Wednesday, July 25, 2012

A little change up...

6:20 PM
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I have decided to change up Dylan's Party a bit....

and I feel so much less stressed about it!

Woo hoo!


If you know me, you know I like to plan things down to the very little detail. For some reason this time this has given me such a headache!

I came up with Dylan's 3rd birthday theme a little while back.

"To THREEinity and Beyond": A Toy Story Theme.


He loves Toy Story. Well, I mean who doesn't?!
It is such a cute movie.

So, I began planning the party. The first night I started, I woke up with the worst headache in the middle of the night. I had a GIZZILLION ideas running through my head.

I have always wanted to do a party with the primary colors. Why? I have no idea. But this was the perfect chance, however, I had so many ideas I covered 4 sheets of paper with brainstorming ideas and I was still going!

Pizza Planet Pizza. Rex Dino Nuggets. Moon Pies. ABC block letters. Cardboard boxes. Etch a Sketch Frames. Bandannas. Mr. Potato Head Sack Race.Stars.Army Men. Clouds. Red. Blue. Yellow. Green. The list goes on and on and on.....


I had to stop, I was driving myself crazy. I can not do all the things I want to do for this party. I just can't. I don't even have the time to make everything before then. We have a booked month of August including me helping my sister with her wedding reception and there is just NO time.

So, since I still wanted to keep my idea of the "threeinity and beyond." I decided to just stick with Buzz Lightyear.

Then, I remembered I found this party awhile ago on the Hostess with the Mostess Blog....

PERFECT FOR MY THEME!



There ya have it...this is my party inspiration for Dylan's Birthday. This should be MUCH easier to do. I have to stick with only one character, well two...the little Aliens and Buzz. AND, I get to keep the main food dish for the party:
Pizza Planet Pizza! Yay!

I do love the way the lady did this party, but of course I will change it up so I don't copy her exactly. I like to find ideas and then change them into my own kinda party style.

I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders!

Best of all Dylan loves Buzz the most...he was a little Buzz Lightyear for his second Halloween!

He was only 1 year old here... :(


Now, I need to get myself into Space Gear and get started!!


Brista Barrington
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Friday, July 20, 2012

Blissful Relaxation...

2:50 PM
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We returned home from our vacation about a week ago.

Coming back to reality is always no fun. It took a little bit to get back into the swing of things especially since I had been off of work for TWO weeks! It was so so so nice!

Our destination this family vacation.....DESTIN, FLORIDA.

It really is my favorite place to go. It's perfect for a little family like mine, especially with young children. There is a little to do, but just enough to do as well.

The last time we had been to Destin was almost 3 years ago. 3 years too long. I was pregnant with Dylan and Drew had just turned 2 years old. So, this was Dylan's first trip to the beach.

Both of the boys LOVED it! They are like fish. They LOVE LOVE LOVE to swim. They even put their trunks on sometimes to swim in our bathtub because they love to swim so much. (Note to husband: Pool is a MUST in our next house.)

We had quite a time getting to Florida. Well, I guess it wasn't too bad, but we had planned on driving throughout the night, however, mother nature did not let this happen. It was storming so bad we had to stop and get a hotel room. We woke up about 4 a.m. the next morning and headed back out.

This time, Dylan's belly decided it didn't like the car ride. He got car sick. We were in the middle of a traffic jam due to construction when he said he needed to "throw up." So, I took him out of the car seat and sat him in my lap for a minute. Bad mistake. It got ALL over us. I guess better us than the car seat, right?

So, FINALLY we made it to Florida. We got settled into our room and started heading out to the beach. I had bought a thing of sand toys that needed to be open. We tried and tried to get it open, wouldn't work. So I grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer and tried to cut the tie off. Oh, I got the tie off. And stabbed my wrist while I was at it. Like, I didn't cut it. I hard core stabbed my wrist. Not exaggerating, I thought I was going to die. Literally, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought I had hit a main artery or something. And can I also say that my husband would be horrible in a catastrophic situation. He was running around asking what I needed as I stood there staring at my wrist about to pass out as it bleeds. Oh, it's all too comical now that it's over and I am alive! Thank god!

I guess all of the drama just getting to the beach was worth it because the kids loved it!!

They had so much fun building sand castles and "jumping" and "punching" the waves.



Sorry, I had to throw in this picture somewhere in here...I couldn't resist myself! ;)


Our vacation started getting a little bit more relaxing the second day. We laid on the beach and by the pool all day long. Now, that is a vacation!!



While the husbands took the kids to nap, another mother and I took off and went parasailing. I forgot how much I love to do that kind of stuff!

Our vacation primarily consisted of beach and pool all day long, every day. And I loved it.

Occasionally we scheduled an activity like a Dolphin Cruise we took the kids on. The kiddos got to help the Captain of the boat stir the wheel. Drew was so excited about it.


We also took the kids to "The Track." I had never been there before, but they had a lot of fun. It's just simply a little "fair." Go Carts, Ferris wheel, airplane rides, goofy golf, etc.

The airplane rides were a hit!


The very last night we had dinner at a restaurant at our hotel and took the kids to hunt for crabs! Dylan has been obsessed with crabs lately and actually wanted to order them to eat for dinner. I swear, that child is a mess. Anywho, the boys had a great time hunting for crabs until we couldn't find any and it became boring and turned into flash light tag!



Overall, we had a great vacation! It was relaxing. Just how a vacation should be! We can not wait to get back to the beach! But for now The Barrington's are headed back to.....
 Disney World Spring Break 2013!

We. Can. Not. Wait.



PS-We almost died on the way home too. Literally, two cars in front of us a car spun out of control and ended up horizontal on the interstate. How we missed hitting the car, we have no idea. It was a miracle and God was definitely with us!






Brista Barrington
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Chicagolicious!

3:03 PM
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Justin and the boys got me tickets to the Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney concert in Chicago with some of my girlfriends this past Mother's Day. I have to say, when I opened them, I got a pit in my stomach. I didn't want to go. I immediately got upset because I didn't want to leave the boys.

However, I talked myself into going and I am SO glad I did!!

I thought to myself: Ya know what?! I deserve a relaxing weekend away. I mean after all, Justin is gone a lot with basketball, so why can't I go away for a few days?! Plus, this would be a good weekend for the boys to bond with their Dad the whole weekend. (And see what I have to do by myself when he is always gone.)

Leaving the boys was rough. I cried a bit. I had never left them for more than one day. And those nights I left them it was not even for a full 24 hours. It was usually for a wedding of some sort or a night out with friends. This time though, I had to leave them for a FULL WEEKEND!!

How was I going to manage?!? I instantly made Justin download Skype so I could at least see them over the weekend. It was tough not being able to kiss or hug them at all, especially since I hug and kiss them 126798 times a day.

However, I managed and I had a great time!!

We took the early train Friday morning to Chicago and boy was it the LONGEST train ride of my life. Sick the whole way there. My nerves got the best of me and it was all down hill from there. Having anxiety and motion sickness at the same time?! Come on! This is supposed to be a FUN weekend! I really did not think I was going to make it. Like, I thought about getting off the train in Effingham to go back home. But I didn't. I stuck it out and felt a little bit better once I got off the train.

Once we got to Chicago, we grabbed some Chicago style pizza for lunch and headed straight to Michigan Avenue! Where else would four women go on a beautiful day in Chicago? We HAD to get some shopping in!


After a pretty full day of shopping we headed back to the hotel and freshened up to head to the Navy Pier for some drinks and dinner reservations at RPM!!


To say I was excited about our dinner reservations at RPM is a huge understatement! I am a HUGE fan of Guilianna and Bill! I think their story is just absolutely amazing and they are just great people. ( I talk like we are BFF's!)

Since I do follow their story, I followed their decision to open a restaurant from where the location would be down to what the servers/hostesses would be wearing. So it was so neat to actually be there in their restaurant seeing exactly what they had worked on during their show.

If you follow their show at all, you know Mama DuPandi's pasta is a big hit! I ended up not trying it, but I did get the Spaghetti and Meatball which was amazing! And of course, I had to try Guilianna's Salad which was great as well.


The following day was THE day!! The whole reason we came to Chicago.....

TIM and KENNY!!



As we were walking to the Beer Garden, we noticed the tour buses on the side of the building. Then, we spotted TIM!! He was working out right outside of his tour bus. Just right there. Out for everyone to see. We sat and watched him for probably 5 minutes, before some security guy came and told us to keep moving. I mean, we were just sitting there drooling and staring, not like we were going to do anything to him. Apparently, Tim was doing Crossfit. Liz's favorite work out...
I don't care what he was doing. He was there. Shirt off. Bandanna on the head. Looking SMOKIN HOT!



The concert was amazing! Jake Owen was the opening act and put on a great show! Apparently, they had been bringing surprise performers throughout their tour. Well, Chicago didn't get one. We were bummed, but I still think it was an amazing concert regardless.



I wasn't a huge Kenny fan to begin with. I liked his music just wasn't all goo-goo-gah-gah over him, but after the concert, I have to say I do like him a lot now!!



Overall, we had a fabulous weekend!

On our way home we did a Peek and Pit of the trip.

Obviously, my Pit was the train rides there and back, being sick.

My Peek was seeing Tim work out!!

Can't wait for the next girls weekend away!!!!


Brista Barrington
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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Bachlorette PART-AY!

7:19 PM
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Yesterday we celebrated my littlest sister's bachlorette party!!

It turned out to be a PERFECT day!

She wanted to keep things simple with close friends and family at her house.

We made cute little cocktail glasses filled with what else....p*nis candies!


We kept everything simple per the bride's request.

We ordered sandwiches from Dream Baskets that we AMAZEBALLS!!

Accented with some fruit and some pink lemonade cocktail drinks! Yummo!



As you can tell on Brandy's expression on her face, some of the gifts were quite "embarassing?!"


After the shower portion, we all headed out to her pool to relax with some cocktails and tanning and my duties as "fake" Maid of Honor came out!

My trip to the Lion's Den was quite an interesting one. I made Justin stay on the phone with me while I was walking in and out of the store because I didn't want to get snatched by some truck driver. And then I kept thinking to myself subconciousely, "Do these people know I am reading the 50 Shades of Grey Trilogy?!"

Anywho, I got what I needed to spice up the Bachlorette Party and was OUTTA THERE!

And everyone had a great time playing the not-so-classy-pure-bachlorette-party game!




I hope you had a wonderful shower Brandy and can not wait to celebrate your marriage to Michael!!



I realized this weekend that I was not only gaining a brother in law, but I am also gaining a new niece and nephew who happen to be the most polite wonderful kids I have ever met!

When  IS the wedding date you ask?!?!?!

I CAN'T TELL!!!

SECRETS! SECRETS!!










Brista Barrington
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