Sometime before last Christmas, when Ella was grumbling about dance, she mentioned trying out for the JV Cheer Squad at her middle school. We talked about it for months, but until she made a firm decision about dance, it was hard to know if we could squeeze it all in. Cheer Clinic and tryouts were held the week before Spring Break -- this is a small blessing, since it gives kids a week off before heading back to school. As excited as you are for the girls who do well in tryouts, I can't imagine returning to classes amidst all that excitement, if you weren't on the squad. She worked her butt off that week and she and Molly spent hours cheering and jumping in our front yard. We had flowers delivered to school the morning of tryouts -- this is apparently a huge deal -- and waited ...
What’s Up Wednesday | August 2019
What We're Eating This Week | We are always looking for new ways to streamline the meal planning process and since we can't seem to reduce our food budget any more than we already have (and it's absurd), we decided to throw in a meal planning service. Because, why not? I'm not sure that it will change what we're spending, but it will eliminate some decision making fatigue. We went with Hello Fresh (you can save $40 off your first box, with this affiliate link) and we're doing three meals a week, to start. We didn't do the family portions, because I'm not sure how much my girls would actually eat, but we might tweak that depending on how the next few weeks go. I'll report back! What I'm Reminiscing About | With Polly's birthday only a week away (WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HECK?!), I'm mostly ...
2019 Summer Vacation | Part Three
In case you missed it, I shared part one and part two of our summer vacation recap, earlier this week! Towards the end of our trip, I realized I didn't have any pictures of the girls inside our camper. I know that seems like such a small and silly thing, but I know we won't have this same one forever and we all love it so much, so I want to be sure we capture our time in it accurately. The kids spent so many afternoons playing cards around our table and I can't count the number of times we watched Aquamarine on DVD -- ha! This girl was so much fun to capture. She spent a fair amount of time playing and crawling around the floor, which is why we finally agreed that the carpet has to come out before next summer. Carpet and sand are not a fun combination! These are some ...
2019 Summer Vacation | Part Two
In case you missed it, I shared part one of our summer vacation recap, on the blog yesterday! Polly started getting really good at self-feeding, right about the time we left for vacation. I remembered thinking that she might never actually swallow the food we were offering, when all of a sudden, she became a voracious eater. That made our trip infinitely easier and I was able to pack all sorts of healthy snacks and meals for days on the go. Her little clip on chair was perfect for our picnic table, but I also carried to most of the restaurants we visited, and I can't tell you how many questions and compliments we got. The more days we spent on the beach, the braver our little sister got. She spent a morning playing in the sand with Sophie and they were the cutest things to ...
2019 Summer Vacation | Part One
After an accidental hiatus, I'm finally catching you up with all of our summer fun. It's hard to believe it's been two whole months since our family vacation. We joke that we spend fifty weeks a year looking forward to this trip, but it's more true than you know. This summer was especially fun, because we were introducing Polly to all of our favorite places and teaching her how to be the best beach bum she could be. I'm not even going to try and recap all of the things we did each day. Instead, I'm going to share all of my favorite photographs -- way too many -- and share a few of my favorite moments from our trip. Polly still wasn't sleeping great when we visited Gulf Shores in June. We were closing in on sleeping through the night, but she was still nursing several times on her ...
Recital Recap | 10 Years
I wrote parts of this post weeks ago and never hit publish. It was going to be really hard to say Ella has decided not to dance this season, so I was trying to be extra careful with my words. It can be hard to share about your life, while also holding moments sacred and trying to protect your daughter's feelings -- all at the same time. As luck would have it (more likely divine intervention coupled with dramatic thirteen year old feelings), I registered Ella for her eleventh year of dance this month. It's going to look a lot different than the last seven years have, but I'm so grateful that I get to watch her on stage again this season. I had been writing this post in my head for almost six months and still couldn't find the right words to describe what I was feeling. It's not that ...
July Little Things
I'm a few weeks late sharing these little videos, but better late than never, right? I can't tell you how much joy it brings me to watch these at the end of every month. The girls always get so tickled seeing how silly they were throughout the month and watching old home movies is one of their favorite things. Some months they are mostly filled with Polly clips -- like this one -- but as the girls social calendars fill up this fall, they will be better represented. Pinky promise! Maybe one day I'll spend some time learning how to properly edit videos, but for now, these little peeks into our home and lives are just perfect for remembering things that don't often get captured on film. ...
Eleven Months With Polly
It's not like I didn't know that it would happen, but it's so weird to think that she'll be a whole year old when I write this post next month. Everything is blazing by so fast and I feel like I can't quite keep up. We are all so excited for every milestone and can't wait to celebrate Polly, this time next month, but I'm still trying so hard to savor every second that she's a baby. eleven months as of august 5, 2019 Height + Weight: We don’t go back to the pediatrician until she’s a year old, but I’m guessing not much has changed since her nine month doctor's visit. She’s pretty close to twenty pounds and growing fast! Clothes: Polly is wearing mostly 12 months or 12-18 months clothing these days. It's hard to buy things too far in advance, because her growth seems to happen in ...