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. ðŸ˜‰  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!

Somehow, my baby girl is a five-year old little person who picked out pink sparkly heels paired with a purple fidget spinner for her birthday today and is headed (on an actual school bus!) to kindergarten in just over a month.  I didn’t expect it, but I think the combo of both those things happening in just over a few week time span is giving me all the emotions and this birthday is probably the one, of both my girls, that I have struggled with the most.  Yet there is so much to be so happy about, Waverly is my little sidekick, this amazing, beautiful little person with a huge heart and so much imagination.  My heart just bursts thinking of how much joy she has brought to our lives over the past five years. 
Our Waverly Maye.  FULL of emotion from day one, either crazy happy or the complete opposite, and really nothing ever in between.  She is the girliest of girls, cares so much about what she wears and always (always!) has an opinion about it.  She loves baby dolls, jewelry, dance, and shopping, and has literally has never found a store that she doesn’t love (or can’t find something she wants at!).  She is definitely the most similar to me of our girls, and lately wants to be just like me, asking to have her hair in the same hairstyle or wear something the same color, and her mind was blown the day she realized I got us matching pajamas.
She is shy at first with adults, but is always the first to run up to another kid at the park or the beach and ask if they want to play.  Most of the time when we get somewhere, I have hardly put our stuff down and I look up and she is holding hands, happily running around with someone like they have been best friends forever.  She is definitely a leader, but also a perfectionist, and won’t really try something until she knows she can do it, and do it perfectly.  Her imagination has always blown my mind, to this day she can play with a bucket of balls or rocks (anything really) and have them talking to each other like they are little people.  She is such a dreamer, it is one of my favorite things about her and I hope she never loses it.
She loves Avalon so much, always has, and still wants to baby her just as much as when she was first born.  She loves to carry her, to pick out what she is going to wear, and always has to be the first to greet her in the morning.  Her big sister role really is one of things I am proudest of her about, she asks me every single day when we are going to have another baby and wants to know all about how it happens. 😉  She has the biggest interest in knowing what she was like as a baby, one of her favorite things to do is look at her baby books and hear stories about when she was “little”, and she also loves to be cuddled or snuggled and pretend like she is a baby again.  Hope that never changes!

Her vibrant, spirited personality still challenges me every single day and there are times that I don’t know that we will ever grow out of that, but what I have really found is that in her most emotional moment, there is nothing more that will fix it than a hug and some love.  It’s that same personality that I know will take her so very far and I will be right by her side every step of the way.  HAPPIEST FIVE, WAVERLY MAYE!!!!!!  We love you so much, baby girl.

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. 🙂

Waverly’s freckles coming through from the sun and Avalon’s tan skin (that she totally gets from her daddy) –things I never want to forget.  Love these summer girls so much!!!!  Hope your season is off to a great start and wishing you the happiest days ahead! XO

We celebrated our sweet girls turning TWO & FIVE over the weekend with a pool party, it was so much fun and I am so excited to share some pictures from their special day.  I mentioned before that we decided on a joint party this year (Avalon’s birthday was at the beginning of June and Waverly’s is at the end of July), I loved the idea of it and ask me now after their party, I would 110% say the same and am totally on board to do this forever! 😉  Not only is it way easier to do just one party, but we have a lot of extended family and friends who want to celebrate the girls and this way, we get to do that but each of them also can have their own (way more low key) thing on their actual birthday with their little friends, at any place they choose to go.

This party was actually one of the easier ones I have planned, as I knew all anyone would want to do is swim and have fun in the pool (which was definitely the case!).  We went with a blue and green theme, with a few pops of pink, both inspired by the girls suits and the cutest cake idea we found on Pinterest.  We set out bubbles, water guns and water balloons in the colors of the party, and did two games (found here & here if you are planning a pool party, these were so much fun and perfect for this age group!).  For food, we did a chicken nugget tray we got at Chick-Fil-A and some kid friendly snacks, along with a blue margarita for the adults that ended up being a huge hit (we actually ended up going on an ABC store run doing the party for a second round, not sure what that says about us …).  The setup was super cute, a special thank you to my mom for helping with everything per usual and surprising me with cupcakes that spelled out each of the girls names.

I pretty much didn’t see Waverly most of the party, she was having way too much fun with all her friends and is still talking about how “awesome” everything was.  Avalon was content eating (and eating some more), and then later having her daddy throw in her in the pool 100 times in a row.  They were so sweet opening their presents after the party that night, Waverly made sure she helped Avalon with hers and they lined everything they got in the front of the living room.  I never want to forget how Avalon kept saying “my paw-ty” or how Waverly kept asking where everyone would park and how she stood out in the driveway waiting for the first person to arrive. 
Happiest birthday to my summer girls, I love you both more than you will ever know and you bring so much joy to so many lives!!!!!  XO