It was also a LOT easier to ease into Saturday because Ryan surprised me with an incredible birthday gift — a refurbished JURA coffee machine, also known as the coffee machine my mother-in-law has at her house that I’ve been lusting over for years and years. It makes the most unbelievably smooth coffee and I am so darn excited to put it to use every morning. Ryan hit the ball out of the park with that gift, that’s for sure!
Our big plans for the day took us to the Queen’s Cup in Mineral Springs to watch a series of steeplechase horse races with our friends and our three-year-olds. (We opted to get babysitters for the littlest members of our families to avoid major meltdowns since they’re all still taking multiple naps a day.)
(Dress: Princess Polly Boutique / Fascinator: Amazon / Cat-Eye Sunglasses: Old Navy last year but I just saw this pair at Francesca’s when we were in Hilton Head and I swear they’re identical)
I had a moment of mom guilt about leaving Ryder behind for the afternoon on my birthday but since we spent all morning and evening together, I tried to recognize that feeling for what it was — totally ridiculous. I am sure Ryder loved every second with his babysitter and we got to enjoy a meltdown-free day. A win for everyone!
Once we arrived, we couldn’t stop commenting on the beauty of the Queen’s Cup grounds and we majorly lucked out with perfect weather on Saturday. It was sunny all day and temperatures hovered around 75 degrees!
As I previously mentioned, we were invited to the race when the Queen’s Cup PR team caught wind of Chase’s infatuation with horses and he was in absolute heaven all day long. A few of Chase’s best buddies are the kids of some of our closest friends and we loved watching their enthusiasm for the horses as they picked their horses based on their favorite numbers and rooted for their horses to win.
There were five different races throughout the day which were definitely the highlight of the Queen’s Cup but we also had a lot of fun watching our kids ride ponies and play around the grounds with the other children in the Croup tailgate area. (The event is free for kids under 12 and extremely family friendly.) It was such a great way to celebrate my birthday and we truly had a blast!
We arrived home around dinnertime and opted for early baths for the boys before we hung out in our pajamas a bit before bed. I recently ordered a six pack of various kid’s card games for Chase and he’s obsessed with Slap Jack at the moment, so we played many rounds of that one which was a blast! As a big-time lover of game nights, I have high hopes for many evenings spent playing games with our boys as they get older.
Sunday
Ryder was up before the sun on Sunday morning which was a bit odd and also meant he was more than ready for his morning nap around 8:15 a.m. This threw our morning church plans off a bit but we rolled with the punches and opted to spend the morning outside with the boys once Ryder was up and ready to roll 90 minutes later.
We walked around our neighborhood and spent some time at the park near our house before looking for turtles and fish off the dock at the nearby marina. The boys ended up taking their afternoon naps at the same time (a small miracle!) and Ryan and I both used this time to get some work done.
The sunshine called to us again once the boys were awake and we spent the rest of our Sunday on the boat before docking the boat and setting up our towels at the little beach near the dock so Sadie could run around and the boys could splash in the water and play in the sand.
The water was still too cold for me but Chase is apparently made of the same stuff all kids are made of and insisted the water was just fine for swimming.
Luckily he has a dad who will take one for the team and swim in chilly water with him. I opted for dipping my toes in with Ryder!
We rounded out our Sunday with quesadillas at home before calling it a night! It was a great birthday weekend and I went to sleep feeling very grateful for my family and friends.
As for the agenda for the week ahead, today should be a good one. I’ll be accompanying Chase on his school field trip to a local farm today and he is super psyched for it! I hope you all have a great Monday!
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Happy Belated Birthday to you, Julie! I hope you had a great day and that you have a great year ahead! It looks like your weekend was a fun one and I absolutely love the dress you wore. I do agree with you about birthdays over the weekend, it gives much more time to celebrate!
Looks/sounds like a perfect birthday weekend! Speaking of birthdays isn’t it crazy how big our little ones are getting? I just realized I really need to begin planning a first birthday. What?!?
(Sooo not ready for that! Especially since that means I’m back to work soon. This year flew by!!)
Um, you look absolutely stunning in that white dress and coral fascinator! And that last picture of Ryder is too cute. Glad to read you had a lovely birthday weekend!
such a sweet thing to say — thank you, riley!!
I’m glad you had a great birthday weekend!! Queen’s Cup looks like it was gorgeous! And good for you mama for doing something FUN on your birthday! Back home in Nashville, everyone used to dress up and go tailgate on the grounds of the Iroquis Steeplechase! Probably butchered the spelling of that. BUT I used to love seeing everyone’s cute southern dresses and fun hats! I
I’ve never been to a horse race before, but what a fun idea! And what a fun thing for Chase! I know my daughter (who just turned 4) would also be in horse heaven if we were ever able to go 🙂
Happy birthday to you! Sounds like a beautiful weekend!
thank you torrie! isn’t it fun to see kids get to excited about animals!? i just love it!
Just pleading you to remember working moms when you mention mom guilt over leaving babe for just a few hours 🙂 Most of us don’t have the luxury to feel guilt over something so small!
ah! my guilt was over ryder not being included in a family activity on my birthday not over me leaving him with a babysitter for an afternoon — i totally see what you’re saying and how my words could be construed that way but please know that’s not what i intended!
We know you did not have that intent Julie. Too bad others need to project their own feelings on to what others say and turn something into what it never was. So glad you enjoyed your birthday and had a wonderful weekend..
I don’t think Sarah meant her comment meanly at all. Honestly, I stopped following this blog-even though I do love it-because I am a full time working mom and felt so jealous of how you spend your days and guilty that I leave my babies. You get to exercise and spend time with friends/your babies all day. You always talk about how you have the best job in the world and how fortunate you feel that you get to spend all this time with your babies. And believe me, I know it is a hard job. But for me, it was just too much to see this and I had to step away. That being said, I do (obviously lol!) check in once in a while because before having kids I really enjoyed the blog.
Thank you for your comment, Jane! I am obviously sad not to have you around here as much these days but truly think you’re doing the best thing for yourself by not reading often if it’s bringing up any kind of negative emotions and/or guilt. I totally get that and there are blogs I no longer read and Instagram accounts I no longer follow because they weren’t adding to my life anymore. I more than understand and wish you the very best!
Happy Belated!! I saw all of your posts but didn’t put it together to comment Happy Birthday on those, doh! Looks like a great weekend 🙂
Happy belated birthday, Julie! That last picture of Ryder is so cute it made me laugh. My daughter will be about his age when we head down the shore for vaca this summer and I’m so excited to see her reaction to the sand/ocean! Also, tell us more about that coffee maker! It looks fabulous.
Sounds like you had a great birthday!
Happy belated! Where did you get your fun hat? I have a Kentucky Derby party this weekend and am in the market! 🙂
On her Friday post she has an amazon link to it
Thank you!
Thanks for chiming in, Becki! Yep, it’s Amazon!
Amazon Prime all the way! Here’s a link & it’s available in a ton of colors: http://bit.ly/2Lefgu9 It arrives pretty flat so you’ll need to fluff it up a bit and I also used extra bobby pins to secure the hat but it worked well in the end!
Happy belated birthday beautiful Julie! Glad it was a good one for you! God bless you and your family!
Thanks so much Catherine! <3
happy birthday sweet lady!
curious about games with such a young little one… our kiddos are just a few short weeks apart and i have yet to play anything more complex then simple board games (hi ho cherry-o) and memory games, did you introduce the card games to him recently? I feel like “go fish” is more complex then slap jack and memory games, so those seem like good introductions.
A Happy Belated Birthday to you lady! Looks like the celebrations were fun! 😀 Enjoy that delicious coffee!
Happy belated birthday! Can you tell us more about this coffee maker in a future post? (Fellow sleep deprived mama here.)
Happy Birthday!! That sounded like one awesome weekend 🙂 Those card games are SUCH a good idea! I remember having similar ones when I was a kid. Just added to my amazon list for the kids 🙂
Hey Julie,
Which model Jura did Ryan get for you?
I am in the market for one and can’t decide which one to get, sooo many options!