Charleston Baby Shower

As y'all might have seen a couple of months ago on this little blog (here's the link if you would like to check it out!), my mom hosted the sweetest baby shower for me when Mike and I were in Connecticut for our last pre-baby Northeast trip.  Well, she is so kind and also wanted to do something for Mike and I with our friends in Charleston, but being a thousand miles away in Rhode Island, she started scheming with one of my best friends and coworkers to put together the perfect co-ed party for all of our friends.  Obviously, the word "shower" was not used at all (in fear of scaring away all of our male friends haha), and this party came together as the perfect bbq-eating, beer-drinking, lawn game-playing event to bring all of our friends to one place.  To put the "theme" in perspective, even the traditional "diaper cake" had layers of Bud Light cans, which everyone loved!

If you are interested in any of the vendors, make sure you scroll all the way to the end for a full list!

When guests arrived, they signed two of the sweetest "guest books."  My mom bought a second thumbprint page to frame alongside the turtle print from my shower in Connecticut.  Both prints definitely have plenty of character, and we can't wait to hang them in the nursery!

Charlie also bought a copy of Mike's favorite childhood book, Fox in Socks, and guests all signed different pages.  We cannot wait to read all of the messages the first time we read our little dude the book!

With this crowd, personalized koozie favors and plenty of beer were must-haves.  The food was all catered by one of our favorite spots, Home Team BBQ - who doesn't love a taco bar and tons of queso?!

As if that wasn't enough food, we also had two cakes, and both were delicious!  One was even made by one of our kickball friends, and as you can see from the photo below, our kickball family is definitely the absolute best!!

Thank you so much to Charlie and my parents for hosting such a perfect event for Baby Taylor, Mike, and me!

Vendors: alligator thumb print guest book ||| "a baby is brewing" koozies ||| catering ||| golf-themed cake ||| alligator cake ||| my dress ||| all other details DIYed by the amazing Charlie!

2019 at The Masters and DIY Round Up

Happy Masters weekend, friends!  Last July, I received one of the most amazing emails ever: I was selected for the random Masters ticket lottery.  If you haven't heard of it before, this is how tickets are distributed for the tournament; someone in your household can enter the free lottery in the spring, and in the summertime, you hear if you were accepted or not.  Well, we were selected for 4 Tuesday practice round tickets, and I've been looking forward to this week ever since.

We arrived before the 7am gate opening (even though every website will tell you 8am, you can actually get in an hour earlier to go to the gift shop, concessions, and practice range before access to the course opens at 8am).  We ate chicken biscuits, shopped for ourselves (and all of our families), and checked all of our purchases to pick up later.

As you can probably tell from my first few photos, it was a rainy morning, but we made the most of it and got great seats in Amen Corner to watch the couple of groups come through.  While Mike drank a couple beers, I had the famous Stand 12 punch (lemonade, blue powerade, and Sprite) along with plenty of sandwiches and peach ice cream sandwiches.

 Around 11am, we did get kicked out for a couple of hours as a line of thunderstorms was in the area, but at 12:45 when they let us back in, the sun came out and the rest of the afternoon was perfect!

I'm unsure if we will be back next year after our little dude is born, but we will definitely still be entering the lottery, just in case!

Whether or not you're headed to August this weekend, if you plan on celebrating this weekend, click on the photo below to visit my post and get in the spirit!

 

 

March Review

Happy April!  Last year, I loved doing these monthly reviews, and I hope to continue them this year, especially as life gets a little crazier in less than 2 months with Baby Boy.  I cannot believe I'm already at 32 weeks!

This month started with Mike's 33rd birthday!  I swear he doesn't always dress like that, but his birthday fell on "pirate day" for kickball theme weeks.  Of course, I made the same cupcakes I've made for Mike for the last 5ish years: inside out cupcakes.  They're otherwise called black bottom cupcakes, but we call them "inside out" so that I don't feel as bad when I don't frost them;  we count the chocolate chip cheesecake filling the frosting, and trust me, you don't miss the frosting on top - they're so sweet! 

Speaking of sweet things, we also visited the newest hotel in Charleston with the best French bakery.  Hotel Bennett's La Patisserie is amazing!  Mike got an apple and pear turnover, and I got a chocolate banana croissant (plus a toffee brownie to go - haha). 

The following weekend, we went to Disney World for the weekend to spend time with Mike's family.  They were spending a long weekend down there, and being only 5 hours away, it seemed like to perfect excuse to see them.  We stayed at the Grand Floridian for the first time as a little babymoon treat to ourselves, and it was amazing being on the monorail.  We also visited all 4 parks in 2 days and tried some of the new Disney food, including that "Up!" Dole Whip cone in the second photo.  The mango soft serve was so good!  Plus, it was Flower & Garden festival in Epcot, and it was amazing to see all of the topiaries and colorful blooms.

Halfway through the month we started celebrating St. Patrick's Day (and that went on for a good ten days!) including my last game of kickball before maternity leave. 

This month also finally brought the Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.  I literally bought tickets for this show a year and a half ago, so I've been looking forward to it forever.  I loved getting to see Elton one last time, and his energy was amazing!

Last but not least, we started with our nursery prep and got in plenty of walks around the city.  Roxy has become our little shadow every time we go into the nursery, and we have the crib and some of the furniture!  The nursery is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in the house!

Oh, and the month ended with more birthday celebrations for Mike.  One of our friends thought we hadn't spent enough time celebrating yet, so we surprised him with birthday dinner, cake, and bowling - because why not?!  He's the best and deserves it!