Trolls Birthday Party!

Violet and Lucy had their shared birthday party this past weekend! I can't believe they are four and seven! Where has the time gone? They both thankfully wanted the same theme this year - Trolls! So much easier for this busy mama. Here are some of the photos from their party, taken by my dad <3

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Sources:
Number Balloons: Party City
Marbled Balloons: Shop Sweet Lulu
Rainbow Decoration: DIY
Rock Candy: Party City
Cupcakes: 874 Cake Studio
Troll Headbands: DIY

Life Lately

We've been slowly but steadily working to turn this house into something that feels like our home. I haven't had a lot of time to update you on the progress, but here are a few little peeks in the meantime! Above is a picture I snapped before a little dinner party we hosted with a few friends. I had some fun making a Fall tablescape with a few bunches of grocery store flowers, mason jars, and pretty ceramic pumpkins that were sent over by Grandin Road (I absolutely love their seasonal decorations! They always have the coolest stuff!) And I'm just looooving these gorgeous curtains that I got from Minted. I have been looking for curtains for the dining room forever, but I haven't found any that have made me want to pull the trigger. Then I saw these, and I just knew.

Lucy's room has been slowly getting a major transformation too! We  switched her over to the toddler bed and Violet to a twin when we switched houses. We painted the room (it was formerly like an army green), found a dresser on Craigslist, put her restickable dots from her nursery at the old house, on the wall, and purchased a rug. Next on the to do list is hanging her pom pom curtains from RH Baby & Child - they are blackout curtains and I'm sooo excited for that!!! (I'm hoping blackout drapes = sleeping in???)


Our living room has been coming along. We painted, installed hardwood floors, hung a gallery wall, and just bought a new couch! Hopefully I can snap a few better photos of that for you soon too. Lucy approves:

Sorry that's all I have for you so far, but between working full time, fixing up a house, and taking care of two beautiful babes, time to take photos is few and far between. And then there are times when I could be taking photos but I'd really rather be just staring at this gorgeous face:

(Can you blame me?!) Hope you're all have a lovely Fall! xo, Lauren

P.S. Grandin Road has a super cool pop up shop at Macy's in NYC. If you can't make it there they have a 360 tour that you can check out here. 

Violet & Lucy's Playhouse: Week 1

This is a project we've been wanting to start for the girls for a long time, but we knew that we weren't going to be at our first house forever, so we waited. We were super excited when we finally found our forever home that we could make this a reality for the girls. Since we're thinking long-term, we decided to make a playhouse that had a future function when the girls have outgrown it. Kevin really misses his little vegetable garden from the old house (and I miss walking out the door when I need some fresh tomatoes!), so we decided to make the playhouse adult sized so that someday it can become a garden shed. We'll be planting a vegetable garden on the back side of the play house - it's a spot that gets a lot of sunshine and we thought it would be a great natural way to create some division to the yard for our little patch of veggies. Kevin and his dad have been working on it from morning til dinner for a week now and it's really starting to take shape!

The plan is to paint it white, with a wooden pergola off of the front, and some fun accent colors. The front door will *hopefully* be a Dutch door, and the back door will be a sliding barn door. We're also going to plant lots of pretty bushy flower and things around it. The girls are so excited to walk out the door every day and see it transform.

I'm crazy excited to decorate the inside. I'm kind of a freak like that. In this section we're going to paint, and probably add their play kitchen and some fun accessories:

On the opposite side, we're planning to build a lofted area with a ladder or some ship stairs and some sort of lounge area. The girls have requested beds. We've thrown around a bunch of ideas from suspended rope beds, a hammock, bunk beds, or even moving the toddler bed out here:

I seriously can't believe how hard Kev and his dad have been working on this thing, and I am so impressed with what they've done so far. Hopefully someday the girls will really be able to appreciate the hours and hours of hard work were put into creating this for them. We're three really lucky girls.

I'm planning on sharing some inspiration photos for the space tomorrow! xx, Lauren

Our Summer Bucket List: On the Farm

We're really lucky that my parents spend a lot of time with our girls. They get them almost every week for an overnight stay, and they do all kinds of fun things with them. Parks, playgrounds, pool time, tractor rides - you name it. They've also been helping the girls check things off of their summer bucket list. One thing the girls really wanted to do was "feed the ducks," so my parents took them to a farm down the road from their house where there are always a ton of ducks and geese. The farmer is fine with them feeding the animals and poking around, so they actually visit there pretty frequently.

Normally I'm not along to see their farm visits, but I hear about them a lot. Kevin and I usually use Nonny and Poppy time to have date nights and get things done around the house. This time though, I was excited to get some pictures! My dad is really into photography (I'm forever stealing his camera!), and I was really excited when he sent me a bunch of photos from their day. Thanks, Daddy!

That guy's expression totally cracks me up. And can you tell that long stars and stripes number is Violet's favorite dress?! She always wants to wear it to the most impractical places :) Total girly girl, through and through.

Speaking of the summer bucket list, I'm super excited to say that the play house build is in full swing! I can't wait to share some progress photos with you all soon. Hope you're all enjoying some simple summer fun! xo, Lauren

Ideas for Lucy's Room

Before we moved, I had started to update Lucy's nursery to a big girl room. Her new room is massively bigger than her old little slanted space, so I want to take what I started at the old house and basically add to it. The bed, rainbow stacking toy, fawn night light, cloud mobile, wall dot decals, and baby animal artwork, and pillows were all in her former bedroom. It looked like this:

For the new room, we need new curtains (the ceilings are a lot taller on our second floor than at our former house), a new rug (bigger floor space!), a bigger dresser, and a few more accessories. We can thankfully fit the beautiful glider that we got from RH Baby & Child up our new stairs (the old ones were such a problem!), so that will be in the space as well. She's still (and will always be!) my baby, and she still loves to rock with her mama for a while before going to sleep :)

Here are a few things I would love to have for her space:

Pom Pom Curtains
Striped Rug
Cloud Pillow
"Love" wooden sign
Happy Place wall art
Vintage Dresser
Bunny Knobs
Farmhouse Light

Right now I'm trying to find the perfect warm white for her walls and scouring Craigslist for a pretty (and hopefully inexpensive!) vintage dresser. Wish me luck! xo, Lauren

A Simple Summer Bucket List

I've been meaning to share our summer bucket list with you all, but I guess we're having too much fun checking things off for blogging! The girls and I worked on it together, and we wanted to keep it simple. You know, the good parts of summer:

We've already checked a bunch of things off of the list (not to say that we won't do some of them again!) Someone got the girls one of those crazy water balloon things that you see on TV where you can fill up like 50 water balloons in a few seconds, and the two of them went at it! At first it started off really tame. They kind of faced off duel style and took turns. One would turn around, the other would walk up and slam a water balloon into their back. After like five minutes of this I eventually suggested running around while throwing the balloons (they aren't very experienced in the world of water balloon fights apparently!) and they went crazy. Water balloon fight...check. Now we have to buy more of these amazing water balloons because it's all they every want to do.

Catching fireflies is always a little challenging, because they usually are in bed before it gets dark enough for the fireflies to come out. I'm all for bending the rules and schedules in the summer time, but they just get plain tired by like 7:30/8:00 at night. We got lucky the other night though because we stayed up specifically for the fireworks, and the park that we were in was absolutely covered in them. You could literally put your hands into the grass and scoop one right up - they were everywhere. It was pretty amazing. Not to mention the perfect sunset.

We got really lucky with the fireworks too. We ended up going on the 3rd of July - not quite as legit, but that's when our little part of town has their at the local park. The big display downtown was on the fourth, but we always like this one better. It's nice to pull up, lay out a blanket on the grass, and hang out instead of filing into a big crowded stadium. This year we were so thankful that we went this route because it was seriously the perfect night (see sunset shots above!) Fireflies, great temperature, beautiful sunset, perfect weather. The actually fourth of July ended up being a big bummer - really rainy and kind cold. I didn't get any pictures of the actual fireworks because Lucy got kind of manic (late bedtime, argh!) and was basically doing flips on me during the display, but I did get the cutest ever pic of the girls snuggling with their dad:

 I'll be sharing more bucket-list fun as we check things off the list! I'd love to hear what's on your summer bucket list! xo, Lauren

Little Summer Style Favorites

Here are a few things that the girls are wearing now that the weather is (finally!) warm...

Floral Surf/Water Shoes - are these not the cutest water shoes you have ever laid eyes on?!
Sunglasses - love these - comfy, cheap, go with everything.
Kitty Cat Sandals - Violet loves kitty cat shoes. She has probably had some form of cat shoes since she was two years old. Luckily I keep finding them so she keeps wearing them.
Flamingo Headband - flamingo. headband. Need I say more?
Tutu Dress - we have this in multiple colors! It is seriously so adorable and we got them on sale at 40% off so it was a fab deal
Flower Hairties - we got these a year or two ago and the girls literally argue daily over who gets to wear them!
Striped Rainbow Maxi Dress - Violet loves rainbows and maxi dresses, so this was a no-brainer.
Ruffle Swimsuit - the toughest thing about this suit is deciding which color to buy! So flippin' cute.
Natives Perforated Slip-on Shoes - the girls wear these constantly in the warm months. They are great because they can get wet, they're super comfy and act like sneakers for playing at the park, but they don't get smelly if the girls wear them sans socks.
Rosette Swimsuit - Violet always requests flowers on her swimsuit, plus as a bonus this one comes in her favorite color
Rainbow Striped Skater Dress - the girls seriously live in skater dresses over the summer. Our favorites are from H&M and American Apparel.
Flower Power Headband - this was a birthday gift and Violet loves, loves, loves it.
First Gloss Hunter Rain Boots - so they can jump in muddy puddles "just like Peppa"

Violet & Lucy's Minecraft - Dinosaur Birthday Party

I'll admit that I actually wasn't planning on letting the girls choose a birthday party theme this year. It's been a rough year - I started a new full-time job, which has me completely exhausted and beyond stressed at the end of the day every day. The first half of the school year I was coming home crying almost daily. Add to that fact that Violet started school this year, we moved into a new house (on the day that Violet started kindergarten and I started my new job), and that Lucy is two (just turned three!), and it's a recipe for wanting a simple, easy birthday party! Much to my dismay, the girls remembered choosing their themes before, and announced without being asked that they wanted a "girly" Minecraft (Violet) party / dinosaur (Lucy) party. So I mustered what little I had left and this is what I came up with. In the end I'm glad that we did it, and I'm happy that they were both happy!

We had a dinosaur bean bag toss that Violet helped me to paint onto a cardboard box using some leftover paint testers, and a pin-the-tail on the Minecraft pig that I made out of paper. I had some other fun ideas (Pinterest!!!), but managed to reign myself in and not overwhelm myself with unnecessary details. It was a really fun day and we got SO lucky with the weather (I think every other weekend has been cold/rainy so far). I still can't believe I am the mother of a three and six-year-old! Happy birthday girls, we love you to the moon and back! xo, Mommy & Daddy

P.S. If you want to see a few of the girls' past birthday parties here you go! 2015 . 2014 . 2013

Easter Beauties

These two beauties were super excited when their Easter dresses arrived in the mail yesterday from Janie & Jack! When I got home from work I brought in their new dresses, not knowing that they had a few treasures ready to share with me! Lucy was "super duper" (her new catch phrase) proud of her Easter craft that she had made at her sitter's, and they had both been busy gathering a bouquet of "flowers" for me from the garden - roots and dirt still intact. They, of course, wanted to get dressed up right away, and it took all of our powers of persuasion to convince them that no, they could not wear them on our walk (considering that it was still long pants and jacket weather!) So they settled for wearing them around the house for now. Here's hoping that the weather is nicer on Sunday or we'll have to break out the tights and sweaters!

I love Janie & Jack's classic styles, especially for special occasions, so I was "super duper" excited when they offered to send over these gorgeous Easter dresses and bows for the girls. Here's what I chose:

Violet's dress, Violet's bow
Lucy's dress, Lucy's bow

I had a tough time deciding though - everything was so cute! What would you have chosen for your little ones? Hope everyone has a lovely Easter! xo, Lauren