We live to tell the tale...the tale of surviving our first beach trip as a family of 4 with our 2 littles. Littles that are 17 months apart. At the time of this trip, Cal just turned 2 and Addie, 8 months. What a time! Let's get into it shall we.

Here is what you will find!

• Travel Options - Flight or Drive?
• First Day - Arriving to the House, Room Assignments with Littles, Unpacking, Dinner
• Second Day - Travel to Beach (and complications), Dinner Reservations at Old Florida Fish House
• Third Day - Travel to Beach again (a bit better, less complications), Date Night Dinner Reservations at Cafe Thirty-A
• Fourth Day - Guys played Golf, Gals walked around and went to the Pool, Birthday Celebration in PCB
• Last Day - Breakfast in 30A, Travel Home Day! 

Okay, we normally try to travel by plane anytime we go anywhere because, why not and with Southwest, they just make it so easy! Well, this time with Cal being 2, he would had needed his own seat. It was going to cost us upwards of $900 to fly and this time, it just wasn't worth it so we thought wed attempt THE DRIVE. The dreaded drive. I'm not going to lie, I was absolutely terrified of this part. The thought of being in the car with a 2 year old and an 8 month old (and my husband) for 8-9 hours. That was the real scary part but alas, that was the route that was upon us. Here's how it went down...

We traveled on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. Yes, we left at 3:00am. Do you remember going on family trips and that was always what you did? You left at the wee hours in the morning and slept in the car and then voilà , you were there! Well, this time...we are the "voila". We did a 4 night stay so our trip was arrive on Sunday, check out on Thursday. For our family, that's the perfect amount of time. As they get older, we may be able to do one more day but for now; that's justttt right for us. 

The thought process was that they would be asleep most of the drive by doing it this way and we'd get there early, yes, but not too early where it would be too long prior to check-in. You know, check-in is always late in the day, this time it was 4:00pm. Ek. So anyway:

Left Sunday Morning at 3:00am

The kids woke up around 6-6:30am which is typical for them and also the sun was shining so bright in (my ole KY home) our car so I'm sure that woke them as well.

This is when we brought out some of our car tools. The trick is to make sure it's a fun new thing that they've not seen before or at least haven't in a while. That way it feels flashy and fun and new! 

Here are some recommendations for your beach road trip that we used! Everything is from Amazon so it's super easy!

We made two stops; the first one was to eat breakfast. We ate at a Waffle House somewhere in Alabama around 7am. Second stop was not too far along for another potty break, oops! 
​

11:00am: We arrived into the 30a/Rosemary Beach area ​

We had lunch at a nearby place, Shades Bar & Grill, and had an absolutely amazing salad. It was much needed for me as I was already burning up. It was SO HOT already! 

Like I mentioned, we couldn't check in until 4:00pm so we had some time to kill. In true vacation fashion, we had lunch then thought, we need groceries, so we headed onto Publix. (No Krogers in FL).

1:00pm Grab Groceries at Publix
2:30pm: We were missing a few things so then headed to Target for a moment
3:00pm: Headed back to the condo. Addie was napping so we didn't want to get in and out too much. But that was fine because it really was only about 30 minutes until time to check in. We'd never been to this area before so we drove around a bit to get a lay of the land. It was great! We got to check out all the little shops around. The place so was great to be at and we're excited to return! 

What we found was if you did not want to drive around during your stay, the area really allowed itself to do that! It had so much. There were restaurants, shopping, breakfast places, live music, dessert places, the pool, and so much more! Most places around there included bike rentals and everyone bikes around the little community.

4:00pm: Finally 4:00pm rolled around and we were able to check into the house! We got there first as we were staying with another family (our aunt and uncle's family). We scoped the bedrooms and tried to figure out what would be best with our two little ones that are both in pack n plays right now. 

SLEEP: Now this was the tricky part. So, we had an encounter a few weeks before traveling for the first time with both of them away from home and we definitely learned what NOT to do. Still learning on what TO DO but hey. The first thing we learned is that, the pack n plays need NOT be right next to each other. Rookie mistake. 

So we found a room and it had a queen and a twin. This would be perfect in the event that one of the kids woke up and needed comforting. One of us could move to the twin bed and carry on with them there. Bonus, as it was set against the wall. Now, one of the biggest hurdles was also the light shining in. It doesn't get dark until late and the kids (at least Cal) is used to sleeping in a complete blackout room so that would be tricky. 

We did what any parent would do...we set up one pack n play in the closet and one by the big bed. Okay...does that sound weird? IN THE CLOSET? okay, well it's not like we're locking them in the closet and the door is cracked. I find this completely normal and know lots of parents who have done this or a bathroom or something like it! 

Anyway, after we got all squared away in the bedroom and all the groceries put up.

7:00pm: It was pool time then! We headed out to the pool around around 7pm. Yep, that's right. We were trying to salvage as much as the day that we still could! After all, it didn't get dark until around 8:30pm. 

We came back home changed and went out to dinner. It was late, I will give you that but we were hungry and didn't feel like cooking or eating a ham sandwich for dinner. So, we went out for dinner at 8:30pm. 

Here's one thing we just tried to keep in mind while on vacation; Will this mess with the kids schedule? Yes absolutely, but is it reasonable to adhere to a strict schedule like at home while on vacation? For us, no. There was no way we could keep everything the same, especially on travel day like this. So, we did what we could and packed our patience and let the kids lay where they fall. 

Cal fell asleep at dinner, rightfully so, it was 10:00pm. And he was so cute. Like I said earlier, we walked just about everywhere so where we went out for dinner that night, we walked it with the stroller. He fell asleep in the stroller and was just content as could be. 

We got back to the house and put Cal right into the pack n play. Addie was awake, surprisingly, being a party animal! She did fall asleep shortly after arriving back "home". This was the first night and the roughest, to be expected.

Cal woke up around midnight but was able to get him back to sleep. Addie was basically up all night. It was a tough one. A friend of mine let us borrow her Slumber Pod but we did not spend the time trying to learn how to set it up that evening so we did not get to use it. It is below:

That next morning, we decided it would be time to try and figure out how to set that up and use it the next few nights and boy, was I glad we did. That thing really works! At least it did for us. We did end up having to switch the pack n plays and put Addie's in the closet and Cals next to the bed (with the Slumber Pod on it) because;; SURPRISE, Cal showed us that he could climb out of it. So, that was a lot of fun! It was bound to happen, obviously, but it's not fun to have to learn to deal with while on vacation. 

I was so glad we had that Slumber Pod because it's essentially a black out tent over the pack n play and once it's set up, he couldn't really climb out of it.

Regardless of the evening, we got up and worked on getting everything together and ready for the day. It was, after all, our first beach day! 

I ended up ordering a few rental items (stroller wagon and beach tent) from Babyequip.com and if you've never used baby equip, it's an online service where you can rent baby/kid gear from local families in whatever area you're in and you can either pick it up or they will delivery. Typically, they are a fraction of the price to rent. It's cool because each family/person's rental pricing and other details are different and what each host has is different but I think it's cool because you are also kind of supporting the local families you are renting from as well and you are not having to bring a ton of things on your trip! 

We had a small hiccup when we found out that just a few days prior they were not allowing wagons on the beach in which we had TWO. We had a stroller wagon and a wagon that was hauling all our other things but we still trotted along to the beach access, which was about 5 blocks. We got lucky with the guard and they allowed us to take the stroller wagon as it had the kids in it. We did end up having to carry the other items with some help with the family with were with thankfully! We wouldn't had been able to do it without them! 

We got on the beach around 11:00am and stayed until around 2:00pm. We had dinner reservations at 5:15pm so we wanted to make sure we got back home in a reasonable time to get, maybe a little nap, showers, get ready, and drive to the restaurant as it was about 15 minutes away. 

We packed a bunch of snacks, toys, sunscreen, and a bunch of other fun tools that were great for the beach with these little ones! See a bunch of those below along with photos of our first beach day! 

Like I said, we did have dinner reservations at a place called 
Old Florida Fish House

It was so gorgeous and the food was fabulous! It's very family friendly and has so much to do and look at! After dinner, we just even walked around and shopped and had one more beverage, HIGHLY RECOMMEND this place and also HIGHLY RECOMMEND making a reservation because even at 5:15pm, they were super busy! 

We learned a lot from the first day on the beach so we geared up and switched things around bit.

This time instead of bringing the wagons, we packed up what we could with our arms and hopped on the tram. In the little community we were staying in, they provide a tram that can take you to the beach access so we went that route this time. I strapped Addie onto me using my artipoppie carrier and away we went. 

We spent most of the day at the beach. Of course, we packed all the snacks, the tent, drinks, all the things! 

We were lucky enough to have family with us for this trip and they graciously said they'd watch the kids one night so we could go and have a nice little date night dinner, and tonight was the night!! 

Devon and I don't get to get just the two of us too much anymore so this was a treat for us for sure. We made dinner reservations for the Cafe Thirty-A at 8:15pm! We would had liked it for it to be earlier but that's all I could get because I made the reservation only about a week in advance. It was fine though. It allowed us to still get to spend tons of time together and then the kids would mostly be sleeping while we were at dinner! 

We ended up going on a Tuesday night and we did not know this until we arrived but every Tuesday and Thursday they do Tini Night and you can get $6 martinis at the bar all night! One of the perks of going on a weekday night! Be sure you look for those things, you can really get some specials by doing so. 

And on the last day, the boys golfed and the girlie-pops hung by the pool and did was walking around! 

We loaded up the kiddos and went to get crepes and did some walking around the little town. The kiddos were starting to get sleepy and one definitely fell asleep on the walk around, sweet girlie. Cal was getting a bit sleepy but we got him some shaved iced and he was in heaven! 

Speaking up having fun and what not, what was not so fun was trying on bathing suits postpartum! I hate it but I really needed to find some good new bathing suits, with better coverage. I had two littles back to back after all and one really on the go so I definitely needed something cute, that fit, but was going to be mom moving coverage. I found these awesome options on amazon! 

Of course, this day had to come but the next morning was the day to check out! Check out was at 11:00am so we spent the morning basically repacking everything, loading up the car, cleaning out the fridge/pantry, and cleaning up! 

After all was done, we headed out to a breakfast joint, The Donut Hole!

It was a pretty cute little place and had corn hole out front while we waited. 

After breakfast, we drove for about 3 hours and then stopped just outside of Montgomery and found little park to let Cal run around for a bit. We stopped, ate, and chilled there for about 45 minutes. I do highly recommend doing this especially if your kids are as small as ours are right now. Really letting them get out, move around will do wonders for the rest of the trip! 

We got home around 7:30pm which is normally around bedtime but since we had been in the car practically all day, we let the kiddos stay up a little bit longer and get out wiggles. I know they were super excited to be home! 

Thanks for coming along to our family's first beach trip with the littles! We learned a whole lot and hope this may help you prepare a little bit if you're in the same boat! We are excited to keep sharing this trip as they get older and older! 

​Congratulations! Or rather congratulations to your friend that just had a baby! You might be thinking, I cannot wait to see him/her, hold, and cuddle that new little bundle of joy. But hold up right there sis/bro/grandma/grandpa/aunt/uncle/neighbor/stranger on the street. If you've never been in this situation before (or maybe you have) and you're wondering "what can I even do for the new parents?" This is for you. I've listed out some DOS and DONTS when your friend has just had a baby! 

If the parents are pretty organized, they may have already designed someone to help answer friends and families questions. Some already have it laid out ahead of time when they are "okay" with visitors coming. But some do not. I did not necessarily have a plan but it was also hard to always text back between the nursing and not sleeping. Be patient with the new parents, and maybe send a nice text to mom or dad about getting so excited and happy for them and wanting to visit when they are comfortable, leaving the door open. 

The new parents are BUSY but only that but they are also probably lacking sleep. The absolute last thing they want to do is worry about breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or maybe they need to get something returned to amazon or pick up something from the store. Ask what can you do for them, is there anything you can help out with to lessen the load. If they are open to you coming over to visit, don't do it empty handed. But this also doesn't mean to just bring unnecessary items that will just clutter up the place (because we already know, it's probably a mess already). Bring something that is meaningful if it isn't something that's edible. This also doesn't have to be for the baby, it can be for mom and dad too! One thing that is great is GIFT CARDS! Get them a restaurant gift card or a date night gift card. They might not be able to use it now, but they will definitely be grateful for it in the months to come. 

If you are bringing over food or dish, bring something that they will actually like and eat. You don't necessarily have to order their exact meal but when discussing options with them, bring up some restaurant ideas. Their heads are spinning and trying to come up with even a remote idea of even the type of food can be overwhelming. So even just asking would you prefer Mexican or Chinese could lessen the brain load for them. 

The less items to take home from the hospital the better. I mean, they are already bringing a whole new human being home so the less to carry out the better. Plus it'll be a nice surprise when they come home.

This one is vague, I know. But, that's for a reason. This is meant to be for anything. This is mainly for anything baby related. Do you want me to change him/her for you? Do you want me to warm up a bottle? Do you want me to use these wipes? Always ask permission. They are kind enough to allow you for a visit, you want to be respectful. 

When they are ready, they will let you know. There is a fine line between reaching out to come for a visit and being obnoxious, pushy, and annoying. They will let you know when they feel ready and comfortable. This goes for outings as well. This is all new to them so they are testing the waters on their comfortability level of leaving the house and being out for a duration of time. Just be patient. It'll happen when they are ready and that's all that matters.

Plain and simple. YOU should not be exposing their new little one to the world before they are. This goes for even years afterwards. Always ask if you can post a picture on social before doing it. BUT DO take the photos and videos for the parents. They will always appreciate that and send it to them, not Facebook. 

Dine and dash, baby. Don't always expect an invite but providing a meal is always appreciated and they will take note of the kindness you showed in their hard early days. 

Listen but don't always expect that they are looking for a solution. Sometimes, they just want to vent and that's okay! Don't give unwanted advice unless asked! 

Also plain and simple. They don't always need help with holding their newborn baby that mom just spent 9 months making and however long in labor. They want the cuddles. But those dishes and laundry over there, yeah that could also use some love. 

Also, this. Does this really need an explanation? Along these lines, also don't bring your grimy toddlers over to visit a newborn either. They are probably riddled with germs too. Love ya but HFM is not fun. 

Everything is array in those first few months. It's sometimes hard to remember the last time you might had brushed your hair as a new parent. There is also so much spit up, milks, diapers, etc. everywhere. And that's okay!! Just don't make a joke out of it or comment. As mentioned before, maybe help instead?? Do feel free to tell them how handsome and gorgeous their new baby is. How she has her moms nose, or her dad's eyes. How beautiful those blue eyes are and cute little fingers and toes. Along those lines, don't make it uncomfortable or awkward though trying to figure out who she/he looks like. It's a newborn, they change so much. 

Unless mom and dad want to talk about this stuff and want your advice, just don't. This can be sensitive for new parents as they want to make sure their baby is growing at a good rate and emphasizing and talking about it can cause more anxiety on parents. Plus. it's none of your business if they are breastfeeding or using formula. Baby is fed and baby is happy. That is that! 

You know when it's time to leave, so leave. 

Straight forward to the point. DON'T KISS THAT BABY! 

Recently we took a trip to Disney World in Orlando, FL with our (soon to be) 12 month old. It was about a week or so before his birthday! It was April and it was HOT. It was actually very abnormally hot for this time in April but you just never know how it'll be so we needed to come prepared! Plus being 4.5 months pregnant! 

Now, a little background on me and the last time we went to Disney. It was 2015 and I was actually working in the parks! So it's been a LONG time, roughly 8 years *can't believe I just said that*. The last I went and knew how all of it worked was when they had things called fast passes and they were free. I believe you got about 2 or 3 free fast passes each day you visited in the park you are visiting. When I was doing my research for this new trip with our child and family, I came to realize that these "fast passes" were gone and replaced with something called Genie+. 

From doing many days to weeks of research, I tried to come up with a plan on the best way to go about our day at Disney with my family and our son. I knew it was going to be a long and hot day and we only had that, ONE DAY! For reference, it was my husband, mom, dad, Cal, and myself. I knew we would not want to be waiting in lines all day long especially with a 12 month old so I had to come up with something! So this is how our day went:

 The day before: I reached out to representatives on the Disney app to make sure I was able to connect all the members of our party to my app so I had full control/access to get everyone passes. This helps so that there is ONE person who is in charge of it and you all get the same rides at the same times. It can sometimes get intense so I would definitely recommend doing it this way. 

Night of/Midnight: You can actually purchase your Genie+ passes after midnight (12:01am) the day that you go. I read and watched many videos on this that said to wake up at 6am and set your alarm to do it then and that's fine you can do it that way too but I was actually already up so I went ahead and tried it and I was able to do it that way. So instead of waking up at 6 or 6:30am, I just went ahead and did it after midnight. The Genie+ option does cost additional, it ranges from $15.00-$35.00 per person per day. Not going to lie, I was a bit upset when I found this out because we used to get FREE fast passes (which this is kind of the same thing) but I'm SO glad we did because it was very much worth it! We ended up paying $20.00 per person so it wasn't too bad. Also with the Genie+ that's different than the fast passes, you can get them all day long vs just 2 or 3 so that was nice. I'll go more into that later.

​Morning of (I'm talking around 6:30am or so): you will want to make your list in the Disney app (called Tip Board) with your TOP 2 or 3 attractions or shows. I know you have more than that that you want to ride and see, but it's important to just pick your top ones to go to in the morning that are very popular because if you just choose all of them your Tip Board will get bogged down and you may actually lose out on your top choices first! 

For our top tip board the morning of, we picked 

• Meet Mickey at Town Square and
• Peter Pan's Flight

at 7:00am you can then choose your first attraction, you will choose your top one you want and then once you select it, it'll tell you afterwards when your "lightning lane" is (that's what they call these things, the old fast passes). We got to Meet Mickey (super popular) at Town Square and it told us our lightning lane was at 9:40am! 

Genie+ Info: You cannot choose another Lightning Lane pass until 2 hours after that LL appointment OR until after you've gone through the line and used it. 

*Pro tip* if you are staying on a Disney property, you can get into the park(s) early called Rope Drop and just walk around. Some places might be open for you to roam around. So even though it says the parks open at 9am, that usually just means the rides and attractions but sometimes you can get in early and take your pictures and what not. We were not staying on a Disney property so we couldn't do that but that's okay with us! ALSO, when you stay at a Disney property, they typically have great transportation options for you to get to the parks, especially Magic Kingdom so definitely check on that before you drive and park!

As mentioned, since we weren't staying on property, we had to drive and park. Magic Kingdom is the largest park and because of that when you park (which is usually around $50) you have to take a tram to the monorail, then get on the monorail all before you even enter the park!

Day of:
7:00am: made Genie+ reservation on the app for all (4) of us. Cal doesn't need one since he's under 2
8:30am: Out the door all packed and ready to go to Magic Kingdom. See below for what we packed!
9:00am: Got parked. Tip here is to NOT set up your stroller for the walk to the tram after you park because you will have to unfold it. Unless it's super easy like umbrella stroller, just carry it compact or at least don't put the kid in it because you'll just have to take them right back out for boarding the tram. From the tram, this is where you will find the ticket office to Magic Kingdom and also the monorail! At this point, you can put your stroller together and your child can ride in the stroller. Your stroll DOES NOT have to be broken down on the monorail! 
​
​                       *some hotels have direct access with the monorail, which is SOOO nice*

So when parking with Magic Kingdom its; Park ---> Tram ---> Monorail ---> MK Entrance
​
9:30am: Arrived to Magic Kingdom! From here, we used our magic bands to scan in (Highly recommend so you aren't fumbling through all your stuff to find a physical card to scan in for every ride and potentially lose) 
9:40am: Went directly to meet Mickey at Town Square! 

9:50am: We were able to secure another lightning lane pass for Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor so that's where we headed to next. This was nice because from all the hustle and bustle of getting just physically to Magic Kingdom, this attraction was indoors and air conditioned! 

10:10am: At this point, Cal was so tired and needed a nap so we got him in the stroller, turned the fan on, turned on the portable sound machine, gave him a quick bottle, and used the stroller breathable nursing cover and he went right to sleep! They also have a nursing room we could had utilized at MK. During this time, we went back to Town Square to Starbucks and got some coffee.

About 11:00am: During the time Cal was taking a nap and we were in line for Starbucks, I kept trying to get a good time for our next LL. I was able to secure our next LL for Peter Pan's flight! He was still sleeping when our time came to to do our LL so Devon and I went and rode the ride while my parents stayed with Cal. Then we switched! 

12:15pm: While my parents went on Peter Pan's Flight, I got us another LL for Pirates of the Caribbean! I was trying to also be cognizant of the time because we did have a lunch reservation at the Crystal Palace at 1:20pm.

​1:20pm: We went to the Crystal Palace for lunch and a character interaction! I thought this would be a great way to cool down and slow down for a second as it was in the middle of the day. Take a break in the A/C! This was honestly a fabulous idea and I'm so glad we decided to go this route. I did make the reservation about a month or two in advance so I highly recommend checking on that if it's something you want to do. REMEMBER to include your children, no matter how young they are in your reservation number! 

3:00pm-7:00pm-After our lunch, we did a combination of the following rides:

• Jungle Cruise
• Haunted Mansion
• Small World
• The Carousel
• Winne the Pooh
• Mad Tea Cups
• The Little Mermaid
• Buzzlightyear
• Devon did Space Mountain on his own because I couldn't (pregnancy) and my parent's aren't big roller coaster fans

And we did all of these (except The Little Mermaid and Mad Tea Cups) with a LL! So we barely waited in any line which was totally amazing!

Some of the rides we didn't do that I wish we could had done were (obviously) the roller coasters but being pregnant it's not advised, Enchanted Tales with Belle, The Riverboat, more Character Meets, and watching the parades. We only had one day though and Cal is so young so some of the other things didn't really make sense to do for this trip. 

Cal got in one more nap mid-day after we had lunch around 4:00pm. We did a switch with my parents for Haunted Mansion when he took his second nap. We hung around that area of Rapunzel's bathrooms for charging our phones and his naps because it was close to a lot of things! 

Another thing we did was made sure to get the amazing and famous Tropical Serenade at Aloha Isle. 

Around 7:30pm, we were trying to make the decision on if we wanted to stay for the fireworks or not. It would be at 9:00pm and we were starting to get exhausted and we actually did not have Cal's earphones so we decided to go ahead and start heading for home! Not only that but, if we stayed, there always a mad dash for the parking afterwards and we probably wouldn't get home until around 10:30-11pm But before that we got some pictures of all of us in front of the castle, of course!

It was a true 11-12 hour day but so worth it and we had so much fun! I truly think going in with a plan but also understanding that you need to be a bit flexible here is KEY! There are some folks so prefer to plan the day based on the different lands and that's fine! For us, we wanted to ride certain rides and didn't have many days to do it so even though we may had walked a bit farther to get to those rides, we BARELY ever waited in line! 

We did end up getting magic wrist bands for all of us. We did this THE NIGHT BEFORE actually, haha!  Which I wouldn't necessarily advise doing it that way but we did. We went to Disney Springs the day before and all the google articles said we could get them at World of Disney. I want to let you know that you CANNOT get them at World of Disney anymore. DO NOT go to World of Disney if you are looking for magic bands. You CAN get them at Disney PIN TRADERS! 

To see the FULL list of everything linked above, just go here to my amazon storefront! Some things are not on amazon though so they have separate links! 

​Kayla's Amazon Storefront

Here are just some more fun photos that didn't get a spot above! :)

I'm a milestone person as I've said before. Birthdays should be celebrated! It's another year, you've made it! And for me, this year, it was a BIG one. Wow, my big 3-0. I can't believe it. Not only that, it's my golden birthday! 

If you've never heard of a "golden birthday", it's just a fun little saying when the date of your birthday lines up with the year you are turning. So, really you can only have a golden birthday up to year 31. Anything under 21 is probably not celebrated as largely so really you're probably only in luck if the date of your birthday is between 21-31. For me, it lined up so we figured we'd celebrate! 

At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do or if we'd do anything but after some more thought, I said yes! Let's do it.

My husband and I love historic old buildings, beautiful scenery, and learning about history. I'm not a fan of the cold and with my birthday in November; it can be sometimes hard to figure out. We both have been to Charleston, SC before but never together. See, we both went for our bachelor and bachelorette parties but not together and certainly wasn't a trip that we used for exploration haha. So, we used this excuse to go together finally and we brought out 7 month old, Cal, with us! 

We took this opportunity to see many of the "Notebook" staples as well. You'll see all that reflected below.

We weren't there for very long so I tried to make everything as attainable as possible. Which is something I don't normally do, I usually try to jam pack everything because I want to see it all, but this time; I felt (with a baby) we needed to totally give ourselves additional grace time. We went the Sunday after Thanksgiving and came back on Tuesday afternoon. 

Our schedule:

Sunday
10:15am - Flight from BNA to CHS around 10:15am. Landed around 12:15pm. Charleston is an hour ahead so that flight only took about an hour
12:35pm  - Uber to hotel. We stayed at the Harbour View Inn. I cannot say enough great things about our stay there! More on that later
2:00pm - Brunch at Church & Union
3:30pm - Walked around the streets, stopped in at The Dewberry Hotel 
4:30pm - Quick Beach Trip
6:15pm - Dinner at Slightly North of Broad 
7:30pm - Back to Hotel to Chill (the Hotel had a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us! ). We went to the the little rooftop where they had a fire pit to hang out for a little bit

The Hotel provided breakfast every morning. They left a form to fill out in our room and before you go to bed you hang it on the door

Monday
7:00am - Breakfast at the Hotel 
9:30am - Off to Boone Hall Plantation, lunch at the Butterfly Cafe 
1:00pm - Uber back to hotel 
3:30pm - Change and walk over to Rainbow Row
5:00pm - Dinner at High Cotton

Tuesday (we did a lot of walking this day because it was so nice outside and it gave Cal a good time to nap)
7:00am - Breakfast at Hotel Pack up and provide the doorman with our luggage to hold onto 
9:30am - Walked around waterfront park (which our hotel was right next to)
-Walked to Williamson Mansion aka Calhoun Mansion (which is closed currently) 
-Walked through Battery Park
-Walked to King Street to see The American Theatre 
12:30pm - Ubered back to the Hotel to pick up luggage and went to the airport
3:30pm - Flight back home
Was home by 6:30pm // in great time for bedtime for Cal! 

SUNDAY FUNDAY
​
Flight from BNA to CHS!

When we were trying to decide on where to stay in Charleston, we were really choosing between the beach location or downtown location. With a baby with us, we almost thought not downtown because we didn't want it to be loud and not kid friendly but with the time of year we were going, we knew this wouldn't be a beach trip. If this were the summer and we planned on hitting up the beach, that would had been a no-brainer but it wasn't!

Ultimately, we decided on a property that was near downtown but definitely not on King Street. We decided to go with a hotel because I felt safer for some reason than an airbnb. With an airbnb, we would of potentially been able to have an additional room so putting Cal in the pack 'n' play would had been easier than just a one big space hotel room. I know it sounds weird but I felt like many of the airbnbs were condos and for me (in my head) it made sense to do a hotel because they know everyone who's in and out, the doors lock after certain time of night, and with the doorman and security, it just made me feel better. Even so, Charleston in general is still a very safe place to be but having that extra security did make me feel better. 

On top of all of that, everything I was finding airbnb wise, it was very expensive! Even most of the hotels were pretty hefty as well. When we decided to shift our days to be a Sunday-Tuesday, that made it much more affordable so we were able to try out our searches again and come upon the Harbour View Inn which is a waterfront property. There was some construction going on outside but it was still beautiful. The property was stunning as well, great location, and the service was top notch! 

I highly recommend going to eat at Church and Union in Charleston. It is a really cool old church and historic building. It is a bit smaller than I thought it would be but it was quaint and definitely had A+ service. The dining room is one large space and there is a large bar all on one wall. There is writing on the wall all from the book, "The Art of War". It was kind of warm in there which I was not anticipating and I wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt but I easily forgot about that when we got our mimosa flight. We went for brunch on the Sunday we went and it was so good! They offer brunch Saturday and Sunday mornings until 3:00pm! 

Devon got the Huevos Rancheros and I got the Fried Chicken BLT, and they were both so yummy! 

After brunch, we walked around the streets of Charleston, it was about 3:30pm so it was still light out and it actually felt pretty nice! It was November 27th and probably in the 50's so it was nice pleasant outside for a walk. 

We knew we wanted to visit the beach at least once during our short trip but really was unsure of when we could fit it in. Because of that, I did not "schedule" a time to go but we found a little pocket of time right before the sunset to go the first day! We took a 20 minute uber ride from The Dewberry Hotel to go to Sullivan Island and I'm so glad we did!

As soon as we got to the beach, I got so emotional, I was just so overwhelmed with happiness that it all hit me. I was here at the beach, one of my favorite places to be, with my amazing husband and my little boy in one of my favorite cities! 

We hopped a quick trip back to Charleston from Sullivan Island and had a small dinner at Slightly North of Broad on East Bay Street! We opted to sit outside since we had Cal and had some appetizers a drink. When I tell you everything was absolutely so convenient it really was. This restaurant was probably a 7 minute walk from our hotel and right across from High Cotton restaurant. 

We had some bread for the table. I had the butternut squash bisque and Devon had a small salad with a beer. I was able to give some of my bisque to Cal which was the best part! He loved it!

After our small dinner, we went back to the hotel to relax and have a chill night. We checked out the rooftop where there were great views and fire pits. The hotel also had cookies and milk at 9pm. But when we got back to the room, there was a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries with a note from the hotel that read "Happy Birthday Kayla". I thought that was so sweet! What an impression! 

When I said our hotel was amazing, I mean it. It was kind of like a bed and breakfast because every day they gave you a form to fill out to put out on your door at the end of the night for what you want to be delivered to your door for breakfast! It was so perfect. You picked the time you wanted it to be delivered and all different kinds of options. 

We decided against renting a car and Uber'd or walked most places. This was one of the places that we definitely had to uber to as it was about 20 minutes from Charleston and was actually in Mt Pleasant. 

Boone Hall was beautiful and we got the tour of the mansion in which you aren't allowed to take any photos of the mansion because it's actually still considered a private residence. I didn't know this, I just figured the property was owned by the city or state and generated revenue that way but it's still privately owned. I will say the tour was a bit underwhelming for me because we were only able to see about 3 or 4 rooms and was only about 45 minutes but it was still beautiful. 

I do say this because if you've been to some other large historic building/mansions like the Biltmore, you may be a bit underwhelmed. So. I would say, don't have that type of expectation and understand it's has it's own lifetime and different history and go into without those intensions. Ultimately. I am very glad we went and visited though! 

From start to finish, I believe we were there for about 3-4 hours. Like I mentioned, you get to tour parts of the mansion, they have many other cabins to visit, we watched a Gullah show, saw the barn (in which Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds got married in), and did the open air bus tour! We did do a little lunch at the Butterfly Cafe which was really like a convince store with some tables and chairs (so don't think of it like an actual restaurant). 

When in Charleston, you have to walk down Rainbow Row! It's a staple and you just have to do it! It's so easy to find and very fun to walk through. Just puts a smile on your face! 

After we got all ready for the evening and walked around Rainbow Row, we went to our dinner reservation at 5:15pm. Now this one was a "main event" for me. This dinner and Boone Hall were really the two highest priorities for me this trip as far as things to do go. I love a good nice fancy dinner with the white tablecloths and all. This particular restaurant was one that was in "The Notebook" too.

Do you remember the scene where Noah is on the bus and he looks out the window and sees Allie randomly walking down the street. He hasn't seen her in years (but of course, never stops thinking about her). He jumps off the bus and runs to restaurant where he looks through the window and finds her meeting a man for lunch; which we find out that it is her fiancé, Lon. They are very lovey dovey and you can see Noah's heart immediately drops to his stomach. After that, he goes home and starts a highly driven mad craze to restore the old manor. Well, that restaurant is High Cotton. 

I honestly wasn't sure how all this was going to work out with a baby so we just thought we'll give it a shot! I still never know what to do with reservations when we have a child, so we just wing it! Especially since this was a pretty "fancy" place. But, we didn't want to miss out so we tried it! I made as early as a reservation I could in order to not try to not disturb other guests who may be there later and also so that we could potentially make it for Cal's bedtime. I made the reservation for (3) in order to make sure we had a big enough table so we didn't feel squished. 

The hostess at the front were more than accommodating when we walked in and thanked us for making the reservation for 3 instead of 2! They made great compliments of Cal and was so kind! I was so relieved. The waiter was also very accommodating and so very kind! He brought us over a high chair.

I cannot say enough good things about this dinner. Not only was the food, atmosphere, and service phenomenal but they just genuinely made us feel so special! Our waiter asked us if we were celebrating something special and of course, we obliged and said my birthday. Not only moments later did they bring us out two glasses of champagne. 

After dinner had finished, we went back and forth on dessert and ultimately decided on the lemon pie. He told us it was on the house, their treat! I mean they just gave us champagne and now this, wow. I was totally on cloud 9! Then after that, I see him coming towards our table again but this time with two espresso martinis! Now this was a surprise from our best friends back home. As soon as that came out, I teared up. I felt so incredibly loved and special. It was truly the most amazing night and dinner. HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND! 

Once again, we had breakfast at the hotel. After which we packed up everything and left it with the bellhop so we could go ahead and check out and walk around the town one last time. 

We hit up some last minute famous sites like:
-Waterfront Park
-Williamson Mansion (Calhoun Mansion)
-Battery Park
-Rainbow Row (again)
and lastly, the American Theatre. The famous theatre that Allie and Noah dance in front of in the street that night after their first date

Then it was time to grab an uber back to the hotel to grab our luggage and head to the airport! ​

Basically, if you're thinking or wanting to take a trip to Charleston and you have a little one, don't let that stop you! There are many kid friendly things to do, you just may have to think outside the box a bit. One of my goals as a new parent (mom) is to show how our whole life doesn't have completely change or stop because we become parents. We want to immerse Cal into our lifestyle and hopefully add to his sense of the world this way! let's normalize travel with kids, with family! 

Even though we had a short trip, it was absolutely worth it and I hope I helped you find more fun things and ideas to do on your trip to Charleston! 


**if you click on some the photos with links, it may take you to a website on where to purchase the items. When doing so, I may receive a small commission on the products. I am not paid to advertise and have not been asked to promote specific items. These are my real opinions, ideas, thoughts, plans, and items purchased because I wanted to purchase them. Only items purchased here with links are items that I would want to share with you!*

Of course, there's the obvious things or what I thought would be obvious, like:

• Bassinet
• Crib
• Stroller
• Baby Camera Monitor
• Baby Wrap or Carrier
• Pump (if breastfeeding)
• Diapers
• Wipes

However, some folks just go straight into a pack and play versus a bassinet or directly into a crib which can be totally normal too. It's all up to you and how you want to set up the sleep environment for you and the new baby in your life! We opt'd to start in the bassinet and then work up to the crib. 

1. Frida Mom and Frida Baby things (especially ice packs and peri bottle)​
2. Postpartum Seat
3. Robe
4. Pumping/Nursing Bra
5. Mommy Diapers
6. Sound Machine
7. DoorDash and UberEats Gift card
8. Clips for pacifiers 
9. SnuggleMe
10. Burp Cloths
11. Newborn Clothes 
12. Basket for the MOTN feedings

Bonus Items that aren't totally necessary but so glad to have:

• Owlet
• Hatch (sound machine)
• Hatch App (tracking)
• Solly Wrap
• Great Water Bottle

These are the items that didn't make it in my TOP 12 but they are SO nice to have. They didn't make it in the top 12 because I felt like the type of item itself may be necessary but the brand of the item wasn't totally necessary. I hope that makes sense. For example, a baby wrap (I think it totally worth it) but the Solly wrap would be my choice but there's sooo many out there for you to choose your favorite.

• Owlet
• Hatch (sound machine)
• Hatch App (tracking)
• Solly Wrap
• Great Water Bottle

If you have any questions about these products or anything else baby related, feel free to reach out! I'd love to chat about it!

It happened! I had a baby. It's been a while since I last talked to you, obviously. But I went through a whole 9-10 months growing our sweet boy and he has finally arrived! I have never really understood, am I to say "we" had a baby, or "I". I don't know, I mean it did take two of us to make this happen and my husband helped out tremendously while I was pregnant so I have no problem with calling "us" pregnant but when it came to labor, yeah no, "I" had that baby, haha. 

You didn't ask but I am sharing with you my/our birth story! 

It all started when I was around 38 weeks pregnant. I went into my weekly appointment and I was 2 cm! I was super excited but tried to not get too excited for I heard and knew, especially for first time moms, that you can stay 1-3cm for weeks on weeks! And that's similar to what I did. 

The next day, I was feeling around the same but a little better. Just kept trying to drink my water and paying attention to how I was feeling and how my body felt. I was still in pain but I just didn't think it was time yet. It wasn't bad enough to where I wasn't able to speak or move so I figure, we were all doing alright! I just remember being on my back porch in so much pain, It's hard to explain BUT in an effort to keep moving, I  joined my husband on the golf course to walk the course to really try to get this moving. I joked because apparently, that's what my parents did as well for one of her pregnancies. ​

Saturday morning rolled around about 3 AM and I was asleep on the couch. Something had startled me as I felt a gush as if I had peed. I thought to myself instead of going back to sleep, what if my water broke? I went to the bathroom and cleaned up, put a pad in and just went back to sleep. I thought, okay if it was, I would feel more as the day went on. I woke up again around 6 AM, not for another gush but more because I was experiencing some cramping. While I was already up, thought, might as well check to see if I've experienced any more leakage. It seemed subtle so I wasn't sure. I've heard of the huge water breaking, flood gates before but then again it could had been a slow leak and maybe just punctured the sack so it wouldn't necessarily come all flooding down but more like a small tear. But my cramping was significant enough that I thought I should monitor it. I did just that. I called my doctors office around 8 AM, told them my concerns and symptoms. She said if you feel like you need to come in, let me know and I will make sure they know you are on your way. I'm not sure but my biggest fear would be that we would go to the hospital and they would check me, and tell me I'm not in labor and then we'd have to turn right back home and I'd still be in pain! Honestly, I thought, wow if I'm not in at least early labor right now, I don't know what this is because it hurt pretty darn bad (putting it lightly) and I was certainly not prepared!

I stayed home and monitored myself for the next two hours and made my husband aware that we may need to go. I monitored my cramps intensely from 8-10AM to really see if they the "5-1-1 rule". 5 minutes apart, 1 minute in duration for 1 hour. Meanwhile, my husband went out to try and get a haircut and get chick fila ,HA! Such a man thing to do. I called my mom sometime in between there and she was having breakfast with a friend. When we were FaceTiming, she said she knew by the way I would talk then stop talking; and then of course there was my face from the pain; she just knew, it was almost time. I used an app to track my cramps and they were a little bit of everywhere but they were pretty consistently around 4.5-5.5minutes apart and about 1 minute in duration between that 9-10 AM timeframe. I told my husband, okay, I think we should go. Mind you we had mostly everything packed in the car ready to go since week 36! 

We arrived to the hospital around 11:30 AM and they took us into a room, got me all monitored up and did their check. She said I was 4 cm! Thank God, it seemed like I was progressing and it wasn't fake! However, they did a test to see if the fluid I thought might had been my water was really that but it didn't show as that, so I'm still unsure. Maybe, I really did just pee myself but anyway. She said it could had been possible that you do have a slow leak and it might be at the top but from their test, it wasn't it. She told us that they would continue to monitor me for the next hour to see if I really was progressing enough to be admitted, meanwhile, I was still able to feel allll those cramps. ​

When she came back to check me around 12:30 PM, she said I was closer to 5cm than 4cm so they went ahead and admitted me, I was never so happy!! We finally got into our room and all settled around 1:30 PM or so. My nurses came in and got me all squared away while I was having contraction after contraction. They asked If I wanted to go ahead and get the epidural, I said yes but can I eat first? Mind you, I haven't eaten all day! This all started around 3 AM! 

They brought me some food while they ordered the epidural. Now here's where it all gets a little foggy so follow along with me. I'm still a bit unsure what happened these next 6 hours so here it goes. Around 2:30pm-3:00pm I get my epidural and I'm about 5.5-6 CM. My water still hasn't broken so the on-call doctor came in and asked If I wanted her to break my water. Me, really wanting to try to do it as natural (with an epidural haha) as I could, I said no, I'd like to see if it'll break on it's own, I feel like I'm pretty close ya know! So they bring me the peanut ball, which I had heard from so many of my friends that that really kicked it into high gear for them and their water broke within an hour after getting; so I was confident! Well 5pm rolls around and nothing, I was still stuck at this 6cm mark and water not broken.

​( Also, the epidural was NOT bad at all! I don't know if they've just improved it over the years but honestly, the pen mark they make to know where to insert hurt way worse. I think also, it's the anticipation and knowing you have to stay still while getting it and worried you'll have a contraction when they are poking you. The guy who did mine was an angel, he was so kind! He told me to tell him when I was ready because, well, I was the one having the contractions. He said it feels like a bee sting, and it did. It truly wasn't that bad and no, the needle was not a foot long, you fools. )

At that point (around 5pm-6pm), I ask the nurse if I actually could go ahead and get her to break my water. Something happens here between hours 6pm-9pm) to where I couldn't get an answer as to why the doctor wouldn't break my water. It had been about 30-45 minutes since I asked this nurse to get the doctor to break it, she told me that the on-call doctor had been talking to my doctor and my doctor had said no, not to break it because they didn't want it broken too early since I wasn't progressing as much as they'd like. I was so confused! Earlier she wanted to and could but now she can't? It's going on 8pm now and I've been here since 11:30am! I'm hungry mind you as well, haha. I know it can be normal for first time moms to be in labor for A LONG TIME but I just didn't understand what was happening here, and I honestly don't think this nurse did either. But I wanted a plan. 

She said okay, we will come back and check you around 9pm and see how far along you were, 9pm came and still 6cm. What's the plan now, can you break it now? Let's go! No, still can't, if my water hadn't broke around 1130pm-midnight then they would break it, that was the plan, I didn't understand it whatever, I was pissed. That's like 3 hours!!

LUCKILY, I actually did feel a bit gush right around 10pm, I called the nurse in and not to get too excited I was like I'm pretty sure my water broke and it did! YAY! My water ended up breaking on it's own, that was exciting! They checked me, I was moving along to a 7cm now! Heck yeah!

Another hour later, 11:00pm, I was 9 CM! OMG I thought, we're going to have a baby TONIGHT!!  
Well....were we all wrong haha. Midnight rolls around and guess what, I'm still 9 CM, goodness! ​

I mean what the hell is happening here. It's midnight now, and we thought we were going to have a baby at like, I don't know, 11:30pm-11:45pm! But nope!

I won't get into specifics too much but it wasn't until 2:30am did they say "okay, it's time to push". I was never so happy to hear those words!! Until, I kept hearing it for the next 5 hours. OH MY GOD, if I have to hear "okay, one, two, three, four....." and so on and so forth one more time, I'm going to scream, and not because I'm in labor and it hurts scream. Scream because I want to rip your throat out. I never ever want to knock on someone's job EVER! But this nurse, I honest to God, think she had no idea what she was doing. Of course, I can say this now because after talking with more people, I realize, I should had never pushed as long as I did but at the moment and had not done this before, I had no idea. 

The doctor finally had been in sometime between 4:00am-5:00pm and was confident we'd have a baby then but NOPE. Turns out Cal was sunny side up. How we did not know this by the already 2.5-3 hours of pushing at this time, beats me. I do consider us luckily though because even through all this time pushing, either I or the baby was in distress the whole time, which is another reason why we were able to keep pushing. Mine and Cal's vitals were still showing fine!

Sometime between 5-6am, in the room was me, my mom, my husband, the on-call doctor, and the nurse. We had been pushing the same way this whole time and I'm just begging them to try something different, if I could be in a different position, please! But I had the epidural so it would had been extremely hard if not impossible for me to move my position. We did try another strategy though called tug of war to try and push that way. 

*not me pictured but this is a good example of tug of war in the labor and delivery room*

​
6:00am rolls around and the doctor is obligated to tell me that we have hit our max time for pushing on it's own really. Our options now were:

a. C-Section
b. Vacuum/Kiwi style of pushing and if that didn't work, C-Section

​Devon and I were distraught and just in utter disbelief. We couldn't understand clearly or believe this really. All this time, all this work, and now we are on the verge of a C section. Not only that, the doctor explained to us that this type of C-section also wouldn't necessarily be a normal one because he was already so far down in the birth canal (because I was pushing forever) that they would have to bring him back up and then take him out. So it would be rough either way. Basically, if we had to do a c-section, it would essentially be recovering from both a vaginal and c-section delivery.

Everyone left the room and it was just me and Devon. We both just broken down in tears. We just needed a moment to really grasp and understand what was happening here. Devon was pissed, I was in shock and didn't know what to do.

I mean what even is a vacuum?? We asked them to come back so we can ask all the questions about the vacuum. I won't go into it too much but basically, it's this thing they put on the top of his head that they could see (because every time I was contracting and pushing, you could see his head but then when it was over and I stopped pushing, his head would fall back in. It was like wack-a-mole) and as I was contracting and pushing, she would use the vacuum and pull. BUT, she wouldn't be able to pull any harder than I was pushing so it was still all on me. Once the vacuum pops off though, it was over; done for and we couldn't try again and that would immediately mean, c-section.

We thought okay, let's try it. Maybe his head is a little bit more coney than normal after delivery but if that means, no c-section, It's worth a shot! ​

For reference, this is what it looks like and that yellow circular part is put on his head. Not only that but the doctor also tried several tries to try to turn him but too avail. So now, after thinking more through it, we decided we'd try it. 

It was a little after 7:00am and now it was time to push with the vacuum. Anyone who as gone through labor the standard way knows that she it's time for the pushing you do three pushes for 10 seconds each time during the contractions. This last time I pushed, I swear it was at least 5 or 6 pushes, 10 seconds each. I honestly am not sure how I did it after all that time. I was so extremely exhausted and felt like I had been running multiple marathons. I wish I could had seen my heart rate because I'm sure it was threw the roof at least the last few pushes. 

The last set, Devon turned to me in tears and I will never forget it; he said that he could see him and just kept saying please, you can do it. Now, I'm not sure if he was saying please to me or God but either way, it definitely helped seeing his face. Eventually, I heard the doctor got him turned and that's when she had the biggest eyes and Devon said he could see it in her face that we were going to get this done, here and now. 

Callahan Jay was earth side! 8 pound 2oz baby boy who was 21 inches long! 

Immediately after he was born, they sat him on my chest of course for a second and then brought him over to the incubation area. I don't know it's really called but that's what it looked like to me. They did all the things I'm sure, then brought him back over to me to breastfeed. 

As we were doing that a few minutes later past by, we noticed that he was turning purplish/blue. I looked up at the nurse standing next to me and said, "hmm...is he okay?"

She immediately grabbed him from me and hurried over to the incubation area, yelled for the NICU and we all panicked. He wasn't breathing anymore. I couldn't move. Literally and figuratively. I couldn't talk, I was in shock. I just spent how many hours in labor and 5 hours of pushing and now my baby who finally came out (non c-section), isn't breathing. I turn over and my husband, in tears with him mom. All I could do was try my best to stare deeply and directly at the front of the room, praying I could hear him cry again. A few moments later, I heard it. I began to have a sigh of relief but not until I heard him cry once more. And we did. I cannot explain to you the feeling that you get when you are holding a lifeless looking baby in your arms, I mean the pain and torture. Did I do something? What's wrong with him? This team of nurses are angels though and I know they immediately did everything they could to work with him and get him breathing again but I have never experienced anything more terrifying in my life.

They believe that he had swallowed some of the mucus plug and it had gotten stuck but thank the Lord, they were able to get it out quickly.

Soon after, I was finally able to hold my baby boy!  

Then after that, you get to watch your husband become a dad. Parents become grandparents, siblings become aunts and uncles and it's just the most wonderful and magical thing! 

If you've made it this way, bravo. Thank you so much for reading about our little family. What was your birth story like? I'd love to chat more!

I thought this would be the PERFECT time to revisit
​what you should not do as a wedding guest

1. Disrespect the venue or staff
2. Be on your phone during the ceremony
3. Switch or move your seat
4. Bring a gift
5. Try to take the microphone
6. Wing a speech 
7. Talk, move, during the first dances and toasts
8. Arrive late
9. Arrive early
10. Don't wear anything white
11. Leave the ceremony after the wedding party
12. Ask the caterer to make you something different
13. Do not start a line dance
14. Make any sort of announcement
15. Tell the bride and groom something is wrong
16. Bring a "plus one" when you were not given a plus one
17. Not take the wedding favor

But alas, we knew the time would come where we can't rely on our dads, brothers, and step-dads to come over and hang this TV or this massive AF clock. We had to learn. That's the best way. So we started with some shelves! But not any shelves, no they had to be fancy and be these things called, floating shelves that have no anchors. My choice, obviously. ​

 

They are just cute/basic floating shelves. These were great, when we opened the box and took some time to understand how these are to be hung. It was one of those that you put part of it in the wall and then slide the actual shelf in the pegs and it's super sturdy! Love those, great, awesome! We hung these shelves up around Christmas time. 

Fast forward 3 months later....Next stop, upstairs in the spare room. Last week I got a massive wave come over me of stress that the spare room was a complete mess without any direction. I just felt like something had to be done, other than just picking up the mess and clean. There was nothing on the walls and we are in limbo from the full bed that's in there without a headboard or frame. So, I moved around some items that were in there, a desk, clothing rack, and moved the bed to the other side of the room to create space for something to actually happen on the wall, like people actually live here! I actually found a clearance large wall mirror at TJ Maxx for $20. Next, what else do we want to do? Photos and shelves. That's all I've got. Mind you, I am definitely not an interior designer at all! 

Side note, a lot of people have this idea in their head that event coordinators have an innate ability that since they are good at coordinating event and organization that they are also good at design. I'm living-breathing proof that that is not accurate at all! But, there are those coordinators that are both, they have that sense of style, design, creativity, and coordination. I'm here to tell you that you can have a combination of those or possibly none. For example, creativity can mean lots of different things. I like to be creative in my words and ideas vs actual writing (I have handwriting like a left handed 12 year old boy) and graphics.

Anyway, we got our last shelves at Target so why not try that again. Devon and I went to target searching for the same shelves we got for downstairs but alas, they were out. However, they did have these other wooden shelves and the quantity we needed. They actually would work great in that space too because the floors were actually the same color, crazy.  ​However, they had a different backing than the white ones did downstairs. These had what the devil calls, "keyhole slots". They are the worst! See below:

However, this is where the problem started. Well, we thought we did measurements right (in which apparently we don't know how to measure), but the mirror was about 2 inches too far to the right so the other shelf did not fit. Okay, next option. Both shelves on the same side and one shelf and hanging frames on the other. That was the next solution we came up with without moving holes around (something else we are terrified of). So here we are now:

As you can probably tell, we have measurement problems again here along with color issues. BUT, basically this all to say, IT'S OKAY! We are taking this time to make our mistakes and learn from them. I still like this room and I like the idea so if you tilt your head, you can't even tell, haha. Basically, it's not perfect but neither are we so it's reflective right? This is our first home and this is where we take the time to understand and learn what to do and not to do. To all you newly weds and newly homeowners that have had this happen to you, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! haha. The intent here was good but definitely could of had a better outcome given more patience and research. AFTER THE FACT, I found this great measuring tip for keyhole slots with duct tape that makes it's so much easier! 

When I first told my husband I wanted to throw a party at our house, he told me I was crazy. There's no way we could throw a dinner party at our little shotgun home. It's too small, we don't have a large enough table, and what will we cook! Well honey, lookey here! Some of that was definitely true; our house is small, we have no formal dining room; Our table was a fold out table that sat 4 people if we moved it out from the wall. We are not great cooks either, Devon is much better than I am for sure. 

My birthday was the weekend after Thanksgiving this year. Naturally, you would think of having a friends-giving get together either the weekend before or the weekend after. I figured people would be so tired of having turkey and dressing when it came time for Saturday. Why not think out of the box a little, what about a friends-giving/birthday brunch! Is that a long enough name for that or what? Perfect!

We invited our close family and friends no really even sure who would even be in town. I believe we had about 12-14 people in our house enjoying an unseasonable warm November morning with breakfast casserole, meatballs, apple pie, biscuits and gravy, pumpkin rolls, sausage, bacon, mimosas, and bloody Marys! 

​Here's how we did it at our house!

Table -
we used an 8 foot table I borrowed from work but you can usually rent these at a local party rental place for under $20

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We also used our real dining table for the buffet (which we ended up having to use our kitchen island part for seating and overflow buffet space). Lastly, we used our living room credenza for the drink station. 

Table set-Up
This was one of my favorite parts of planning this brunch. I started finding inspiration on Pinterest of different styles, patterns, and designs for table decor. It was comprised of grey table linen, black cloth napkins, wicker chargers, white dinner and salad plate, silver and black flatware. Along with small fake white and orange pumpkins, gold glass lanterns, one large flameless candles, gold mercury votives with tea lights, and a buffalo plaid table runner! 

Linen
The table linen used was actually linen we used from our wedding. It was grey and was perfect with the table runner, napkins, and other buffet decor. It's from an online wholesale store and super cheap and not bad material either, classic polyester. For an 8ft table, you will need a 90x132.

Napkins -
For the napkins, I really wanted black cotton napkins. Not polyester, not stain. I found some perfect ones at World Market. 6 for $10.00.












​Plates- 
I wrestled with what type of plates I wanted to use. We got some great muted blueish/grey plates from our wedding but we only had about 4 of those. I found some ivory dinner and salad plates from Home Goods, but they only had 1 set and I needed two! I spent the next hours googling the box and product/item number and was able to find that Macy's carried the same! I was pumped! However, they were a close out item and are not sold any longer. But here are ones that are similar! 

Chargers-
Part of the whole reason of why I begin thinking of throwing a brunch were these adorable chargers I found. These wicker chargers and the buffalo plaid basket was the start of it all. I found a set of wicker charger at TJ Maxx, about 8 of them and was hooked! But of course, TJ Maxx is not the most reliable on trying to find more of the same items, which can be the beauty of it except when you need 4-6 more. But I did find very similar ones at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which some people may like even a bit better because they were honestly a bit sturdier than the thinner ones at TJ. 


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Table Runner -
Can't forget the table runner of course! I am a big fan of table runners when I have a long table I'm working with.  I'm not entirely sure why. I just think that they are pretty and very easily changable.  Since my tablecloth was grey, I stayed with he buffalo plaid theme with my table runner below. I ordered two of them and layered them for an 8 ft table. 

Food - 
Now, ahh yes. The food. One of the best parts (along side beverages and quality time with your best pals). We had quite the spread. We did let our guest know they are welcome to bring a dish if they'd like but we would also be providing the bulk of items so don't feel obligated! They brought several items like buffalo chicken dip (still a great brunch item I don't care who you are), sausage balls, pumpkin pie, monkey bread, Breakfast casseroles, etc. But we did end up making food here and also ordering from Whole Foods! We got fruit, biscuits and gravy, an assortment of jellies, cheese platter, cucumber sandwiches from Kroger ClickList. P.s. If you haven't tried Kroger ClickList, it's basically a lifesaver and I highly HIGHLY recommend it. Obviously, we had to make the cucumber sandwiches but we got the ingredients from Kroger. We also had nothing bundt cakes. We got two egg quiches and an apple pie from Whole Foods. That was it! Even without being a great cook, we found a way! 
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