Charlottesville, VA

John has become a big fan of Sturgill Simpson here in the last 6 months. So much so that he purchased concert tickets back in July for his concert in Charlottesville, VA (which is 3.5 hours away) knowing that we have several babysitters that we love here, but none that I'm comfortable with leaving my girls overnight with. I'm really only okay leaving my girls with the grandparents overnight. John was going to just go alone, but last minute (like Thursday) I thought that it might be fun for the girls and I to go with him and just have a hotel slumber party while John was at the concert. Monticello is also there and I doubt I knew what that was in first grade, but Meyers does. We had planned to take them there the next day, but there was some event going on and all the family friendly tour passes were sold out. Plan B was to take them to the University of Virginia. Apparently it's a really pretty campus and fun to run around on and you can see Monticello from some parts of it. But there was a home game, so that plan got scrapped. Plan C was to walk around downtown and to go to the Virginia Discovery Museum and that's what we did! We headed home Saturday afternoon.


I packed quickly while the girls were at school on Friday. Emery gets picked up at noon and I told her then that we were heading out of town after we picked Meyers up and she was pumped! We packed up the car and headed back to pick up Meyers from school and told her we were leaving right then to head to Charlottesville. She was so excited! Our girls love a hotel and an adventure:).

dinner with my girls

Meyers was wanting me to give her sentences to write and classify:)

M looking so studious:)

Slumber party with a movie

E was exhausted and wanted my sleeping mask (I've gotten high maintenance in my old age and I need a sleep mask, my pillow and white noise to sleep well. Ha!

Playing drums at the museum

Serving up some Panera

E giving John an eye exam

Dr. Emery

Riding on the carousel that you have to push. It was super cute!

Virginia Discovery Museum

The downtown mall area is so cute. There are so many cute shops and restaurants. It was such a pretty day to walk around!

M outside a toy shop.

It's such a pretty city. We are definitely going to come back again for a longer weekend AND to see Monticello.

Spirit Week

Our school always has spirit week the week before we track out. The kids are so done by this week and I'm pretty sure grades are in, so it's definitely a fun week for them!

Monday was twin day.

M looked like such a big kid!

Emery and Lily

When I picked E up from prek, I walked over to M's building to grab a pick with her quadruplets:) They are all in the same math class, but in different homerooms. When I pulled them out of class at lunch to take a picture in the hall, they all started hugging and squealing - it was so cute! I wish I could've gotten a better picture. It was definitely a glimpse into the future when I have a preteen:)

The quadruplets

Tuesday was superhero day!

I'm sort of obsessed with these dresses! There's even a cape on the back.

Emery's prek buddy. They aren't in the same class, but we chat in the parking lot every morning before drop  off.

M ended up with some twins even though it wasn't twin day:)

The hand holding!!! So cute!

Wednesday was Star Spangled Banner day.

M with the girls in her class. 

Thursday was dot day - a day about making your mark on the world. They wanted to make dot bracelets the night before:) 

Friday was freedom Friday where they got to where anything they wanted. The girls loved being out of uniform all week!

Girls' Weekend

Back in July, Brooke sent a group text telling us she had done something impulsive - purchased 6 Dixie Chicks tickets in Little Rock. After we all got over our shock:) we started trying to make it happen. That's a short drive for the rest of the crew, but it was a flight for me so we made a weekend out of it. 

I flew out of town Thursday morning after we dropped the girls off at school. I stayed with my parents that night and I was able to last minute go see my nieces juggle at their school. 

I met up with the girls Friday morning and we got on the road to Little Rock. 

Jamie, Lauren, me, Brooke, Cherisse and Jessica

We hung out and did nothing that afternoon at the hotel. Mamas being able to do nothing is the best!!! We went to an early dinner at Skinny J's near our hotel and the arena. 

We got to the concert in time to see Elle King sing a few songs. She was super fun!

The concert was really fun....a little politically charged, but fun. 

We checked out the next morning. Brooke, Jamie, Lauren and I stayed in Little Rock. We had lunch and went shopping. It's rare that you get to go shopping with three of your girlfriends so we had a fun afternoon. 

We headed to Lauren's parents' house to spend the night. They cooked a delicious meal including dessert. 

Yum!

We hung out on their porch in our pjs and had a grown up slumber party. They have this room upstairs for all the grandkids and that's where we slept - camp style. So fun!

We woke up at 4:30 am to get me to the airport. It was so nice to get away and have girl time but I missed my people:)

John and the girls didn't just pull through and pick me up. They surprised me and came in bringing flowers. Best welcome home ever!!

Labor Day Weekend

We went to the beach with the Ainsworths for the second Labor Day in a row. We left after school on Thursday. Hurricane Hermine made Friday an indoor day, but we still had fun. We got out and had lunch before the rain really came in and flooded the streets. We woke up Saturday to gorgeous weather!!

Dinner out on Thursday night

Friday morning before the rain

A picture of the rain - it was raining sideways at this point!

Feeding the turtles with Rebecca 

We didn't stay on the beach this time so we rented a golf cart. The girls thought this was super fun!

These kiddos play so well together!!

Sweet girls