out of the mouth

of a 4 year old-

sweet cheeks:
do you know what happen to people when they get really, really, really, really old?
they die.


i am still coming up with a response to that.

sleep overs and fluffy pink stuff

sweet cheek's cousin ellis spent the night on saturday night. the girls had such a great time playing together.

snack time. couldn't resist this picture of both girls drinking




sweet cheeks called this her 'fabulous' look. not sure about her one glove-



snuggled up and being silly- sleep came much later!



sunday was the big memorial day cook off for the husband and all of his friends (which the husband's chilli won for the 'best chilli/stew' category). sweet cheeks had so much fun. best of all was the cotton candy maker that was there. she visited it more than once!

round 1-



round 2-


this is what two rounds of cotton candy will lead to- red hair and tattoos!



**

i was doing some etsy window shopping again and found the simplest letter and number art that would be adorable in either gender nursery (as the colors can be changed). you can find it at sycamore street press . i really love the simple font, two colors, and cute animal illustrations. both prints are wonderful and would look great framed.

where you will find the dogs when the husband is cooking meat

keep them coming

no sooner did i mention my mom making that shirt for sweet cheeks did we receive another box of 3 new grandma creations!

i was so impressed. sweet cheeks was too! she kept asking me over and over, "but how does she MAKE the clothes." she is impressed with her grandmas mad sewing skills.

this one is by far sweet cheek's favorite of the 3. she wore it to school today, proudly.


i absolutely love the print contrast from the polka dot pants to the blue toile top. love that top.


this dress is my favorite one on sweet cheeks. adorable.


little did my mom know what she was getting herself into. i am now going to have her make me some decorative pillow covers for my couch! i am so enjoying this talent of hers. thanks mom!

**

this is one of my new favorite songs from the zac brown band. it is country, so don't listen if you don't like country. well actually you should listen because it is a good song and it is good to try new things. that is what i tell sweet cheeks anyway.

crafty missed me and tagged her

sweet cheeks is crafty.

sweet cheeks has a crafty grandma.

check out their craftiness below-


sweet cheeks converted this plain miniboden tee into a happy elephant tee


sweet cheek's grandma created this adorable button tiara tee. she has actually made several other cute tees and pants for sweet cheeks.

thanks grandma!


random cute shots


i love her big eyes in this one

livin' in a box

i saw this cool playhouse on modernseed. (you must click on this link. this site really has so much cool stuff!) it is a 100% cardboard (recycled) playhouse that comes in white. it folds flat when not in use. the cost is $49. pretty cute and sure any toddler would love to play in and decorate it.





also saw this in our garage. enough said.



also at modernseed is this amazing eames rocker that i am totally in love with and if i had the money i would totally buy it, love it, and smile at it every time i saw it sitting so pretty in some simple room in my house that does not possess any amount of furniture in it that would total together what this one piece of furniture would cost me. seriously, you have to love this chair!i do.

with this key

pardon my week long absence but the family and i were busy vacationing in the florida keys. and what a time we had.

the only sour note of the trip was when sweet cheeks came down with strep. we had to visit a dreaded walk-in clinic (99% of the time they are pretty nasty) to get her diagnosis and meds. we were fortunate that at her worst, sweet cheeks was only out for a day and a half of our 5 day vacation. plenty of fun was still had.

sweet cheeks playing in the sand


that is sweet cheeks and her daddy in the pool. the pool had a gorgeous view of the ocean & boats


taking her "elevator" out of the pool. i love this bathing suit on her


can you see the knot on sweet cheek's forehead in this picture? she managed to somehow roll off the bed (wide awake mind you) and bounced her head off the floor. ouch!


all smiles on the glass bottom boat. she and her daddy enjoyed a "2 hour tour."


the fish


being wind blown on the boat (don't you love her in these sunglasses)


walking on the pier at this really cool restaurant. it was located right where the shrimpers are. can't get any fresher. sweet cheeks enjoyed fried shrimp, lobster, and crab cakes at that meal.


beautiful view from that same restaurant on the pier. our table was outside.


sweet cheeks enjoyed a chocolate covered slice of key lime pie


sweet cheeks and her daddy

these are a few of my favorite...

pictures.


we recently did some family photos with the husband's family.(thanks, molly, for organizing it all) i was so happy with the way many of them turned out.

here are just of few of my favs.



sweet cheeks and her daddy. seriously, the sweetest picture ever. i love this one.



us



sweet cheeks and 2 of her cousins (ellis, 3, mafra, 8wks) i love the feet in this picture.


sweet cheeks and cousins

jedi mind tricking

it was the mission of the husband (and shame on me, the mom, who needs to be more supportive) yesterday to get sweet cheeks to eat her lunch before we left for her back-to-back birthday parties. the stubborn little thing that she is was not having it. i was avoiding the situation and left watching the clock, knowing the last minute we could leave the house without being more than 5 minutes late to the first party (both the husband and i are pretty prompt people). finally, after many tears, i had to put sweet cheeks in the car with her ½ sandwich, telling her she had to finish it on the way.

i knew i had to motivate her to eat because i told her daddy i would. can’t go back once the rule has been set in place. so what could i use for leverage? i couldn’t tell her she wasn’t going to the party because we already rsvp’d. i wasn’t going to be rude and just not show since my 4 yo can’t eat a decent meal without her parents begging. i looked around the car and quickly said to her:

“give me your purse.”

if you know sweet cheeks, you know how important her purses are to her. these lip gloss filled prized possessions go everywhere with her. fortunately for me she complied first, then asked the question:

“why?”

i replied with my harshest tone (it is pretty pathetic really):

“i am taking your purse away until you finish your lunch. you will not get your purse back until i see that sandwich is gone.”

the tears and the screams came on fast. she cried quite a bit. then the tears stopped and i had a sweet moment of silence before she emphatically yelled at me:

“give me back my purse. i will not eat any of my lunch until you give me that purse back.”

she gave it a moment, then yelled:

“now, when do you want to give me that purse back?”

i could not believe it. sweet cheeks turned the whole thing around on me, and was now trying to blackmail me into giving her the purse back. seriously.

the husband and i are in for it with this one.

imagine all the people

but i can't!

i am beginning to wonder about the imagination and my lack of it. imagination must be correlated to the memory. i seriously do not have either! (my sister does and i have always been jealous of this ability of hers, as if this ‘ability’ were her superpower)

sweet cheeks really loves to play barbies, polly pockets, peek-a-boos, dolls, etc. she has an amazing imagination. the conversations she can create between the dolls amaze me. i actually really love listening to her when she is playing because not only does she make things up like trips to the mall to buy lipglosses, she also has the dolls play out things that i know have taken place at one point in time during her life.

it is usually things that have happened at school that day among her friends. The usual fighting, not sharing, getting in trouble stuff that the teachers don’t tell you about. quite often, without the dolls, sweet cheeks will have me play school with her in our front yard. she has me, as well as 2-3 other imaginary people(whom she gives the craziest names to- like asha, pollya, angel, and saphy) stand in line at the swing, get in trouble, sit in time out, do show n’ tell, and a variety of other activities. it really interests me because i feel like it is a good way for me to indirectly hear about her day.

sweet cheeks will often say, “you need to go sit down and think about why you did that?” i love this statement, but know it too deep and mature for me to say. surely she learned it from her teacher.

i enjoy her real life playtime, like games and crafts, more so than her imaginary playtime. you must be thinking that now you know I don’t like imaginary play if I would pick craft time with a toddler over it! the reason being that i seriously do not have an imagination. i may have had one when i was her age, but that part of my brain is apparently non functioning now. i feel bad when she says she wants a kid to play with because her mother, the most boring person to play with, has no imagination when it comes to playing.

i end up feeling guilty because i really don’t enjoy this type of playtime and bore quickly of it. then i feel more guilt because she doesn’t have anyone else to play with so i should just suck it up and do it. then i get bored again. it is a vicious cycle. what it comes down to is, no matter what i do with sweet cheeks, somehow it brings about the mommy guilt. i fall victim to it daily.