Fall Themed Baby Shower by Calvert Designs

Kate Biladeau Freemyer & Charlotte Biladeau, a mother-daughter team, threw me the most lovely baby shower ever! It was Pinterest perfect! They went above and beyond for every little detail. They went to the flower market in DC at 6 am Friday morning to have the freshest blooms for the arrangements by Charlotte. They found great sized blue & green plaid blankets for the tables. They had a chalkboard sign greeting people with a “Welcome Little Pumpkin” message. I’ll let the photos speak for the beauty and details. Baby Boy Racine and I are so blessed to have all these amazing women in our lives!

Gift & Appetizer table

Dress: Pinkblush Maternity Shadow: my Dad 🙂

Outdoor seating area

We used for opening presents

Best friends

Drink bar with wine, champagne, Apple Sangria, Apple Cider Mimosas, and an Apple Cider “Mom-Mosa” pitcher for me

Apple Cider Mimosas

Apple sangria

Table settings

Place setting with apples for all

Gold leaf invitations, pumpkins, flowers & candles

Flowers by Charlotte of Calvert Designs

Cupcakes from Fluffy Thoughts Bakery, baby photos of Mom-to-be and Dad-to-be

Tables, string lights, and food table (before the food was brought out)

Mothers & Daughters: Charlotte, Kate, Ingrid & Dori

<> Sorority sisters for life <>

Baby photos of mom-to-be & dad-to-be, fall decor, baby boy clothes

Beautiful even at night

First Nascar Race

This weekend Jimmy and I headed to Richmond for our first NASCAR race. I, being the person I am, spent all of last week researching what to wear, what to bring, what to do, weather forecast – basically any and all logistics. Based on my research, I packed us two small soft coolers with frozen water bottles for ice, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, shorts (we were wearing jeans but quickly changed), light long sleeve shirts, granola bars, and ponchos (so it wouldn’t rain). We were meeting some friends who were taking care of food/drink.

Race day timeline:

• 6:30 am – got up, packed up the car, headed to my parents for an air mattress, and hit the road
• 9 am – arrived in Richmond and met up with friends/waited for the whole group to arrive.
• 9:45 am – we all packed up our tailgating supplies
• 10:30 am we got to the race track and parked (for free, so cool) to start tailgating
• 10:45 am – 6:30 pm – tailgating
• 7 pm race
• 10:45 pm leave race

So clearly a long day but we had a blast! I will say NASCAR fans are the nicest people out there. We were walking around and someone offered hot dogs because he had extra (yes, Jimmy jumped at that). Everyone smiled. Everyone said hi. People let others in front of them in line for the bathroom; I’ve never seen that before. It was so refreshing.

When we got into the race, we rented a scanner with two headsets so we could listen to the drivers/announcers. That was a lot of fun. Jimmy kept going to Danika Patrick’s station because he had $20 on her making it into the top 25 (#fail). I liked listening to the announcers the best because I had no idea what was going on.

The most exciting part were the fires. Seriously, there were at least 3 tires on fire incidents. The cars kept driving with flames coming off the tires. There was smoke everywhere. We had great seats so we could see everything.

I would definitely go to another race.

Next up is our trip to Boston to see Ted & Lauren. We’ll be there Friday to Sunday. Hopefully we’ll get to see Jimmy’s grandma and some of his family while we’re up there too.

May is going to be super busy for us. We have this Boston trip. The next weekend I’m going to Blacksburg to see my little. Then the next weekend my friend Stacy is in town. Then we end out the month heading to Surfside Beach, SC for a week vacation with Ted and Lauren.

Gold Cup – I Love being Preppy

This weekend we attended the Gold Cup. Northern Virginia’s annual horse race. I used it as a reason to get all preppy with Jimmy – seersucker, bow ties, big hats and all. It was so much fun! Big thanks to Justin and his family for having us at their tailgate spot.

One thing we will not be doing next year is making Mint Julep jello shots. It was a fantastic idea, but in reality it tasted like chewy licorice.

We didn’t take many pictures, I really need to get better at that, but here are two we did take.

With our host, Justin

Can’t believe I got him to wear a bow tie

Happy Birthday to Jimmy

It’s Jimmy’s first birthday since we’ve been married. He’s the old age of 28.

Instead of making him a traditional cake, I decided to do something more fun – a beer cake 🙂

Jimmy’s Birthday Beer Cake

I used his favorite pale ales to assemble – Pork Slap, Dales Pale Ale, and one other new one I can’t remember, but it had a whale on it that I thought was fun. After I quickly cut cardboard to make the base for each layer, I used clear duck tape to hold it all together. Then I tied gold ribbons to make it prettier because one cannot present an undecorated beer cake. After I finished all this at around 6pm when Jimmy was due home around 6:15pm and we were to go to dinner at 6:30pm, I realized it would not fit in the fridge. This was a problem. So I carefully carried it to our backyard and hid it under our table. Thank you December for being frigid and keeping my beer cake cold.

Jimmy got a PSP 3DXL from me for his bday and a tablet from his parents. I’d say he had a very successful birthday.

Happy Birthday to me

It’s my 26th birthday. My first birthday married. My first birthday in our home. It’s been great. As always I celebrated with champagne 🙂

Cheers

I also treated myself with a half day and an appointment at drybar. Drybar is a hair salon that specializes in and only does blowouts. They’re responsible for my beautiful hair in that picture.

Cheers to Beers

For Father’s day, Jimmy & I took my Dad & Mom to a beer tasting and tour at Flying Dog brewery in Frederick, MD. It was so cool to see how they make the beer, get history on this company and their beers, and of course taste them. We will definitely be doing this again.

Flying Dog Tour

 

Honeymoon

We are so lucky to have spent the last week in the beautiful Virgin Islands. It was amazing! We stayed beachfront on St. Thomas. The view from our balcony is probably my favorite ever. We also took a little adventure to St. John complete with a “dingy” rental in a storm. We had tropical drinks, good food, so much fun, and relaxation after the wedding. I’m already planning our next trip 🙂

Leaving for our honeymoon Mrs. Racine ❤

The view from our room

cheers!

Tropical drinks

Real excited to get back to this guy though. Next time we take him with us

Engagement Photos

We had the best time at our engagement photo shoot in Old Town Alexandria. Thanks to Kurt & Kate taking care of Kai our wonderful photographer Ryan got some great shots. It was the first time either Jimmy or I worked with a photographer so we were a little apprehensive about the day, but Ryan was so patient and taught us a lot. I’m including a few favorites in this post. Look for more at the wedding! 🙂