this was extra special!



Waiting for the President to come out!  I don't care who you vote for, going to the White House is amazing.  The history and experience is unreal!  



This is the Reading Nook where many special guests read to the children.  For our group, it was the First Lady!



Grady was thrilled about his anklet! ;)



There they are!







There's Molly Anne with Trump in the background!


He came very close to us!


I think he was looking at us here! Ha!







They had a lot of different events set up all over the lawn.  Cookie decorating, egg rolling, crafts, photo ops, and many others.


They served eggs on a stick!  See Jenni's?!  Molly Anne loved that!



This was a little tunnel she loved.  


The gardens are stunning.


We stood in line for about 15 minutes to do the egg rolling.  Molly Anne was SO excited for this and I mean come on, who can say they rolled eggs right in front of the White House at this incredibly special and old event!?! 









She picked a red egg because ya know that's the closest to a pink egg haha. 


Then she flung that bad boy across the lawn!  egg ROLL!  Something like that..!


Proud and proud!  I LOVE this picture of her!  



So much fun! This is when my parents had found a bench for their old legs!!





Our time slot was 2 hours so we left about noon and on the way out, the children could mail themselves a post card! The postal workers were out there so we did that and of course visited with Cesar!  The secret service dogs have business cards sorta that the agent will give you if you ask!  So cute!  You know Molly Anne didn't hesitate to ask him for that!  



On the way out, they give you peeps, a wooden egg as a keepsake and White House jelly beans!  Grady and I walked back to our car and we picked up the crew on the way out of town.  

Took this from the car window.. (Dad was driving, don't worry)



And this happened instantly.  



And this one who hasn't slept in a car in forever....I was shocked about this but I think the weekend had caught up with her.  This is the girl who woke up at 4:15am one day the previous week to drive to Maryland and stayed awake the entire drive up and until I put her to bed at 6:45pm.  But the egg roll wore her out!



It was a WONDERFUL experience and I'm so thankful for Sarah giving us her tickets!  Thank you, thank you!  xoxo  If you ever get the opportunity, go do it!

Monday, April 29, 2019

Party Time

It was a busy weekend but full of fun!  First, let's rewind with last Wednesday night...my friends from Molly Anne's school all went out to CO for a girl's night!  I really really like hanging out with these girls and we've become pretty tight.  All of our kids are in the same class so it's super funny to chat about what we all hear about, and much more!  

I wore this popover (this is the one I have in black too), these jeans (both shirt and jeans are 30% off) and Laura Cox Design rattan earrings!




Swim lessons for Molly Anne on Thursday after school.  Her teacher said she's really improved so I'm thrilled with that progress.  Her teacher also said she has zero fear...hence why she is in lessons ha! ;)  



Shoe emergency.  We have casual Friday at work so usually I wear my TB flops during the Spring and Summer.  I knew at the end of last summer that I was going to have to get a new pair this year because these were my only ones not worn into the ground.  I WEAR my dressy flops, a lot. 

Well yeah they both basically split apart.  The right was so much worse so the girls at work hooked me up so I could run over to Nordstrom to get a new pair.  I ended up getting these (in color Makeup) and I have LOVED them so far.  Wore them all weekend.  Total classics.


Friday night randomly we went to the club for dinner and our neighbors were also there.  We let them all run wild outside afterwards so that always makes for an easy bedtime once we get home!  Greer on her birthday eve!


Kevin was the children whisperer!



Hanging with Mills in the backyard after the kids were in bed!  Pretty boy.



Yall I can't.  This was after the last formula bottle he will ever have.  I ended up deciding to start him on organic whole milk as of Saturday.  I'm a cold turkey kind of girl on that sort of thing.  He took the milk out of his bottle Saturday morning, sippy cup at lunch and a bottle before bed.  So now he'll get milk with all three of his meals and water with his snack.  I'll slowly transition out the two remaining bottles...meaning they'll probably be gone by the end of this week.  Yikes!  He turns one in less than two weeks so it's that time!  Ahhhhhhhhh. 



Saturday we went for a run and to the playground while Grady had his morning nap.  Mills went down the slide...he was real thrilled about that haha!


Then we came home and got the chalk out and after drawing stars and rainbows in front of our house, we decided to go draw something for Greer's birthday!  



Her birthday party was that afternoon - Peppa Pig themed and Hilary had the cutest decorations!






It was so fun celebrating sweet Greer!








These two stayed up WAY too late...like after 10pm late!  They were playing so well and having the best time.  And Molly Anne had taken a 3 hour nap too.  It was a special treat for sure because you all know how I'm a stickler about that 7pm bedtime!



Sunday morning hanging..


Our yard is looking good these days.  During their afternoon nap, Kevin and I took the furniture off the porch and I scrubbed the whole porch and all of the furniture and pillows.  It felt good to do something productive!



When Grady got up, I took them for a run around the hood.  



Then when Molly Anne got up, the three of us ran back over to the neighborhood playground for more playtime!  She tried to play with some neighborhood boys who were at least 8 years older!  We came back home, played in the driveway then the girls next door had their water table out so we did that until about 5:30!  It was such a nice day to be outside!

Hope everyone has a great week!