sailing takes me away to where i'm going

one of the husbands all time favorite things to do every springtime is go to yard sales. not me. i loathe them actually. i find no fun in rummaging through other people's junk. it leaves me feeling dirty and wanting a shower. however, i will not let my opinion stand in the way of his fun. he took sweet cheeks yard-sailing for the first time on saturday. it worked out perfectly because this gave me a good 2 hours to do some much needed cleaning of the house. they came home with a few goodies for the both of them. thankfully, nothing for me. he got himself a golf bag. and for her..... her first easy bake oven. sweet cheeks was so flippin excited carrying it into the house all by herself. she was ready to cook. (don't worry- me the germ person was sure to hose down, scrub down, and disinfect the thing) she was a bit sad though when she realized it didn't open in the front like a conventional oven, rather you slide it in on one side and it comes out the other.

the outtakes:

taking her graham cracker crust out of the oven- she looks so proud, doesn't she



adding the marshmallow creme-





in the end, she had a few bites of her very first easy bake oven smore. i tasted it out of sheer curiosity and it wasn't great but that wasn't the point, right.
i am still trying to get that marshmallow off of the kitchen table.

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another mommy challenged me with the task of sending her a few baby shower gift ideas. i was ecstatic at the thought. i came across so many great things i would have wanted myself when sweet cheeks was a wee little one. i wanted to share just a few of them.

3 Dot sleeping bag from egiggle.



tiny TOMS from planetshoes

TOMS is the company that for every pair you buy, they donate a pair to those in need.


adiri nursing bottles from pokkadots

i would have no desire to attempt breastfeeding again, so i love the idea of these bottles. plus, they have no separate nipple attachment. the top is all one piece. to me, that sounds so much easier for cleaning

in that great street carnival

we took sweet cheeks to her first ever carnival on sunday afternoon. we actually thought it was going to be mostly crafts & such, but were happy to see all the rides and food. to say sweet cheeks had a blast wouldn't be saying enough. she really had way more fun than i ever expected her to. i also learned she is definitely an adrenaline junkie like her daddy. no fear of speed, no fear of heights... she is nothing like me in that respect. i was the photographer for the day. i really had so much fun watching the expressions on her face. i had the best time watching her have some serious fun.




i took this picture right when we got to the carnival. this is sweet cheeks with her cousin. when i told them to get together so i could take their picture, sweet cheeks went right into her "this is how i smile with all my fans for the paparazzi" stance. she really acts the part, doesn't she.



the other highlight of the carnival day was the face painting, which was another first for her(as was the funnel cake not pictured). i wasn't sure if she would be able to go through with it once they started to paint her, but sweet cheeks ended up sitting for them very well and was able to have her entire face painted like a butterfly, or mariposa as we call them.



now seriously, isn't this the absolute best picture of a girl and her dog!
just look at how blue is looking back at sweet cheeks.
(you will also notice her etsy princess necklace in this shot. she wears it daily!)



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not from the carnival but from another warm day last week, i was able to get this great picture of sweet cheeks. there isn't a day that goes by that i am not thankful for my daughter, the most beautiful person on earth.




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thank you to people magazine for yet another picture of the cruise's in which they look fakely happy. what a strange couple! they look so uncomfortable touching one another.



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on a funnier note, i thought i would share this website for whimsy press. they have some funny notecards, as well as some stylish ones. not sure why but i loved this one. short & not-so-sweet:

you've got style, that's what all the girls say

i swear this is something all little girls are just born with, the desire to look fancy as we call it in our house. slowly over the last couple of months, sweet cheeks has been collecting quite a bit of dress up stuff. i got her one big bin from target the other day to keep all of it together. the shoes, necklaces, scarves, tutu's, and glasses are all in there. she really loves dressing up and including every accessory she can. saturday morning this was the ensemble she had put together for herself (and don't be fooled, those aren't golf clubs but ski poles as she is a member of "ski patrol" with her other backyardigan friends)




you can only imagine how excited sweet cheeks was to find out that today was dress up day at school, along with funny hair day. so she of course welcomed the idea to do both! initially she was wearing her bunny ears but changed to a tiara when she got to school. if only you could see her whole head, you would be able to count FIVE ponytails there.







with all that being said about dress up, it brings me to this great idea that i found on another site i love to browse, ohdeedoh.



I would absolutely love to make something like this for my little girl who loves to doll herself up. not only do i love the organization aspect of it, i also love how toddler friendly it would be for her. maybe, just maybe, i will attempt one of my own and then share it too!

our house in the middle of our street

well my parents house isn't really in the middle of a street, more like the middle of a small country town in north georgia that barely makes the map but i still felt like using those old talking heads lyrics. sweet cheeks and i went to visit my parents this past weekend. it is still always so strange to go back to the house where i spent a good part of my life. seeing it now, it seems so small but when we first moved to this house from new jersey, i remember it seemed so huge. it was a big deal going from 1 to 3 bathrooms for a family of 6. our visit was short. we were there saturday night and sunday, but so worth the drive. all of sweet cheeks cousins were there for her to play with and i know she had a great time.

here is my parents house. i can't believe they have lived here over 20 years now. they have such an amazing, open front yard for the kids to run around on. no worries about street traffic here!




my nephew found a large piece of moss off a rock and was carrying it around showing all the other kids. (he could quite possibly become the next bill nye the science guy) before you knew it, they all had their own piece of moss! not sure what this face is that sweet cheeks is making here.



the girls were having fun putting grass in their mouth with their uncle. sweet little country girls-



sweet cheeks enjoyed the swing.





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quilt baby is a site that i recently came across that sells quilts (go figure!), bibs, mobiles, and onesies. i really love all of the prints that their items are offered in. i am thinking about getting this print on a quilt/pillow set for sweet cheeks. i don't think the price seems too high. what do you think?

another robot!

i was looking at one of my favorite sites during lunch today, etsy.com, when i came across the cutest robot outfit. i had to show it to you because it was too cute not to.



this site, mountain aven baby, has some of the cutest baby outfits. i may have to try ordering one of the tees for sweet cheeks.

here is something else i bought for sweet cheeks from etsy last week. it should arrive anyday now and i think she will like it.



i got it at vm designs. i think she will like it as she is really into jewelry lately.

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new post with photos of sweet cheeks to come soon.

domo arigato mr roboto

i am not a fan of the song but i do like robot tees. until now, i have only really seen these for boys. same goes for guitar style tee. don't ask me why, as i think little girls can be into rock & robots too. but here, check out this girlie robot tee from bunny and bee. $28 for a tee is a bit much for me but it is cool.

hot dog

what a fun day we had saturday. well, most of it. i am not including the trip down to the stadium which to the phil was a complete nightmare and words a 3 yo should not hear were flying left and right. trying to get to the stadium itself was met with detour after detour, which was quite frustrating. we eventually made it and the rest of the trip was great. well ok, great until the cold and the rain came, and the umbrella directly in our view of the field. to sum it up, we had one good hour at the braves game but it was still so worth it. sweet cheeks really enjoyed the crowd and the food. she ate a hot dog, pretzel, lemonade, and then cotton candy. you can see why she is now a big fan of the game.






hard to believe, but this was sweet cheeks at her very first braves game when she was 18 months old. i can't believe how small she was. what a cutie. (of course she still is a cutie but a 3 yo cutie, not a 18 mos old cutie) i can remember thinking at the time of this game that she was so big. thankfully she still has those delicious cheeks.