Summer isn’t summer without watermelon!
Luc loves watermelon, will fuss at you if you try to take his slice away (even if there is only a rind left) and can demolish a slice of watermelon with only 4 teeth!
Category: Food
finger lickin’ good
popsicles the “clean way”
Flash back to April 2013… I have recently had a few spare moments and was able to go through some older photos. These were taken before Charlie got his first haircut; look at those sweet baby curls….
We occasionally give the boys popsicles in the bath tub (when they have them). The clean up is much easier than it is at the table and as an added bonus they slide all over the tub when they eat them and giggle like crazy.
By the way, Eddy’s Real Fruit popsicles are pretty amazing especially the coconut ones. Grab some at publix when they are BOGO and you will thank me ;)
such a big guy
Charlie has made hard and fast work of getting rid of the toddler faze; seemingly over night he has become a little boy. He is determined to do whatever Jay is doing and usually (motor skill and verbal skill allowing) succeeds. I continuously am saying that he is trouble, because he is, and what’s really bad is all he has to do is flash a smile and I am a goner- trouble, pure trouble I tell you!
While Jay was at summer camp I decided to let him sit in Jay’s booster chair for lunch and now we are officially out of the highchair. Considering his age he does pretty well at the table and it is incredibly cute to see his tiny self poking up over the edge of the table while he eats.
I seriously can’t get enough of this kiddo and wish daily that time would just slow down a little.
one year in flash (take two)
When I started thinking about Charlie’s first birthday party I was having a really hard time picking a theme that suited our family as well as Jay’s One Year in a Flash Party (original idea from here). And after thinking about it for a bit I realized that I could just do it again and I am so happy that I did- I really enjoy going through our photos to find a years worth of memories. We threw a One Year in a Flash Hot Dog Party (Hot Dog Party courtesy of one of my favorite blogs, recipe for crazy) and loved it.
Here are a few of the details from the party along with links to where I got things.
The invitation- I used Artboard to design his invitation, nothing special just a few cute photos of my sweet little boy and some party details. We also did a time capsule for Charlie like we did for Jay and that info was sent along with the invite too.
The drink table- We served sodas, the perfect complement to a hot dog in my opinion, and water. I used mason jars since I always have a ton hanging around instead of cups and got the paper straws from TJMaxx and amazon along with these really cute paper trays that we used instead of paper plates. We have a ton left over so I see them making an appearance at the next shrimp boil ;)
I used our big chalkboard to show off some of our month by month photos- I LOVE looking at these and seeing just how much they change in one year!
I saw a few chalkboard stats online (pintrest, etsy etc) and decided to doodle one for Charlie. I loved it so much that it’s actually still up but I will have to take it down soon…
I printed a bunch of photos using a coupon code at shutterfly to get all of these photos. I am pretty sure I only paid shipping for these which was like $4- yay!
The only other decorations that we had up were a one-year-old banner which I forgot to take a real photo of but here is one from my phone along with some framed photos. I printed the photos from mpix (my favorite photo printer) and used some frames that we had in the storage room to frame them.
Party favors- my go-to sugar cookies (I like edible favors since I don’t want to give someone something that they don’t really want anyway)
I printed the favor tags on my own, designed using Artboard (a Mac design program) and used the camera image that Nan designed for Jay’s party- thanks again Nan! (Check out her Etsy shop)
I wanted some chalkboard signs pretty desperately but I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for them so my lovely husband cut a bunch of shapes out of mdf for me (I drew what I wanted on the board for him) and I then I just painted them with chalkboard paint :)
here’s a phone photo of the progress and then one of the table where one was used
the food table… I used brown wrapping paper along with striped wrapping paper on the table (which was great to clean up) and made the cones for the popcorn out of the same paper. Our menu was hot dogs with all kinds of different toppings, including a Tulsa Dog and SoCal Dog, Mac and Cheese Bites, Strawberries, Caramel Corn (my Grandma’s recipe- it’s FANTASTIC!), and the best vanilla cupcakes with Whipped Vanilla Buttercream Icing.
It was a great party, many thanks to all that came. We can’t thank you enough for celebrating our guys with us!
crazy normal part 2
a few more from the phone
a GREAT mail day- now to get started on some projects ;)
he’s giving kisses now
prepping to wash the alphabet mat
what, you don’t wash foam letters in your dishwasher?
he is not a huge fan of the gate
he couldn’t quite get his hat off when he was riding in the car and this is how he looked when I opened the door
how many pears can I fit in my mouth all at once
paper, scissors, glue
impressive coloring skills for a 2.5 year old if you ask me
crazy normal
My immediate response when people ask lately how we are/ how I am is “Crazy, good but crazy”. However, the more I think about this the more I realize we are less and less crazy and more and more normal. You see, before we had any kiddos we had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted and honestly I am not all that sure what we did with our boat loads of free time. After we had Jay we thought we were seriously crazy and had no free time and then we had Charlie (bringing the parent child ratio up to one-to-one) and actually had less free time. If you would have asked me about our free time when we just had Jay I would have found it rather laughable; now I am not sure what we did with it all. Perspective is funny that way… All this to say that we are crazy or normal; however you want to think of it and here is a taste of our crazy brought to you by the ever present iPhone.
monkey toes
yes that is a towel and yes it is soaking wet :(
the perfect little boy entertainment
duplo towers- Jay is REALLY into building these days
squishy returns ;)
what- doesn’t everyone have a whale and a cow in their pantry?
photographer in the making
his photo
reading the Monster at the End of this Book on the ipad… he really didn’t like it at first but enjoyed it after he realized “the blue guy” (Grover) was the monster
watermelon- Jay eats EVERY last bite
I apparently haven’t dumped my phone photos in forever so instead of overloading you all in one day I will post the rest tomorrow- stay tuned for part two ;)
finger food
Charlie pretty much adores any finger food that we put in front of him. As far as baby food goes, he is pretty much stinker and I have a hard time getting certain things (i.e. most things aside from carrots) in him. However, if it is a finger food and he can put it in his mouth himself we are golden and he LOVES it!
These photos are older but here he is trying out some puffs. Since then we have tried cheerios, veggie straws, french toast, zucchini bread and pancakes- all of which he enjoyed.
friday randomness
It’s been a while since I have posted any of my phone photos… so here are a few from our last few weeks in all of their random glory.
A special snack- my Grandma’s popcorn (SO delicious!!!!)
post nap cuddles and silly faces
happiness in a bowl ;)
laundry helper
playing in the rain
Jay Bird spots :(
sleepy baby snuggles
trying out a big boy cup
outside fun
exploring the grass
these are actually growing in our yard!!
Mommy and Charlie time
sleepy passengers
rain/storm watcher
two super tired boys
cool dude
silly dude with worker glasses on
ticklish
getting some milk- just keeping it real around here ;)
happy boy!
popsicle treats ;)… homemade blackberry yogurt popsicles- so yummmy!
cars, cars, cars
thumb sucker
“free” play ;)
And lastly, a few of Jay’s camp lunches (and yes I do know that I am a dork)
roaring good lunch
Jay did wonderful yesterday at camp and is going to go back today. I must say it was pretty quiet around our place while he was gone but I did enjoy some good Charlie snuggles and I intend to do the same today:)
Just wanted to give you all a peek at his lunch for today…it’s veterinarians day at camp so I sent Jay with a ‘lion’ of a lunch. Hope he likes it ;)
I made him a cream cheese sandwich, the mane is made from carrots and cheese, he has a raisin nose and the rest is doodled on with a food marker. He is also getting blueberries and cherry “matos” from our garden.
the perreault family 