I’m exhausted.

But in a good way.  In a very, very good way.

This past Saturday we (Lara & I) held our second Momz Share event. (First event details here.) This one, appropriately titled “The Silver Spring Soiree” was hosted by the wonderful (and hilarious BTW) Jessica McFadden of A Parent In Silver Spring at the The Little Gym in Silver Spring, MD.  We had over 70 (totally lost count) bloggers from the DC Metro area in attendance!

Some of the night’s highlights?  Well, where to begin…

–>RAISING MONEY FOR CHARITY! An auction to benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and Team Why Mommy, anchored by Sunday Stillwell of Extreme Parenthood in honor of our friend Susan Niebur of Toddler Planet‘s courage and tenacity.  The women in attendance were extremely generous, buying up raffle tickets for the cause.  And the donations?  Well, we had THOUSANDS of dollars worth of DONATED items from business as well as an additional $1,000 donation from Bit Defender!  Truly overwhelming!

Our gratitude goes out to:

La Papillon Spa, Peace Love Lip Gloss, Bring It To Fruition, The Round House Theater, The Maryland Science Center, Port Discovery, The National Aquarium, Tuscan Home Decor & Design, All things Italian, Certifikid, Then Again Photography, The Melting Pot of DC, Tech Savvy Mama, Be Lifestyle MedSpa, Simplify Organizing,  BitDefender and their BitMoms community!  (Although she won’t want me to, I really must mention my creative-cohort at this point – Lara Dipaola.  She worked like a maniac to arrange all of this.  I did none of it.  She is my personal hero!)

–>WE MUST NOT FORGET THE FOOD! Food for the soiree was provided by Sarah of The Soupergirl,  Theresa of Treet, and the last minute heroics provided by  Done Right Catering.  (Seriously, they saved the day and personally supervised the entire time.  What a fantastic company.  Hire them NOW!)

–>GOT PASSION? We were also lead in an exercise in finding our passions by Lauree, life coach and owner of Simply Leap .  (I’m planning on writing a separate post on this tomorrow.  Inspiring stuff!) Also much gratitude to Melanie Spring of Sisarina, our Momz Share mentor and sponsor extraordinaire.

–> DID I MENTION THE NETWORKING? This is just such a unique opportunity to meet other area bloggers and network offline.  Someone told me that evening that Momz Share was “the best part of a conference.”  Which totally made me smile.  BECAUSE THAT IS THE POINT.  The entire reason we began this project was so that bloggers can network offline and build strong relationships.  We want everyone to form partnerships so that they can reach out and have support in their online efforts.

INTERESTED IN SEEING MORE PHOTOS? We have a Momz Share Flickr group and photos can be found here.  (Many thanks for Then Again Photography and Laura from Better in Bulk for their skills.  You ladies are amazing!)

INTERESTED IN READING OTHER BLOGGER’S TAKE ON MOMZ SHARE? There will be a link up here.

FEEDBACK? If you went and would like to provide feedback anonymously, do so here.

On Saturday night Lara Dipaola and I had the privilege of launching Momz Share and playing host to 45 amazing DC Metro area bloggers!

In case you are not familiar with Momz Share:  The concept  is to simply provide a real life opportunities for moms who have a passion for blogging to connect, build relationships, learn, share information and form strong personal networks.  The events are held quarterly and hosted by a different, fabulous D.C. Metro Region blogger.  It is one part girl’s night out and one part networking.

Okay, official speak over. If you wanna read more, click here. It is now time to gush!

I don’t even know where to begin except to say that we had the most fabulous, interesting and diverse group of women.  I was humbled and in awe of every single one of them BEFORE they even got there. And to have them all assembled under one roof was truly an honor.  I am putting a linky on the bottom of this post because I think that while we were the hosts, THEY will tell the real story!

If you would like to see some photos from the event (Because, as we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words and I don’t have enough space on this blog for that.) —->We have a Flickr group here. More pictures will be added by the attending bloggers in the future so check back! (Why am I wearing a tiara, you ask? Lara provided it and well, the Tarara wine was so yummy that I felt a little “uninhibited.” Enough said.)

And permit me, if you will, to acknowledge the wonderful companies who came on board and donated services to help our vision come to fruition.  This would still be in concept stage if they hadn’t offered their services!

107 Designs –Michael Guill designed the Momz Share logo and buttons! He is an amazing talent and wonderful friend.  Give him some love on Twitter  @107Designs or check out his totally cool website here.

Sisarina – Lara and I met with Melanie Spring in Bethesda one day and she totally got the concept. Not only that, she jumped on board!  Her company Sisarina designed the Momz Share banner and soon to be collateral material, not to mention…. OUR NEW WEBSITE! (Under construction. More to come!) Wow, right? Tweet her up @sisarina  or check out her business online!

Tarara Winery – I can’t even tell you how overwhelmed we were with their generosity!  They jumped in with both feet and poured wine for our guests all night and even sent each lady home with their own vino.  Thank you to Jordan and Kerri for supporting Momz Share!  Give them some love @tararawinery and on the web.

And there is no way that I can forget Laura of Better in Bulk and Amanda of Then Again Photography for coming in and saving the day with their photography genius. Ladies, you are wonderful! (But I kinda already knew that!)

Special thanks also go out to the Maryland Ensemble Theatre and Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center for loaning us gorgeous linens for the soiree!

EXTRAVAGANTLY AWESOME DRAWING PRIZES WERE PROVIDED BY: e.l.f. Cosmetics, Soge Shirts, Jasmere.com, Thien Kim – Passion Parties, La Papillion Spa, Port Discovery, Lisa Helfert Photography, 107 Designs (Additional information on there contributions can be found here.)

TAKE HOME GIFTS FOR THE LADIES WERE DONATED BY: Tarara Winery , La Papillion Spa, Seed Body Care, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Jasmere, MET – The Fun Company (Additional information on there contributions can be found here.)

The next Momz Share event will be held on May 22nd and will be hosted by Jessica of A Parent in Silver Spring! We will require another round of registrations which will begin this Friday on this website.  Look for details on the event and the topic from @mammamania, @dipaolamomma and @jessicaAPISS via Twitter soon!  And BTW – the next event better not end in a trip to the ER. But that is another blog post entirely, isn’t it?