Living the dream, 7-year-old style.

We're back from our busy American Girl weekend, and we had a blast. Having only one child on a trip is incredibly easy, especially when that child is getting to live out her fantasies all weekend long. She was so much fun, it was hard to believe she's often such a drama queen.

We started out by checking into our hotel, where Ava was not impressed with the size of our room. She was, however, impressed with the bottled water and  glasses on the nightstand.

I had let the hotel peeps know that we were celebrating a birthday, so they sent some cookies up to our room. That was nice. Please note Ava's multi-colored nails. 

We went to Tyson's Galleria that night and perused the pricey shops. Ava knocked down an entire display of boots at Neiman's, and also tried on some sparkly Jimmy Choos. If only we wore the same size, then I could justify the purchase. Just kidding. 

The next morning, it was time to hit the American Girl store. This girl was beyond excited.

She loved the store, but was intensely focused on purchasing McKenna, which we did. Then we met my aunt and sister for lunch in the AG cafe. Morgan is a good sport for hanging out with all the girls and even wore pink to show his love for American Girl. Or, as he said, "I have a limited number of shirts that are acceptable to wear in public." Hmmm. Sounds like someone needs to go shopping.

Ava pretty much looks at Laura (my sister) like she is a big celebrity. It's very entertaining to watch.

My aunt, my sister, Ava, and McKenna. (Please note McKenna appears to be drinking wine. She probably needs it after hanging with all of us).

The girls. I wish we could do this every weekend.

We spent the rest of the day doing a little more shopping (Disney store, Lululemon), then saw a movie, and finally went back to the hotel around 9. Yesterday we went to my aunt's house in Alexandria, where we all had brunch at Carlyle, which was super yummy. 

We drove into DC for a bit, then around Old Town Alexandria. We headed back home around 3, stopped briefly at Ikea, and finally made it to Raleigh around 9:30. Based on today's mood, I would say I have one tired little girl on my hands. Ah, the aftermath.

Davis was with my parents all weekend, and is coming home around lunchtime today. I think he's going to have some adjusting to do since he pretty much got to have his way all weekend, and appeared to have an unlimited supply of popsicles:

 Hope everyone has a great Monday.

Hair Dilemma

I'm still at the beach, being as lazy as possible with 2 young kids. It's surprisingly easier than you might think. The kids love it here. Mornings consist of eating Lucky Charms on the sofa while watching TV. Then some beach time, lunch, pool time, more beach, more pool, and a late dinner. Needless to say, they both fall asleep quite easily at the end of the day.

I came to Litchfield with great intentions of a 6am run each  morning:

Somehow, that hasn't happened.

I don't love running on the beach. Sometimes the sand slopes and that drives me nuts. Other times it's just too mushy, and I feel like that can't be good on the aging joints. Plus, while perusing Pinterest the other day, I came across an Insanity workout featured in Self magazine. I tried out this move:

And promptly pulled a muscle in my back. Ouch. Of course, that provided an excellent excuse for laziness. However, I'm debating a quick run before getting everyone ready to head out to the beach this morning.

One of the biggest issues I have to deal with here is Ava's hair. She has been wanting to let it grow out for some time now. So, I've been letting her. My initial thought on the topic was, "it's her hair, if it's a big deal for her to have it long, I'll let her do it." Trouble is, long is not really the best style for her. And it's not even crazy long, yet. But it's long enough that it is constantly tangled, resulting in a scream-fest every morning when it's time to brush it. I love it in a ponytail:

But what I really loved was when she was four and had this sweet little bob:

I recently showed her a picture of Crystal Gayle, thinking that would change her mind about overly-long hair,  but of course, it had the opposite effect. She was mesmerized. 

Of course.