10.30.2013

wordless wednesday


our family friday fun

we had a family fun weekend. it was very fall-ish for us.

here is a glimpse into our fun friday night. (more to come on our festive saturday)

first, we went to a little pumpkin patch at the church down the street from us. we have been getting pumpkins from here since caroline was 3. so it's tradition.

our fun did not stop there. the girls and i attempted to actually carve a pumpkin. i have never done this before. caroline carved one for the first time with her grandpa last year but this was our first time to do it ourselves. and i must say two things... pumpkin guts are gross and carving a pumpkin isn't so tough with a stencil. i think you can actually tell it is a ghost in our jack-o-lantern.

dare i say we did more after that! we proceeded to have a lovely fire and hot chocolate with marshmallows. yummy! it was such a laid-back kind of fun night. i think the girls really enjoyed themselves.

and now for the proof that fun was had by all!

pirates! arrghh!




 hadley's smile cracks me up here



caroline's legs are so long!







see...it's a ghost!



(hadley doesn't look like she was participating in family fun here, but i promise she was!)

10.24.2013

just around the corner

i am already getting super excited for chistmas. pinterest and today's cold snap are helping with that!

i feel like it is just around the corner. once you hit halloween, then it's turkey day, then the amazing holiday, christmas.  i love everything about it... the decorations, tree, stockings, advent calendars, giving gifts, getting holiday cards in the mail, watching kids open presents, baked goods, fires, cold temps, vacation days, lifetime movies (did i just admit that), and shopping. i love it all.

i already have shopping on my mind thanks to the amazing land of nod catalog i got in the mail yesterday. i adore this catalog. i want everything in it. they have such sweet, original room decor, old fashioned toys that actual utilize the imagination, great organizational items, and an overall clean, colorful look. love it all!

so, i decided i could (but won't) easily buy all the girls presents from here this year. i could forgo the gimmicky, overpriced, over-designed toys that the big name stores sell, but i am well aware the girls would miss getting those toys, as all of the commercial embed it in their little heads that these are the toys that santa must bring them.

so again i say... BUT if i were to buy all of the gifts from here, these are the sweet and simple gifts i would go with:

for hads:










i think i'd get it to say 'hadley,' though benjamin is a nice name ;)


and for caroline:








you can get an idea of their personalities based off the gifts, right?

62 days to go!

10.21.2013

a groundhog kind of morning

i'm sure everyone has seen the bill murray comedy, "groundhog day."

and if you haven't seen it (which you should), the basic premise is the main character reliving the same day over and over and over again.

that is what my mornings with hadley have become. and it is over something so simple. getting dressed. and when i say it is like a comedy movie, i should add there is nothing comical about our mornings together. it is sad. it is frustrating. it is testing. it is bring me to tears exhausting. it is oh so many things, comical not being one of them.

let me replay our mornings:

fight mom on fixing my hair  (the only thing hadley lets me do to her hair every day, besides brush it, is one little, lone braid on the left side of her hair. that is it. oh, how i get so jealous when i see other little toddlers with little buns and pigtails in their hair)

fight mom on pants

fight mom on socks

fight mom on shoes

really fight mom on shoes

fight mom on coat

it is the same thing. every. day. though saturday and sunday are a little easier when it comes to shoes at least because she will wear her crocs. of all the cute, stylish shoes she has to wear(toms, miniboden, chucks to name a few), it pains me to say she loves her crocs. she can't wear them to school so the struggle is worse on the weekdays.

i am not sure what the issue is either (other than the obvious strong-willed child syndrome). the only thing i can think of is that she is just so used to the easy summer attire she had been wearing since last april on. so maybe now pants, shirts, and socks all just feel too different for her, too constricting and tight. not sure about the shoe problem since she's been wearing shoes, oh i don't know, since birth. i love shoes. they are one of my favorite things to buy the girls. now she just doesn't want to wear them.

long sleeve shirts are pretty comical too. she does this thing now where she just pushes them up above her elbows 80's style. every day. every shirt.  i think she is trying to start a new thing among preschoolers.

pants. well i have tried many different styles thinking one may be better than another. i have tried leggings, yoga-style pants, jeans, cords, tights, footless tights, and capris. to her, they all stink. they all have to come off before they even get above her knees. she has two super cute pairs of overalls hanging in her closet. every time i take a pair out, she quickly takes the hanger from my hand, walks to caroline's room, and hangs them on caroline's dresser. every time. she doesn't even entertain the idea of overalls. all she wants to wear is skirts. exposed legs get so chilly in these fall temps. i just can't let her do it.

and let me tell you, i have tried so many different approaches to getting pants, shoes, and jackets on her. shoes are by far the hardest to work with. i have tried bribes. yup, i bribe her with tootsie rolls, cookies, m&m's, basically anything sweet. i am not above it. i have tried rationalizing. can you even do that with a two year old? i have tried yelling. i am not proud but it is just so infuriating in that moment. my voice seems to raise naturally as if she will hear me and actually listen. i have tried mean. eek. hang my head in shame, especially since this approach didn't even work. this morning i made her walk out to the car barefoot, feeling the bitter cold pavement under her little toddler feet, hoping it would  'click' and she'd realize the necessity in shoes. as i said, it did not work. don't try it. i have tried simple patience. not even close to working. plus, i feel everything moves at a much slower pace and still with nothing accomplished. i feel like i have tried so many measures to work with her, to do something so basic, so simple, as to get dressed and out-the-door ready every day. nothing is working.

let me add the range of styles for her shoes is wide- sneakers with laces, sneakers w velcro, slip-on sneakers, high top sneakers, boots, and toms. goal being a shoe w rubber soles.

i am ready to crack.

i have shed tears.

help a mom out!

do you have any ideas, suggestions, thoughts, words of wisdom, anything to help us out?







10.08.2013

let's bake

i can remember baking (not cooking!) a lot more with caroline when she was little than i do with either of the girls now. so i decided to start improving upon that. last weekend the girls and i made pumpkin cupcakes w cream cheese frosting. love that my girls both love anything pumpkin! it took me being an adult to appreciate yummy pumpkin goodness. so not only did the girls and i get to eat yummy cupcakes, we also had fun in the process of making them.


the girls did some of the measuring, all of the mixing, all of the liners in the tin, and most of the batter into the cupcake liners. i was pretty impressed with what a good job they did. and they kept it all fairly neat! now that is impressive.


she's a pro when it comes to cupcakes!

i really enjoyed watching hadley put the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan. i think this is probably the second time she has done this. maybe once before when we made muffins. she did it so meticulously.


sisters waiting for the cupcakes to bake.


next time i will remember to get an after shot of them enjoying their baked goodness.