Happy Birthday Pal!!

Happy Birthday Paladin!!

This guy has been in my life for about 23 years and I'm still unsure of his age...oops.  He is either 26 or 27 this year and is still rocking at life.  Ellie absolutely adores him, Finnley is finally warming up to the idea of farm life and I just can't keep the smile off my face that my girls get to grow up living this life!

He hasn't always been the healthiest of horses but he sure has a superb personality.  Ellie was insistent all day that we do something special for him on his birthday and I just love how excited she is about celebrating...5 is the best age! I know that my mom would just be elated watching the girls with Pal and all her grandma dreams would be coming true.

Happy Birthday Pal, here's to many more!!!

♥ Ashley

Hey Friday!! the last one in August

Y'all I can't believe that today is the last Friday (and weekend) of August. Quite simply that makes my stomach turn because this summer went by way too fast and our deck still isn't finished!! (Not to mention the other 1,200 projects I had)  but I digress, let's get onto this weeks five. 

ONE

Snapchat. I'm obsessed with it...mainly the filters. But also getting peeks into some of my favorite bloggers lives! Be sure to follow along (@Alifeonthefarm). I wasn't planning on going here, but I haven't even tried out the IG Stories because I heard there is no filter. Info check out the stories and really it's not a big deal to me...to each their own. The plus side is if you choose just to do IG all around you're saving storage on your phone by having one less app - that way you can take so many more pictures.

TWO 

Now that we're back to nannying we get to frequent the house that my nanny kids live in. The girl has quite the collection of baby dolls and has sparked Ellie in her love for baby dolls again!! She plays with them, wants a car seat for Bitty, naps with them and now wants to bring Bitty with us everywhere, including Finnley's Doctor appointment for a check up. 

THREE

Ellie has my old iPhone 5C since they wouldn't take it in for a trade in (no problem there!!) and since its my old phone the two are synced up, so when we both get on wifi I find gems like these on my camera roll...

FOUR

Our big project of the summer has been finishing up our deck. It has been a much more in depth process than I thought, but of course isn't that how every house project goes?? When we moved in the deck was half the size and the previous owners painted it orange!! Over the years we let the paint chip away, get peeled off and sand off. Then last year we finally decided that it was time to start making our back yard an oasis, so we doubled the size of the deck and build a cover for it, but left the old deck still standing. This year we replaced the boards of the old deck, pressure washed, swept, sanded, swept, stained, sealed, painted and added in the railing. Which was basically the longest project ever!! But y'all the light is at the end of the tunnel!! I just have to do some touch up paint on the railings and then styling and we are good to go!!! [until we decided to build the step on this end...#williteverend??!!] don't worry I'll share a whole post for the reveal! But in the meantime follow song on IG because I'm sharing on there all the time!

FIVE

We were at Target the other day and I got so inspired by all the fall clothes that I'm thinking we're going to have to have family pictures done pretty soon and I'm thinking that the girls need to wear these outfits. Then I need to find some color coordinated outfits for me and Thomas. What do you think? So cute right?!

Mushroom Blouse

Yellow Skirt

Maroon Skirt

♥ Ashley

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Weekending - Retirement Party and Father's Day edition

Y'all it seriously blows my mind that we are already half way through June!! I have no idea how that happened because I'm pretty sure we just had Spring Break!! 

Fortunately or not, here we are and we had ourselves a super busy weekend.  Friday morning started off with a Migraine (my third one of the week....) that took several hours to recover from.  Ellie was great at just snuggling up under a blanket on the couch while we watched Toy Story 2.  The love that Ellie has for Toy Story is indescribable.  Finnley on the other hand was a bit more needy, so unlike her!

Once I was on the mend and my meds kicked in, the girls and I headed out to the farm to feed the animals and play around a bit.  Well Ellie played and I scooped poop with Finnley in the Ergo. We made our way into the goat pen (where Paladin our miniature horse lives too) and Ellie had a blast playing on all the goat toys, then I looked over and caught this picture! 

Paladin has been in my life since I was in 6th grade.  I am pretty sure my love for him has never been as strong as Ellie's love for him! She absolutely adores him and getting to see my sweet girl create this love of animals and the opportunities to get to have a horse at 3 years old is a dream come true to my younger horse loving self!!

After our farm adventure we headed inside, had some lunch and played a bit before it was naptime.  Finnley was really trying to party all day but I was finally able to get her down for a nap at the same time as Ellie, all the praise hands emojis.  While Finnley napped I caught up on Reign on Netflix.  I am not sure why I am so into this show because it is completely not historically accurate but I really do enjoy the story line regardless.  Not only that but the show has sparked an interest in Mary Queen of Scots, the conflict between Protestants and Catholics, and how women were treated like property that I have done some research on them and have learned a lot!!

We ended the evening with some Pizza and watched Zootopia! What a cute movie, and I can totes tell that I am turning into my mom because I will cry and get emotional over everything!!!

Saturday morning I woke up 10 minutes after I was supposed to leave for work! So I rushed there and was only 3 minutes late (no I didn't speed!).  After I finished my shift I headed to the local Farmers Market to pick up some more fresh market flowers and a pie for Father's Day.

When I got home we did some playing around the house with Ellie, had lunch and then put Ellie down for her nap early...well attempted to get her down early.  My dad is retiring after 40+ years of practicing medicine as a General Practitioner and closing up his practice.  We had his retirement party on Saturday and we needed to leave during Ellie's naptime to head up and get the room set up for the party. 

All of the cousins (on my side of the family) were there along with a bunch of other little kiddos.  Ellie was in heaven playing with all of her new "friends", she is SO friendly! Not only was this a Retirement Party for my dad but it was also a Send Off party for him because he is flying over to Jordan to be a doctor to the Syrian Refugees through a missionary organization.  He will only be gone for a couple of months, but we are going to miss him something fierce, please pray for his safety and health while he is overseas.

Then on Sunday, Finnley and I went to church with my dad and we had a lovely lunch at my sister's with all the leftovers from the party - so it was a Charcuterie and cheese board, I live for those!  And some more cousin time.  My brother has 7 month old twin boys who are just 2 inches taller than Finnley!! and it was so nice to spend time all together.

After lunch with my family, Finnley and I headed back to my Inlaws for a Father's Day BBQ with Thomas family.  Ellie had a total blast with her big girl cousins and cried and cried when it was time to go! We were so busy the whole day that I was too into living up the moments to take any pictures - blogger fail!!

I hope y'all had a fantastic weekend and showed some love to the Father's in your life, whether they are already a Father, soon to be Father, Father to children who have passed before or after birth, or the Father's longing to be.

♥ Ashley

Fri-YAY: the one with lunch dates, a monthday and a trip to the ER

Oh hey there Friday! I am so glad you're here.

First things first, it's my sweet Finnley girls 1 monthday today...how has she already been a part of our family for a whole month?? I'm figuring out her monthly photo and I'm thinking I need to ride on Karra's coattails and use some flowers, because if you know me then you know I am all about the florals.

Let's get on to this Friday Five thang.

ONE

I feel like I've got this mama of two thing down, and we went out for our very first lunch date solo yesterday!  We went to Panera and let me tell you...we had a great time.  I wore Finnley in my new sling wrap and it worked great (heaven knows that infant car seats are the bane of my existence) and Ellie was a rock star.  Also she was basically diaper free the whole day - with no accidents!

TWO

You gotta love that farm life.  One of our favorite things to do around the farm is to drive the truck in the pasture...Ellie likes to help steer (she is terrible at it) but also enjoys being in the front seat (we only go 2 mph)  We drove the hay out the Ragtime and Ellie loved sticking her head out the window telling Rags to eat her food!

THREE

I mentioned earlier this week that we had to make a trip to the ER.  Little Miss Ellie tried to climb the gate into Ragtime's Paddock and she got bopped on the head by the horses mouth...she got two little wounds that needed some medical care (glue and a staple).  She did a fantastic job and was so interested in everything that the doctors and nurses were doing.  I cannot even tell you how proud I am of her, she was so calm, brave, and polite.  She kept saying thank you to the staff and was just overall a great girl.

FOUR

One of my most favorite things in our yard are our Snowball Viburnum bushes that the previous owners planted.  I can't get over how big they have gotten and they bloomed so early this year.  I had to make sure to snap a picture before they were done blooming and they were so full this year too!!

FIVE

Finally I have totally gotten into the who Snapchat thing (@Alifeonthefarm) and my favorite thing are all the filters.  I seriously go on it everyday to just play with the filters and here is my favorite one...the beauty filter - why can't this just be my real life??? 

HAPPY FRIDAY Y'ALL!!!

♥ Ashley

Our Weekend: Road Trip, Kentucky Derby and Mother's Day

Well I guess the title says it all for this post so maybe I don't even need to write anything ;) But since this is a diary of sorts I just have to so I can remember!

Let's start with Thursday, even though it's not technically part of the weekend...it was for us.  Ellie is obsessed with her baby sis Finnley so any chance she can get to "be a big helper in your family" (thank you Daniel Tiger) she jumps at the chance.  And seriously what's cuter than an almost 3 year old feeding your 3 week old??

After our morning we got ready to head to church.  It's a MOPs day and I am the teacher for Ellie's Moppets class.  My sweet little strawberry girl, I am swooning over this outfit!

At Moppets Ellie wanted to work in the kitchen during free play time and insisted on an apron...I just can't!!!  Meanwhile baby girl Finn is wrapped up in the Solly with me!!  My two girls!

Then when Thomas got home from work we headed to the other side of the state to finish up some adoption stuff for Finnley.  It was a quick trip.  We stayed at my aunts house, had our agency meeting in the morning on Friday and had lunch with Finnley's birthmom, then got right back in the car to make the 5 hour car ride home.  Thankfully the girls slept most of the way!

When we arrived home we had some farm chores to do but I just needed to get a picture with me and my girls flaunting all the floral.  Ellie is in my most favorite top, I'm in my favorite floral from Stitch Fix, and even Finnley is sporting some cute florals!!  

Saturday Thomas had to head out early for an all day tennis tournament and I got the girls ready for a FULL day of fun.  First we went to gymnastics and Ellie had a total blast!  I'm so happy I put her in this bright orange top - it makes her really easy to spot!  

After gymnastics we went to the local Farmers Market and I picked up some pretty flowers for Mother's Day (I did add in a few of my own garden flowers as well) picked up some goodies that we can only get at the market (pretzel rolls) and then off to the store to get remaining ingredients for the Kentucky Derby.

I had a last minute idea to have a party, so only my BFF Marit was able to make it...but we had the best time.  We dressed up in our Derby Best - hats required.

And snacked on some serious goodies.  These cucumber bites had a delicious herbed cream cheese filing.  We made Kentucky Mules and Mint Juleps.  I've never had a Mint Julep before but oh my word it was so good and might be my new favorite drink...although I love mint something fierce.

We had Benedictine Sandwiches and Hot Brown Croissants too.  We had so much fun together (and on Snapchat @Alifeonthefarm) that we missed the actual race!! Thankfully we have a DVR so I was able to rewind but we missed it again!!  Ooops...better luck next year.  I loved this gathering so much that I think I am going to try to go all out and actually plan one for reals next year!

Not only was it the KY Derby on Saturday but also my first girl's 13th birthday!! I've had her her entire life and she is such a sweetie. Marit and I took advantage of the festivities to snap a few pics with this girl and this is my favorite!!  Someday I will share the back story on how this mare came into my life...but that is a story for another day.

Ellie finally woke up so I put on one of my favorite floral dresses of hers and an old sun hat (that does not fit at all).

On Sunday: Mother's Day we got up and had some coffee and then went to the Zoo!!!  We always go to the elephants first and they were both out!!

Then we went to see the otters and those are always my favorite...they had just been let out for the morning and were running around like crazy! They always make me laugh.

Then to the Carousel, nothing quite compares to the one at Disneyland but they are always so fun with my girl! 

Ellie rode on a sweet horse

While I landed myself on a Walrus...it was the only Walrus we got to see that day because the one at the zoo was in the back.

We headed home for naps (well Ellie napped) and then made our way over to my In-laws for dinner with the family.  I got to have some quality time with my SIL and MIL while the girls entertained themselves in the back yard with the jeep.

What a cute trio!! I can't wait for next year when Finnley is old enough to tromp around with them.

We made it home just after 8:30, Ellie went to bed shortly after, we watched FTWD and this sweet babe slept on my lap!! I'd say it was a great day!!

How was your weekend??

♥ Ashley

linking up here