November in a Flash

November was like a catapult shooting us toward December. Now I find myself standing in the wake of it's madness with December on the other side of this night and all I can think is, what the hell have we been doing all month?

Well, here's the answer.

CARNIVALS

 Why yes, the picture on the left is one of me drinking a beer from home while sitting in my daughter's stroller. This would be a good time to mention this carnival is walking distance from my house.

HOME HYSTERIA

I swear, I walked in on her like that.

PREGNANT BOOBIE CAKE (x2)

FIRST HAIRCUT

Yes, I cut those bangs all by myself!

LEARNING TO BAKE

LEARNING TO DRIVE

CATCHING FIRE PREMIERE

MEETING SANTA

WORK WITH MOMMY

 

BLACK FRIDAY

FSU BECAME #1

...and MUSTACHES

 

The end. Bye November.

❤A

Kickstarting November

With October in our rear-view, it is finally holiday season! Turkey, more birthdays (including mine), Christmas shopping and tree decorating are in our near future, but the holiday season is also about spending time with loved ones--both planned and not.

This past Friday Ryan and I went out on the town to celebrate his 29th birthday. Auntie Evan stayed home with Mila Girl while we grabbed dinner with some friends and surprised Ryan with tickets to JJ Grey and Mofro at Jannus Live. The show was epic, they played all the hits as well as some new stuff. Ryan and I worked our way through the crowd to the front and hung out with some old hippies. It was great not being the oldest people at a concert.

When we left Jannus Ryan and I were walking around Downtown St. Pete, it was "First Friday" so the streets were closed and the booze was flowing. We were talking about which bar we should go to, but then some how found ourselves back at our car and climbing in--who were we kidding? We did make one stop before we got home, at Steak and Shake for milkshakes.

Saturday was the laziest of days--not because I was hung over but because sometimes they're needed. Jonah, Mila and I wore jammies until about 3PM when I decided that we should go for a stroll around the neighborhood in FSU gear, pretending to be walking to Doak for the FSU vs. Miami game.

Sunday started off as a day dedicated to jammies too, which quickly turned into cleaning the house in jammies, then some how evolved into an impromptu trip to the Brocante Vintage Market with Mila and some of my girl friends. While checking out at the market, where I somehow only ended up buying things for other people, a woman told us about the Folk Festival just a few blocks away. Local craft beer, art and live music? Sold. We decided to drive the 13 blocks and found ourselves turning down an alley--so many alleys in this damn town-- in search of a parking spot. We found the perfect spot right in front of a brewery none of us had ever heard of, Green Bench Brewing Co.

"Girl's Day, you say?"

In search of an adventure, we decided to stop by Green Bench before heading to the Folk Fest. This place is awesome. Not only were there tons of other kids there, they have a huge beer garden, tons of choices and a super helpful and friendly staff.

Humorously enough, MJ wasn't the only one subject to a wardrobe change, her Auntie V also found herself in a new shirt after dousing herself with her very first beer of the day. Luckly, as previously stated, the crew at Green Bench was helpful and friendly. They made sure V had a new beer and "GB" tank top just as quickly as the spill happened.  

If the rest of the month is as must fun as this past weekend, I'm going to be exhausted by Thanksgiving.

❤A

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet!

Mila didn't merely "enjoy" trick or treating, she absolutely loved it with every fiber of her being. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen our family costumes. But for those of you who haven't, here you go!

Maybe it's because it has been more than 11 years since Aladdin came out, but baby "Abu" costumes don't seem to exist anymore. I looked everywhere on the web I could think to look, I went to several costume shops and even reached out to a few Etsy seamstresses, all without luck. Furthermore, Aladdin's "street rat" costume is also very hard to find. The only one I found was on ebay and the "Buy It Now" price was over $100. No, thank you! Feeling frustrated, and a bit defeated, I had the crazy idea to make our costumes. I found a $20 monkey suit at Target, got some fabric at Jo-Ann's and used a turquiose Holdensmaaa bandeau top for me. BAM! Oh, and the hats are solo cups I cut and covered in fabric haha!

I'm pretty proud about how well our costumes turned out, we got several compliments from other parents and trick-or-treaters. I suppose I had never really noticed before, but not too many parents dress up. And while I saw a couple of mini Princess Jasmines running around, I was definitely the only adult one--which is probably why a little girl actually thought I was the real Princess Jasmine. She walked past us with her dad staring at me so I smiled at her, she gasped and squealed to her father, "Daddy, it's Princess Jasmine!" Naturally, this made my night--well, almost.

The best part of the whole experience was showing Mila the ropes. She has no fear, she would march right up to people and hold out her hand for candy. She did try to go into the first few houses (she didn't understand that we were just stopping by) but she got the hang of it eventually. As soon as we would stop the wagon, she'd stand up to get out, hold my hand and run up to the house for her candy. She would just as quickly turn back around and run back to the wagon. Mila was the youngest kid in our group, yet outlasted everyone and was even still running around the house like a little monster at 10PM when we got home.

After we tucked Mila in, Ryan and I slept through watched scary movies on the couch, which was always my favorite part of Halloween as a kid. Everyone gathers on the couch in jammies while pigging out on the newly earned candy stash*. Perfection.

❤A

*One of my childhood best friends past away last year. She is the one who taught me to love scary movies. I remember doing this on Halloween with her so many times. At the celebration of her life, I promised her I would show Mila all of the classic scary movies when she is old enough. I'm going to keep that promise and I'm going to tell Mila that the only reason I love Freddy Krueger so much is because of my brave friend, Rebecca, who taught me to never fear.