A Morning on Safari

This morning, we finally made it out to Briarwood Ranch Safari. This place is only 20 minutes from us and I cannot believe we haven't been sooner! I had heard of it, but didn't realize just how neat of a place it really was. We will be back many, many times.

You can drive your own car through the park, or jump on one of their covered wagons. For our first experience, I was glad we opted for the wagons. It was really neat to relax and enjoy the ride through the safari park!

They had SO MANY neat animals, all of which were acclimated to seeing people and excited to make new friends (if you had food, that is). Have you ever fed a zebra, water buffalo, or yak?! How about a baby deer? Totally neat experience. 

The first animal we experienced on the ride was an emu, which was a bit of an intimidating start to our adventure. First of all, I totally thought it was an ostrich, so apparently I need to brush up on my ornithology. Secondly, those things are feisty! They darted write up, ready to get their fill of feed, and were not afraid to help themselves. One snuck up right behind Beckett and helped himself before Buck even noticed. He was NOT impressed. Check out his face in that second picture. HA!

Next, we made friends with a bunch of zebra and several deer. These were definitely among my favorite. They're such gorgeous animals! The tan deer with the spots looked like something straight out of a fairy tale. Of course, I forgot my good camera (this has become a trend in our lives) so we were stuck relying our phones for photos. They definitely don't do the animals justice.

We were concerned about how Beckett would react to the animals. He's been through a bit of a scaredy-pants phase and is pretty unsure about mingling with animals. He's really not interested in touching or feeding them, which is fine with me. I was just glad he didn't melt down. I think that by the end he was pretty intrigued and will acclimate as we visit more. 

Charlie, on the other hand, was fearless. She's too young to be concerned about being eaten alive yet. She was VERY interested in and entertained by all of the animals. She was also pretty intrigued with an empty bucket for a while though, so I guess the "entertains Charlie" bar is pretty low.

Nate wasn't even convinced that he wanted to come with us, but I'm pretty sure he had more fun than either of the other kiddos. Of course, he had no fear and jumped right into interacting with the animals, and just like our adventure to the aquarium, this animal-lover was full of fun facts to share!

The drive through the safari park was not all the ranch had to offer. We also got to hang with some other animals and get up close and personal. Of course, Beckett's favorite part of any outing is the playground (not kidding), so we hung there for a good half hour. The weather is FINALLY starting to cool down so it was a really beautiful morning! We got season passes, so I can't wait to come back in the fall and relax here with a cup of coffee.

It's so much fun that Charlie is walking. It makes adventures significantly more fun and easy to navigate. With Beckett, we love having new excursions to talk about. The teacher part of me looks forward to learning experiences. Smarty pants over here is learning to spell 3-letter words (CVC, for you primary friends) and was really excited to come home and spell cat and yak (all by himself!). Dad has been doing a really great job helping him learn new words to spell (yes, I swoon).

Without a doubt, we will be spending a lot of time at Briarwood! We highly recommend it :)

It's Football Time in Tennessee!

Last night we went to Nate (our nephew's) middle school football game. I loved all of it! ALL OF IT. Ok. Actually, I did not love the fact that Tennessee forgot that it's football season and we should be BUNDLING UP, not sweating bullets. But other than that, I loved every. single. thing. I loved dressing the family in our school-spirited colors (even though that color is green). I loved watching the sun fade and the field lights turn on. I loved cheering on Nate (#3, on the far side of the field) as he took on a guy twice his size. LOVED. LOVED. LOVED.

It was both kids' first football game. It was a big deal for me before we got there, until I quickly realized that they would have no interest in what was going on and would instead spend their time entertaining themselves in the bleachers and stealing our snacks. Still, it was a fun family night.

Beckett spent the whole time playing with his little friend Paisley. I adore watching them together. His Uncle Russ likes to joke that they are girlfriend & boyfriend, but I'm going to go ahead and say that they're hopefully one day cousins-ish (she's Russ' girlfriend's niece) and whether they're blood related or not, and whether we live in Tennessee or not: NO.

Then there's the nephew. Nate would probably kill me if he knew I was calling him "cute," but seriously. THE CUTE FACTOR! Insert all the heart eyes. These kids (the middle schoolers) are so intense and serious about this game. I CANNOT WAIT until it's Beckett's turn. WE WILL BE A FOOTBALL FAMILY.

We won the game, by the way. 41-8. Go Vikings!

Charlie Grace's Garden Party First Birthday

Once upon a time, I pretended like I wasn't going to go all out for Charlie's first birthday. I was convinced that our lives were way too chaotic and it would just be easier on everyone if we did something very small and simple. But then reality set in and we admitted to ourselves that there is no. way. that we are letting our only little girl's first birthday go by without celebrating in true first birthday (and Denise) fashion. So Charlie Grace's Garden Party was born.

I've always wanted to host a garden party and our current backyard was the perfect little setting. This party was so much fun to plan! I found the invitations, Charlie's dress & headband, and my skirt on Etsy. We ordered the cakes and fresh flowers from small shops here in town. We borrowed white table cloths and a couple of friends and my mom helped put together a beautiful spread of breakfasty type snacks.

Of course, we also had to have a mimosa bar. Because if you're over 21 and required to hang out at a first birthday party on your Saturday morning, you should at least get a mimosa (or 3).

We also had Stuart from Everbright Photography come out before the party to take some official first birthday photos of Charlie Grace (and crew) as well as the party. We did this for Beckett's first birthday and were so glad we did! Stuart did a FABULOUS job capturing our special little day and I was so grateful to know that we would have plenty of photos but didn't need to worry about taking them ourselves!

The [artificial] flowers for the kids table, high chair, and chalk board sign came from Hobby Lobby. I made those flower crowns! Are you totally impressed!? They took ENTIRELY TOO LONG and I definitely do not recommend it. Still, it was fun to see the kiddos play in them, even if just briefly.

I wish we could have cute parties like this all of the time! It is such a rare and sweet blessing to just be able to spend our mornings relaxing with people we love... and sitting around drinking mimosas!

Generally I'm really frantic and stressed during a party. There is always a million things to do. But I was pleasantly surprised when we were completely done with preparation and hostessy stuff by the time the guests had all arrived, so I was able to spend my morning enjoying our guests and celebrating my sweet birthday girl.

Charlie Grace kills me. This little girl is so full of spunk and sass. Unfortunately, she was a bit "off" this morning (of all mornings!) and spent a lot of time just snuggling her Uncle Russ. Then she fell asleep mid party! Luckily, she got all of best parts out of the way before she conked out.

We expected her to totally demolish the smash cake. She was a bit hesitant so we all pitched in to help her get started. Beckett was not shy at all. He took this brotherly duty seriously.

When it came time to open gifts, this girl perked right up. You'd think she'd done this before! Of course, she's totally spoiled and was showered with love and goodies. We're so blessed to have such an incredible support system, even in our "temporary" home! We were sincerely blown away by the group that came out. We love these people!

We are still blown away that this little girl is a year old already. We're also very grateful that we took the time and energy out to make this special little party happen. In the midst of chaos and exhaustion, it was a very sweet reminder of what is really important. Thank you to all of our wonderful friends & family who were able to attend. And happy birthday, Charlie Grace!!