Sorority Secrets: Big/Little Reveal

In case you were wondering, it is TERRIFYING to be a present.  My best friend Bailey is inside the present for Kristy, and I am in the present for Lennox! If you hate not knowing what is going on around you and you don’t like confined spaces, don’t try this at home! ;)

This year our chapter Big/Little Reveal was in Central Park! If you want to know more about how sorority families work check out my post here and if you want to see some of the things I gave my Little during Big/Little week, you can read about that here! The Big sisters and their “Phamilies” went to the park an hour before the Littles were set to arrive.  The plan was for the Big sisters to be wrapped up like presents for the Little sisters to unwrap!  We were all wrapped up for about 15 minutes before the Littles got there and we were met with a lot of curiosity.  Some people thought we were being hazed, others thought the giant people-presents were some kind of live art gallery in the park.  Tourists were taking pictures with us and posing amongst the sisters.  Despite the strange looks and mild judgment we received from the Upper West Side park goers, it was a cute idea and the day was so much fun! When the Littles finally got there they unwrapped us and the park was filled with excited sorority squeals and lots of sorority squatting for pictures!! After reveal my Phamily and I went to dinner, there the new Littles got to know the rest of the Pham and we had a chance to hang out after a week of avoiding each other! The day was full of excitement and smiles, plus some birthday cake to celebrate my 20^th birthday that occurred the next day! Over all reveal helped make my birthday weekend unforgettable! I am so lucky to have such amazing girls to call my Pi Phi Phamily.

 {Started the morning by making a sign so my Little would know where to go!}

{Can't look at this picture and not laugh}

 {How cute is my Little sis?! Meet Lennox!}

 {Throw what you know!}

{Welcome to the Pham, Angels!}

♥ Caro

Sorority Secrets: Big/Little Week

A few weeks ago I was paired with my perfect Little sister in my sorority! If you are confused about what I mean by this, check out the post I did about sorority families here.  The week before Big/Little reveal is like Christmas in October! It is an awesome week full of presents and secret clues, plus adorable fake Facebook pages where the Bigs get to find every embarrassing selfie of their Little to post in anticipation! Last year when I was getting my Big sister, reveal was on my birthday – this means the week leading up to my birthday was full of candy and surprises! Needless to say, it was a very fun time! This year I am a Big so I got to sneak into my Little's room everyday (with a little help from her roommates!) to leave presents, candy, and clues for her to find! The Big/Little reveal is supposed to be a surprise, but some times girls can figure out who their Big is. My Little had a good idea who I was by the time reveal came, but you're still never sure until you see them on reveal day! I had to be super sneaky all week and pray I didn’t run into her with a mysterious box of doughnuts or bag of presents.  Some schools consolidate this week into one day, I personally love that we have a whole week to spread out the surprises; it makes the process last a little longer and it is so fun to spoil your new Little sister! It was a crazy week full of crafting (not to mention scheming to get the Littles away from their rooms for a few minutes) but in the end it is totally and completely worth it! 

Most days I left an apparel item, little trinkets, and a craft I had made - plus a few clues of course! Some of the clues were lies to throw her off and some were true, it was up to her to figure out which was which! ;) 

Halfway through the week I decorated her room with the help of my Big and Grand-Big! We put streamers and balloons EVERYWHERE! And her Grand-Big (my Big, Laura) got her some yummy cupcakes!! 

On the final day I crafted this initial letter for her by painting the Pi Phi Lilly print on it! I was so happy with how it turned out, I painted a pin box in the same pattern so she would have somewhere to put her sorority badge upon initiation! Over all it was a very successful week! I never got caught and reveal was SO much fun! I am so excited to finally be a Big sister to my gorgeous and sweet Little! 

If you liked this post, be sure to check back tomorrow for a post all about Big/Little reveal in Central Park!! ;)

♥ Caro

November Update

Do you ever get to the point where you just have so much to do you can't get anything done? The past couple of weeks have been insane, somehow I blinked and it had been ages since my last blog post.  Blame it on a combination of school and life, this semester especially has been a lot of work.  In my school, and because of my major, sophomore year is traditionally the hardest year.  As an acting major this is the last year of "primary training" before you go on to "advanced training" so this is the time they load us up with work to make sure everyone is committed to the program and the major. I have already had several friends decide this major is not for them. There are no hard feelings, especially during sophomore year, some people love the work and some people don't, better to find out now than after you've graduated with a degree you don't want!  I love what I am doing; I just had more hours in a day to do it.  I have to admit, I have been fighting guilt the past few weeks after putting Handbags & Heartbeats on the back burner.  I am a passionate person and when I do something I love I want to put as much into it as possible.  When I could barely finish my papers on time, much less write a blog post, I knew it was important for me to take a little break and focus on my studies at hand.  This is a fun past time for me, I am really excited to finally be caught up on work and have the time to write fun and interesting blog posts for y'all to read! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do; I appreciate every single one of you reading this.  I am proud of myself for continuing to blog as often as I can and I know that H&H will only continue to get better as I put more time and effort into it! Thank you for the support and thank you for being patient! I have some fun things coming your way this week, and in the weeks to come so stay tuned!! 

♥ Caro

Halloweekend

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. You get to dress up in a fun costume and eat guilt-free candy, how could you hate it?! When I was younger Halloween was all about the Trick-or-Treating and finding the best costume possible.  I can remember thinking about my costume options for weeks and wracking my brain in the local Party City trying to chose between a pretty vampire or a pretty witch *I never wanted to be scary on Halloween* This holiday is great in college because you never have just one night. It becomes Halloweekend, and gives us "old folk" a chance to run around in costume without too much judgment.  Basically, when you grow up, Halloween changes from being all about Trick-or-Treating to all about how many Instagram pictures you can take or how sexy you can make a Disney character.  The toughest part about Halloweekend is that you now need 3 costumes instead of one.  This year on Wednesday I got this red dress at Express that I am obsessed with - it’s so pretty and flattering! I decided to dress up as a devil on Thursday night (soooo creative, right?) and, instead of letting a great dress go to waste on a good weekend, Friday night I scrounged up a crown and was the Queen of Hearts.  All of these outfits were last minute and, while I would like to pretend I am creative and can plan far in advance, sometimes it’s easier to just look cute and throw on a headband! Overall Halloweekend 2k14 has been a successful one! We will see if I can squeeze another costume out of my red dress, but maybe tonight will be a Gilmore Girls night in – with half priced candy corn, of course! 

{Baby Caroline as a bunny - ready for some candy!}

♥ Caro