Playing Princesses and Teaching Barre

I meant to write about our busy and lovely weekend on Sunday night, when it would make sense to write about a weekend, but I went to bed early with a *blinding* headache and then I taught my first barre class at the new studio yesterday after work and that both revved me up and wiped me out and just when I was going to open my laptop the library finally saw fit to lend me Devil in Spring (spin-off from Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers series; this one features Sebastian and Evie's son and if you know those names you already know you want to read it) so I had to read it cover-to-cover before falling asleep sometime around 3 a.m.

So here we are, it's Tuesday (I actually typed Wednesday and had to delete... my 4 hours of sleep are showing) and I can tell you our weekend was super busy -- 2 soccer games! toddler birthday party! grocery shopping! 17 loads of laundry! Casa Manana Children's Play! School movie night! Two extra Orangetheory workouts because I was too sick to use my credits when I was supposed to! Having friends over to swim Sunday night! Still not ever eating out! (not sure that one gets an exclamation mark). But it was lovely. We somehow did all the things and yet never felt rushed... I even had several hours to sit down and write up a new barre series for my new class and rework my music. It was completely lovely and strangely unphotographed, though I did get this one of Cora at her first-ever toddler friend birthday party.

She's been invited to classmate's parties in the past, but she always pretends like she has never heard the kids' name before when I ask if she wants to go, so I've just rsvp'd no. Cora is VERY into her work and much less into her peers, but lately that's been changing and when she screamed in joy when she saw V's Beauty and the Beast party invitation I knew we were going. She slept with the invitation every night, couldn't wait to go, and then played by herself for at least half the party but still seemed to generally have an excellent time.

I should note that she was the only one in a princess dress and she absolutely did not notice. This is just regular Saturday attire around here.

On Sunday while James was swimming and after I'd snapped at everyone for not putting things away after I'd asked them to, I decided we should pack lunches and go out in search of a new park. Each kid packed their own - Landon helped Cora, but it was all on her orders, and the results were adorable and quite well-rounded. I had a Jimmy John's sandwich I'd picked up on the way home (cheater) from Orangetheory. We all filled our water bottles and off we went.

I saw a speck of green on my GPS fairly nearby so we drove towards that to investigate and found the most adorable little park tucked among the houses on a street very close to us! I had no idea! It was a huge hit and I'm so glad we got out of the house. I can't be justifiably frustrated at anyone for leaving things on the floor if we are no longer on my floor. Everyone was winning.

Even this random teenager we picked up while we were there.

My first barre class was on Monday after work and it went great! I was a little nervous- it'd been 2 months since I'd taught and the set-up of the room is different than I'm used to, but as always I LOVED it once I got going. There's really nothing I enjoy more than yelling a count over my music and making everyone's muscles shake. So fun.

My rainbow confetti pants didn't arrive in time, so I wore my surprise outfit from James when I first taught at my last new studio and wowed everyone in my neon orange cone pants and Sweaty Band. Still freaking love those things- I can't believe I spent so many years buying and giving away headbands that wouldn't stay. These don't move no matter what I do.

Speaking of something I love, I added a "Referrals" tab at the top of the page. As I wrote in there, I don't generally do marketing posts and don't allow any ads, and I have no intention of changing that, but every now and then something I love happens to be connected to a referral page or affiliate program and I'll go ahead and link to that when it's something I'd be writing about anyway. Sweaty Bands falls in this category. I bought 6 at full price before actually reaching out to them just to see if they offered an instructor discount before I went and bought 4 more (I like options... and glitter). So the few things I've linked up with that way are on that page, just in case you ever wonder to yourself "what was that headband LL loved?"

Now I need a recommendation for you. James and I have a super formal event coming up in April - the 100th anniversary of my old law firm. Their normal annual parties are a black-tie blowout event, so this one is going to be insane. I've turned to Rent the Runway yet again, so I can pretend to be fancy and then mail everything back right after, and after much debate, picked this dress, which reminded me of a mermaid and made me happy:

For those who like a full picture, I got these shoes on clearance ($25 with a coupon!) and am renting these earrings again. I can't wait.

But the fabulous backless nature of my dress is going to require an undergarment I've never worn before- the elusive backless adhesive bra. Just the name sounds absurd and impossible, but if you have ever used one with any success, can you let me know the brand? Target sells them and I've heard decent things, so I may go there, but if you have any tips for maximum stickiness or other pointers for use, let me know! I'm a 32D and I plan to do a lot of dancing. It also highly unlikely I'll need one again in the next 5 years, so one that isn't very expensive and I can guilt-free throw away at the end of the night would be fantastic. Also fantastic? These earrings I get to borrow again:

bling!

Boob-wrangling aside, possibly literally, I'm super pumped for another fancy Cinderella kind of night!