Wednesday, December 12, 2018
A Very Grinchy Birthday
Finn grew a huge love for How the grinch Stole Christmas last year and ever since Halloween of this year he’s been asking to watch it non-stop. While his birthday was approaching he initially requested a Transformers themed party, but it all changed just a week or so into November when he changed his mind to a cartoon Grinch theme.
Finn is quite the traditionalist, much like our nephew Keegan. Finnley loves to keeps things classic especially when it comes to the Grinch. His favorite is the original and he will tolerate the Jim carey version, but he really isn’t too sure about the new one currently out in theatres. Maybe we’ll try and see it over Christmas break.
With it being December and the new movie in theatres I really thought finding Grinch themed things would be easy and I was totally wrong. I had hoped to find some sort of classic agrinch figurine to use as a cake topper, but no such luck! We did find a classic plush Grinch with Max we used for part of our decor and then stuck with classic red and green with pops of lime green and pattern.
It really couldn’t have been. More perfect for his December birthday with our Christmas tree in the corner and snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. Once everything came together it just made his little party and our seem so much more festive and magical. I’m actually having a hard time taking those precious snowflakes down, but I think we’ll move them to the playroom and keep them up all winter long.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Kid’s Christmas Gift Guide
Calling all the last minute shoppers!!!! It’s the most wonderful time of the year and I’m so excited to share our favorite items for both boys and girls in our Holiday Gift Guide!I always look forward to shopping for our littles as it’s always so much fun to see how much they’ve changed over the coarse of the year and what their interests are each Christmas season.
This year we decided to keep Christmas simple. Last year was a big year and since our kids tend to gravitate towards specific actives we thought it was best to keep a tidy budget and gifts simple. We love finding items that help spark the kids’ imagination and encourage them to pretend. We typically give some sort of building or block set, books, something to cuddle like a stuffed animal and something to do that gets them moving. On my Instagram page I shared exactly how we did everything this year and for us it’s kept everything very simple and not stressful at all.
We decided after learning what the kids really wanted for Christmas we would set a budget of $100 per child and split that budget into 5 gift categories: Something to Do, From Santa, Want, Outside Time, Read. None of our gifts were purchased from a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale, we simple created our list on the Notes app on our phone and put each item into a Christmas list on Amazon and watched the items as they went on sale. Our budget did not include stocking stuffers, as we try to shop for small items throughout the year and get things we know they’ll need for the upcoming year such as socks, toothbrushes etc.
K’s List: Our Generation Doll, Our Generation Accessories, Roller Skates, Kids Made Modern Jewelry Jam,
O;s List: Play Makeup, Baby Doll Accessories, Melissa and Doug Modeling Dough Tools, Mrs. Peanuckle’s Tree Alphabet book, JellyCat Octopus
Kensington has had her eye on an American Girl doll for a few months, but because we’re keeping a tight budget, we going with the Our Generation collection from Target. I think this is a wise decision that Kensi has also agreed upon for such a doll. It’s a great way to gauge if she loves this type of doll and also allows her to build her clothing and accessory stash since everything fits universally. We’ve agreed if she loves her doll and still wants an American Girl we can ask for it for her birthday next summer.
Finn’s birthday is at the beginning of the month and has requested Power Rangers and anything Grinch for his birthday and Rescue Bots and dinosaurs for Christmas. He’s pretty simple and I love that he knows exactly what he wants! It makes our lives so easy!
Olivia is the hardest one to shop for this year. She’s not into the typical 2 year old stuff, because she’s constantly keeping up with Kensi and Finn. She loves dressing up, playing with baby dolls, Calico Critters and all the tiny little piece type of things because they’re ‘so cute mama!’ This year we’re definitely getting Olivia this adorable JellyCat Octopus because every week when we go grocery shopping she requests to see the octopus in the seafood counter. The Whole Foods guy knows us by now and always engages in conversation with her and points out other fish for her to see, but the octopus always steals her attention!
This idea of shopping kept everything organized and really simple for us and we love how we can adjust it year to year based on what we set as our budget along with the kids interest. We hope this can help your family keep things simple and help you avoid the drama that can come with the frenzy of unnecessary spending during the Christmas season!
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Halloween 2018
I’m a little relieved to be packing up the Halloween decor and costumes and putting them away and so ready to start pulling out the Christmas bins. I know I sound completely crazy, and we’re not totally skipping Thanksgiving, but we are ready to soak up everything Christmas has to offer and just enjoy it! Although, looking back on the whirlwind we just had the last couple months, we really had a lot of fun and a little sad to be saying goodbye to Halloween.
I will wait and do a fall recap post in a couple weeks, since we still have some Thanksgiving recipes and decor pieces to share. Last night I shared our Halloween costumes on Instagram and had a few questions regarding Kensi’s fall fairy so I’ll tell you how we made it!
We made final costume decision a few days before Halloween. The kids all chose their own and we ended up with Waldo, Spiderman, Fall Fairy, Minnie Mouse and a Witch. My costume didn’t come together this year as I was planning on Carmen Sandiago, but certain pieces didn’t match so we sent it all back! Sometimes that’s how life goes! Nonetheless, we all had a blast trick or treating in our neighborhood, collected waaaaaaay too much candy throughout the week (we’re sending most of it to the Candy Fairy!) and finished off one of our most favorite holidays watching Hocus Pocus one more time. It was our best Halloween yet and the kids had so much fun. They made it to far more houses and stayed out much later than before!
Finn wanted to be Spider-Man and he was actually fond of wearing his costume this year. He wore it to all our events leading up to the big night. We bought it from Costco and the gloves and mask were waaaaaay too small. They may have fit a baby. So we ditched the gloves and since he’s weird aboutwewringntjings on his head to begin with we planned face paint. Well, I’m true Finn fashion he fell asleep in the late afternoon and I had to wake him up to get ready for trick or treating, he was cranky! I thought for certain he was going to refuse to wear his costume and cry in our family photo for the third year in a row, but he surprised me. He refused to have his face painted so we took the mask and cut it so it would just sit on his head. He only allowed me to put it on for pictures and then took it off for the remainder of the night. Total mom and
Finn win!
Kensi changed her mind regarding her costume 12 million times between September and October. She finally came up with a Fall Fairy and wanted lots of leaves for her costume. We used an old headband and picked up some floral blooms and leaves from Hobby Lobby to create her crown and then made a cluster that was safety pinned to her tulle skirt. We added a few extra leaves all around her skirt which was also fabric skirting from hobby Lobby. It made everything so simple because it already had the elastic waistband and we only had to measure and sew one seam down to make it into a skirt.
Her fairy wings were actually Plan B. We attempted to make them from wire and cellophane for an iridescent look, but it was a Pinterest fail. I ended up running back to Hobby Lobby the morning of Halloween, grabbed a science fair poster board and an extra piece of cardboard paper to cover up the white side. Drew a fairy wing pattern on parchment paper, traced it onto the board and cut it all out. We used white acrylic paint for the design, attached elastic bands with hot glue and voila!
Olivia is our most vocal child and has been asking to be ‘Minnie for Halloweeeeeeeeeeen’ since June. Her pinafore is from Nelly Faye Designs and I love it so much because it’s adjustable by the way it ties in the back and we can totally use it again when we finally get to plan our trip to Disney.....someday hopefully soon. We paired it with a black leotard, black tights and Minnie Ears we found on Amazon. She adored it!
Now I’m off to take down the spiderwebs throughout the house, move all our pumpkins into the dining room and slowly start adding sprinkles of a Christmas joy everywhere else!!!
I will wait and do a fall recap post in a couple weeks, since we still have some Thanksgiving recipes and decor pieces to share. Last night I shared our Halloween costumes on Instagram and had a few questions regarding Kensi’s fall fairy so I’ll tell you how we made it!
We made final costume decision a few days before Halloween. The kids all chose their own and we ended up with Waldo, Spiderman, Fall Fairy, Minnie Mouse and a Witch. My costume didn’t come together this year as I was planning on Carmen Sandiago, but certain pieces didn’t match so we sent it all back! Sometimes that’s how life goes! Nonetheless, we all had a blast trick or treating in our neighborhood, collected waaaaaaay too much candy throughout the week (we’re sending most of it to the Candy Fairy!) and finished off one of our most favorite holidays watching Hocus Pocus one more time. It was our best Halloween yet and the kids had so much fun. They made it to far more houses and stayed out much later than before!
Finn wanted to be Spider-Man and he was actually fond of wearing his costume this year. He wore it to all our events leading up to the big night. We bought it from Costco and the gloves and mask were waaaaaay too small. They may have fit a baby. So we ditched the gloves and since he’s weird aboutwewringntjings on his head to begin with we planned face paint. Well, I’m true Finn fashion he fell asleep in the late afternoon and I had to wake him up to get ready for trick or treating, he was cranky! I thought for certain he was going to refuse to wear his costume and cry in our family photo for the third year in a row, but he surprised me. He refused to have his face painted so we took the mask and cut it so it would just sit on his head. He only allowed me to put it on for pictures and then took it off for the remainder of the night. Total mom and
Finn win!
Her fairy wings were actually Plan B. We attempted to make them from wire and cellophane for an iridescent look, but it was a Pinterest fail. I ended up running back to Hobby Lobby the morning of Halloween, grabbed a science fair poster board and an extra piece of cardboard paper to cover up the white side. Drew a fairy wing pattern on parchment paper, traced it onto the board and cut it all out. We used white acrylic paint for the design, attached elastic bands with hot glue and voila!
Now I’m off to take down the spiderwebs throughout the house, move all our pumpkins into the dining room and slowly start adding sprinkles of a Christmas joy everywhere else!!!
Monday, October 29, 2018
Fall Home Tour
We pretty much lost the month of September due to evacuating from Hurricane Florence and getting back into our routine and putting our house back together has been a much bigger hurdle than we ever expected. We felt as if we had moved into a new house and we were in the unpacking stages. With everything moved out of certain rooms we also decided to tackle a few small projects like painting which delayed everything even more. BUT, our house finally feels back together and we are enjoying our Halloween and fall decor even if it’s just for a few days, before we begin to transition into Christmas! Did I just say that? We are actually so ready!
We keep most decor pretty minimal with spider webs, a mix of real and faux pumpkins and bats. The kids love when we string spider webs throughout the house. We added some to the playroom this year and even though it didn’t make this post because it’s so messy, they loved having it become spooky! I also adore using the wool ball garlands. They’re a lot of fun and add just the right amount of color in all the right ways. The one pictures is from Hooray Everyday, but we also adore all the pieces from Pearl and Jane as well. So here’s how we sprinkled fall throughout our downstairs main living area for a little bit of a more festive and cozy space.
We keep most decor pretty minimal with spider webs, a mix of real and faux pumpkins and bats. The kids love when we string spider webs throughout the house. We added some to the playroom this year and even though it didn’t make this post because it’s so messy, they loved having it become spooky! I also adore using the wool ball garlands. They’re a lot of fun and add just the right amount of color in all the right ways. The one pictures is from Hooray Everyday, but we also adore all the pieces from Pearl and Jane as well. So here’s how we sprinkled fall throughout our downstairs main living area for a little bit of a more festive and cozy space.
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