McInelly Girls' Weekend!

I have 4 really fun sisters-in-law and a great mother-in-law. Last weekend, we did the unheard of and all snuck away kid free for a fun girls getaway.

We started off with a yummy dinner and baby shower for Mandy.

It was complete with fun games and cute favors.

After 3 boys, Mandy is finally having a girl. We are all so excited for her!
We did a fun gift exchange of all our favorite things. I gave everyone Olive Garden salad dressing and mints. Here are the gifts I got from everyone else.
Smart water, daily moisturizer and self-tanning lotion, a favorite running shirt and protein drink, cinnamon almonds, Target gift card, chocolate, kiehl's lip balm, nail polish, a huge box of muffin liners (so you NEVER worry about running out), foot cream, and pillow cases made from satin and lace that came from Jared's grandmother.

I was in charge of planning a simple craft. I showed everyone how to make fabric flowers and we made them into hair clips, baby headbands, and decorated gift boxes. There are so many fun things you can do with flowers these days. Endless possibilities...


Then it got a little crazy.
Emma brought stuff for all of us to do face masks.

We made silly faces, smiling doesn't really fit when you look like this.
I love Carrie's joker face.

After late night talking and not much sleep, we went to breakfast Saturday morning.

Check out the size of that biscuit, it was huge!

The food was really yummy, but my favorite part of breakfast was our recipe card exchange. Everyone chose 3 of their favorite recipes and brought copies for everyone. I was really needing some new meal ideas so this was especially great for me.

Since this trip was all about "what women want", we treated ourselves to spa pedicures,

and a manicure.

Then, we headed over to the mall for some shopping! Between all of us, we have 15 kids, 20 if you count my mother-in-laws 5 grown children. We could never come to the mall with that kind of crowd. It really was a treat to be able to peruse stores and pick out a couple things without all the chaos of that many kids. Can you imagine?

We had planned to finish off our weekend with a late lunch at the Olive Garden, but after that big breakfast, we opted for smoothies instead. I chose a marionberry ice cream smoothie with white chocolate and whipped cream on top. It was to die for!

We went to Mandy's house to eat our smoothies and Emma had one last surprise for all of us. Since the weekend was all about what women want and need, she reminded us of how important our families are to us. She asked each of our husbands to write us a love letter and passed them out to each of us. We all took a few minutes to read our letters. It was a little emotional, we all got a little teary. It's always so nice to be reminded that you are loved and appreciated.

It was the perfect way to end a great weekend.

I know it wasn't easy for Jared to clear his busy schedule to allow me to take off like this. He really should have been studying, but instead he spent time with the kids Friday night watching movies and he took them to 3 parties on Saturday. He did great, although he did admit that he lost them all at one point. Don't worry, it wasn't a big deal. They were at a picnic with his fellow MBA students and their families when he realized he didn't know where any of them were. They hadn't gone far and were really just around the corner from where he was, but it was so cute to find them all side by side looking out at the water. He took a picture.

I feel really blessed to have such a wonderful husband and family. I didn't grow up with sisters so I'm especially grateful for great sisters-in laws. This just might have to be a new tradition for us!