family

Take Me Out to ShaneyFIELD!

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

We celebrated Dustin’s birthday Sunday night since we’ll be gone on our vacation on his actual birthday. I’m a HUGE sucker for throwing a themed-birthday party. I LOVE THEM! My mom always threw my sister and I themed birthday parties, so I told Dustin that this is most likely his last year of getting a themed party since hopefully next summer we’ll have a baby!!!

I realized a few things about Sunday night:

1. I need to take more pictures

2. I need to document that people actually attended

Dustin loves watching the Braves and this season has been extra fun watching them since they’ve been pretty good! Because of that, I threw him an Atlanta Braves Baseball Party!!

We grabbed a quick picture before the party started and I’m glad we did because this was our only one all night!

The rest of the pictures are food set-up. I decided to serve “ballpark food” aka food you’d buy in the ballpark.

One of the foods I served was a Frito pie. I went ahead and got the trays prepped with the fritos so our guests only had to add the cheese and chili if they wanted. I ordered these trays on Amazon!

I ordered the baseball plates and napkins from Amazon and had those set out at the beginning of the line. Then I borrowed two tiered galvanized stands to set out hotdogs and bags of chips. Dustin grilled the hotdogs early, and I wrapped them in foil in their buns–kind of like when you buy them at a ball field.

This was the other side. The hotdogs went on the bottom tiers of both stands and condiments went in the red tray on the right.

You can’t really see it on the sign, but it says “Welcome to ShaneyField”–I loved it! I had out a bucket of Cracker Jacks and a few bags of Big League Chew as favors. The cake was out of this world delicious!!!

Happy early birthday, D, and I can’t wait to celebrate your real birthday at the beach!!

When You Become Friends With Your Siblings

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

For those of you who are new around here, I have two sisters–one older half sister (Stefanie) and one sister only a couple of years younger than me (Rachel). Stefanie was 14 when I was born and didn’t live with us full-time, so I really don’t think I ever had the chance to get on her nerves as the annoying younger sister 😜 (or at least she hasn’t ever told me haha!). But Rachel on the other hand….

Rachel is 4 years younger than me, so we were the perfect age gap for her to get on my nerves when I had finally hit my teen years and felt “cool.”

I remember the fights we used to have growing up and how my mom used to tell both of us that after our parents die some day, Rachel and I would only have each other–so we better make up. As a teenager I didn’t quite get what my mom was telling us. It sounded morbid and I didn’t really want to be friends with Rachel at that point in my life.

But things changed once I graduated high school a moved two hours away for college. Rachel became a freshman in high school as I became a freshman in college and our relationship dynamic began to shift. No longer were we fighting horribly, but we actually missed each other.

After I graduated from college, I moved back home and got a job teaching at my old junior high. I lived with my mom and stepdad to save money, and after Rachel graduated from college, she stayed at home and went to a local college. That’s when our relationship changed the most. We finally became best friends.

Fast forward to today, we talk every day, live in the same town, and see each other constantly. I now understand what my mom was telling us so many years ago. We still fight but our fights as adults look much different than our fights as 12 and 16 year olds. I’m thankful for our friendship, thankful that we’ve both matured enough to become best friends.

Easter 2018 Lunch

Monday, April 9, 2018

Yes, I know this is a week late but let’s pretend it isn’t 😊 It really pays to have a professional photographer sister who brings her camera to every family function….and then edits the photos!

I hosted Easter lunch that would normally have been at my mom’s house, but my house is in town and closer. Plus, I was really excited to host this year!

**The china and crystal goblets are borrowed from my friend, Hailey. She’s the kind of friend who sees your blog post with Easter tablescape inspo and then texts you pictures of her china that she’s letting you borrow! (and because I know she’s reading this, Hi Hailey!)

**There aren’t any pictures from my dad because we ate Mexican that night with him to celebrate!

Be prepared for picture overload!