Monday, August 27, 2018
Olivia’s Moana Inspired Cake + 2nd Birthday
Over the weekend we celebrated Olivia’s 2nd birthday, how that’s possible I’m not sure, I never sure, but somehow another year has passed and we celebrate all she has accomplished and look forward to her next year! Olivia is very different from her siblings. She is more verbal and blows us away with how much she understands at such a young age. When I say she’s verbal, I mean she specifically asked for a Moana birthday and has not stopped asking to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween in over two months. She amazes us all the time!
Like I said, she asked for a Moana birthday which really means a cake! As per usually we kept everything simple and did a vegan cake from Whole Foods with blue and and deep green waves around the outside, inspired by the ocean and topped it with a light pink flower. The top was also coated in crushed cookies to mimic sand and it was perfect for her. All day long she asked about her cake! Where my cake? My cake? My cake! Moana and Maui cake! Even though it didn’t have Moana and Maui on the actual cake it was beautiful and she adored it.
When it came time to sing to our sweet girl she climbed up on the chair, making sure she wore Kensi’s Moana necklace and soaked up all the attention she could. After we finished singing, she opened her gifts with the help of Kensi and Finn. We gave Olivia a couple different sets of Play-Doh which they all love using! She also got her own Moana necklace and immediately took Kensi’s off and put her own on. She’s never been so proud! We watched Moana a handful of times throughout the weekend, while also listening to the soundtrack. She loved celebrating her birthday and we had so much fun stretching it out all weekend long.
Happy Birthday our sweet girl! You are constantly keeping us on our toes with your sass and sweetness. You amaze us each day with your eagerness to keep up with Kensi and Finn. You love to talk, make animal noises, sing, play with all things Minnie Mouse and dressing up like a fairy princess with your sister. You love following whatever Kensi and Finn do. You have such a sweetness and love for babies and you’re constantly telling us ‘Baby cuuuute!’ You are truly our Moana, water, beach girl as you adore the sea and show no fear to the crashing waves. We love you so much baby girl, never lose your sense of wonder, sassiness and eagerness to learn!
When it came time to sing to our sweet girl she climbed up on the chair, making sure she wore Kensi’s Moana necklace and soaked up all the attention she could. After we finished singing, she opened her gifts with the help of Kensi and Finn. We gave Olivia a couple different sets of Play-Doh which they all love using! She also got her own Moana necklace and immediately took Kensi’s off and put her own on. She’s never been so proud! We watched Moana a handful of times throughout the weekend, while also listening to the soundtrack. She loved celebrating her birthday and we had so much fun stretching it out all weekend long.
Happy Birthday our sweet girl! You are constantly keeping us on our toes with your sass and sweetness. You amaze us each day with your eagerness to keep up with Kensi and Finn. You love to talk, make animal noises, sing, play with all things Minnie Mouse and dressing up like a fairy princess with your sister. You love following whatever Kensi and Finn do. You have such a sweetness and love for babies and you’re constantly telling us ‘Baby cuuuute!’ You are truly our Moana, water, beach girl as you adore the sea and show no fear to the crashing waves. We love you so much baby girl, never lose your sense of wonder, sassiness and eagerness to learn!
Monday, August 20, 2018
Back to School
It’s one of my favorites times of the year, Back to School! Even before the kids were in school I would get excited about this because we would pick out new supplies for our playroom and restock certain things such as paintbrushes, paper, crayons and all those fun things for the next year. This year is a little different because Kensi is going into kindergarten and Finn is starting preschool. Both of them are so excited to get back in to a routine of school and I am too!
Last year was our first official go around for school and we went through all the fun shenanigans of getting our backpack and lunch box and all the accessories to go with them. We ended up using this bento style lunch box from Pottery Barn Kids for Kensi last year and it worked pretty well. The one problem we came across was we couldn’t put anything with a liquid in any container because it would leak into the next section both underneath and on top since the sections weren’t completely sealed off from each other and the lid wasn’t necessarily tight against the top. This year we’re trying this Bentgo Box. It’s inexpensive and plastic rather than metal, but the reviews are good and several customers have said it doesn’t leak, so fingers crossed this will fit in the current lunch boxes we have and we don’t have to replace them, if we do we’ll have a couple extras on hand! I really love Bento style boxes for the simple fact it keeps everything organized and it’s much more appealing and the kids are excited to eat. Long gone are the days of stuffing a sandwich inside a plastic baggie and filling the rest of the space with other baggies of carrot sticks and Little Debbie Bars. Bento Boxes make it easy to portion food correctly and to choose healthier options in my opinion. There’s a space for everything and instead of feeling like their lunch is packed full of snacks or carbs, which sometime during the year it eventually will happen, but it’s easier to see what’s going inside because it’s so organized and it eliminates oodles amounts of trash.
As for the rest of back to school shopping, we did most of ours a few weeks ago and Kensi and Finn picked out a few fun items to keep in their backpacks since their supplies get distributed into their classrooms throughout the year. Kensi picked out this unicorn pencil pouch and Finn chose this cute shark pouch which he’ll probably keep legos and few extra snacks hidden! We also picked out these cute and fun cold packs for their lunch boxes. Most of our shopping really revolves around finding shoes and clothes to last them through a good part of the year. Here are a few of our favorites!
Last year was our first official go around for school and we went through all the fun shenanigans of getting our backpack and lunch box and all the accessories to go with them. We ended up using this bento style lunch box from Pottery Barn Kids for Kensi last year and it worked pretty well. The one problem we came across was we couldn’t put anything with a liquid in any container because it would leak into the next section both underneath and on top since the sections weren’t completely sealed off from each other and the lid wasn’t necessarily tight against the top. This year we’re trying this Bentgo Box. It’s inexpensive and plastic rather than metal, but the reviews are good and several customers have said it doesn’t leak, so fingers crossed this will fit in the current lunch boxes we have and we don’t have to replace them, if we do we’ll have a couple extras on hand! I really love Bento style boxes for the simple fact it keeps everything organized and it’s much more appealing and the kids are excited to eat. Long gone are the days of stuffing a sandwich inside a plastic baggie and filling the rest of the space with other baggies of carrot sticks and Little Debbie Bars. Bento Boxes make it easy to portion food correctly and to choose healthier options in my opinion. There’s a space for everything and instead of feeling like their lunch is packed full of snacks or carbs, which sometime during the year it eventually will happen, but it’s easier to see what’s going inside because it’s so organized and it eliminates oodles amounts of trash.
As for the rest of back to school shopping, we did most of ours a few weeks ago and Kensi and Finn picked out a few fun items to keep in their backpacks since their supplies get distributed into their classrooms throughout the year. Kensi picked out this unicorn pencil pouch and Finn chose this cute shark pouch which he’ll probably keep legos and few extra snacks hidden! We also picked out these cute and fun cold packs for their lunch boxes. Most of our shopping really revolves around finding shoes and clothes to last them through a good part of the year. Here are a few of our favorites!
A few extra tips...
Shoes: Shoes are always kept simple. Each of the kids have a pair of sandals, rain boots, dressier closed toe shoe and athletic shoe for play.
Tops: Choose 5-7 different tops that can be interchangeable with pants, shorts and/or skirts (for the girls)
Bottoms: Choose 5-7 different bottoms that include a mix of shorts and pants. This also include comfy bottoms like a pair of sweats.
Dresses: Our girls love dresses and rompers and typically wear these often. Choose 4 dresses that can be mixed and matched with an array of tights and leggings.
I love finding several neutral pieces and a few fun pieces that can constantly be mixed and matched. Having several neutral pieces that can be worn throughout the year really helps staying on a budget and avoids feeling like a new wardrobe needs to be purchased every season change. This allows us to pick a few fun items for each new season and holiday without breaking the bank!
Saturday, August 11, 2018
An Exciting Twist In Our Story
This summer was a whirlwind. After completing Whole 30 in May Mike and I had never felt better, I mean aside from the dislocated jaw and sprained shoulder fiasco. The first few days in June I felt sluggish and thought it was just from dealing with the last week and just having visitors. Mike and I joked about the possibility of being pregnant, but more than anything it was really just joking. In fact Olivia was giving us a ride through tantrums and starting the terrible two’s early while also teething some of her most difficult teeth. Being seriously pregnant was pretty far from our minds and we didn’t even know how it would have been possible based on certain details, but God can be funny and throw things at us we just never expect. It is in fact all in His timing, not ours.
So to put all the assumptions to rest or maybe even surprise some people we are in fact expecting our sweet #4 early next year! After the initial shock, we are crazy excited and the kids have known since the beginning of June and are truly the best secret keepers! We were able to keep our precious surprise to ourselves for quite a long time, since we decided to really lay low and allow me to rest as much as possible. I also didn’t start showing until this week which is nearly 4 months along. I know our parents have been dying to share the news and they have been such great sports about letting us share on our time.
So here we go with another incredible, crazy, life changing adventure and we couldn’t be more thrilled! The kids have been the absolute best! All three of them love snuggling on my barely showing belly, giving kisses to my belly button that has been popped for a few weeks and coming up with the most unique baby names! We really can’t wait for this little joy to join our crew early next year!
So to put all the assumptions to rest or maybe even surprise some people we are in fact expecting our sweet #4 early next year! After the initial shock, we are crazy excited and the kids have known since the beginning of June and are truly the best secret keepers! We were able to keep our precious surprise to ourselves for quite a long time, since we decided to really lay low and allow me to rest as much as possible. I also didn’t start showing until this week which is nearly 4 months along. I know our parents have been dying to share the news and they have been such great sports about letting us share on our time.
So here we go with another incredible, crazy, life changing adventure and we couldn’t be more thrilled! The kids have been the absolute best! All three of them love snuggling on my barely showing belly, giving kisses to my belly button that has been popped for a few weeks and coming up with the most unique baby names! We really can’t wait for this little joy to join our crew early next year!
Sunday, August 5, 2018
End of Summer
I’ve pretty much taken a good break from the blog this summer and it was much needed. It’s really nice to be able to escape from something, even if it’s just a short while and really focus on self love, family and good old mental and emotional health. I would never classify myself as a stressful person, but this year I realized I became very stressed and it actually affected me physically. At the beginning of summer my jaw began to pop frequently and became very sore. Eating was painful and because I knew my jaw was irritated I began clenching at night. After a visit to my dentist I learned I had in fact dislocated it and since it wasn’t a direct result of an injury such as taking a soccer ball to the face like I did in high school, it’s then stress induced. Say whaaaaat? I had no idea stress could cause me to actually dislocate my jaw. And since the jaw isn’t like other joints like say a shoulder that can be popped back into place, the muscles of the jaw have to become relaxed enough to naturally move back into place which can take some time and medications. I’ll be honest, talking to my dentist about three different medications he wanted me to take sent me into a panic attack in his chair. It was absolutely embarrassing and it was very clear just how stressed I had become. I refused the medications other than a muscle relaxer and applied our Panaway essential oil down my jaw bone. About a week later I had to eliminate the muscle relaxer, but that’s another twist in this whole story that will just have to wait a little bit!
Today I can happily say, I have removed the things in my life that were causing me ample amounts of stress, I took a break from nearly everything I do and spent the summer taking care of myself with much needed rest. By the way if you happen to go through a similar experience with your jaw talk to your dentist about an Aqualizer, it worked wonders! On top of my jaw incident, a few days later Mike thought it was a great idea to sprain his shoulder by falling off our dining table bench. Okay, okay, he did sprain his shoulder and yes he did do it falling backwards off the bench, but he also completely protected and saved Olivia from falling and hitting the back of her head on the floor which would have been so much worse. We are so very thankful it was Mike who was injured and even more thankful it was just a severe sprain.
Today, even though it’s August, I felt like I spent most of July throwing spaghetti at the wall so I’m jumpstarting into fall. Mostly because I’ve been ready for it for awhile, but I just need a fresh new season. We’ve spent the last few weeks stuck inside with constant rain and we finally had some sunshine this weekend to make life enjoyable again. We’ve also spent our summer weeks celebrating the 4th of July in Southport, traveling to Maryland and Raleigh to visit friends, chasing butterflies, catching fireworks at the beach and taking trips to the pool, beach and splash pad as long as we had breaks in what seemed to have been non-stop rain. We’re getting ready for Kensi to start kindergarten and Finn preschool which just seems crazy. Having a few days with just Olivia this year will be a new routine I”m excited to learn.
I hope your summer was packed full of fun and you were able to get some much needed R&R as well. I have so many fun things to share in the next few weeks and I hope you’ll join me and our fam as we get back into the swing of things here on the blog!
xoxo
Today I can happily say, I have removed the things in my life that were causing me ample amounts of stress, I took a break from nearly everything I do and spent the summer taking care of myself with much needed rest. By the way if you happen to go through a similar experience with your jaw talk to your dentist about an Aqualizer, it worked wonders! On top of my jaw incident, a few days later Mike thought it was a great idea to sprain his shoulder by falling off our dining table bench. Okay, okay, he did sprain his shoulder and yes he did do it falling backwards off the bench, but he also completely protected and saved Olivia from falling and hitting the back of her head on the floor which would have been so much worse. We are so very thankful it was Mike who was injured and even more thankful it was just a severe sprain.
Today, even though it’s August, I felt like I spent most of July throwing spaghetti at the wall so I’m jumpstarting into fall. Mostly because I’ve been ready for it for awhile, but I just need a fresh new season. We’ve spent the last few weeks stuck inside with constant rain and we finally had some sunshine this weekend to make life enjoyable again. We’ve also spent our summer weeks celebrating the 4th of July in Southport, traveling to Maryland and Raleigh to visit friends, chasing butterflies, catching fireworks at the beach and taking trips to the pool, beach and splash pad as long as we had breaks in what seemed to have been non-stop rain. We’re getting ready for Kensi to start kindergarten and Finn preschool which just seems crazy. Having a few days with just Olivia this year will be a new routine I”m excited to learn.
I hope your summer was packed full of fun and you were able to get some much needed R&R as well. I have so many fun things to share in the next few weeks and I hope you’ll join me and our fam as we get back into the swing of things here on the blog!
xoxo
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