my little valentine

so us goofy gals {okay, olive has no choice || right now|| but to be a goofy gal with me} decided to coordinate our p.j.’s in celebration of valentine’s day!

yes, corny me is getting excited for valentine’s day! i’ve been thinking a lot about what to do, what to make, when to decorate {i am hoping i have the time to squeeze in some fun stuff…it’s so precious lately}. i’m a fan of this upcoming holiday…it’s a day to celebrate love, love for your family, love for your husband, love for your significant other, love for your friends, love for your children, love all around!

alright, lots of mommy and olive pictures coming right up! we had a blast hanging out in our heart p.j.’s for the day {well, really for the evening}. i love coordinating our outfits but it’s a once in a blue moon kind of thing. i’m into that idea {love it} but i’m not into the dedication, time, and effort! i only wish i could sit around all day and think, coordinate, and buy outfits that matchy matchy. shyeah right. i’d rather put an effort in to get creative with her ensemble but sometimes that is a fail! so, typically for special occasions, i’ll whip together a cute twinnie outfit of the day.

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[victoria’s secret pj’s & leveret footies]

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[my funny gal]

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[what am i doing in this photo? i’m not sure…chillaxin’…being pensive, or just waiting for miss olive to return to me so we can snap more pics?!]

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[so sweet]

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i hoped you enjoyed our twinnie outfit of the day! olive was somewhat cooperative. she’s a babes on the move, as of late. getting her to snap some decent photos is a complete challenge! i’d say we were quite successful…i’m loving our heart pajama session. anyhoo, on that note, i love valentine’s day and can’t wait to celebrate it.

xoxo

olive’s first birthday party!

so, the day had come…olive’s first birthday party! oh em gee. i was feeling a bit stressed, excited, anxious, and bittersweet. my little babes is about to be one and it makes my heart melt. the first year is so full of many wonderful milestones and memories. each day possesses something new and fun. she is growing up so fast already…i can’t even take it! she amazes us every day; she brings so much joy and laughter into our lives! okaaayyy, so enough mommy gushing…okay, just keeding! i’m always mommy gushing! ha!

anyhoo. preparing for olive’s party was fun, crazy, time consuming, and very obsessive inside my nutty creative mind. i was scheming up so many ideas! i really loved the aesthetic feel of gold and light pink. i’m not a pinky kind of gal, well, okay i am but i’m not into piiiiinkkkk. for example, pink overload…like as if pink was to puke all over olive’s clothes. so not my style. but i was loving the idea of pink, albeit, a light pink {with pops of bright pink} for olive’s first birthday party! how perty it all sounded to me…pink and gold!

so, the day of her party was finally here! i had decorated, crafted, arranged, and tucked in many sleepless nights to get everything done. the guests started to arrive and we were just pulling together the final details of the decor. woooo!

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[do you remember this chalkboard?? when we lived in chicago, there was never a place where hc could do any type of wood work or really do any type of reconstruction project. i had always wanted to redo the chalkboard i had purchased and my wish was fulfilled the past month! hc finally deconstructed the chalkboard and framed it in the white border that i had originally wanted!]

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[her decorated highchair! // number 1 gold balloon & highchair banner {and most of the banners} by littledovie]

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[beautiful flower arrangements by my sister kim]

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[first birthday cake by toni’s patisserie!]

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[dessert table]

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[pink dot & gold glitter sprinkle smash cake]

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[milk glasses]

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[my favorite…macarons and they were flown in from france!]

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[owl treats by the krispie bakery // made especially for o{wl}ive]

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[personalized first birthday book by i see me // add extra pages and have your guests sign in by wishing the birthday girl something special!]

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[cookie favors by rpconfections and the biggest balloon evah!]

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[monthly birthday banner]

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[photo booth!]

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olive was still napping when our first guests arrived. within a half hour, the guest of honor had arose! i gleefully ran into her room to greet the little babes and get her ready for her big day! i got her dressed, hair styled, and all purty for her party. she was ready to go in her graphic black and white dress, gold glitter tights, and a gold glitter bow hair clip. natch. she looked so cute!

olive and i greeted all our guests, while hc got all the food ready! libations and snacks were out and about, while our guests mingled around and explored. after visiting with our guests for a bit, the food was ready to be served and everyone grabbed a bite to eat. it was great; our guests relaxed, mingled, and enjoyed themselves around the house while olive bounced around amongst different peeps.

hc and i had cleared out the basement and made it a play area for the kiddies and boy, they sure loved it! they had a blast running around and playing downstairs. it was a perfect area for them to go wild!

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[birthday girl waking up from her nap!]

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[about to get her ready for her big day!]

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[gold bow hair clip by pink toast boutique, dress by jcrew, and gold tights by hanna andersson]

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[cousin jay, sister in law missy, and aunt wendy]

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[jaime, liam, and marina]

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[cameron, courtney, chaz, lexi, and dominick]

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[barbara, lynne, and patrick]

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[katie and me]

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[pam, elva, and parker]

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[the loot!]

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[reagan, bennett, and aj]

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[parker and liam]

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[smiley brady, kim, and me]

via tandeminlove.com[grace, auntie missy, and olive]

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[helloooo.]

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[goofing around]

https://www.facebook.com/thekrispiebakery

[hanging out with the big kids!]

after lunch and a bit of resting, it was cake time! we changed olive into her second outfit of the day. a birthday crown, ruffled white onesie, and a pink fluffy tutu! we paraded her around for a bit and then plopped her into her chair.

we lit her glitter candle, presented the cake, and sang happy birthday to her! she was so unfazed. she stared at the cake and didn’t know what to do with it! ha! so, i helped her along by poking at the cake and putting a little frosting into her mouth. yes, that got her going. delicious, sweet frosting on the lips will inspire any babes to dive into a big yummy cake!

it was too sweet {literally}. we let the birthday girl sit there and maul her lovely little smash cake, while hc and i sliced up her beautiful gold birthday cake. we served the cake and ice cream on pretty little gold speckled confetti paper plates by merimeri.

https://www.facebook.com/thekrispiebakery

[getting all jazzed up for her birthday smash cake! // tutu by my sweet pea couture // birthday crown by little blue olive]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/197929454/gold-and-blush-felt-crown-medium-first?ref=shop_home_active_7

[smash cake!]

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[paparazzi]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/197929454/gold-and-blush-felt-crown-medium-first?ref=shop_home_active_7

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[hmmm, it tastes good…]

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[hmmm, i’ll try some more…]

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[yeahhhh, it tastes great!]

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[nom, nom, nom]

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[milk, please]

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[lori and jay]

after the cake smash fun, olive was given a quick bath and changed into her final outfit of the evening {such a fashionista…three outfit changes on her big day!}! hc dressed olive in the adorbs outfit kt and kar had given her a few months ago!

once the cake was served, all the guests hung out, socialized, and had some super fun with our photo booth! as you can see in all the pics down below!

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[mom and thuy]

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[lexi and dom]

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[yesss, her third outfit change…such a fashionista!]

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[auntie kim and olive]

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[bennett and reagan]

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[lexi, cam, and chaz]

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[cousins]

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[new fuzzy pbk chair by auntie karen and katie]

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[dana and scott]

slowly but surely, all the guests went on their merry way. we were so blessed to have been able to celebrate olive’s big day with our wonderful friends and family. it was a day filled with fun, love, and laughter. we seriously had a great time, i know olive did! the whole party was a success! wow…it had come and gone and nothing but fabulous memories now remain {well actually the glitter and a bit of confetti are still lingering around!}.

thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate olive’s first big day! we can’t wait to celebrate her real {for reals} birthday on thanksgiving day with more of her family, this week!!! woo hoo!

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[the end]

xoxo

apple pickin’

golly what a day!

we were all so excited to go apple pickin’! kim mentioned the idea for reagan’s birthday…and we were all in! it was a perfect, perfect day to be out and about. the weather was just right, the sun was shining and the temperature was casually cool. we couldn’t have asked for a better day!

hc, grace, me, and olive packed ourselves up and got into the car for a loooong ride up to the royal oak farm. hmmmmm, and hour and a half later {um, it felt like two hours, at least!} we finally arrived at our destination. the farm looked amazing, i was super excited! we pulled in, parked, and scurried our way over to meet up with the rest of the gang.

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[the huge bonfire we passed along the way]

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[beautiful path down a rickety road]

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[my favorite line: established for God’s glory]

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[minnetonka booties // carter’s jeggings  & buffalo check shirt // old navy vest]

thuy, lan, pete, and avery were already there at the farm. oh, we were starving! food was a top priority. kim, reagan, bennett, and terry arrived a few minutes later and we all met at the restaurant. we pulled some tables together and i held ground while the group bought their food. hc brought back a feast! chicken pot pie, mac n cheese, fruit, pie, bread, oh my! i nibbled from his plate and i gleefully fed olive mac n cheese and chicken pot pie. she is such an eater!via tandeminlove.com

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[mac n cheese, rhubarb pie, roll, fruit, chicken pot pie]

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after noshing, we quickly peeked at the gift shop. it was soooo crowded! we perused around a bit but decided we wanted to get a start on apple picking. though, we knew we would come back to the shop to buy some goodies! you can’t leave an apple orchard without some sweet treats!

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[royal oak gift shop]

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[candied apples]

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we headed on over to the apple orchard cashier. it was something like $20 per bag and they offered the option to hitch a ride on their hay wagon…duh, of course we wanted to go for a hay ride {hello, it’s also part of our autumn to do!}. we happily spent our time waiting snapping a ton of photos {what we do best!}, of course i have to document everything!

the wagon finally made it’s way back and we were off!

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[getting on the wagon hay ride!]

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the tractor dropped us off at the north orchard where there were mostly shensu {fuji sweet} and royal empire apples {sweet tart}. we had such a blast searching for apples. the kids had a great time! the orchards were beautiful and it was fantastic being outside in the fresh air!

the kids ran up and down each aisle. they got so excited when they found a decent apple! reagan and bennett were throwing loads of apples into their bag! we picked green ones, red ones, and watercolored ones.

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[ready to pick some apples!]

olive helped out with the apple picking too! then grace and hc got creative on how to reach the high ones up on the trees! slowly but surely, we were getting our bag full of yummy apples.

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[running through the orchard]

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[and i helped!]

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[apple picking]

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after hitting up most of the north orchard, we started walking back. olive needed a diapy change and a feeding. of course, we snapped a lot of fun photos along the way. these kids are too cute together. best cousin combo evah!

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[cousins]

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[hanging out]

hc and grace ran to the other orchard to finish filling up our apple bag. while they did that, we perused another shop by their pumpkin patch {where they sold pumpkins, gourds, honey, and more decorative fall stuff}. i was really loving this orchard! there were so many fun things to do and it was a really nice atmosphere.

next on our list was the petting zoo. as we made our way towards the petting zoo, the farm also had a huge play area for the kids! they had a carousel, tee pee, a train ride, and lots and lots of play houses, cars, slides, etc. the kids were climbing all over everything, running in and out of the play house, and just having a good ol’ time playing with one another.

the kids finally made it to the petting zoo {after playing and playing and playing on the playground}. it was too funny to see reagan and bennett wanting to feed the animals but absolutely scared at the same time! they were worried that they would bite them, so i had to feed the animals first to show them that it was harmless. they were convinced and they were feeding pros within minutes!

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[the sun is setting on this perfect day]

after the petting zoo and all the other things we did that afternoon, it was getting late. the farm was only open for another hour or so, so we decided to hit the gift shop for some last minute purchases. of course i had to pick up some apple cider donuts {copious amounts}!! yum. yum. yum. i grabbed a dozen for us, a dozen for the dick and jane, and two packages of mini donuts for kim and my dad! donuts for everyone! i picked up pancake mix, a cute little strawberry knit hat for olive, and a few toys for the birthday boy!

it was such a wonderful, gorgeous day. we had the best time with our friends and family! it was beautiful out and the farm was ah-maze. we loved apple picking {i smell a homemade apple pie in our near future!} and totally taking in all the glory of a fantastic fall day. every activity we did was so lovely and fun. plus, we came home with the best goodies!

happy birthday to the most wonderful, quirky, funny, sweet nephew ever! we love you so much reagan!!!

xoxo