Everyday Wear Series

One of my passions from as young as I can remember has always been clothes. I have a picture from my first day of preschool wearing a coordinated top and bottom outfit with bright pink, black and white with high tops (total 80’s child outfit). As I got older around early elementary age, I remember insisting on picking out my own clothes and dressing myself. I loved the floral patterns that were big in the 90’s, like sunflowers and daises. And I so remember how big flannel was! My babysitter back then was a huge grunge fan and that whole look appealed to me then and still does today, actually.  In middle school, I remember name brands becoming more of a concern to me. I started wearing Gap in seventh grade and in eighth I was wearing American Eagle which is also when I got my first pair of Doc Marten Mary Jane’s. High School was all about Forever 21 and PacSun sprinkled with American Eagle and Aeropastle. My early college years was the birth of my love for Nordstrom. It started out with MAC makeup and Louis Vuitton bags (the knock off version of course; purse parties were the thing!), L.A.M.B, North Face and then designer jeans like Citizens, 7 For All Mankind and True’s. I remember in college getting my first pair of Tory Burch ballet flats and just envying anything with her logo on it. Near the end of my college years, I discovered Urban Outfitters and jumped on their trendy bandwagon. Then post-college, I opted for a more refined casual look, like blazers paired with jeans, wedges or pointy boots under dark denim and more button up tops. Oh, fashion…. oh trends! My, do they change and recycle again and again!

With all this said, it doesn’t mean I was the best dressed, in fact I know I’m not even to this day, but I like picking out clothes for myself and I like the idea of it being an expression of my lifestyle, preferences and personality. Nowadays, I opt for whatever’s comfortable and functional. Sadly, I hardly dress up like I used to. But, I would still like to start an Everyday Wear Series focusing on pieces (not limited to clothes) that work for me as a mom in this season of life as a stay-at-home mom. I’m kind of excited about it, yet not sure how I’m going to do this. I don’t have a tripod and I’m not all that trendy like my heyday, but I want to give it a try!

I hope you’ll tune in! Feel free to share your story about fashion in the comments. Oh, and here is a little teaser of the series to come! Haha!

Wearing:

Shoes: Teva’s Womens Original Metallic Sandal, Amazon

See Ya, Summer 2015!

Ah, so here we are in our last day of August (which means my favorite season is just around the corner!). We’ve had a blast this summer going on all kinds of adventures and enjoying the beautiful weather. Here is a little recap of what we did… In June, we saw family in Culpeper and played with all the cousins on Rhys’ side of the family. We stayed a few nights on the farm and even got to attend church together (grandparents and Rhys’ siblings including their kids).  In July, we got memberships to two different places, one at Norfolk Zoo and another at Hunt Club Farm. Elliot loves the train at the zoo! If that’s all we went to see, he’d be pleasantly happy. But since that is not the case, I make sure we walk around and see as many of the animals as we can before he starts fussing and protesting, then that’s when we ride the two minute train (it’s probably longer than that, but it doesn’t seem like it).  For Independence Day, we had a Sunday School social at our house and had lots of friends over. We even had a water fight with the kids and a balloon toss for the adults.  August was a nice time too; a month marking lots of first time moments for Elliot. Let’s see… he rode a carousel at the Richmond Children’s Museum; painted with watercolors; ate homemade chicken nuggets (and I mean, ate them like a champ!); lifted himself off the ground on the hexagonal dome (see picture below; I’m convinced it was the chicken nuggets) and played in the children’s water park at Norfolk Botanical Garden and didn’t need me holding his hand the entire time (amazing!). With birthday parties, trips to the pond to feed the ducks, playgrounds, playdates, the aquarium, a visit from Grammie and finishing another storytime session and reading challenge at the library, I’d say this summer was pretty great!

I hope you all had a nice summer too! Here are some pictures from the last three months in no particular order.

Summer Shenanigans

Ugh, hi… I haven’t been good at keeping up with my blog. I’m really only motivated to write in it when I have decent pictures to share. This picture above is definitely worth sharing! Our days here have been filled with lots of fun and adventure – zoo trips, aquarium visits, parks, the petting farm, occasional play dates, the library, pool time, lots of time outdoors, popsicles, ice cream and all things refreshing in humid, hot weather!

Here are some pictures of this summer’s shenanigans…

[1] Dirty shoes: Why do I always remember once I get there that wearing sandals to the petting farm, or any farm for that matter is never a good idea? *Note to self: sneakers or boots!

[2] Youtube: Boy, does he love his “shows!” Trains, buses, Barney, nursery rhymes, colors, numbers, shapes…. even this video called Cars Vs. Helicopter he loves. I will admit it’s hard not to love even if it gives me two minutes to put away some dishes in peace. I really try to make the most of the time while he watches to get things done or get us ready to go somewhere, but man is it tempting to let it babysit him.

[3] Truck: We’ve been doing this thing where we run through the sprinkler or drench ourselves with the hose then take long walks around the neighborhood in his truck. It cools the temperature at least 10 degrees so it’s really refreshing!

[4] The hose: Speaking of the hose, at 22 months, he still loves the mister. I highly recommend a nozzle with this capability because it’s so gentle and less pressurized making it perfect for little ones to spray themselves and have fun without wasting too much water.

[5] The beach: Not his favorite hang out so we don’t go like we used to. If we do go to the beach, it’s before 10am when parking is free and we play at the park or walk along Rudee Inlet to watch the boats go by, and to walk under the bridge.

In almost a month, Elliot will be starting school in the fall. I’m so excited for him and the things he’ll be learning. I’ve got all his school supplies minus a lunchbox (still looking for a nice one) and some new clothes for him too. I’ll keep you posted on that later. Until then, I hope you all are enjoying the summer season!

Genesis 8:22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Moon & Stars

Last Saturday, some friends and I put together a baby shower for a friend of ours who will be a first time mom here, very soon! Her and her husband have decided to wait until the birth to find out the baby’s sex so we kept the shower theme gender neutral. In fact, the moon and stars theme is what they’ve chose for the nursery and I think we did a pretty good job incorporating that in the decorations. You can see in the pictures that a lot of the ideas came from Pinterest (Aren’t most parties and all things cute and clever inspired from Pinterest these days?!)

What’s really sweet about this particular friend, is that she threw a baby shower for me when I was pregnant with Elliot. So, now I got a chance to bless her and be a part of the celebration of her first baby too!

Congratulations Daniel & Brittany!

DIY Paint for Toddlers

Here’s a super easy DIY paint recipe perfect for toddlers… are you ready?! Water, flour and food coloring! Really? Yes! How easy is that? While Elliot napped away, mommy was able to make some paint and set up shop right in our kitchen. Once he woke up, it seemed like forever until we got started. I mean, we have a whole wake up routine that consists of nursing, then walking around the house and pointing at everything then snacks (or lunch depending on the time of day). Maybe an hour and a half later, we finally got started. Elliot was definitely curious when I showed him the paints. He didn’t fuss at all when I set him down. He actually tipped one of the bowls over in his excitement, but thankfully the consistency of the paint was pretty thick that nothing spilled. To my surprise, he dove right in like he had done this whole painting thing before (when actually it was his first time)! The messiest part was removing his paint splattered clothes and when he decided to scratch his head with paint covered fingers. All in all it was a great time and I can’t wait to see more of his creativity come alive on paper!

What you’ll need:

Food dye

Warm water

Two cups of flour (I used one and it was plenty for one toddler)

Paper (I chose Strathmore Acrylic paper because it’s fairly stiff. This helps to keep the paper from getting wrinkled as the paint dries. I got ours at Michael’s in 12in x 12in).

Happy Painting!

Home: New Area Rug

Yay! So, I’m a little excited to share about a new update in our master bedroom and that is we finally got a new area rug for it. Before there was nothing. Just a cold-hard bare floor. Then we did some rearranging about a month ago and put the old living room rug in the master. With all the time we’ve been spending in our room with the train table, I really grew fond of a warm carpeted area in our bedroom to sit on while we played. But then our living room floor was cold and bare thus becoming less used during the day and I think it was because the area rug wasn’t there to make the space cozy. I decided that I was tired of splitting the rug between two rooms and that is what led me to find our latest home accessory purchase – a permanent rug fixture for our room!

Now, have you ever shopped for an area rug? I find it very overwhelming! There are so many styles and colors and textures and places to look… of course we had a budget in mind, so that narrowed the options down quite a bit, but then having to choose from there? My husband gave me free reign to find the best rug for our room which helped make the process a bit quicker, but also made it a little difficult since I’m not quite the decision making type. I checked all kinds of sites, but kept going back to Target. We bought our first rug from there and the quality has not disappointed. Plus, they were having a sale on rugs so it made Target extra appealing to shop from. I looked at tons of reviews and ended up with what you see in the first and second picture.

It’s called the Threshold Arden Fleece Rug in tan/ivory and it’s a 7×10, the largest you can get in this color. What’s lovely about this rug is that it’s very plush! Rhys and I are still getting used to the difference in texture, but we both really like it. And vacuuming it hasn’t been an issue yet thanks to the adjustment knob on our vacuum that allows less sucking power for a high pile rug like this.

The last thing I want to mention (which I hadn’t planned) is that the pattern reminds me of old drift wood. Which is perfect for the coastal beach theme we have going on! There’s still a lot more that I dream up of for our room like more art on the wall and maybe some coastal-theme throw pillows with a pop of red, but for now I’m just thankful for this bit of progress!

PS. Notice the canvas map above our bed? That was my one year anniversary gift made by my husband. It has red push pins of all the places we’ve been together!

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten + our favorites

Last Saturday, Elliot received a certificate and book bag for finishing a challenge to read a 1,000 books before kindergarten. How the challenge works is the library provides you a folder and a reading log numbered 1 to 50 on each side. As you read a book, you record the title in the log until the log is completely filled (100 books per log). Then you show the log to the library to receive a sticker and your next log. You collect a total of 10 logs in your folder by the end of the challenge to receive a book bag. When we started out on the first log, I didn’t know I could record the same book more than once. So, I pre-recorded all the books we owned then checked them off as we read them. I found out after getting our first log checked by the library, that we were able to repeat the same book and have it counted. This was quite a reflief! Especially since there were several books that Elliot wanted me to read over and over again. For this reason, I’ve been inspired to create a list of Elliot’s favorite books from the challenge.

Elliot’s favorite books (list recommendation for 1 year olds)

The More We Get Together

The Wheels On The Bus

Elmo’s Guessing Game

The Little Train

Bizzy Bear’s Big Building Book

Swim!

Toot Toot Beep Beep

Dear Zoo

Do Crocs Kiss?

Who Am I? This is My Tail

Paddington Goes Shopping

Spot Joins the Parade

John Deere Farm 1,2,3

Colors Versus Shapes

My Bus

My Car

Peter Rabbit Rainbow Shapes and Colors

Barney Backhoe Loves to Build

 And here is a small list of the books that I particularly enjoyed (that Elliot wasn’t as fond of)

The Acrobat

Please, Mr. Panda

Chicken Cheeks

This challenge was a wonderful way to cultivate a love for books. It introduced me to books and authors that I never heard of and not to mention introduced words to Elliot’s vocabulary that I don’t usually say on a day-to-day basis. Plus there is a whole slew of benefits to reading at an early age according to researchers.  Since we completed the challenge, I continue to rent lots of books. Just when I thought I had read all the great books that exist, I discover even more cute books that Elliot enjoys. I lay them on the coffee table so they’re easy to grab when we’re playing or there’s a lull in our day.

If you have a young one who isn’t too excited about books or is getting bored of them, here are some tips:

* Try books with fun features like touch and feel, die-cut wheel and lift-the-flap. The Bizzy Bear series is perfect for fidgety bodies.

* Select books that match the current interest of the child. If your child is taking swim lessons, get a book about swimming.

* Don’t be afraid of non-board book. Many of them don’t have as many words as you might think! Some of our favorite books are the ones with paper pages and jacket sleeves.

* Rent lots and lots of different books! Our library has a limit of 30. I usually rent about that many because I like to give Elliot a variety. Sometimes he doesn’t like the books I get and other times he loves them. Experiment and make it fun!

* You might get to the point (like us)  when you have certain books memorized because you read them so much. Repeat the words from your child’s favorite story when you see something in real life so he can make the connection. For example, when Elliot and I go swimming I’ll repeat the lines in the words from his swim book so he can connect real life swimming to the story we read about.

* Incorporate toys in your reading. If we’re reading about shapes, I like to use Elliot’s shapes puzzle or blocks to enhance the reading experience by holding the object to the page. Colored items are great for books about learning colors and numbered objects are great for learning numbers as well.

* Make books available in every room if you can. Just having them around might spark interest sooner or later!

Happy Reading! And please leave any kid friendly book recommendations in the comments 🙂

**Update: The library tech sent me a copy of the picture he took of us. I would like to thank my wonderful husband for all his help in completing this challenge! He is the best!! Elliot has a great daddy who loves him so much!

Thomas the Train

Thomas the Train has become a common phrase around this house. Elliot is all about them at this tender age of 16 months. Recently, we were given some Thomas the Train toys from a good friend of ours who’s son had outgrown them. Elliot and I enjoyed pushing and pulling them along on the floor, but the novelty soon wore off. Almost immediately it was like a train bomb went off and that night daddy brought home Elliot his very own Thomas the Train table with moving parts, lights and enough tracks to create a railroad from one side of the house to the other.  It was a Craigslist find at a really good deal. Now moving the trains along is a lot more interesting and has become a boredom buster for all of us to enjoy. Especially in the record cold temperatures we’ve been experiencing here lately! Choo-choo!

Backyard

These pictures were taken in the backyard after we came home from our storytime class at the library. It was a really, really cold day out yet the sun was shining very bright. To me though, it’s worth the cold to be in the sun’s light – literally and spiritually speaking.

[1] I never knew how to wear these fur boots, so they stayed hidden in my closet for the longest time. I figured out though, that if I keep the rest of my outfit plain and simple and let the boots be the focal point, the fur doesn’t seem so gaudy.

[2] This is me wondering what I look like with a stick in my mouth. Anything to make my son laugh 🙂

[3] One of Elliot’s many defiant acts is to throw handfuls of rocks down a hole in our back deck. In this picture he’s just looking, but I know the temptation is there.

[4]  This boy loves a good stick fight! Really anything involving sticks, he loves.

[5] Elliot has not quite mastered getting up on his own when he falls, so he looks to me for help. I love this guy!  

[6] Last month, Rhys and his buddies went wood chopping. This is the loot they brought back. We haven’t used our fireplace as much this winter, but we share with our neighbor when he asks for some and that alone is worth it in my book. For Mark 12:31 says “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Outdoor Garden

Elliot and I had a great day today! Whenever we get to experience something new together for the first time it’s always a special memory for me. Today, we went to an outdoor garden because they were offering free admission. We rode the tram and toured the garden, we saw a few water fountains, we saw some big planes ascend into the sky, we played a ton and we got LOTS of fresh air! It was a perfectly sunny day for being in the middle of winter. Some of El’s very favorites from our trip included: the zebra, the sand and the swinging benches . I will always remember this day because it was our first time at the outdoor garden.