September Fave Five

Wow and here I thought that the summer months were going fast.  Look up and BAM...it is the end of September already.   With that means time to round up some of my favorite things for the month.

1. A glorious weekend in September that made you feel like is was still August to enjoy some swagtime.

 

2.  Cross Country Season

 

3.  All things that point the fall season is upon us such as....

Fall scents

 Scary Movies

Puffer Vests

Owls because they are cool right now  :)

 

 

 

4.An amazingly awesome kids birthday.  I am not sure how I could be so lucky.

 

5. Being a foodie and all the awesomeness we tried this month.

 



Hope everyone had a wonderful September.  xoxo, Dawn Marie

 

 

Now presenting...

My favorite pictures from our little one year anniversary picture session.

xoxo, Dawn Marie

Falling, Falling for Fall

After my complete and utter love for the summer months (blaming this on the boat peeps), I really was not ready to to let summer go.  This last weekend helped give me the little push I needed to move onto to Fall.  Costume shopping, scary movie, and Autumn art on the marsh.

The hubbie and myself took the opportunity to have a date day on Saturday plus get my monthly shopping for the house done.  Aside from going to Target, which is really just fun for me, we also stopped at Halloween Express.  Figuring what we were going to be for Halloween and buying the costumes right away, bonus.  Patience you will need to wait and see.  It's only 30 plus days away. 

After that we explored World Market.  It was the hubbie's first time there. He loved it. We have decided to celebrate Germanfest in October with a feast from World Market. We are such foodies. We even think we found our dream entertainment center. A few things we picked up:

Squirrel   :)

 

After a whole bunch of shopping, it was off to indulge ourself in a huge tub of popcorn and a scary movie. 

 

OH this was just as good as the first one. Listening to the others gasp etc in the movie theater actually just made this better. Of course, the Hubbie said he saw the end coming.

Sunday was yet another glorious day here in Wisconsin.  We took the chance to get some one year anniversary pictures taken. My idea of course. Thank goodness my Forest is game for clicking the button and my hubbie tolerates the crazy ideas.  Here are some of the outtakes.  Final decision will be shared soon.

 One of the few shots you will see with me in this dress.  Wow did I look prego in the thing.  People would have thought it was a different type of announcement.

 Oh let the sunshine down before I grab that camera from you, my little forest.

 My awesome forest

 

Oh yeah we look like some big bad asses right here.

After all that fun in the morning, did my errand running.  So I could meet up with the little brother and nephews for Autumn Art on the  Marsh.  This is a little craft fair that they have in our hometown.

 The boys and their new snakes

 Checking out apple suncatchers.  Last week was apple week at daycare.

These were made out of tiny stones.  Very awesome.  Ended up buying a turtle. Now wishing I would have got the dog too.

 

Sunday evening brought experimental dinner to the table.  Marinated Chicken breast from Leroy Meats and chicken breasts marinated in the chimichurri sauce grilled by the hubbie. Along with some balsamic roasted carrots and Gnocchi in a mushroom cream sauce.

World Market Gnocchi :  Mushroom and Gorgonzola Sauce recipe from Martha Stewart

 

This was an absolutely successful, delicious, experimental dinner night.

 

We also came to the conclusion that Sunday was vest day.  Everyone's brain was thinking the same thing, no coordination required.

 

Thumbs up...Vest Day, boom!

 

Happy Monday, lovelies

Dawn Marie

Bring on the Friday Five

Hi five people.  It is Friday we have made it.  Bring on the weekend. 

Since it is Friday and we have managed to survive five days of work, thank goodness. I decided to bring to you lovelies five fun things from the my little week.  Ready, here we go:

1. Marc Jacobs Perfume: It started with a roller ball of Honey.  Then some samples came with my sephora order.  Discovered Marc has got it going on when it comes to making me smell pretty.  Add these to my fave perfume list.

Daisy : Dot : Honey

 

2.Bath and Body Works Candles: Oh yeah the 2 for $22 deal is going on with the 3 wick candles.  Bring on some fall scents.

 

3. Stitchfix:   Got my second fix.  I love it.  It is like Christmas morning.  On this round I asked for a dress to wear to the Jersey Boys musical.   They definetly provided me with some variety.  Plus included a fall transition outfit.  Here is a peek at my fix.

 Here are the three dresses.....Which one did I pick you ask?  Well now you will just have to wait and see.

 

4. Coffee, enough said

And last but definetly, not the least.

5. The goodness of people: All to often you only hear of the bad and negativity in the world.  Love when I stumble on stuff like this.  It makes my heart happy.

Article 1:
http://www.today.com/style/teen-down-syndrome-stars-wet-seal-campaign-4B11194690

Think I may have to take some time to shop at Wet Seal.  Great show of character.

Article 2:
http://www.today.com/news/dairy-queen-workers-good-deed-goes-viral-4B11203810

Here is the letter:

Now that rounds up the weeks fab five for me...let's get our groove on and get into the weekend.  Enjoy my peeps.

 

xoxo...Dawn Marie

Love the Run

Cross country is now in full swing for Forest.  In case I have not mentioned it, I love cross country.  Why? I am a runner myself. My son found something he loves. Bonus we can do it together (we will just disregard the fact that he consistently beats me). The other kids on his team and coaches are awesome.  It is a great environment.  Let me step up on my podium to grace you with a couple cross country stories and moments from the season so far.

At Forest's second cross country meet, there was boy (from another team) who finished dead last with a sprained ankle. Took him like 50 minutes to finish. He never gave up. Everyone from all the teams cheered his determination on as he crossed the finish line. Some snapshots from the meet...

Before they even start...running around and stuff  :)

Sprinting to the finish line

Now the last meet, I had the chance to see my son's determination. He has been having some knee problems on and off.  Wished him luck and watched the boys take off like a herd of cattle.  No one should be standing in front of this:

Hopped around to different areas where the boys were running to yell and scream words of encouragement.  And of course, snap pictures.

Not at any point during this or when he decided to sprint to the finish was there the moment when he appeared to be in pain.  He crossed the finish line in 23 minutes 52 second on a 5k. Slower then his normal. Off I go to look for him to see how he is doing.  Find him sitting on the ground in extreme, verge of tears pain. 

Help him to his team's area.  Some of the wonderful girls get him some ice.  He said it hurt the whole way. He never gave up and pushed it at the end. Amazing spirit, Forest. 

The coach checks on him. We have a good conversation.  Everyone here wants what is best for the kids.  Coach says they will put him on a bike until we can get him to the doc. Perfect.  Then the coach makes a comment about Forest wanting to be faster. A portion of me feels like that comment was made because that is what most parents' want to hear that the kids want to be faster, do better.  Would I like that, sure it would be awesome to watch him improve himself.  At the end of the day though, I just want him to love the run. No matter if it takes him 50 minutes or 15 minutes.  I just want him to love his run.  Carry the love of the run with him for the rest of his life. 

Selfish as it maybe. Running is what we share. My son and me.  No one else has this with him.  It was ours before cross country He tagged along on a run, fell in love with it, and we continue to do it together. A glimpse of some great moments in our running history:

 Our first run ever and my Forest even placed

 

 

The one time in history that I was able to beat him.  Just disregard, he was not feeling well that day.

 Our very first 10K

 

 His very first time winning first place in his age group.  Oh I was so proud.

 

 

The very first race where we did not take off together.  I was doing the half marathon and he was doing the 10k

After my first half marathon.

 

Thumbs down our very first rained out race.

 

First time mud running and it was like 35 degrees. For a very large portion we could not feel our feet.

 

 Love the run. At the end of the day that is what it is about.

xoxo....Dawn Marie