Affiliate links appear in this post. Any purchases made using these links will earn Taz + Belly a small commission. You can read more about our affiliate relationships here. We were greeted with rain clouds and an impending tropical storm on Monday morning, but instead of complaining about our possible inclement weather, let me tell you all the reasons why our Memorial Day was perfect. 01 | Ella has a newfound love of cooking and has been killing it in the kitchen since school let out. This is the second pasta salad she's made in the last week and they were both delicious! She asked me this weekend if she could be in charge of prepping dinner over the summer break. Ummm, yes, please. 02 | While daddy went to the gym and I finished up in the kitchen, these two enjoyed breakfast ...
summer
The Best of Summer
Knowing full well that, in Alabama, we'll have temperatures soaring into the upper nineties for quite some time, it's hard to admit that summer is over. School is in session, intense dance schedules have returned, football season is a mere days away, and I already feel a shift towards blankets and fire pits and warm cups of coffee. While I'm sad that lazy pool days are mostly over for the next year, we enjoyed such a wonderful summer in our new-to-us house, and I thought it would be fun to revisit a few of our favorite memories before we moved, full stop, into a new season. What do you say to a walk down memory lane? On the very last day of school, we poured a new concrete porch between the pool and the barn. We couldn't possibly anticipate how much this would change our summer. ...
New Pool Porch
The pool at my parent's our house has undergone quite the transformation since it's original installation. Growing up, my mom was a lifeguard at a local pool where we were members. I remember spending almost every moment of every day in the water from the time I was a little girl until the summer before I turned thirteen. We moved into our house when I was in the first grade and the pool came many years later. We didn't have any warning, but when we returned from our summer vacation that year, there was a huge hole in the side yard! It was a long time before the concrete was poured and almost that entire summer, we used a giant piece of plywood next to the pool to keep from tracking in red mud. My parents planned to build a pool house for a very long time, but several years ago, they put ...
Farewell to Summer
Since we've already recapped one summer beach trip for you (here, here, here, here and here), I thought you probably weren't interested in seeing another group of photos showing us on the sand, eating ice cream at Scoops or riding bikes around camp. Instead, we shot video clips throughout the weekend and put them all together for your viewing pleasure. I need you to know in advance that (a) we relied heavily on 90's playlists to pass the time in the car, (b) Josh was a super good sport about the camera in his face but didn't want to do an on-camera interview, (c) Sophie is FASCINATED with bathroom humor and no matter how often we discourage it she regularly works it into the conversation and (d) my children rarely get into any sort of physical altercation so the catfight we caught on film ...
Slip N Slide
A few weeks ago, we made a Sunday afternoon run to Wal-Mart for jigsaw puzzles and a sprinkler. I guess we waited too late, because there wasn't a sprinkler to be found. Instead, we grabbed this deeply discounted Slip 'n Slide. The girls begged for days to play on it, but a few cooler than usual afternoons paired with crazy busy weekends made for some delay in our plans. This past weekend, we had a lazy Sunday afternoon with nothing to do while our sweet daddy was running errands. My kids weren't entirely sure what to do with this thing, so I had the pleasure of diving head first at the ground a few times. Hello, sore abs on Tuesday! ^^^ We had to add a few suds to our slide to make us go faster! ^^^ ^^^ Obviously she didn't know what she was doing yet -- her hair didn't even get wet?! ...
Like Mother, Like Daughter
I got this Barbie pool for Christmas one year when I was 5 or 6. It was from Santa Claus. I remember that we spent the night with my grandparents that Christmas Eve and it was waiting for me in front of their big fireplace. I loved celebrating the holidays in that house. I think there was a Ken doll and a Barbie in a purple swimsuit, too. While my parents were building the house they live in now, we lived in a tiny trailer next door to some friends. I mean tiny like as small as our RV, tiny. My sister and I shared a room and my parents bed took up the entire room they lived in. Our television sat on top of a chest of drawers in the living room and we didn't have the space for a Christmas tree that year. On the upside, we had cable television for the first time in my life and I adored ...
Ponies in the Park
I feel like all of this week's blog posts begin with the words "a few weeks ago", but that's just the way it is! One weekend in May, our town had a celebration at the city park and my girls were so excited to be there. Our daddy couldn't make it, but we met up with Gran, Heidi, Granmom (my grandmother) and our neighbors for a few hot, sweaty hours in the park. First on the agenda were face-painting and bounce-housing. The face-painting wasn't the most creative I've ever seen, but it was fast, easy, and cleaned up quick before nap. Ella wanted a purple flower and since Sophie can't exactly articulate what she wants without some examples, we opted for a pink heart. She couldn't have cared less! The most exciting thing, to me, were the pony rides! Since you probably don't know ...
Insta Holiday
Two days of pool, food, friends & family. I hope yours was just as wonderful! ...