Hadley's First Fiesta

For Hadley's first birthday, we decided to do a fiesta theme. I found some cute colorful decorations in the Target dollar bin which pretty much decided the theme for me. But also, we love tacos and spend at least two nights a week at our favorite Mexican restaurant. So a fiesta made perfect sense!

Hadley's birthday is March 3, so I started planning as soon as the new year rolled around. I was so excited to plan her little party. I searched on Pinterest and researched and googled all fiesta decorations. I made her invitations and had them printed and mailed out a few weeks ahead of time.

I made a streamer backdrop with lots of tissue paper flowers for the food table. We served a taco bar with chips and salsa and guacamole. You can never go wrong with tacos!

These cute little cupcake toppers may have been my favorite part of the party!

We displayed her monthly photos with MORE tissue paper flowers.

A sweet friend of mine helped me make Hadley's cakes. They turned out so cute! She picked at the icing, but didn't really eat much. Her most favorite part was when we let Riggins come eat the rest of the cake. She loved it!

We had a blast, and Hadley looked so cute at her First Fiesta party!

 

Her little dress came from Etsy. And her flower crown was made by Kelly Wilkin Floral Creative. 

 

Spring Favorite Things Party

My sister and I have been seeing lots of fun posts out there about Favorite Things Parties, so we decided to throw our own. We did a version of this at Christmas, but we wanted to have one in the spring too. It was so fun!

We sent out text invitations a few weeks ahead of time detailing instructions of how the party was going to work. We wanted people to bring three of the same item, unwrapped. The purpose of the party is to share favorite brands or products, so we included a line on the invite that said, "Think about your favorite products, brands, or accessories."

I made little place cards with everyone's names to mark their favorite things. When the guests arrived, they found their place card and displayed their favorite thing on a table in my living room.

Once everyone had plenty to eat and drink, we started with the gift exchange. We had everyone write their names on three pieces of paper and place each piece in a different bowl. Before we started drawing, we had everyone stand up and tell us about their favorite thing: where they buy it, why they like it, etc. Then, we did three rounds of drawing, so everyone got three things. It was a blast! It was fun to watch everyone get excited and stress out about which thing to pick. I think that everyone did a great job picking out their favorite things; there were so many new ideas to try. I am thinking about buying a few of the products that were already gone when it was my turn to choose. Here are the things that were brought to our party:

1. Contigo water bottle: Cute stainless steel water bottle with covered spout. It also locks so it won't spill in your bag or car. It also has a straw, which is a must for my water bottles. (I took this one home.)

2. Starbucks Refreshers Drink Mix Berry Hibiscus: Our friend says that she loves these, and they taste just like a drink from Starbucks. 

3. If You Only Knew (by Jamie Ivey): The new book by author and podcaster Jamie Ivey

4. Target brand self-tanner: My friend said this stuff is better than the name brand and much cheaper. She uses it before bed, but it doesn't get on your sheets!

5. Fun dinosaur composition notebooks: For jotting down your thoughts or doing some journaling!

6. Morphe eye shadow brush: Great for applying eye shadow in the crease of your eye lid!

7. Coconut bath bombs from Lush: I am not a bath tub person, but I do love Lush products. I am sure that these are wonderful.

8. Fun baskets from Kirkland's: I don't have a link for this one (I couldn't find it on Kirkland's website). But it looked similar to this one...

9. Tyler Glamorous Wash, Entitled: I have heard great things about this laundry detergent. (This is one that I might buy for myself.) My friend says that this one smells similar to those Volcano candles.

10. Packing Cubes: These will change your life, and definitely change the way that you pack. This is what I brought as my favorite thing. You can usually find these at TJ Maxx, Ross, etc. Click here to watch a video about why these are so amazing. (The video is for a luggage company called Eagle Creek. I really like their products, and I used one of their backpacks when we went to Europe.)

11. Tyler Glamorous Wash, Diva: More fancy laundry detergent, just a different scent

12. Teleties: These are fun ponytail holders that don't leave creases in your hair. The link is for their website, but you can usually find these in local boutiques. If you're in Tuscaloosa, you can find them at Soca in Midtown Village.

13. Aveeno Tinted Moisturizer: This stuff is seriously the best. One of our friends brought it to the party, but like 8 other people attested to how great it is. It's perfect for summer days when you don't want to apply a full face of makeup. It lasts forever, and it has SPF in it for sun protection.

14. Compliment Pencils: These cute pencils have fun, uplifting sayings on them like "All Heart Eyes on You, Girl" and "You're Fresher Than Lemonade."

15. Left Hand Soap Company: One girl brought a bar of homemade soap and chapstick from a local Tuscaloosa company. She loves to shop local, and I thought this was a great idea!

16. Target Beauty Box - Treat Yourself: This fun box has lots of cool samples of beauty products - kinda like a subscription box. Such a cool idea!

17. Revlon Colorburst Balm Stain: This lipstick first goes on more like a balm or gloss, but it is buildable if you want more color. Our friend brought the color "Honey."

18. Micellar Cleansing Water: You use this to take off your makeup and cleanse your face. I went home with this one, and so far - I love it! There are different types for oily, dry, or regular skin.

Other gifts not pictured (I couldn't find good links): oversized beach towels from Walmart, fun baskets from TJ Maxx, cute beach bags from Target, and little Patron tequila goodie bags complete with a lime, sugar, and salt.

We also did a little contest where everyone voted for their "Fave Favorite Thing." The Aveeno Tinted Moisturizer won, and the person who brought that took home a prize - big fun tassle earrings from Francesca's.

The Favorite Things Party was a blast, and I can't until it is time to do it again!

#HurnEuroVacay -- Day 13 - Venice

We woke up the next morning and walked to the train station to catch our train to Venice. Of course, I fell asleep and woke up in Venice two hours later. The main train station in Venice is right on the island within walking distance to most sights and hotels. However, it is near impossible to navigate Venice. And by near impossible, I mean absolutely impossible. I had printed walking directions from the train station to the B&B that were provided to us through the host. It was supposed to take us 19 minutes to get there. Instead, we wandered around Venice, probably walking in circles, for over an hour. Over an hour with our backpacks on. And it was HOT.

The roads (there are no cars, so I guess they aren’t really roads) twist and turn and wind through the city. It is impossible to pick a road that you think is going in the right direction because that road may just curve right back around and end up heading the opposite way that you actually wanted to go. We thought that our strategy would be to walk along the Grand Canal – well, you can’t. There isn’t a road that just runs along the canal. There may be a road for a little while, but it will just randomly end in stairs down to the water.

All that to say, if you can – TAKE THE VAPORETTO!! The vaporetto is the water equivalent to a bus/subway route. There was a vaporetto stop 100 yards from our B&B, and we most definitely should have taken the vaporetto straight from the train station to our B&B instead of wandering around the city for an hour.

When we FINALLY made it to our B&B, no one was there. Thankfully, some other B&B guests walked up right after and let us in. They were actually friends with the host, so they called him to let him know that we arrived. This B&B was definitely the worst room of our whole trip. The bedroom was okay, and there was actually AC which was so nice. But, the bathroom was down the hall and not clean. The shower was gross, with terrible water pressure, and sketchy hot water.

Nevertheless, Venice is absolutely beautiful! I had heard that the city was dirty and smelled bad because of the water, but this could not be farther from the truth. The water was clean and pretty, and the city was spectacular. We split a pizza for lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then we rode the vaporetto over to St. Mark’s Square. 

St. Mark's Square was completely flooded. People were walking around with no shoes on and their pants rolled up splashing through the water. I was not about that. There were also raised platform sidewalks through the square – so all these thousands of people were trying to walk around the square on these five feet wide raised sidewalks.

All the people walking on the raised sidewalks.

We finally made our way to St. Mark’s Basilica. The same dress code as the other churches was enforced here, but thankfully I was dressed appropriately. There were no pictures allowed inside, but the church is covered in beautiful mosaics.

After we saw the church, we decided to get out of that part of town. There were way too many people in one area trying to walk around on tiny sidewalks. Too crowded for us. We took the vaporetto back to our hotel and started to wander around the city. We walked and took in the sites and did a little more souvenir shopping.

The Grand Canal

These calendars were sold everywhere through Italy. It is a calendar of hot Roman priests. Hilarious.

After a little nap at the hotel that afternoon, we went out for dinner at a restaurant along the Grand Canal. 

#HurnEuroVacay -- Days 11 &12 - Florence

Because of the inconsistency of Italian train schedules, we had to wake up super early to catch the train to La Spezia. Our train to Florence left La Spezia at 8:17 am, and we needed to catch an early enough train out of Vernazza to make it La Spezia on time. The only good news about our early wake up time is that we opened the door and saw this amazing sunrise view.

Sorry if we look a little tired. It was like 6 am.

After a few train switches, we finally made it to Florence around 10:30 am. Florence is more of a small town, and the only public transportation option was the bus system. The walk to our apartment was only about 20 minutes, so we set off with our backpacks for the 20 minute walk. Thankfully, my husband has a better sense of direction than me, and he led us straight to the apartment with the help of my pre-printed Google Maps walking directions.

We got to the apartment, and no one was there. I thought that I remembered reading on Air Bnb that our host owned a gelato shop close to the apartment. We decided to walk around and see if we could find her shop. This was not a good idea. There were a ton of gelato shops, and no one recognized the name of our host. We decided to walk back to the apartment and just wait. So, our 20 minute walk with backpacks turned into a 45 minute walk with backpacks. Backpacks are heavy.

Right at noon, our host’s brother arrived at the apartment to let us in. He was very helpful and everything he said was hilarious with his broken English. After changing clothes and getting ready for the day, we set out to find something to eat. Jeff and I were walking down a small street when Jeff grabbed my arm and pulled me back saying, “That’s Aziz! That’s Aziz!” Sure enough, we were walking down the street next to Aziz Ansari – everyone’s favorite Pawnee business mogul – Tom Haverford.

Aziz and I definitely made eye contact, and he knew that I knew who he was. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a picture with him, as he and his lady friend turned around to walk the other way. We tried to find them so that we could get a picture, but they were probably hiding from us since we were following them…. Creepers.

For lunch, Jeff and I decided to split a seafood pizza. Unsurprisingly, Jeff loved it. He ate all the tiny octopus(es)/octopi/whatever and the crab, shrimp, squid, etc. Also unsurprisingly, I absolutely hated it. The combination of the fishy smell and texture with the pizza was disgusting. So Jeff ate the whole pizza while I starved for the rest of the day.

We walked to the Duomo (word for Italian cathedral church), and of course started our Rick Steves walking tour of Florence. He told us about the Duomo, bell tower, and baptistery. Unfortunately the baptistery was under construction, so we didn’t get any good pictures. We went inside the Duomo, which was a little disappointing. (Note: the no exposed shoulders and no shorts dress code applies at this church as well.) After visiting Notre Dame, Westminster Abbey, and St. Peter’s Basilica, the Duomo is a little small and bare.

Bronze doors on the Baptistery of Saint John

Inside the Duomo (a little bare...)

Inside the dome

Piazza della Repubblica - with its cute little carousel

We had afternoon appointments at the Galleria dell’Accademia – the museum that houses Michelangelo’s David. I read that the David was impressive, even to people with high expectations – so I was expecting a lot. It did not disappoint. When you enter the main hall of the museum, the David stands at the very end of the hall under an arch – it is huge and towers above all the people and other art in the museum.

The Rick Steves audio guide for the museum was fantastic and taught us all about Michelangelo and his other works in the museum. Rick Steves is the best, y’all.

One of Michelangelo's Prisoners

After our visit to the museum, we walked back to Duomo to continue the rest of the Rick Steves walking tour. We stopped and ate dinner in the Piazza della Signoria – the large square across from the Palazzo Vecchio. This building was once the town hall of Florence and a palace for the Medici family. After dinner, we decided to climb the large tower to get an aerial view of Florence and the Duomo.

View of the Duomo from the Palazzo Vecchio tower

Replica of David that stands where the original once stood in the Piazza della Signoria

Outdoor museum area that probably has a fancy name that I don't remember.

Perseus with the Head of Medusa

Fountain of Neptune

While finishing the walking tour, we ended up at the Ponte Vecchio – a historic bridge across the Arno River with lots of shops. There was a band setting up on the bridge about to play a set. We waited for them to start playing and made a joke that it would be funny if they played Mumford and Sons music or bluegrass. When they introduced themselves they said, “We are just some Italian musicians who love Mississippi bluegrass music.” Excuse me? Then they played a bunch of bluegrass music. Weird.

Piazza della Repubblica at night

Here are my thoughts on Florence: most people I talked to and most blogs I read spoke very highly of Florence. Everyone said they loved Florence, and they wished they would have spent more time there. Now, maybe this made my expectations too high. But anyways, on our second day in Florence we didn’t have anything planned. We slept in really late. We walked over to the San Lorenzo market and decided to spend the day doing some souvenir shopping. We walked through booth after booth after booth all selling the same purses, bags, and wallets. We knocked out most of our gift shopping and had lunch at the market.

Lunch at the San Lorenzo market

Since we had a slow day, we had to find the pizza place from Jersey Shore.

We went back to the apartment with the intentions of putting our shopping bags up and ended up taking an unintentional nap (even though we had slept really late – oh well.) We woke up and decided to try a typical Italian dinner – pasta course, meat course, dessert. We had pasta with truffles and chicken marinated in balsamic vinaigrette – everything was delicious!