my mother’s day was simple and good
I requested pumpkin pancakes for breakfast with cinnamon whipped cream, and Ben and the girls delivered exactly that. It was so good! I love pumpkin pancakes! They are my favorite kind. The girls all came in singing the Happy Mother’s Day song (sung to the tune of Happy Birthday) and came bearing gifts along with my breakfast. The gifts were 3 homemade cards and one package, which contained a hat (which was already mine), a spool of thread, two markers, and nail polish. All of them were my things that somehow magically disappeared a couple days before Sunday, only to reappear again in my present Sunday morning. Nevertheless, I was so excited to open up my present from True and made a big ooh and ahh about wanting all those things! I remember doing the same things with gifts for my parents and siblings when I was younger. I would totally wrap up things that were already theirs and gift it back to them. True must have gotten that from me.
If you’re looking at the pictures of me in the morning and thinking I totally got camera ready, yes, I did. Not for the camera though, but because Sunday mornings are tight with having to get dressed (and the four girls ready) to get out of the house and get to church on time, that I had already gotten up and started getting ready for church while I was waiting for my breakfast in bed. When they were ready, I hopped back in bed. After I ate, all I had to do was change out of my pajamas and we pretty much took off for church soon after that.
The rest of the day was perfectly simple and low key. We gathered with church family, then we met my family for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant, where we pretty much stuffed our bellies. We made it home around 5, served the girls dinner, then had them in bed by 7 for their quiet (reading) time, and then Ben and I were relaxing in our room with sushi, frozen yogurt, and a movie by 8. I told Ben not to plan anything and I didn’t want anything. We’ve been working on house projects, so spending our money towards things for the house was a good enough present for me. I was just so happy to have a simple, stress-free day with my sweet family, so this Mama’s Day was exactly what this mama needed. As crazy as I get sometimes, I’m so thankful that these girls are mine and that I get to love, teach, and grow with them, even if there are a lot of bumps (sometimes it feels like major turbulence) on the road while doing so.
p.s. this was my favorite picture of the day. #stilllovethempolaroids
on me: top, modcloth (last year). shorts and belt, thrifted. shoes, madewell. on true: dress, c/o homespun vintage (brave wore the same one last week). on brave: dress, vintage. on soul: top, misha lulu. dress, c/o homespun vintage. on glow: dress, vintage. all their sandals are salt-water sandals.
out to school: 2/14
These two are twins, born a year apart. True was only 6 months when I found out I was pregnant with Brave. It wasn’t planned and I was quite in shock. When we found out, I cried! In fact, I cried for a whole week! Here I was this new mom who was just getting used to having 1 baby and then here I was about to have another. I had no clue how I was going to handle TWO babies!!! It was an insane time for us. As crazy as it was for it to happen that way, I’m so glad it did. These two are built-in best friends.
They had Twin Day at school and they were so excited about it. I kind of was too. I have fond memories of planning with friends at school about what we were going to wear for Twin Day. It usually involved a white t-shirt and similar overalls (and the same bubble necklace). That’s a close as we got because we didn’t really have the same things. True and Brave have a lot of the same things (or Soul has them), so the ability to get everything exactly the same was easy peasy. Brave just happened to wear Soul’s dress and shirt and they had different colored sandals, but by golly, they were twins indeed.
If you want built-in best friends, I highly recommend having your kids a year apart! I will warn you though, get ready for a lot of happy (and scary) craziness… and if you decide to add 2 more after that who are also close in age, well, let’s just say my life is never boring!
on true and brave: dress and shirt, misha lulu. leggings, gifted from grandmama. shoes, salt-water sandals.
out to school: 2/13
These girls are crazy and funny. They get the crazy from me and the funny from Ben. The end of the school year is coming and I can see how True is becoming a second grader and Brave a first. Despite the grade difference, they do the exact same curriculum at home with slight changes to accommodate each of their skill level. It’s mostly in reading level where they differ, but Brave is really excelling in her her writing and reading these days, so it’s just a matter of time when they’ll both be at the same place.
When I picked them up from enrichment classes this week, their theatre teacher told me that both of them went up to the front to say their poems. I was so proud. Both girls, especially True, are so shy, so this was a big deal. I’m hoping they grow out of this shyness. Actually, all my girls are pretty bashful, so I think that’s what keeps them sort of behaved in public. The bad thing about it though, is that when meeting people it can come across rude. It takes them about 30 minutes to finally warm up to someone, so they’re pretty boring for the first 30 minutes of any play date.
on true: shirts, misha lulu. pants, gifted from grandmama. shoes, thrifted. on brave: shirt, misha lulu. skirt, misha lulu. shoes, gap kids.
p.s. the new misha lulu spring/summer line is adorable (check some of it out here and here)! don’t you just love brave’s a-line skirt (pictured above)?!
excited about st. paddy’s day
I didn’t have any particular plans to celebrate this day, but True went to do an errand with Ben to a party store and she overheard the sales clerk telling Ben that tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and then her celebrating imagination ran wild! She came home jubilantly telling me that tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and how excited she was to celebrate it because she exclaimed, in these exact words, “I’m going to be rich!”
Oh my. She had these grand ideas that there was going to be some sort of pot of some sort of gold for her somewhere. Before bed, she even made sure to pick out her green outfit for church and encouraged her sisters to do the same. Well, this mama got in a little panic mode because I wasn’t going to do anything, but thankfully I remembered some pinterest ideas floating around that were easy and quick and that’s what I did. While they were sleeping, I taped up a little sign across their door, so they wouldn’t leave their room and wait for us. Then with an index card, I wrote a little note for each of them to follow the rainbow. The note was attached to a yarn leading them all the way to find their little bag of gold. The bag of gold was more like a couple quarters, dimes, and pennies, but I think it did the job. They were mighty giddy to have their bag of gold!
They even picked out a green dress for me to wear, but it didn’t quite fit, so green pants were the next best thing. I reminded Ben to make sure he put something green on too and we all had ourselves a green day. Ben and I are discovering that True loves holidays. Any kind of holiday! She just has a thing for celebrating and the fact that her birthday is next month is getting her celebrating spirit even more ready. Had we known that the kids were going to be this excited about St. Paddy’s Day, we would have planned a special meal with some green cabbage and potatoes. I guess next year this mama better be ready to give her kids a St. Paddy’s Day feast!
Do you do anything to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
on me: shirt, everlane. denim shirt, madewell. pants, urban outfitters. necklace, oh, hello friend. shoes, anthropologie. on the girls: soulie’s dress is misha lulu, the rest of the dresses are vintage, and target leggings for all. moccasins on soul and glow, c/o freshly picked.
out to school: 2/12
When the girls have to get dressed in the morning (most days are spent in pajamas), if we’re going somewhere, True’s usually the fastest in deciding what to wear and it typically includes layering. Brave takes forever to figure out her clothes and when she finally does have something on, it usually isn’t seasonally appropriate and I tell her to find something else (wearing shorts in the rain or a coat in the heat just wouldn’t work). Then she gets all frustrated again and ends up crying because she can’t find anything. Is this telling me something about those teenage years? And then we have Soulie, who you all know likes to wear her baby sister’s clothes and tuck in her dresses. It will be interesting how these fashion preferences and choices play out later.
on true: shirt, misha lulu. skirt, aa. leggings, misha lulu. shoes, toms. on brave: dress, c/o winter water factory (worn here by true). leggings, misha lulu. shoes, gap kids.
