2017 Father's Day Recap

Well, it's Friday ... and I'm just now getting a chance to recap our fun Father's Day weekend. Better late than never, right?! I'm such a lucky gal to have so many great men in my life. What a great day to celebrate the extra special dudes and let them know how thankful we are to have them in our lives.

• Father's Day 2013
• Father's Day 2014 - blog post fail.
• Father's Day 2015
• Father's Day 2016

This year, we had a full weekend of daddy-centric festivities. I started out by taking the kiddos to the local pottery paint store and letting them pick out their favorites items to decorate. It was so cute hearing Bennett tell my why every person deserved each special piece and the significance behind each one.

We left the pieces at the shop to be fired and picked them up Saturday so we could wrap them up and give them to our special fellas Sunday!

Saturday, I gave Shane his early Father's Day gift and we finally pulled the trigger on something we've been talking about for a long time ... BUYING BIKES! We went to the shop and had our bikes fitted, picked out all the things and are so excited to start riding.

After some lunch, we headed home to get cleaned up for the soccer game and cheer on our favorite boys in purple, Lou City FC ... because what would Father's Day be without some sort of sports activity?!

Sunday morning we woke up and made our guy a yummy breakfast, complete with snuggles and some fun gifts. And then we got cleaned up to head to Churchill Downs ... because growing up in Kentucky, you learn to have a love for the ponies at a young age.

I had to snag a pic of little miss' braided piggies! Hehehehe!

We met up with Shane's dad and headed to the Rose Lounge for a fun filled day.

 It was our kiddos first time at the track and they LOVED it!!

 But, when Churchill Charlie came to visit with the kiddos Lainey pulled a Disney World and HATED the character! HAHA! So we admired from a afar.

And then distracted them by letting them choose a horse and placed a bet. And wouldn't you know ... Mister B won! Lucky little fella!

Around midday we headed down to the paddock to meet up with my family and say Happy Father's Day to another very special fella in our life, PaPaw!

And little monster had fun with Uncle Jon Ryan and Aunt Brooke too!

 Plus, GoGo!!

 Heart is full.

 The kids loved seeing the ponies up close.

 And Lainey learned how to handicap.

 It was a great way to wrap Father's Day 2017! We love you all!

Kentucky Derby 143

Another Kentucky Derby is officially under our belts and this year was MUCH better than last year (ha!)!  I was in super recovery mode last year from a series of pretty nasty surgeries, so to be right up in the action with finish line seats was a far better time this year!

I've been going to the Derby since I was a youngin' - my parents were always awesome and included us in such a Kentucky staple. And even though I've been more times than I can count, every year it's always just as magical. And it's the absolute BEST time to live in Kentucky.

This year the weather was a super bummer (rainy + cold), but the Bluegrass has some Derby magic and come time for the 143rd run for the roses the sun was indeed shining bright on our old Kentucky Home! <3 I rocked black jumpsuits, wellies, and fascinators both days and couldn't have been more pleased with my choices.

First up was a gals day at the track for the Kentucky Oaks. I went with one of my lifelong besties, Jessica, we've been friends since kindergarten and it was such a fun gals day (minus the frigid temps). Before we left for a super fun breakfast little Lainey gal joined the fun and wore one of my fascinators from years past.

If you know anything about Derby week, you know it's ALLLLL about the fashion ... well that and the ponies ... and the celebrities, and the parties, and mint juleps (HA!)! But .... back to the fashion. There are A LOT of options of places to sit (or not for that matter) and with better places to sit comes a heft price tag right along side of it. So, for a fun a last minute girls day ... we opted for the cheap seats (because we had no idea the weather would be so cray) ... and therefore when you're not under cover and gonna be walking for miles ... you ditch the beautifully fancy shoes and embrace the rain boots! BEST decision EVER!

All of these girls ended up ditching their heels and wearing rain boots too ... but for the sake of the photos they adorned heels (look who didn't have hers, heheheee).

 We finished the night with a yummy yummy gals night dinner and wrapped the Oaks, just to wake up and do it all over again for Derby!

And whew, my Derby date was lookin FLLYYYYYY. Oh heyyy rain boots (again!) ... I actually switched out of the rain boots by race three and rocked heels for the rest of the day because the weather gods were on our side with that Kentucky Derby magic. But, alas - the only photo we have I'm rocking those pink wellies again.

 Hey pretty mama!

And all the fascinator love! I made both of my hats you see in these pics (I've done it every year since I've been a kiddo - a lot of us Louisville gals do) and it's absolutely one of my favorite parts of Derby. I think my Oaks day fascinator was actually my favorite of the two, but it didn't photograph that well. The top of it was much more to write home about than the straight on view. But, either way, my late night glue gun creations are my favorites and seeing all of the hats and fashion at the track is just something unlike anything else.

 Fam Bam!

And finish line fun with the baby bro in from NYC and daddy-o! We didn't have the winner, but man did we have fun!

Hope to be back next year for 144 ... come with me, I promise you'll have a good time!

Toodle-oo March

And just like that our magnificent March has come to an end and we're steaming full speed ahead into April. We rounded out the month by meeting up and spending a great day in Lexington, KY with some of our favorites. Our new little miss, Brighton Marie, her big sisters, beautiful momma, MaKenzie, and Aunt Toby!


I've mentioned before, the new house will be Farmhouse decor, and my Aunt has a niece on the other side of her family that has very similar taste. Erin has a BEAUTIFUL home in Nicholasville, KY ... just outside of Lexington and it is what dreams are made of. Guys, her hardwood floors are made of legit barnwood. Like the entire home is floored in an old barn. Swoon. So, when we were talking about our new house one day, Aunt Toby wanted me to walk through the house before I got too far into selecting my finishes, in case I found some great ideas. Plus, we never pass on an opportunity to play together!

I love how she re purposed an old antique to become a vanity! So cool.

More barnwood use! Love. I'm doing this in our master bedroom and our hall bath on the first floor and seeing it in action made me 100% certain I've made the right choice!

It was a quick trip, but I loved seeing all these pretty ladies and the home was awesome! Since we were in Lexington ~ aka ~ horse country, we thought it would be a great time to head over to Keeneland and see my momma's racehorse. My dad bought stake in a racehorse for my mom for their anniversary this year and perfectly enough he was being trained that morning at the track. Spring meet begins next week, so all of the horses are working out at Keeneland. Spring meet brings back so many college memories ... but taking my babies to the track was certainly different than I remember from college, HA!

We gave them donuts to give them a little sugar boost, to ensure they'd last long enough to walk through the stables and hang with Honor Mission, our horsey!

 Horseys and littles. Kentucky can be pretty perfect.

 We woke Honor Mission up from his nap ... ain't he pretty!?

 And momma was reunited with mister.

And Lainey perfected her horse sounds.

 And then we all gave him a little lovin'

It was a perfect day <3

And then we cruised into our low key weekend getting ready for our big Spring Break trip this week - DISNEY!!! Of course we forgot to pack the kiddos travel stuff when we moved back from Nash, so we had to rebuy all of their headphones, etc. (moving/packing fail). But Bennett was pretty amazed by Best Buy and Lainey liked the new way to ride in the cart ... so we'll count it as a win.

We packed, we prepped, we hung out, we kicked off spring break with ice cream for dinner with a visit to my childhood ice cream joint, Berry Twist, and we even made it to Tee-Ball! It was the perfect cruise into our magical week and I absolutely cannot wait!

So toodle-oo March ... we're heading to the most magical place on earth and kicking off April in the best possibly way! Oooooooohhhhh toodles!!!! M-I-C-K-E-Y!!!!!!!!!!