Friday, October 31, 2014

"Hi!" to our neighbors

We dress up all the time in this house...Pretty much everyday, Charlotte wears at least 1 dress up... and tries to convince Marley (sometimes she does, and other times she doesn't) to dress up alongside her. I'm fairly certain that her dress up bin has more stuff in it, than her actual closet... Halloween, it isn't about the candy for my little ones... that's for sure. It's more so about dressing up, and saying "hi!" to our neighbors...

With creating a Little Red Riding Hood costume for Marley, and a wolf costume for Finn... I tried to convince Charlotte to be the "woodsman/huntsman" in the story... but she wasn't won over by the idea of flannel plaid, beard and ax... she insisted on being Merida (a costume she was gifted from her grands this past birthday). This girl is usually so great at "playing the part"... halfway through our trek around the neighborhood she stated, "Merida doesn't walk... she rides a horse, so can I sit on the stroller?" ... such a smart little one...










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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Fall-ify

It's that time of the year... where we "fall-ify" our flower beds... and this time.. I have a few extra hands to help me with all the work. You'd think it would make work easier, but in fact, it does the complete opposite. But, at least I get to stare at cute little faces while we get the job done... eventually.












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Monday, October 20, 2014

Modern Day Cinderella

 I still remember when Charlotte was 3.5 years old (just a few weeks after we adopted her), how often she played with all of the shoes around the house. She'd hop around in Daddy's flight boots, put her toes (incorrectly) between the thongs on Mommy's sandals, and oh how she loved high heels. We'd find our shoes everywhere in the house... never in the place where we left them. Marley is already going through this phase... I call her the "Modern Day Cinderella", because she just loves trying on every shoe that is in her eye sight. Her sister jumps the day away on the trampoline... and Marley tries on everyone's shoes that's jumping. She could spend hours doing this... and often does. Just like her sister, she leaves them all over the place.... it is so entertaining to witness... especially when she delights in finding a shoe that fits.





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Sunday, October 19, 2014

From The Heart (An Easy DIY)

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Charlotte's 7th birthday, with a "dress up dance party"... per her request. I took crazy amounts of photos... and it wasn't all done "just because it's a Karen thing to do"... it was because the photos were going to be used as a favor, to say "thank you" to her dear friends for coming to the party and joining in on the fun. Charlotte LOVES photos... she scrolls through my camera roll daily on my phone. I thought it would be fun if we created photo booth strips and magnetic clothespins to send to all of her friends to remember the day well.

There are a lot of different places where you can print your photos/Instagram images these days... but I knew I wanted to try out Social Print Studio. You don't have to have an IG account to print through them. In fact, I took most of these photos with my camera, and then loaded them onto their site to create the strips. Once created, they showed up in my mailbox 3 days later... boom, first part of her favors, done.

Then Charlotte picked out some colors, and painted each of the fronts of the clothespins. We could have left them a plain color... but instead, she embellished with a gold paint.... and then we stuck a magnetic strip to the back of each magnet.



















She stamped a little "thank you" and signed her name to some paper doilies... and her favors were complete. We packaged them up, and shipped them off. Many times candy and tiny toys are put into "goodie bags" or used as favors for birthdays, but remembering the day through photos, makes the celebration that much sweeter... not to mention the handmade aspect. It makes it much more "from the heart", and what can be better than that?


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Friday, October 17, 2014

The Sweetest Of Times

Our front porch is one of my favorite "parts" of our house... we spend countless hours there... so while my Grandma and Mom were out visiting, it's no surprise that we spent our days outside. We drank coffee, watched the girls play, knitted (my Grandma made each of the kids and myself the sweetest little slippers), chatted, laughed, and enjoyed one another's company. It was the sweetest of times...







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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Sharing Fall

It's so fun watching the zoo change with the seasons... we never bore of the zoo. So of course, when visitors (my mother and grandmother are here visiting right now) come to town, it's on our list of "must sees"... The fall blossoms are blooming, pumpkins are dropped off for upcoming Halloween festivals, and the animals come out when it's not as hot outside. Fall is absolutely beautiful here in Oklahoma... and it's so nice to share it with dear family...












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Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Sure To Remember

We had such a sweet little celebration for Charlotte's birthday last Saturday... it was exactly how she pictured it in her mind, " A dress up dance party with my friends"... We sent out invites, inviting families, not just kids... and wrote for everyone to show up "dressed in their favorite dress up"... but we also provided lots of extras for them to swap out throughout the party. Lets just say, I'm fairly certain that Charlotte wore about 5 or 6 different outfits/accessories. We had a cupcake decorating bar, and a light BBQ, played a game of musical chairs and had a dance/jump off... it was pure fun. A birthday that she is sure to remember.
























And then she ended the night, swinging life away... 


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