May 14th, 2017

Happy Mother's Day!! 💖

Today Mike and I woke up bright and early. We gathered up all our presents (both birthday and Mother's Day) and the cake before heading over to the Donelson's house to drop everything off. Next, we drove straight to Cracker Barrel (which is where we were going to meet up with the Donelson's and Marsceau's for brunch) to try and get a table for seven. They told us it would be about an hour wait, so we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather while we waited. The rest of the crew showed up after church about forty minutes later. We all had a nice time chatting and taking photos while we waited. Once our table was ready, we all eagerly took our seats and poured over our menus. Thankfully, the food came out in no time at all! Brunch was very nice. We all had lovely conversation, shared in plenty of laughs, and ate yummy food.

After we'd ate, we returned to the Donelson's for cake and presents. Today is also Rachael's 24th birthday!! She absolutely loved her cake, which Mike and I were very happy about. She also loved the birthday gifts we had gotten her, which were four of her favorite books (she got two today: Liesl & Po and The Wicked Boy: The Mystery Of A Victorian Child Murderer—the other two are still in transit: Salt To The Sea and Gregor And The Prophecy Of Bane)! For Mother's Day, I had also gotten her a little gift. I saw this "12 months" baby frame that I filled with pictures of Peter every month of his first year. She completely adored it. She was so thankful and everyone thought it was so sweet! I was very happy she liked it so much. :) We got Laura an Apple watch for Mother's Day, which she was thrilled about as well.

We stayed awhile longer, just relaxing and chatting some more. Around 4PM we headed over to my family's house to see my mommy! :) We had already given my mom her gifts (which were new chairs for the kitchen island and new towels), but we still brought her some pretty flowers. My dad had cooked a yummy meal for the family and Zack had come home for the weekend as well! My dad and I went to get yogurt from TSBY after dinner, which is my mom's favorite. After everyone was totally stuffed, we hung out in the front yard for awhile. Mom and I talked while all the boys played street hockey and longboarded and such. Overall it was a really lovely day spent with all my favorite mommy figures. :)

My lovely mother. That beautiful women is the definition of unconditional love. Without fail, she always puts others before herself...every single time. I am so grateful to have grown up with such an example of unselfish love and care. Whenever I needed a friend to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, or a warm embrace to fall into, she has always been there. Thank you mom, for everything you do—both the big and small. Thank you for staying up late on countless nights just to help me finish my math homework. Thank you for driving thirty(+) minutes just to drop off something I had clumsily forgotten. Thank you for sending over meals, just purely for the purpose to save me the trouble of cooking some nights. Thank you for always encouraging me, especially at times when I thought I couldn't. Thank you for always doing all you can for me...and even then, doing more still. I will never be able to repay you—but that certainly won't stop me from trying. I love you always; thank you for being you! 💜

May 14th, 2016

Happy 23rd Birthday to the lovely Rachael Marsceau!!

The two of us started off the morning before it was even really morning. There was hardly any light yet, the birds weren't even chirping, and we both had sleepy looks on our faces. We missed morning traffic because of the earlier start so we made it to the McCormik Place in great time! We secured a spot in line and settled down to relax until the event began. When they finally started letting everyone in, we decided we were very glad we had gotten there so early. The line in front of us was considerable, but the line behind us was outrageous! We definitely benefited from our early rise!

Once we got into the doors, we instantly rushed off to go get our wristbands. In order to see a certain author and get your picture and books signed, you needed a wristband. We were definitely super fortunate because we both got wristbands for all three of the authors we wanted to see! Some people towards the back of the line only got one wristband, and hardly anyone seemed to have more than two. We felt so lucky!!

We had our wristbands so we headed inside to check everything out. Instantly the two of us were just blown away at the size of the place and how many booths there were. There we stands and books and people everywhere! We couldn't walk more than two steps in front of a new sign without being handed a free book or bag or other such goodies! I felt like I had won the lottery!

We spent the first hour or so just browsing booths and getting more free stuff. Eventually it was time to go see our first author: Sabaa Tahir, author of An Ember In The Ashes. Rach had read this book last winter and loved it. She also gifted it to me for Christmas (along with Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen)! I will admit that I still haven't read it yet, but regardless it was still awesome to meet her. And once I do read her book the experience will be all the more awesome! :) The sequel to her book is coming out in fall and Rach is already super excited for it.

     

After seeing Sabaa, we headed to one of the showrooms to catch a panel. This one was about fantasy YA novels and discussed aspects of light vs darkness. On the panel was Veronica Roth (author of the Divergent series), Sabaa Tahir (who we had just seen), Melissa De La Cruz (author of the Descendants series), and Lauren Oliver (author of Liesl & Po, which is one of Rach's favorites). The panel was great. Super funny, super informative, and just an all-around great group of authors to have together chatting with one another.

After the panel we walked around a little more in the main area while munching on some snacks. We then headed back to another showroom to see another panel, this time featuring The Property Brothers. Jonathan and Drew Scott, the brothers, have a show on HGTV where they fix up homes and make them into "dream homes". I love anything HGTV (House Hunters is my guilty pleasure) and Rachael adores them. The panel was absolutely hilarious. As soon as it finished we rushed off to get in line for our second meet-and-greet, this time with those two brothers we had just seen! They were signing for their new book called Dream Home: The Property Brothers Ultimate Guide to Finding & Fixing Your Perfect Home. They were super friendly, which was expected. It was definitely super fun to meet them!

     

Once we had said goodbye to the brothers, we all but rushed over to see our last author of the day: James Dashner, author of the Maze Runner series. I loved that series and am also loving the movies so far! Rach had only read the first book in the series so far, but she was eager to dive into the rest. James was super laidback and friendly, which was very nice. He signed all three of his books for both of us and chatted with us for an extended period of time.

After saying goodbye to James, the two of us found ourselves feeling rather worn out. It had been a long day for us, after all! We did one more round of the booths before calling it a day and heading back to the car. We both agreed that our experience at BookCon couldn't be described as anything less than a success. :)

     

The birthday fun continued when we made it back to the Donelson home. Michael and I had prepared a Beauty and the Beast themed party for Rach, so as soon as we walked in the door we banished her to the basement and started to set up. The table turned out absolutely beautiful and all the plates and utensils and decorations matched perfectly.

In the middle of the table we had created a gorgeous centerpiece. Naturally, we made the famous rose! We also laid out some books and added in Mrs. Potts and Chip (Mike's birthday gift to Rach).

We also bought a candelabra, which we spraypainted gold to look like Lumiere! I bought a cute little antique clock off Etsy to pose as Clogsworth. :)

The cake turned out so perfectly. Michael and I were definitely proud of this one! Everyone oooh'd and ahhh'd at all the décor and pastries. It all was such a success.

After cake and presents we headed upstairs to, of course, watch Beauty and the Beast! Jaclyn and Jacob were in from Michigan, so they got to join in on the fun. Everyone sat around together watching the movie. Even Chris and Peter came up to join us! Peter sat so cutely in my lap the whole time, pointing out the "horsey" any time he was on screen. :)

May 13th, 2016

Today Michael and I made Rachael's birthday cake! Man, it turned out so beautiful! Way better than I ever could've imagined! I seriously cannot wait to give it to her tomorrow! She's gonna flip. :)