Weekend Update

Happy Sunday...it has been a BUSY weekend.  At least it was a busy Saturday.

The main event of this weekend was Mari's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party.  Laura and I planned and executed a pretty kick-butt event, if I do say so myself.  We decided on a jungle theme because Mari has slept with a stuffed tiger for as long as I can remember, and has always loved tigers.

So, the theme came to us pretty easily: THE MARI SAFARI.

We held an afternoon shower with all of Mari's friends in the party room of her apartment building.

Laura got all the awesome jungle-themed decorations.
Mari's friend, Elyssa, made the adoraable banner.
Mari's stuffed animal, Tiger, was a guest of honor.

She was in the dark about the theme or anything going on until about 20 minutes until the party started.  She was a good sport and let us dress her up in a tiger onesie for the shower part of the event.  It was epic.

Callie and Maya's jungle animals helped set the mood, as well as a cardboard cutout of a tiger.

Laura, Mom, and I all wore tiger-themed clothes.  Mom was classic and tasteful, with a blue scarf with tiger prints on it.  Laura and I were obnoxious and gaudy, with giant tiger shirts.

We asked the guests to consider wearing animal prints or jungle colors, and everyone did an amazing job!  It was so fun to see all the different outfits. We ate some food, played a game, and Mari opened her presents.

And Jill made an AMAZING tiger cake that we demolished.

I mean, seriously, check out the inside of that cake!  BEAUTIFUL! And delicious.

All in all, the shower was a success!  We even got a group selfie with a selfie stick.

Once evening fell, the party shifted from briday shower to BACHELORETTE PARTY.  We let Mari change out of her tiger onesie and into a blue tiger shirt.  At 7:00 we were picked up by a big party bus, appropriately named the "Cocktail Safari."

We spent the evening being driven around to two different pre-determined locations downtown.  Each place had a section reserved for us, and we were treated to different cocktails and appetizers at each one.  It. Was. Awesome.

The second place we were at had a DJ so we did some dancing, which was so fun.  

I left the young 20-somethings out on the town and rode back on the party bus with one other party goer.  I think it is safe to say (based on numerous Facebook posts today) that everyone had a blast. And Laura and I had a great time planning it for Mari.  We really wanted it to be special, and I think it really was. :)

While I was at the MARI SAFARI last night, my little girls had a sleepover with G-ma, Pa and Auntie Cat!  Thank you for allowing me to sleep in a little this morning (and Chris too, since he had reserve duty until 2am!).

Callie wrote a letter to a local author, who also happens to write some of her favorite books!

I didn't sleep in that late, though, as I was out the door by 7:30am for a 7 mile run.  It was beautiful and cool and sunny.  I felt really strong, and had a good pace going.  Even though I stopped a number of times to take pictures of sunrays.

My 15K race is coming up in less than 2 weeks!

Today was beautiful all around, so we spent a lot of time outside with the girls.

My favorite part of the day was watching Chris teach the girls some golf swings.  Of course, I got some video of each one.

IMG_4108 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

(Maya stopped just before the curb, in case you were wondering. haha.)

IMG_4107 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I'm on spring break, so this week will be pretty chill.  Callie will be at school, but Maya and I have things here and there. And I have arranged for some quality "Me" time as well.