LOGAN'S DOHL

My mom brought over these beautiful traditional Korean dresses for the girls (called 'hanbok') and since my parents weren't able to be here for Logan's one year celebration we did one with them this past weekend with the girls wearing their hanboks. 

In Korea, the one year is called "dohl" and they do a big celebration; I think all of it must be so that they can put a tiny human into one of these hanboks because it is so stinkin cute. Logan toddled around in it, not minding it as much as I thought she would and seeming to know that it was a special dress.

During the dohl celebration, it is customary to lay out objects symbolizing various aspects of the child's possible future and then have them choose one, the chosen item being the thing representing what they will most likely do. We did this several times and Logan kept choosing the brush which was supposed to represent an artist! (The brush being my make up brush because I couldn't find a paint brush in time..ha)

Sloane also had her turn, and she picked the dollar! Which means she will be wealthy :) 

MY PARENTS ARE HERE

It's my favorite time of the year: when my parents visit! I haven't seen them for a year so I'm especially appreciative of this time with them. They are here for a week before we all head up north for my sisters wedding. While we are here together we are eating Korean food, drinking lots of coffee, talking about our family, watching movies, going for swims, going to the farmer's market, playing with the girls, sharing reflections on parenting, giving thanks for the right now, and wondering about the future. 

This time is good and so necessary for my soul. 

THESE DAYS

July is my favorite month, and I am sad that we are almost at the end of it! It has flown by.  I love summer so much, and I am happy to report I am fully enjoying it, trying to savor every last drop of each day.

What helps is being able to dip my feet into the pool with margarita in hand.



What also helps is to have friends over as much as possible to swim.

I am such a sucker for fruit salad, especially when they are in a fancy watermelon bowl.

It's been really fun being able to observe Sloane in play using her imagination and using props to aid her stories her storytelling in her dances. That the other day she put on extra clothes and then put her long socks on her hands as gloves I guess and then proceeded to perform what she said was an Indian dance is very elaborate and enthusiastic. Last week she found a plastic cup Logan's bow and then a straw and started prancing about with a fierce expression, explaining on the side that she was a girl Captain Hook with a cup for her hook and a bow to decorate it.

I have been making a lot of Palomas and this particular one had jalapeños in it.

Ken's mom and grandma came up for Logan's birthday and I loved seeing them spend time with girls and have the girls love on them right back. 

This is Logan in the aftermath of her birthday celebration, her belly full of watermelon and her romper dripping with watermelon juices.

Sloane and I went to a drive in theater (to see her very first theater movie!) with some friends and it was every kind of wonderful. We will take any excuse to spend time outdoors on a summer night, and that excuse can't get much better than watching a movie together eating popcorn and snow cones. I spent most of the movie watching her little face take it in.

Ken took this photo of us at the beach last weekend. This is the best feeling, having your baby cuddle up to you. 

My three babies! 

And we are back at it again with the smoothie bowls and smoothies!  These we ate for dinner last Monday night, which Sloane and I were both very excited about.

VIDEO: DAY TRIP TO THE BEACH

Here is a little video of our day trip to the beach this past weekend.  We usually spend a night there, but we decided to try to go for just the day this time and it would have been fine except we wished we had more time with Ken's family and the possible rains limited what I had hoped to be more time on the beach. I had plans to spend the whole day on the beach, but the forecast called for chances of rain and storm in the afternoon, so we decided to make it happen in the morning before lunch. Sloane had been talking about the beach everyday leading up to the weekend, and the night before, as I was tucking her in, had softly exclaimed, "Mom, I am soooo excited for the beach!" So I knew we couldn't miss out.

It turned out to be a beautiful morning, slightly cloudy, warm with a breeze. It all felt relaxing; we were calmed by the weather and soothed by the lull of the sea. I absolutely loved watching Sloane and Logan take it all in. 

A DAY AT THE BEACH

We took a day trip down to Virginia Beach to say hello to the sea and despite the traffic on each end of it, it was a really peaceful and lovely day. Sloane had been excited for the beach for weeks, so it was amazing to behold her bliss running around on the shore. And Logan got to take it all in much more than she did last year (when she was about six weeks old!)

Here we are back at it on a Monday - I have a lot of work to do and I'm at home with a sick baby, so I'm definitely missing the utter calm of this afternoon right now.  I'll share a video later this week but for now I wanted to post a couple of pictures. We all left wanting to stay a little longer, so we are hoping to fit in another beach outing soon.

LOGAN'S ONE YEAR CELEBRATION

So here we are, my tiny little potato no longer a tiny baby, but a bigger, healthy, happy cherub who is one year old. It happened fast, like they all say - even faster with the second - and I am smitten with every single part of this stage.

I snapped these photos before Logan's birthday celebration on Saturday and I can't get over how cute they are together!! Sloane sang her a happy birthday song while kissing her cheek loudly after each 'happy birthday'.

Similar to the birthday celebration we had when Sloane turned one, we had family over for lunch, cake and presents. I loved having our family here! It was simple and sweet, and Logan seemed to fee extra loved - she was so happy all day.

I made Logan a mini watermelon cake with whipped cream in between the circular layers. (She loves watermelon!) it wasn't long before the layers started slipping and sliding off, but we managed to light the candle and all sing her happy birthday together before it eventually resulted in a landslide.

I rememeber when we sang Sloane happy birthday for the first time, she went very still and looked at us unblinkingly, taking it all in. Logan, on the other hand got really into it and was swaying to the music, not minding the attention at all. It's remarkable to keep noting the differences between the two girls.

Sloane helped her take care of the whipped cream.

She was THRILLED about her little watermelon cake, and marched around with the disc in hand, happily chomping away.

Sloane helped open all the presents - this stuffed lamb is one that Sloane picked out for her! 

I asked my friend Hannah (of Dalkohm) to make these watermelon cookies and I loved how they turned out (and how they tasted)! 

We had such a good time loving on our sweet babe and sharing the moment with each other. We love you so much Logan!