Hello Again

My goodness it's been some time since I've stopped by this space of mine. So long that I stared at the screen for a good thirty seconds before I could remember how to start a new post! I've never been too consistent when it comes to posting here, but this is ridiculous! Life gets in the way, as it so often does, but we're still here! Plugging along, hangin' out in trees and navigating life. I'll be back again soon with a bit about what my gang and I are up to these days, what has changed and what has stayed the same since my accidental hiatus from this little blog.

September (according to instagram)

I should've posted this yesterday, it being the last day of September and all but you know, life. It seems like September had just barely come and now it's - Oh, hey October! Its such a cliché but time truly does fly. I just want to slow. it. down.  That being said, I truly love October. Its one of my favorite months and I'm glad it's here even if it did come a bit too quickly. Before we fully dive into the beautiful month that is October, I thought I'd share some highlights of our September from my instagram photos.



I adore mums. They're simple and sweet and bring on all the fall feelings. Now if I could just get Rue to stopping picking off the flower heads...



<3

I asked her to smile for the picture. She got distracted, and I like this much better.



I shared my Pyrex display on my shop's instagram account. Obviously I wasn't going to wait until October to start the Halloween decorating!

Lunch and flea market dates with my mama.....kid free!

Adventures.



The sweetest moments are sprinkled in between the rough ones and it makes them even sweeter.

Simple quiet weekends.

No caption necessary.

I'll leave you with that...

Goodbye, September.

First Day

Our first day back at-it is done, the girls are snuggled in for a nap and I'm realizing that homeschool plus toddler is no joke! Before our school day was done, both girls had paint in their hair, stains on their clothes, dirt on their feet and my dining room floor was covered in green watermelon scented marker. But I'm truly grateful for every ounce of it. Tired, but grateful.

 Deciding to homeschool was not a decision we made lightly and it certainly wasn't anything I thought id ever do! I have no first hand experience with home school. My husband and I both went to public school and I really never knew any one growing up that was homeschooled.  As Luna approached preschool age we talked a lot about what kind of education we wanted for her, where she could thrive and be herself and learn about the world through first hand experiences and adventures. So after SO much thought and  many conversations between ourselves and Luna we decided to do preschool at home. It was kind of a trial for us to see if its what we really wanted, to see how Luna liked it, to see if I could handle it. (I always liked the idea of having that time to myself while my kiddos were at school) But that year was amazing. I loved the relationship I developed with Luna and she really thrived! She grew so much, learned to read and developed a deep love for books! She made lasting friendships through other channels like ballet and library story time. It really eased those little worries we had about our new adventure into school at home. So naturally continuing her education this way felt right. There are always those  people who have doubts, who think we are not making the right decision, who think we cant do it or that we're crazy. Some of those people are even friends and family. But that's okay. Think whatever you like. Our girls are strong, smart, brave, happy, free thinking, weird little people and we like them that way.

Luna decided on several poses she wanted me to photograph. She'd say thing like, "Okay now I'm going to do this. "Make sure you get my feet in this one "

She dubbed this one her favorite

Of course Rue wanted to join in.

I asked Luna a few questions this morning just for fun. It will be neat to see how her answers change each year!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Luna: A librarian! So I can read books a lot. Also a zoo keeper...well maybe just a koala keeper.

What is your favorite color?

Luna: Yellow, Orange...almost every color

What is your favorite book?

Luna: Ramona the brave

What is your favorite movie or television show?

Sesame Street

What is your favorite animal?

Luna: Koalas!

What is your favorite food?

Corn on the cob and macaroni.

What was your best memory from the summer?

Luna: Tolmie state park with Darla (her cousin)

Who knows what the future will bring, who knows if this will always be right for our family. I sure hope so. But we are learning together as we go and I'm really looking forward to the year ahead.

Lately...

This summer is coming to an end and while we had some really great experiences over the last few months I'm excited to see it go! I always look forward to the cooler weather and the coziness that comes along with it. The end of summer also means the start  of school again! Im excited, eager, nervous, grateful, unsure and confident all at the same time. Preschool at home was kind of a trial for us and we ultimatley made the decision to jump in and continue with school at home. It definitely isn't a decision we came to lightly, but decided that its the best for all of us! But I'll get into that later, and leave you with a bit of our Friday night (a typical one around these parts)!

Their favorite way to go down the side together....

Which usually ends like this. And they think its hilarious.

 



Rue claps when they get to the bottom, and they do it over and over and over again!

Wild and free

Celebrating Luna

I really don't know how it happened but my baby turned 5 (!) and you can bet we wanted to celebrate! Every year since she has been able to, we've let Luna pick the theme of her birthday party. In true Luna fashion she requested a camel party. Of course she didn't give me something easy like unicorn or dinosaur  (you know I tried) but she was sure a camel party was what she wanted so I was on a mission to make it happen. We packed our modest sized home with friends and family until we were bursting at the seams and I wouldn't have it any other way. To tell you the truth it used to overwhelm me. But I see it differently now. It makes me so happy to see all the people we love talking, smiling, laughing, kids weaving in and out from room to room. We're lucky for sure!

Anyway, on to the camel party!

The birthday girl started out her big day with breakfast in bed

Hip hip hooray, it's your birthday!



Easiest DIY banner ever, by the way! I simply used large gold letter stickers (left over from the banner I made for this bash) that I found at the craft store, stuck them to cardstock to add some weight cut them out and strung them on yarn. The best part is you can make them say anything you like!



When it comes to party favors it's important to me that they are something fun but also useful. I don't want to spend money on things that are going to be lost or thrown out before the day even ends or send kids home with tons of sugar that the parents don't really want them to have in the first place. Our solution this year was flower pots. Throughout the week before her party Luna painted a pot for each kid attending. She filled them with a pack of seeds and a little bag of wild animals (because I DID have to buy a pack of 120 assorted wild animals to pick out the 12 damn camels) we put the pots in berry baskets and attached a doily to the front of each one with the childs name on it. I used bakers twine to tie a camel to the front of each berry basket because flower pots have nothing to do with camels so that was my way of bringing them into the camel theme. Ha! But I think they turned out really cute and Luna loved personalizing each flower pot.



I cut out colorful circles from paper and used sticky tack to stick them to the wall to give the look of giant wall confetti. I hung strands of die cut camel garlands too. I wanted to mix the camel theme with bright and happy decorations but still keep it simple and inexpensive. I decorated the night before so when Luna woke up that morning she would feel the excitement and feel special on her day.



camels, camels everywhere!



The cake was pretty simple. I had big plans of baking dozens of cupcakes but we ended up going the store bought route. The day before the party our car got rear ended. On top of that I dropped the entire plate of sandwhices on the ground outside. At that point I was all about minimizing stress so yeah.... store bought cupcakes it was!

Yep. that happened

Of course the birthday girls cupcake has to be twice the size of the rest! How perfect is this gold camel candle holder?!



Uncle J.J.'s idea.

Rue's idea.



I love this picture of Rue. Taken by my sister in law.



These party animals- a cousin and a great friend- snuggled on the couch together long after everyone else had left.

It was a beautiful day filled with love and celebration and I hope Luna felt every drop of it. I have a really good felling about 5....



Life On The Outside

 

Not too much excitement around these parts lately. I haven't decided if I think that's a good thing or not. Life has been fairly simple and routine these days, and a big part of me likes it that way. Most of our days are being spent OUTSIDE! That's right, I said it. We are finally at a place where we can play outside and it feels so good! We were getting stir crazy there for a while, and thank goodness mother nature agreed! It seems like spring came in full force here in the PNW and I'm sure thankful for it. Of course it rains here and there but we don't mind, those warm sunny days in between are worth it!






Dandelion bouquets for days

 

 

Teaching little sis the proper way to build a worm home. Place the worm on the bottom then pile evenly distributed layers of grass and dirt...in case you were wondering.

 




This girl love love loves to be pushed in her swing! She's also discovered her tongue recently and will stick it out at you any chance she gets and she looks at you and I imagine she's thinking "Look at this thing I found in my mouth, isn't it fun?" 




Explaining to Rue how to perfect the art of dandelion wishes.

 

 

Her favorite thing right now is the watering can. She will have me fill it over and over dozens of times as she walks around watering plants and rocks and stairs and her shoes...You can see the dark spots in the cement where she's left her mark!

 

Luna would laugh and say "She keeps watering the tops! let me show you how to water roots, Rue"

 My kids are so much happier outside ,dirty, barefoot, and grass stained. I am too really. I never used to be though. I used to loath the sun and the heat (okay, I'm still not a fan of the heat) But I do love a good pic-nic and the fresh air and the sunshine. Thank goodness for these girls.

A Lady Date

 Last week I promised Luna that as soon as Corey had a day off we would go on a date, just me and her. She dubbed it a "Lady date, because we're both ladies of course!" Luna had really been looking forward to it. She counted down the days and today was the day. The day of our ever so anticipated, Lady date!

 Dinner and a movie was on the itinerary- well it was more like lunch and a movie. I decided to take her to see the SpongeBob movie. I knew I was going to get huge brownie points for this one because Luna isn't allowed to watch SpongeBob but she often asks about it. We decided she wasn't quite old enough for SpongeBob just yet, but every so often she'll come across it (on amazon prime, the grandparents house) and she will ask to watch it. She's always met with a "no." I managed to keep it a surprise up until the movie actually started. I thought she was on to me when I mumbled "Two for the SpongeBob movie please", into the speaker box or when we walked into the theater room with the giant SpongeBob poster outside of it but that girl didn't have a clue! When the movie started up and it began with a live action pirate she got very excited and exclaimed, "this is a pirate movie! I love pirates!" But when she realized that it was indeed the SpongeBob movie she was even more ecstatic, grinning from ear to ear. Moments like those make it all worth it, right? After the movie we had a nice lunch and were in no rush to get home. These dates of ours, which don't happen as often as they should, are so special to me and I think they are to her too. I love these one on ones where all my attention can be solely on her and she can tell me all about her almost 5 year old thoughts. And let me tell you, they're pretty hilarious ;)

 

 

She wanted to hold hands and skip everywhere we went. I'm positive I looked as ridiculous as I felt but I loved every second of it.

 

She felt pretty special with her own little kids pack of popcorn, a drink and a fruit snack .

 

 

 

 

When the credits rolled she convinced me we had to go down in front to dance to the music. This girl talks me into so many things that I generally find too embarrassing or not a good use of time, and my gosh, am I thankful for that.

 

When you tell Luna to stand in front of that movie poster and do any pose you like....well, this is what you'll get 99% of the time, every time.



The most lovely dinner date.

I love to hang out with Luna, She's at such a magical age right now. I love her company and getting to know her as she grows into her own person with her own dreams and opinions. Being a mother to little girls is so fun, and I look forward to having days like these with Rue too!