Tupelo Honey

delaware lately.

the past 3 week(end)s have been full of celebrations. i turned 32, we took a trip to nyc to say goodbye to a dear friend before he embarks on a yr long trip to south america, and madeline turned 2!

andy testing out the new treadmill he put together with beer in hand//birthday treats//1.21.12 6am birthday snow//a virtual birthday text of my favorite breakfast from the turys

2012 is the year that i get back on track in taking better care of myself. i’ve devoted the last 3 years to birthing and caring for these sweet, sweet babies of ours but somewhere along the way i stopped making myself a priority. i’ve declared 2012 as the year of me and will not apologize for marking out time each day to focus on being the best version of me. this includes minor changes- working out more, reading an hour a day, spending that extra 15 min to dry my hair instead of pulling it back straight out of the shower, and focusing on my biggest insecurity- my skin.

when andy asked me what i wanted for my birthday, i threw out a suggestion that would help me meet one of my goals for this year. he knew that i was having a hard time making it to the gym so he was supportive when i asked if it be possible to bring the gym to me. after some googling, we found a treadmill for a great deal (HALF OFF) online. i usually have buyer’s remorse after purchases like this- they feel so selfish these days, don’t they?- but i refuse to let myself feel guilty about this one. i’ve been exercising every day while reading my new magazines (gift subscriptions FTW) and watching tv… it’s a little chunk of ‘me time’ each day that i really look forward to desperately need. 

you loyal readers out there know how much i love me some snow… i couldn’t believe my eyes when i woke up to snow on my birthday! once the kids woke, we bundled them up and walked over to our neighborhood coffee shop for breakfast. 

i have been hoarding a box full of gift cards and decided that my birthday would be the perfect time to use some of them. in sticking with the year of me theme i scheduled an appt with my hair dresser here in delaware, then drove to philly for an afternoon of facial pampering at a spa in rittenhouse square that specializes in skin treatments. i have sun damage from 13 years in the FL sun and acne scaring on my face that i’m super sensitive about, so my facial also included microdermabrasion and a chemical peel. i still have 2-3 more treatments left before i can get the result i’m looking for, but this was the start of something big for me. my skin has never felt or looked better and i can’t wait to share my before/after pictures with you when i’m finished with the process. 

my birthday happened to fall on the same day that our neighbor friends were throwing a going away party (they’re moving to the ARTIC CIRCLE, so cool) so we all got dolled up and spent the evening with some of our favorite families that live on our street. 

the next morning we went to a birthday brunch with the in-laws and headed back to their house afterwards to play in the snow. andy had promised madeline that he would build her a snowman and she couldn’t stop talking about it- she carried her carrot nose around for hours! unfortunately the rain had set in earlier and the snow had a thin layer of ice over it. andy got creative and used some snow from the birdbath to make a mini snowman. so precious.  

a few pictures of us goofing around// playing with some of the premium picnik features before it shuts down- booooooo. 

the state/carolina game. pictures on the left were taken before the game. pictures on the right were taken shortly after tipoff… needless to say, it was ugly. 

baking rainbow cupcakes/learning our colors. i’ll accept the side eye from you for letting mads have a few licks of the batter- i know better ;) 

play date at the children’s museum. another gift certificate we received- membership for a year and the best part? we can bring friends! thank you grandma and da! we love it and go at least once a week. 

the weekend after my birthday was spent in manhattan with some of our most favorite people. our dear friend eric is traveling around south america for a year+ and our group of friends wanted to send him off in style. we drove/flew in from all over the east coast- boca raton, wilmington (nc), raleigh, dc, new jersey, and delaware to say goodbye. this group is pretty special to us- fraternity brothers, roommates in college, the ones responsible for introducing andy and i, people that have seen andy and i at our very worst and very best and love us unconditionally.  i can’t even begin to tell you how amazing that night was- as excited as we were to get back home to our babies, we didn’t want the weekend to end. i laughed until i cried, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

my favorite celebration of all though took place this past weekend- madeline’s second birthday! i took a lot of pictures so they deserve a blog entry of their own, which i hope to post tonight or tomorrow. 

i’m secretly happy that things are slowing down around here for the next few weeks- all this celebrating has left me pleasantly exhausted! i’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating- weekends like these are good for the soul.