guest post: adventures in smore land.

Life with the Smore’s doesn’t stop. 

And, lucky for me, I had the pleasure of joining in on this nonstop fun for the past week when I came down to TX to visit my most favorite person ever!  Morgan and I have been nearly joined at the hip since birth. Our moms are sisters, and because we’re only 14 months apart we grew up very much like sisters too! 
Morgan has always been my best friend, confidant, and favorite person to laugh with. We spent our childhood playing together, laughing, getting in trouble, and always, always having the best time ever! So, naturally, our childhood adventures continue as adults and we have the added bonus of getting the little Smores involved too :)

Lyla girl is always up for an adventure and giggles so naturally, we brought her along for all of our adventures this past week! We stayed super busy visiting with Peacocks and Peahens (yes, there is a difference between male and female Peafowl and we had a hilarious time learning about the Peacocks displaying their very large feathers to catch a certain Peahen or two’s eyes), snagging great deals at TJ Maxx and a local thrift store, playing at the park and enjoying the warm Texas winter, learning new languages, building Play-Doh helicopters, baby Smore toots, and bath time fun!

I can honestly say I laughed more this past week than I probably have in the past three months. Our first fit of giggles came from making a trip to our favorite discount retailer, TJ Maxx. When we took Lyla for a shopping trip, she filled a cart with many things she “needed”. (mostly expensive handbags)

kitchenaid anyone?

The next round of giggles came when feeding the Peafowl. First of all, let me back up a bit and explain. So there is a street within city limits that just has WILD FREAKING PEACOCKS roaming the streets. The first day we just did a drive by to check them out and then after a little research on these beautiful birds we learned that they’re attracted to bright colors, especially white. So, thinking we probably needed to get a better look at them, we decided to go back the next day with some old bread. 
Lyla and I made some bread balls and away we went. 
We started throwing bread balls, and before we knew it there were like 15 peacocks surrounding the car! I took tons of pictures because I don’t think I’ve ever seen peacocks in real life! So cool, but then slightly terrifying when we thought they might try to attack us in the car. they are pretty large.

More giggles came when I learned that the little miss can speak like 12 languages now. As you’re probably aware, Daddy Smore is Italian and had the sense to speak pretty much only Italian to Lyla and the babe. While this makes things a little awkward for a non-Italian speaking guest... because let’s be honest, he could have been telling Lyla things like “Casey smells funny!” and I would have had no idea! But, it was the most amazing thing to see! 

I sat down to watch a cartoon in Italian with Lyla and she literally translated the whole thing for me. I couldn’t believe it. Then, I started asking her how to say various things in Italian and she was able to tell me just about everything I asked. So, to test her intelligence, I thought I would tease her with a little Vietnamese. Mind you, I speak about 50 words of the language and most of the things I can say are food, animals or numbers, but what the heck, Lyla thought it was cool. So, after me counting to 10 a handful of times to her and us laughing hysterically at how silly the words sound (no offense, I love all things Vietnam), she impressed me again, when she could tell me 1-5 on her own! 

This girl has an ear for language. 

But, the biggest fit of giggles came thanks to baby Smore. Seriously, I was crying because I was laughing so hard. He had just woken up from a sweet baby nap. I was sitting on the couch with his feet up by my face, playing a game. when i lifted his little leg, he tooted...right on cue. three times. 

It was the cutest an most hilarious thing ever!

Going to Texas is my favorite trip ever. This time was the third time I’ve made the trip down and it was just as fun as always. I’ve always came down in the winter months and coming from cold and snowy Chicago, the reunion with the sun is almost as joyous as the reunion with my BFF. I love being able to spend such good quality time with Morgan and being able to get to know her sweet babies. Eating Marco’s cooking is also a huge bonus in my book. 

Saying goodbye is the hardest thing ever and it makes me sad that we don’t see each other as much anymore.  I hope that someday Morgan and I can live close to each other again so our kids can grow up and be best friends just like us!