tomorrow is MAY & the month that my baby turns ONE!

i cannot even believe how much this little girl has changed over the past month. she is all of a sudden extremely opinionated, full of sass & super sneaky! she gets this look in her eyes right before she wants to do something naughty, then crawl-struts as fast as she can to the dishwasher, stairs, plant dirt, dog water bowl, etc... keeping us on our toes, and lucy thinks it's hilarious. the two of them make each other belly laugh [often at my expense] & not a moment goes by that i am not beyond grateful for these 2 little girls & the strong bond that they innately have with each other :)

following her yellow brick road-

dinner with fairy Godmother-

dance school sweetness-

sign of summer-

lucy/mama date afternoons while eloise naps [although we've also enlisted "quiet time" for lucy to start brushing up on her independent play skills :)]

lucy deemed this day a "popcorn day" :)

farmstead fun with our forever friends-

saturday we have a derby party with neighbor friends- i'll be donning my farm hat from when i played millie in thoroughly modern millie at theatre in the park :)

& we leave bright & early sunday morning for a week in seaside, florida!

packing with 2 daughters brings more swimsuits, bows, bloomers, rompers & dresses than i can wrap my head around..... i wouldn't wish it any other way!

xoxo, 

-ivy

love your mother [earth] part 2

we had a fun afternoon filled with earth-loving activities :)

lu's paper plate shaving cream planet-

modeled from our library book- with eloise overseeing :)

lucy planted her & her sister their own special strawberry patches :)

& we finished with my favorite- sunflowers :)

all along lucy kept saying "i really LOVE dirt!" & "i LOVE the earth!" good girl :)

& i've even vowed to try & use LESS paper towels & MORE washrags ... because i go through an embarrassing amount of paper towels each day in trying to keep my kitchen somewhat pulled together-

my girls are tucked in, sleeping peacefully for the night- nothing better!

-ivy

love your mother [earth]

happy earth day! it's a great day here- jon gets home from a trip to tennessee/georgia/the carolinas this evening. so sad i missed this trip with him- he got to drive through one of my favorite places on earth- backroads of the smoky mountains. he drove through many of our favorite places to visit when we were living in charlotte that first year we were married. can't wait to get back there with him!

last thursday, the girls & i needed OUT of the house, as the painters had taken over. we took a 2 mile [uphill!] walk to the pizza shop & were surprised by daddy for a little lunch date :) it was an awesome workout! we'll be doing that many mornings this summer, making our way to the coffee shop [lucy's favorite spot!] :)

lucy insists on wearing john deere "to be like daddy" more days than i'd like to admit...

friday morning dance class- lucy is loving it! [we're dancing through may, taking swim lessons this summer, then starting at miller-marley dance school this fall when she's 3! yippee! i danced at MM & have fun memories of that time :)]

watching sissy :) not too long until you're there, too, little eloise!

watching daddy mow- these are his biggest cheerleaders!

"mommy, take my picture with my baby!"

saturday :)

community center fun- lucy begs for this time all week-

& eloise kick kick kicks from the second we pull up to the parking lot!

library storytime tuesday... can you spot my lu? front & center :)

eloise was plotting her escape...

drawing pictures of the beach- a little over a week to go & i've got some serious packing to attend to-

hooray- we no longer live in a BLUE house & we couldn't be more thrilled!

lucy is on a special big sister date with gmom & gdad again today- lucky lucky girl! jon's mom sent me this picture from a storytime they attended this morning :)

yesterday at the library it totally slipped my mind to check out an earth day book, so this morning eloise & i stopped by the library & found this sweet one [let's be honest- SO much easier to only unload & reload one child!] afterwards, we stopped by the children's consignment shop that we love to sell the exersaucer we never used, & got enough in store credit to buy several darling summer outfits to add to their closets! lastly, we made our way to target & picked up a strawberry growing kit for each girl, a sunflower growing kit & supplies for a little earth day craft [paper plate shaving cream earth!] we'll dig into it once lucy is home & eloise has woken up from nap :)

xoxo, 

-ivy