These are the girls Valentine's cards to share with their friends at school today. The lollipop isn't on the printed cards, we punched holes above and below Ella's hands and stuck a Jolly Rancher sucker through the card. I saw the idea on Design Mom last year and couldn't wait to use it this year. They turned out even better than I hoped! {Love Letters will be posted tomorrow since today is Valentine's Day} ...
ella
Scrum "Dill"y Chicken Salad
Do you love chicken salad as much as I do? I could seriously eat it for lunch every. single. day. If you are from the Birmingham area, you know there is a spectacular local restaurant that is known for it's chicken salad. There are hardly any seats in the restaurant as it is, so if you want to eat there for lunch you better call it in or get there super early. Even if you get there early, you might have to split a table with complete strangers. Trust me, it's worth it. I might not have gotten the top-secret recipe just right, but after reading tons of options on countless cooking sites over the last few weeks, I decided to give it a shot and see how close I could get. I know this isn't a food blog and I'm clearly not an excellent photographer, but we scarfed this stuff down so quickly ...
Fully Charged
Guess who went to the circus on Saturday? And as usual, our front row seats did not disappoint. Thank you bunches, Nana & Cookie! We decided to leave Sophie with the grandparents and enjoy an evening of Fully Charged fun with just our biggest little girl. She has been beside herself since Christmas waiting for this day. It is amazing to me that she remembers from year to year what it's like. She knows we park at "mama's work" and that we sit "really close to the clowns". It is so funny to look back and see how much she has changed since our first year at Ringling Brothers. Mom, Ella & SD right before we headed home {see the confetti all over the floor?} We were smart and brought last year's light up toy. Total savings? $20 - Score! Isn't this shirt absolutely adorable? We ...
it’s a jungle out there
If you've been reading since the beginning, then you know that Ella was a bit obsessed with The Jungle Book as a little bitty girl, especially this part. We might not be watching the movie twice a day like we used to, but she certainly still has a thing for elephants. Especially when they're "holding hands". On Tuesday, the elephants from the Barnum & Bailey circus were due to arrive in Birmingham. Ella tagged along with mommy to work and we set out at 9:45 for an early lunch. Luckily, they walked in on a street very near my office. Not so lucky, was the bitter cold and falling rain. We waited for awhile on the street, very excited. First the train cars started rolling by. We imagine they are loaded with barrels and costume, trapezes and clown cars. Then we needed a ...
Nerves
Clearly, she's not nervous anymore. We've been walking across the street on sunny days to practice our skills. ...
Three Bunnies
For those of you who don't know, we lost a bunny over the Christmas holidays. I know we had all of them when we went to see Santa several weekends ago, but that night when getting Ella ready for bed we realized that we were down to two sleepy bunnies. I put Ella off for a few days and told her it was probably at Garan's or in the laundry, but I was starting to worry. After calling every establishment we've visited over the last three weeks, we finally had to come to terms with the fact that we were down to three. We now have two well-loved bunnies and one pretty bunny on the shelf. She took it better than I did and after an exhaustive interweb search, we have come to the conclusion that we cannot acquire another one. That night when we tucked her in, she asked for the pretty bunny and we ...
Over the River and Through the Woods
Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go! Okay, we didn't exactly cross any rivers, but we did manage some curvy country roads. Does that count? The Thursday before Christmas was my first day off of work for the holidays and we baked, wrapped presents, watched Christmas movies and snuggled all day long. Come to think of it, that's pretty much what we've done since then, too. That night, we went to my parents' house for dinner and presents. We used to celebrate on Christmas Eve, but after everyone gets married it becomes harder to squeeze it all in. Now we just pick a day before or after and pretend it's Christmas instead. It was funny because the adults all had on leggings or pajamas, but the girls were dressed up! I couldn't resist -- we had too many Christmas ...
Bunny’s Surprise
Remember in this post, I told you that Bunny and I were working on a little surprise for Ella? After finishing up most of my Christmas shopping I knew I wanted to get her one more gift, but I wasn't sure what. After seeing a post on Design Mom, I was reminded of Jennifer Maher's amazing artwork and decided to see if there was enough time left to have her paint a custom piece of our very best friend, Paint Bunny. This is one of the pictures I snapped and emailed to Jen the week of Thanksgiving. And this is what I received in the mail just two weeks later. Let me just tell you that I teared up a little when I unwrapped the package. I knew it would be beautiful, but I wasn't prepared for just how much like our sweet friend the painting would look. We ordered a 5x7 acrylic painting and ...