I cannot even believe Easter is less than one week away!!  This year will look a lot different for us, Saturday is our last day in our current home and the girls & I will be moving in with my parents for a few weeks while my husband stays at our new house for some renovations.  We had to let go of some of our favorite traditions (like our annual Easter Egg Hunt which made me so sad!!), but keep reminding ourselves of how much it will be worth it when we are hunting in our NEW HOME next year!!

My grandparents were so sweet to dye eggs with the girls while I was packing last weekend, I made a rather pathetic attempt at Easter cookies yesterday when I realized all our cookie cutters were packed and already in storage, and also worth noting, we have walked by the Easter bunny at the mall at least three times the past few weeks and waved from a far distance, both my five & two year old are still pretty terrified of him.  We cannot wait to celebrate this weekend with a couple egg hunts and brunch with our families, feeling very thankful that we live near them so even if we don’t currently have a house to go to, we have plenty of places that still feel like it!

Also sharing the girls Easter baskets, I plan to add some bath bombs, spring-colored chalk, and stickers before the bunny makes his way to my parents house Sunday morning.  With the exception of the book, both girls baskets are identical (even all the colors!), I learned that lesson the hard way last year!

Bathing Suit — Shoes — Book
Sending love from our family to yours during this special holiday! XO

Our first ever Thanksgiving dinner at our house is in the books, we had so much fun hosting some of our family and getting to spend some much-needed downtime relaxing and eating lots of delicious food.  My husband made the turkey, we divided the appetizers & sides up between members of my family, and my contribution was the tablescape (which was so much fun to do, thanks to the Magnolia line at Target!).  Everything was so yummy and beautiful, but the best part was definitely getting to see the table my husband worked so hard on a few years back, filled with so many family members we love around it, and afterwards getting to visit with my sweet grandparents at the hospital.  Thankful, indeed.
Candle Holder —  Black Bowls —  Girls Fringe Boots — My Jacket
We went around the dinner table to share what everyone was thankful for, Waverly Maye had a list with at least one thousand things, including Shimmer & Shine, and Avalon Elle was a little too shy to share (but politely shared with me later when we were on our own).  So true to both of their little personalities, we are of course so very thankful for our little girls.  Happiest Thanksgiving from our family to yours, and now, let the MOST WONDERFUL time of the year officially begin! XO

I usually try to keep things more light and positive on the blog, but keeping it real, this Halloween was not quite as festive or cheery as holidays normally are our way.  My grandfather was scheduled for heart surgery early Halloween morning, so I spent most of the day at the hospital with my family while the girls were at school and then with my mother-in-law.  I would obviously gladly trade any holiday for his good health, and though he is still currently in the hospital, I have no doubt that he will be laughing and bouncing my girls around in no time.  Any good vibes or prayers our way for his recovery are welcomed!

I was able to make it back just in time to get the girls ready for trick or treating, I could not wait to get them in their costumes and help them put a little makeup on (which they were so excited about!).  This year they decided to be princesses, it was pretty clear early on in October that there was exactly zero chance in me picking their costumes this time around, and then we walked into TJ Maxx one afternoon and saw the prettiest Snow White & Belle costumes in their size that they loved, so I couldn’t resist!  Easiest costumes we have ever had, and they have already also gotten to wear them to a princess birthday party and a few afternoons playing dress-up at the house.  Right before we went out to go trick or treating, Waverly ran to her basket of dolls to get her Snow White and Belle dolls for each of them to carry, they were so proud and absolutely loved being princesses so much!  I would definitely say that this year was the one where they loved going to each house the most, Waverly was loving running around with some of her friends from school and Avalon was the sweetest EVER running after them all from behind.  For the first time ever we lasted right up until the very end, the four of us drove my brother’s golf cart around our neighborhood — Waverly was crazy excited as she racked up on the remainder of everyone’s candy since there was no other trick or treaters left, and Avalon fell asleep on my lap with a lollipop still in her mouth.  Stay little forever.

I also wanted to share a few pictures from our weekend, we finally carved our pumpkins!  This is an activity I have a love/hate relationship with, it’s always a huge mess and the kids usually are into it for like the first five minutes (much like painting, which takes thirty minutes to set up and usually lasts five), but it’s always so much fun seeing the final product and them getting so excited over it.  Thank goodness for my husband, each of the girls picked out the hardest picture out of the book, a witch and three pumpkins.  He actually ended up getting some power tools out of the garage to make it happen.  As for me, I forgot to even take a picture of the final product — but they were amazing and so pretty lit up on Tuesday night!

Hope you had the most amazing Halloween night with your families!!!  And now — it’s officially Christmas, y’all! XO

Last weekend, we took the girls to the Boo Zoo (all things Halloween at our local zoo) for the FIFTH year in a row!  We first took a one-year old Waverly Maye dressed as a cat, and love to go back each year to kick off all the Halloween festivities.

Confession, I absolutely hated Halloween before I had kids.  I never could think of a good costume that I really wanted to be, and have always loved fashion so much that I would have rather just worn a cute outfit anyways.  But now I seriously cannot get enough, I’m already a little sad that we only have less than one week until it’s over.  Second confession, I saw someone else use these capes for a flamingo costume last year and loved it so much, I drove to three different Targets to get them the week after Halloween.  At the last one we went to, I found one left in each of the girls sizes, on clearance for $2.  It was meant to be.


This weekend we have Avalon’s trunk or treat at her school, and plan to finally carve pumpkins to put on our porch for the big night.  The weather looks like it is finally going to cool down again just in time for Tuesday, we can’t wait!!!!  Wishing you all the most wonderful weekend and the happiest Halloween! XO

I can hardly believe that we are rounding out the first week of July already!  We had the best Fourth of July, I always look forward to this holiday so much and am already feeling a little sad that we have to wait an entire year before it coming around again.

We kicked off the festivities Monday by getting ready for the next day, we made some fun treats (so easy and cute, found here), and the girls got together some things for the parade we were going to the following day.  I love how excited they get for holidays, Waverly had learned “God Bless America” and “Yankee Doodle” at school this year and had been singing it for days, so Avalon had picked up on it too and was singing it with her for pretty much the entire weekend.

We got up really early Tuesday morning to head to our friends house for breakfast and their parade.  We have one in our neighborhood that we have gone to for the past few years, but it’s pretty low key and we were excited to try something new out.  We loved it so much, it was way more legit than ours (with actual big firetrucks and people handing out candy), so we think this will be our new tradition!  Afterwards we put the girls back in their suits and headed to the bay, it was the perfect weather and everyone pretty much stayed in the water the entire day.  Exactly how the Fourth should be.
We cooked out with my parents and did sparklers, this was the first year that I actually got my act together to have a set of sparklers for them to use and Waverly loved them.  I ended up ordering a huge set so am excited to use them more this summer!  We rode our bikes to the beach and both girls were so excited to watch the show, they had their headphones on but didn’t even use them!  It was the sweetest sight ever, Waverly just sat and watched so taken by it all, about halfway through she said, “I could watch this all day”. 🙂  And Avalon just kept yelling whatever color the firework was, it was my favorite part of the day for sure!

Hope you had the best Fourth with your family and friends!  And HAPPY WEEKEND — it’s here already! XO