Hi! On Saturday morning, I hosted my annual Declare It Day breakfast. (Check out my goals from last year here.) I had a few ladies over for breakfast to declare our goals together and support each other.  When I planned the morning I knew that I wanted us to move our bodies, toast our friendship, enjoy a yummy and mostly healthy breakfast, and declare our gutsy goals.

Move our bodies…

I was really hoping we could go for a walk/run around my neighborhood but it was freezing! The feels like was 18 degrees, way to cold for a recreational walk/run.  I knew I didn’t want to do a video, so I scoured Pinterest and found the perfect activity.  It is based on a deck of cards.

For example, the 10 of diamonds would be 10 squats.  I left it up to each person for clubs if you wanted to do plies or alternating lunges.  For the planks we did different movements in a plank (heel lifts, step to the side, etc.). We picked cards one at a time and everyone did the same exercise. We went around 2 times making 12 excercises.  I picked some fun music (Britney, Pitbull, Taylor Swift) and we got right to it. It was the perfect amount of moving to warm us up.  I have been neglecting these types of exercises and happened to be pretty sore the next day. Note to self: do more of these exercises!!

Toast our friendship…

It was 9 o’clock in the morning so we had delicious mimosas, and mimosas without orange juice :), and toasted great friends.  I am so thankful for these girls and all of the fun we have together.  

From left to right, Sandra and I became friends through our boys playing sports together in the past 3 years. Our big and little boys play basketball together and our husbands coach together too. Our husbands also look a lot alike and sometimes dress the same by accident.

Jodi and I became friends 4 years ago when our boys were on the same t-ball team.  Our big boys and little boys now play soccer and baseball together. Her husband and my husband have coached at least 15 teams together and have at least 1 more lined up in the spring.  I have called Jodi my sister wife for a long time because we are together A LOT and I knew that she would love on my kids if I wasn’t there and vice versa.  I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Kourtni and I became friends 3 years ago when our boys met at school. Our kids are now inseparable.  Ironically enough, our big boys look so similar that coaches, grandparents, and even we have gotten them confused. I am officially garage/patio door friends with Kourtni, meaning I am not sure when I last entered her house through the front door and I can’t remember the last time she knocked on my door before coming right in.  Sandra, Jodi, Kourtni and I all vacation together with one other family.  We all have boys and the moms, dads, and kids always have the best time together.

I am next with the Get Gutsy tank top on with my Black-Rockstar flower.

Jamie and I have been friends since we were about 6 years old. Our moms became friends so we were too.  At 8, we started spending summers together at the pool. We spent every single day at the pool, playing, swimming, maybe making a little mischief.  Whatever we did, it made us life long friends! Jamie and I had the same due dates for our babies: me April 1st and then April 19th, Jamie April 19th and then April 1st. Our babies are both 19 days apart. We ran our first 1/2 marathon together, we do girls weekends together, the list goes on. I guess we just like doing things together!

Sarah and I have been friends since our moms met at the library story time when we were three years old.  Our moms are the best of friends and we became friends too. We used to put on endless shows for our moms, we went to the beach together, we’ve run marathon relays and fun 5ks together, and we have stayed friends into adulthood.

So there’s a lot of love between these ladies and me and I wanted to toast them!  I wanted each one to feel special and know that I appreciate our friendship in a major way.  I also wanted them to know that I believed in them. I selected the Black-Rockstar flower for them because I wanted them to know that I thought they were a force to be reckoned with.  As they made their goals, they needed to know that they were total badasses!

Enjoy a yummy breakfast…

Here’s the newbie blogger fail, I forgot to take any pictures of the breakfast.  It wasn’t extravagant, but it was tasty.  I chopped a bunch of yellow, red, orange, and green peppers, added them to 14 eggs and some shredded cheese, and baked all that into a yummy egg casserole.  I browned some sausage, combined it with a block of cream cheese and braided crescent rolls around it. Delish! I had fresh Plant City, Florida (THE VERY BEST) strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. I also made cinnamon crumb cake muffins because I just love them!  It was the perfect mix of sweet and savory, healthy and a little indulging for our morning.

Declare our gutsy goals…

Each place setting had this to start our goal writing:

This is the second flower I have given these ladies.  On my 200th run day and at Declare It Day 2017, I gave out Orange – Fiercely United flowers.  I wanted them to know that I was going to surround myself with amazing souls and love them fiercely.  This year I wanted the girls to know that I thought they were forces to be reckoned with, they were strong, they were rock stars, and they were resilient. The paper behind the flower explanation is the Declare It Day form.  That was the signal that it was time to get gutsy and write goals to challenge ourselves. Our conversations were all over the place – fitness goals, reading goals, life goals, parenting goals, nutrition goals.  We were sharing important things and learning just how we needed to support each other this year! It was wonderful. I am so ready to go out and get my goals with these girls!

I have a few friends that weren’t able to make it so they will be getting Declare It Day care packages this week with the Black-Rock Star flower and a Declare It Day form. Hopefully they’ll be able to join us next year!!

My 2018 Declare It Day goals are:

Goal update: I am going to do the deck of cards exercises on Tuesday evening and I am one book into my book goal.

I don’t think it is too late to head on over to Fellow Flowers Declare It Day page, download the declaration page, and declare a gutsy goal to challenge yourself!