Blake Lively Is Every Mom Who's "Proud" She Managed To Leave The House For A Night Out

Having a night out after having a baby — even when you have all the help in the world — can be tough. So parents everywhere completely understood Blake Lively, who was “just so proud” she left the house earlier this week for one of her first public events since welcoming her fourth child.

Lively attended a charity gala hosted by Barnard College celebrating “family;” three families, specifically, “that truly exemplify what it means to be a part of the Barnard community” in order to raise funds for the college’s scholarship fund. Among the honorees were Serena and Shawn Levy, the latter of whom directed Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s husband, in The Adam Project and will be doing so again in Deadpool 3.

Lively, who has styled herself her entire career, stepped out in a tea length Carolina Herrera dress with pink Manolo Blahnik heels and Sergio Hudson coat. Now, if most people wore this ensemble in late April, my reaction would be “Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking.” But Lively has absolutely slayed a look that would leave me looking a bit like the couch in my grandma’s basement sporting a hot pink throw blanket. I mean, granted, slaying any look isn’t too hard when you’re, you know, Blake Lively, but credit where credit’s due. “If I keep taking photos in these clothes it will no longer be an outfit but an actual Transformer,” she joked in a post on her Instagram Story that evening. “I’m just so proud I left the house.”

The actress and mom to James, 8, Inez, 6, Betty, 3, and Mystery-Baby-Who-Has-Not-Yet-Been-Named-But-Maybe-Has-Been-Alluded-To-By-Taylor-Swift, We-Don’t-Know-How-Old-They-Are, was clearly excited for an adult evening and opportunity to dress up, highlighting the designers and hair and makeup team that helped make her look so glamorous.

Her attendance at the event was to support the Levys, but Lively apparently has her own connection to Barnard, the all-women’s college associated with Columbia University. Taking the podium, she shared that early in her career, after not seeing the success she’d hoped for, she’d decided to go to college. But fate, it seemed, had other plans.

“Two weeks after that, the producers of Gossip Girl called me like an ex-boyfriend, and they said, ‘Listen, will you please do the show? And if you do, we promise you can go to Columbia one day a week as long as it doesn’t interfere with our seven-day-a-week shooting schedule,’” she joked. “Who doesn't want to earn a bachelor's degree in 77 years? So needless to say, I think I have to accept that tonight is the closest I'm going to get, so I'm just going to pretend that this is me graduating tonight. So thank you! I made it.”

The event raised $2.7 million for the scholarships at the college, and Lively was delighted the event went so well. “But I mostly,” she wrote on Instagram afterward, “loved having and excuse to wear neon and heels.”

Congratulations to the Levys, their fellow honorees, the Barnard community, and Blake Lively, for successfully dragging herself out of the house and into a fabulous ensemble. You give all us moms hope!