Once again I blinked and my girls are halfway through another year, we are going to celebrate their half-birthdays this weekend with our annual half of a cake and birthday song!  It’s also been forever since I have done an update on each of them, so it seemed like perfect timing.

Waverly Maye, age five & a half, she was officially halfway to SIX on the 26th. 

 Kindergarten has been both wonderful and an adjustment.  She loves her friends SO MUCH, loves PE, loves lunch, loves getting all dressed up for the day (with all the accessories) and loves learning in general.  Going from three half-days a week in preschool to full-day, everyday kindergarten leaves her pretty tired though, and sometimes the afternoons can be challenging since she has tons of energy saved up and also is just plain exhausted.  We have moved up bedtime a bit and I absolutely love reading stories and cuddling with her at the end of the day, which is also the time that she will really tell me all about what happened in school or about how she is feeling.  Losing our dog at Christmas was really hard on her, maybe even more than anyone in the house.  She still talks about him daily, we’ve written him a “letter in heaven”, and she always just wants to make sure he is doing alright up there.  It shows what a big heart she has, she really loves so hard and feels even harder.  When she comes up with an idea she is going to do it, 110%, which will always be one of my favorite things about her.  She is the girliest of girls, loves jewelry, all things princess, performing, and wants to play “mommy and baby” with Avalon (her very best friend in the whole wide world) at least once a day.  She still reminds me a lot of myself and is forever the one who made me a mama.  Goodness I love her so.

Avalon Elle, age two & a half, her birthday is June 6th so she is officially closer to THREE than two.
Forever as sweet and silly as they come.  She’s really grown into her personality lately, she loves to make anyone laugh and once she knows it’s working, will do it forever.  Her little voice is my FAVORITE, the way she pronounces “Waver-wee” and says “here am I” when she walks into a room, I wish it would stay forever!  We are officially in that independent stage, she is determined to do everything herself, we went through the same thing with Waverly but I am pretty sure it’s at a much higher level this time around since she wants to be JUST LIKE her big sister.  She loves preschool, is a little obsessed with the boys there (so funny!), and always loves to tell us about her “boyfriend” when she gets home.  Her favorite color is currently blue, she loves balls and anything with wheels, and doesn’t go a day without requesting Peppa Pig.  She still has the sweetest demeanor in the world, can make anyone fall in love with her, and is the worst eater in the history of EVER (would literally only eat cookies three meals a day if we let her).  She’s just the best, still looks so much like my husband and reminds me of him too, which is the sweetest thing ever to me.

People always said that once your babies aren’t technically “babies” anymore that it gets way easier, but I’m just going to go ahead and call it like it is (at least at our house), and that’s certainly not the case.  The challenges are way different, but still definitely there, and some days by the time bedtime rolls around goodness I am READY.  The highs and heart-melting joys are still very real though too.  It never fails, just when I feel mom guilt or wonder if we even come close to know what we are doing raising these little people into good humans, they do something amazing and my heart swells with pride and I just can’t even believe that they are ours.  They will always be so much more than worth it.

Dresses c/o Colored Organics

Wishing you the happiest FEBRUARY, one of our favorite months of the year!!!!!! XO  

Well friends, we made it! 🙂  Both our girls had huge milestones this week, Waverly Maye on her first day of kindergarten and little Avalon Elle on her first day of preschool!  I still can hardly believe it, overall they both did SO WELL and we really couldn’t be any prouder.  I spent the weekend before pretty nervous about how things would go (and am honestly pretty relieved that the chaos of the first day is behind us), but their smiles that afternoon made everything so much easier on my mama heart.

Waverly was the first to wake up Tuesday morning, she loves getting all dressed up for the day more than anything (as long as it’s something she wants to wear!), so she was completely ready before she even came into my room.  All four of us went to wait at her bus step together, where she just held my hand and patiently waited for the bus to get there.  It pulled up and she gave us a hug & walked right to the steps, without even looking back, and got right on.  I thought I would be able to keep it together until that moment, I will never forget the sight of her little five-year old self walking towards the big yellow school bus with her backpack on, it was the sweetest thing and also the saddest thing all at once.  So I did want any sane mama would do – drove right behind her bus all the way to the school, and watched from the window while she walked into the building in a single-file line like SUCH a brave little girl.  The day felt like it lasted a million years, but when she finally came home, she was beyond excited — her favorite subject was PE and she loved the lunch I packed for her.  That night when I put her to bed, she said, “mom seriously, I bet you are really going to cry when I turn 40”.

My husband took Avalon to her preschool since I had to be at work, where it did not go as well. 😉  There were lots of tears and clinging and “daddy, DON’T LEAVE”, pretty much the same thing that happened when we dropped off Waverly to her first day of preschool a couple years ago.  The good news though, my mom picked her up and she was happy as ever, the teachers said that she told them a million stories while she was there and that singing at chapel was her favorite part.  Which is SO her!!  She only goes for a few hours a couple days a week, so she has only been back once, but she seems to be getting (a little) better about drop-off and was still happy at pick-up, so we are counting the positives on that.  It’s also pretty damn cute when she says later, “mommy, I cried today to go to school”.  We know.

Hope everyone else’s babies had the best transition back to school!!!  I’m excited to celebrate making it through with some much-needed downtime (and extra sissy snuggles!) this weekend.  Wishing the same for you!  XO

PS – The girls shoes can be found here, we love them so much and they are perfect for when you need to gets kids ready quickly in the morning!

I think I probably looked forward to this summer more than any other one yet, and so far, it’s living up to all the hype.  The girls are both at such fun ages, especially as Avalon gets older, and this is really the first time that their interests are a lot alike and that they can do so many of the same things.  They both love anything water-related, which is pretty funny because Avalon seemed so scared of it at first, but now she is able to go down most of the slides at the waterpark, can wade around in the water at the bay for hours, and just last week, started jumping off the diving board at the pool (which is all ironically way earlier than Waverly did all of that!).  Waverly gets so excited about it, she loves to help catch her when she comes down or put her floatie on for her, I think she will forever “baby” her no matter what age she gets.

Of course it’s also so freaking nice to be off work and able to spend so much more time at home.  I will always cherish slow summer mornings and getting to make the girls a big breakfast while they watch their favorite shows, there is just something so sweet about kids in the morning time and I try to never take those moments for granted.  The girls sitter (who watches them a couple days during the week during the year) has also been taking them for a few hours each Monday, just to give me some time to myself and it’s been GLORIOUS.  I really never take time for myself and even though I spend most of it running errands solo or doing some long-awaited projects around the house, it’s amazing how refreshed and rejuvenated I feel afterwards.

And in case you just came for pictures. 🙂