This One's For the Girls

With my radio blasting and coffee in hand, I took off on Friday morning on my first trip out of town by myself since October 2012! I was, of course, insanely nervous about how Annie would do without me, but I knew both kids were in good hands with Chance, Nana, and Papa. So off I went to meet up with six girls from high school in Fredricksburg! We started planning this trip to celebrate our 35th birthdays about 3 years ago, and we were amazed that it actually came together and we were all able to get away from our families and jobs for a little bit. This group of girls is pretty amazing... some of us have been friends since 1st grade! We used to get together several times a year, but with some moving out of state and many of us having children, it has been more challenging to coordinate our trips to New Braunfels. So, traveling from Portland, Oregon; Charleston, South Carolina; Dallas, College Station, and New Braunfels, the seven of us spent part of the weekend at Jenny's parents' ranch house, and it was wonderful! Most of us clicked right back together like we always do, and it was so fun to hear updates from everyone's lives. We tried to count how many kids, husbands, and pets we had between us, but we stopped at the kids - 15 kids (11 boys and 4 girls)!

When I arrived on Friday, we headed straight to town to do some shopping. I think we spent the most time at the candy store! Then we went back to the house for some crafting, led by Melissa, who is a distributor for Stampin' Up. It was really fun to be creative and make a picture frame and some cards.



Jennifer and I took this picture near the end of our crafting adventure. She and I have been friends the longest, and it was such a treat to see her. She is a stay-at-home mom of 3 boys, and plans the most amazing birthday parties for them. They all seem to have her sweet spirit!



We all contributed to "favorite things" bags. Jenny and Melissa had the great idea that each of us should bring 7 of our "favorite thing", and we would all exchange them. My contribution was personalized tote bags. I love bags and have way too many, so I thought I would give the girls one more bag that we all "need"! It was really fun and not too hard to make the bags. I used canvas tote bags from Hobby Lobby, and a doily and stencils for the decorations and letters (thank you, pinterest!) Once again, I'm so thankful to have some time off work for projects like this. Here are a few photos of the bag making process. Mine was the first one completed, so I developed a better system after that. Little brushes are slower, but result in less paint globbing than sponge brushes.



Other girls brought coffee, nail polish, lip balm, painted signs, stamps, and kinetic sand. It was fun to hear everyone's ideas!

Friday night we got dressed up and went to dinner at the Cotton Gin restaurant. It was lovely! (And we look pretty lovely, if I do say so myself!)



Thank you, ladies, for a weekend filled with laughter, learning, snacking, a tiny bit of sleeping, and more laughter!

As much fun as I had with my friends, I was very ready to come home and see Chance and the kids on Saturday. They all did very well at Nana and Papa's house, and when we got home, we enjoyed the nice weather by doing some work in the backyard. Annie did her "work" at the sand table, and Chance and Cade laid bricks and spread mulch. I took pictures :)