it's your Friday dose of random

I WON I WON I WON!!!
I know it's what everyone says, but I seriously never win anything. Just for fun, I sometimes enter silly little contests like sending your kid's picture to Gap so they can be a chosen to be a Gap model and then we win a free trip to NYC. In reality, all I get is a bunch of Gap spam mail in my in-box. It's the anti-win. It's a loss. Until yesterday. Now, of course I didn't win something as big as a trip to NYC. If that was the case, you can bet the title of this blog post would have been: I WON A TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY!!!! But I did win something, which is always better than nothing. Tuesday night, I entered a little blog contest to win some clothing (a dress? top & leggings?) from Matilda Jane's new fall/winter line that is going to be launched today. And I won!! I didn't even check the blog until Thursday because, like I said already, I never win anything. It gets even better. I was supposed to send an email to a guy at the company telling him I had won and to give him my daughter's size and mailing info. Well, as you know, I have TWO daughters. How would I pick who gets the win? So I emailed him the info for Avery and I included the fact that I had 2 daughters and included Mackenzie's size. I let him know this was just in case there was more room in the box for 2 prizes. Then I included the ;) sign, because in email this always means I'm joking if you think this is too much to ask, but I'm really serious so please include 2 items. He responded back with a ;) sign as well and told me of course there is room in my box for 2 items. Woohoo! I am giddy with excitement to see what I get. Now let's hope it's actually kind of substantial and not just like a free headband or something. Not that I wouldn't love a free headband, but have you seen these dresses and leggings?

Birthday Banner How-To
Thanks for all the nice comments about the birthday banner. Go figure it was a blog about my mom that prompted my most comments ever. I guess I should write about her more often! For those who may be interested in the banner, it's actually not made with one of those fancy embroidery machines. All you need is a regular sewing machine, a computer, and some of that iron-on transfer stuff. Here is the link with the step-by-step instructions so you can make your own birthday banner. (Valerie - hint, hint.) If you do decide to make one, be sure and post some pictures for me!

Labor Day Laziness
Not much is in store for the upcoming 3 day weekend for us. Since tomorrow is our last Saturday with out a soccer game until November 21, we have big plans to sleep in and do a whole lot of nothing. Thankfully, the stars have aligned and I have a fabulous new book to read. If you have not read Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, you have missed something great. The sequel to Hunger Games, Catching Fire, just came out this week. I plan to spend a huge chunk of my Labor Day weekend reading it.

Since I try to never post without a picture, here's one of our recent trip to the lake where we took a morning to go horseback riding. We had to wait until 1:00 for our trail ride, which was pushing it as far as nap time goes with Nathan. Here is the result of a first time horse riding experience for one year old who has been denied a nap for too long. Enjoy & have a great Labor Day weekend!