Our Weekend at Summer Camp

Phew.

I don't know how you parents do it.

This past weekend, John and I took our 'Little Brother' to a summer camp sponsored by Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America (BBBS) and we are exhausted.

We got back late Sunday night, and here it is Tuesday at noon and I am still recovering from our weekend.

I am still slowly drinking my morning cup of coffee and we just spent a while searching Youtube for clips of Carlton dancing.

We lead a busy and exciting life.

Anywho, this weekend was all sorts of fun and tiring.

We arrived at the summer camp around 11am on Saturday and did the usual icebreakers with the other 100 or so 'littles' and 'bigs.'

This basically involved us saying...

'My name is Ashlee and I would bring avocados to a picnic.'

'My name is John and I would bring jam to a picnic.'

Our little's two older sisters were at the camp which made him happy and John and I were the only married couple at the camp. With BBBS, you can be a solo 'Big' to a 'Little' of your gender or if you are married, you can do it together to a male 'Little.'

This was something we wanted to experience together and I am so glad we signed up for the program this way. I love seeing John interact with our 'Little' and just seeing how much of a positive impact our relationship on him.

Our first activity of the weekend was archery which our Little was soooo excited about. When we first told him about the camp a few weeks ago, this was the one thing that he kept talking about. I am glad it was our first activity of the weekend so he didn't have to wait any longer.

Waiting ever so patiently

 

Getting instructions...

First shot and he turned out to be pretty good!

Can you figure out which one is me and which one is Katniss Everdeen?

Didn't think so. 

 Somebody had to shame us all with his perfect form. 

After archery the rest of the day was filled with playing improv games, painting rocks, having 'Spirit' time which consisted of a lot of synchronized dancing and singing (which my husband purposefully hid from once he found out what it was), eating Smores by a campfire, playing carnival games, eating the 'vegetarian' dinner of white rice, going swimming in a big pool with a water slide, and participating in the 'Wacky Olympics' which was just a ploy to be covered by our Littles in hershey's syrup, shaving cream and applesauce. 

As it got dark on Saturday night we discovered that this was going to be the first night that our Little has ever slept away from home (he has never even stayed the night at a friend's house), so there was a lot of tears and homesickness. 

I was staying in a girl's cabin with one of his sister's so she helped me soothe him enough to stay at camp, but John had the adventure of sleeping with him in the boy's cabin that night. 

Neither of them got very much sleep that night and as soon as it was light out (6am) they finally left the cabin and went to the playground to spend the next few hours until breakfast. 

After breakfast we got to go fishing where our Little caught two fishes and John caught one too. 

As John was the only male Big in our group for that activity, he had the pleasure of unhooking everyone's fish.

The rest of Sunday was filled with more 'Spirit' time along with playing games with other kids his age.

We left camp and headed back to Atlanta for our Little's first professional sports game. 

We had some pretty amazing seats to the Braves game courtesy of John's mom and our Little enjoyed the game even though it was so hot that day.

After sitting in the heat for a few hours, we realized that thanks to our tickets, we had access to the club level at the Braves stadium and we found some seats in the shade and enjoyed the rest of the game from our new vantage point.

Our little was pretty emotionally and physically exhausted at this point and needed a little alone time.

When John and I saw this photo, we started singing 'All by myself.......' at the same time. 

After we dropped off our Little at his house, we stopped by the grocery store, got a frozen pizza, a bottle of wine and a bar of dark chocolate and sat on our couch for the rest of the evening watching 'The Sopranos.'

After this weekend, we have vowed to never have teenagers and that we will force our children to go from age 12 to 21.

No inbetween for us, thank you very much.

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Oh, How Pinteresting...

I am doing something new this week and linking up with 'The Vintage Apple' to show you guys some of my favorite things that I pinned this week. 

If you don't know what Pinterest is, consider yourself blessed. I am so jealous of your free-time. 

I had heard that Pinterest was awesome, but a time-sucker, so I avoided it for the l.o.n.g.e.s.t. time. I already had enough social media/envy producing outlets, so I didn't think I needed another one. 

Well...apparently I did. 

I finally bit the bullet and signed up to see how it would help my business. I am getting a bit more exposure but I am also spending hours 'pinning' my dream wedding when I should be working

(don't mind the fact that I am happily married).

Here are some of my favorite things I found this week...

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No Bake Cake Batter Truffles. 

No Bake. 

Cake Batter. 

Truffles.

Need I say more?

 

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Adorable bow faux leather bracelet. It's on etsy too!

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After reading this blog post, I bought 'Mazerunners' and 'Divergent' on audible.com with some spare credits I had.  Just got them today, so I haven't had a chance to listen to them yet, but I will let you know.

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I would love to have a wall of maps in my home.

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Wheat Berry Salad wit cranberries, pecans, green onions, feta cheese and balsamic dressing. 

Yum!

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Recipe for Dr. Oz's Green Tea 'Weight-orade.' Green tea, mint leaves and a sliced tangerine. I actually made a huge pitcher of this yesterday and am almost done with all of it. My version has decaf green tea with mint leaves and two sliced oranges. 

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How awesome is the color on this clutch??

Phew....there are my favorite pins for the week. If you like my style, check out my pinterest boards...

http://pinterest.com/mysweetnomsa/

Outfit Post - Katniss Approved

Yesterday morning I was pouting to my husband that 'The Hunger Games' was finally in theaters and that we weren't going to be able to watch it for about five weeks until his law school finals were over.

Well, being the sweet, super awesome guy he is...he said that he would take the afternoon off from studying so I could go see it. I was so excited, but I didn't think we were going to get tickets since it is pretty much sold out everywhere all weekend. 

The odds were in our favor (see what I did there?!) and I found us tickets at a theater about 15 minutes away from our apartment. Squeal!

So I did what any normal 26 year old does when they are going to a movie they are excited for...pay homage to your favorite character by dressing up for the premiere! So here ya go...

 Red dress for 'The Girl on Fire.'

 

I just had to sport her signature side braid.

 

 

 

 I didn't have a mockingjay pin, but I thought a little deer pin would be an alright substitute.

 

Practicing my skills. 

So not only was the movie awesome, we had the entire theater to ourselves. 

I mean it was opening day...

For the Hunger Games...

And we had the whole theater to ourselves. 

How crazy is that??

Red Dress - Old Navy

Black Knit Sweater - Wal-Mart

Black Tights - Target

Shoes - Payless

Deer Pin - Vintage from etsy

High Five For Friday!

So...I love this blog - From My Grey Desk - and I thought that I would link up them for a new segment I am planning on doing each Friday on my blog, 'High Five For Friday.'

It is going to be where I share five things I am excited about on Friday. 

Five exciting things...HIGH FIVE....get it, get it? Hardy hardy har. 

Alright, enough with the jokes, lets get started. 

1) THE HUNGER GAMES.

  Alright, probably ALL of you are sick and tired about everyone, everywhere talking about this movie/book series. I get it. I totally do. When Twi-Hards start going nuts every October/November for the newest movie, I get a little cranky and pompous talking about how silly those books are. I usually avoid the latest book craze like the plague 

(I am just starting the whole Harry Potter series now. I know, right? I am about 10 years behind the curve on this one). 

But for real guys, I liked the Hunger Games a lot and am pretty pumped about it. I didn't think though that I was going to see it anytime soon with it being sold out everywhere and my husband studying all the time for law school. It seems to appear though that I pretty much have the sweetest husband in the world because this morning he bought me tickets for the movie today. 

TODAY! 

Hip Hip Hooray!!

2) This superhero...

I love springtime in Georgia, but the pollen action that is currently going down here is ridiculous. Atlanta (and the south in general) is having one of the most pollen producing springs on record, and the apartment complex that we live in seems to be ground zero for this action. 

After about a week of procrastinating, I finally went to the grocery store at 7am this morning after getting zero sleep due to congestion and picked up a 30 day supply of this wonder drug. It's only been a few hours since my first dose and I can actually function again. 

Thank you Claritin, thank you.

3) These shoes...

via oasap

If I didn't have to eat this month, I would love to purchase these shoes. Pretty sure though I would injure myself, my husband or my puppy if I owned these. 

4) This commercial...

Around the :15-16 mark, you see a little blond girl sitting at a table, dancing with her arms in the air. She is totally the doppelganger for my little niece. Every single time they show this on Hulu, I freak out and exclaim to whoever is around (usually my puppy) how much that looks like Ella. 

5) Jessie J's Curl Cream

 

via birchbox

I received this hair cream in my Birchbox this week and I am in love with it so far. I have only used it twice, but it is the best stuff that I have ever used to help my curly hair stay curly and not crunchy. I have to use a lot since my hair is so thick, but once my deluxe sample is done, I will probably buy some more (despite the $32 price tag. Yikes!)

If you don't know what birchbox is and want to find out or you want to sign up (you should, it is only $10 a month and super awesome), click here for more info!

So those are the five things I am loving today. Link up at 'From My Grey Desk' and share what you are digging today!