STRAWBERRY PICKING WE GO

After weeks of raining, Saturday morning yawned into a warm and sunny day, providing the best possible setting for a romp in the strawberry fields. We got to bring sweet Eden with us, and the girls had the best time hunting for perfect strawberries, eating a great deal of them, and running through the fields picking flowers. It felt utterly refreshing - to be away from house projects and away from the rain. 

Brace yourselves, there are a ton of photos here (and these are narrowed down!) 

Ken sent the girls go go find the best strawberries they could find, and they would run far into the fields to gather a few and then run back for them to be inspected. 

Inspection time. Sloane was so good at finding just the right ones! 

Tasting time.

And then off to hunt again!

Logan loves to share everything she is eating. It is really sweet and she finds it hilarious. 

I love a baby with a good strawberry stain.

Mt. Olympus Farm has some amazing views nearby a lake and the girls soaked it all in. As we passed by this field, they ran towards the flowers and declared that they were picking beautiful flowers for their mamas. 

These sets of photos are especially special to me because I've been comparing them to last year when these girls came to the same place and I'm amazed at the change in just one year.

Until next time! 

PINNED! FOR SUMMER

 Here are some things that I've pinned and are pining for lately...

My friend posted about these roasted strawberry and coconut popsicles, and I can't wait to try them.

Isn't this such a nifty leaf backdrop? 

As usual, watermelon, everyday. Watermelon print and watermelon swimsuit. 

I'm looking for a way to update one of our bathrooms that has pink tile and very dated wallpaper. I'm in the search of the perfect wallpaper to update it, but maybe an easier alternative is to get some wall decals, like this cute cactus one?

This seems like a really easy chicken salad recipe that I plan on making to stuff in pita pockets soon. And this seems like a really tasty watermelon and cucumber margarita that I will be chugging soon. 

I don't know if I the peplum will look good on me, but I want it to! I love the print and shape of this peplum tankini top.

 A giant unicorn float! 

MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND

We had a sweet Mother's Day weekend over here. I got to start Saturday by going to the Farmer's market with my girls and it was deliciously crisp and green that morning; we got there early enough to avoid the crowds, we got everything we needed...and we visited with a baby goat! Afterwards, we met Ken's family in Williamsburg and had a lovely time with them. On Sunday, I spent time with the girls running errands while Ken worked on tiling and then we got in our swimsuits and ate pizza for dinner. It was perfect.

I mentioned this in my last post - that I would love to have an entire day of sleeping, but here's the thing...while the exhausted part of me demands that I throw the covers over my head and go back to sleep, the part of me that finds itself waking up is the part that can't wait to see my daughters so I can hang out with them. That is the push and pull of motherhood! I'm tired but I miss them when they are gone. The exhaustion, but also the bliss.

I am sleep deprived as I write this so none of this may be cohesive but this is my attempt to appreciate how motherhood stretches me. It challenges and humbles me everyday, while giving me stunning moments of clarity and gratitude. 

We were all losing our minds about how cute this goat was. "Oh mom, I wish I had a baby goat!" was Sloane's declarative sigh as we walked away.

Ken's pretty lucky to be surrounded by such awesome ladies. 

My girl group! We are so fun.

You can't even tell how tired I am in this picture ! Sunglasses, happy baby and hammock, are all good distractions. At this exact moment I was feeling content and full, despite the looming Monday. 

Happy Mother's Day to all you amazing moms! 

THESE DAYS

It's been a while since I've felt like I have time to exercise creativity in the 'traditional' areas that I used to be able to, like with music or painting ...I would love to be able to play piano (need to get one first), or paint, or just be able to write more, but creativity calls from other places these days.  Right now, most of my creative energy goes to hanging out with my girls, which is a whole new world of creativity that I get to explore, and I'll also include house projects, because it does feel creative, even while it is exhausting. This blog is also a small channel for creativity...by capturing our moments on camera, organizing it and jotting down little things. 

A tiny crew! A few friends came over on a Saturday morning to help us paint. That meant the kids got to play and their enthusiasm and bliss made me wish for that life, and also appreciate that Sloane gets along so well with the kids of my friends.

Along with the mudroom, kitchen and dining room, friends helped paint the garage, which is being turned into a gym.  It is on its way!

We also finally started tiling our kitchen (remember Christine, when you thought the kitchen would be finished the first week we moved in? Hahahahahahhaa........). It feels like this process is taking forever since we only have little pockets of time to work on it, but the other day Ken and I worked on it together and got a lot done and it's exciting to see it come together.

I'm working on making my open shelving dreams come true. Some people hate open shelving, some people love it - I've lived with this for a few weeks and I can already tell I am of the latter group. It's so convenient and I love being able to see what we have to work with. (And no, the knife block is not going to stay there, we still have some rearranging to do).

The birthday season has begun! Or at least the season for birthday parties has...we went to two birthday parties last weekend and this one the weekend before that. This is such an epic photo because we somehow got the whole lot of them to be in it, the crying babies, and also Sloane with her girlfriends - I had a flash forward to Sloane with her friends in 10 years, while looking at this photo.

I posted this little story on Instagram the other day. It still makes me laugh. 

Just the day before on Sunday it was cold, but then on Monday it got into the 80s and so we did it up - swimsuits and dinner on the porch.

Watermelons! And meditation?

I felt victorious as I watched this one happily chomp through a watermelon. Now we all are watermelon monsters!

Last Thursday, I got to meet little Etta Mae and my heart burst and then melted. She is so sweet and I'm so proud of my friend Laura. Welcome to mothering two little girls ! 

And lastly, the view from my bed. Yes, that is a bag of popcorn wedged into one of the shelves. These days, I daydream less about jetting off to a far off place and more of spending an entire day in bed. One of these days....

A MONDAY POOLDAY

The forecast for Monday called for thunderstorms, but it was also going to be in the mid-80s, bringing us back some of the warmth after a chilly weekend (every year! the whiplash of spring weather surprises me). 

It definitely was not pool weather, but by Monday afternoon it felt hot and humid and we felt giddy about the idea of vanquishing the Monday blues, so we declared pool time!...which was quickly defeated by a freezing cold pool and raindrops, but no matter. We got to tip our toes in the pool (and Sloane dipped in all the way!), eat dinner in our swimsuits on the sunroom and finish it all off with watermelon on the deck. It felt blissful. So there, Monday.

At one point I turned to Ken and said, "these are the days, Ken!" And it really did feel like we were living in our best days. Here in the midst of our house project chase and stress, busy schedules and worries, we get to take these breaths and bask in the simplicity and togetherness.

It has become ironic that Sloane has this frog floatie in the pool, because it turns it, we have real frogs (toads?) living all around the pool and there are a lot of them. They are aggressively loud, multiplying by the day and it's another thing on the long list of things that we have to address regarding the pool. We had real hesitations about having a pool in the backyard (this was almost a deal breaker for me) because of safety concerns and upkeep concerns and it's proving to be a lot of work, just like we had expected. I still feel a little wary about it and this frog situation is not helping, but we are trying to make it worth the trouble.

I love this sunroom (it was my favorite part of the house when we first looked at it) and I am really looking forward to eating out here all the time during the warmer months.

  

Summer babies, all three of us! 

"SLOW DOWN" BY NICOLE NORDEMAN

This song makes me tear up. Every. Single. Time.