Helping Families to Connect and Thrive

6 Years of Isla Grace

10.17.19

Isla Grace, you are 6 years old today.

The world became a more magical place on October 17, 2013. We really truly mean that. YOU are magical, sweet girl. And brave, and strong, and kind, and creative, and thoughtful, and intelligent, and sparkly, and oh, the list goes on!

You impress us every single day with your big ideas, your beautiful artwork, and your hilarious phraseology. Your passion for learning and ability to apply your thinking is amazing, and we love when you share all of your wonderful ideas with us!

You have always been a loving soul, but your empathy and heart for others has grown profoundly this past year. You have really settled into your role as Big Sister. The love and patience you show Cole is admirable. Thank you for being such an outstanding example and friend to him. Hearing the two of you belly laugh together is the best sound we have ever heard! It more than makes up for the bickering that sometimes happens too (wink, wink). You are also the greatest little mommy to your precious Charlie. We melt when we see how he looks at you with love in his eyes and the way he snuggles up under the covers with you at night– both signs of the trust and connection you share.

We adore your adventurous spirit and experiencing the world with you. The way you peacefully watch clouds and the trees out your window on our drives makes us smile and reminds us to be present. While you love to explore, there’s no place you’d rather be than at our beach cottage (well, except for maybe Maui). You cheer every time we pull onto the gravel road– it’s so sweet. We think you may have a little ocean water in your veins. You are happiest splashing in the surf, with an agate-filled collection bag slung over your shoulder. Your smile is wider, your ideas are bigger, and you run more freely with the salt air blowing through your mermaid hair. You recently suggested we move to the cottage and live there. We told you we had considered it but were worried we’d be too lonely. You looked up at us, a shocked expression across your face and exclaimed, “We wouldn’t be lonely! We’d have each other!” Daddo’s eyes met mine, and they were filled with tears of amazement and gratitude for the amazing person you are. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the love and magic you bring into our lives every day.

Happy birthday, beautiful girl. We love you with all of our hearts. We are so excited to celebrate you today, and we cannot wait to see all that you accomplish and experience as a 6 year old!

A big thank you to Lauren LaBarre Photography for these precious photographs of our family in our happiest place.

Cardboard Pumpkin Crafts!

10.17.19

We are so excited to share the cutest cardboard pumpkin craft with you! A simple, up-cycled activity using supplies you have around the house, it is the perfect parent-child creative collaboration for the fall.

Supplies:

cardboard
marker (such as a sharpie)
orange tissue paper
brown tissue paper
yarn
liquid glue (such as Elmer’s) + a little water
small sponge brush
scissors
twine and/or magnets, used for displaying the pumpkins

Instructions:

Have your child use a bold marker to draw pumpkin outlines on cardboard. It’s totally okay if the outlines are a little wonky. In fact, having a variety of shapes adds interest, and the imperfect wobbly lines add so much charm to the finished pumpkins!
Make curved glue lines down the front of each pumpkin using liquid glue. Gently pat yarn onto the glue to make the ridges. Let the glue dry completely before proceeding to the next step.
Cut tissue paper into squares. The size ultimately depends on the pumpkins your child draws, but we cut the brown into about 3/4″ x 3/4″ squares, and the orange into 1.5″ x 1.5″ squares.
Stir up a mixture of 3 parts liquid glue and 1 part water. Dab the glue mixture onto the pumpkin drawing with a small sponge brush. Cover the glue with tissue (brown for the stem, orange for the pumpkin) and use the sponge with more of the glue + water mixture to smooth the tissue pieces onto the cardboard.
Cover the pumpkin drawing with two layers of tissue. Continuously dab the tissue with the glue+water mixture to smooth the layers. Make sure you can still see the drawing lines through the tissue to know how to cut it out.
Once the tissue layers have dried completely, cut the pumpkin out.
Flip the pumpkin over and use the glue + water mixture to apply a single layer of tissue to the back.
Once the back of the pumpkin has dried, apply glue mixture and tissue paper to the edges of the pumpkin and stem. Roll and press the sponge along the edge to flatten the tissue and make smooth edges.
Apply one or two final layers of orange tissue to the front of the pumpkin to ensure depth of color.

There you have it– the sweetest little cardboard pumpkins! Friends, what do you think?

We love this craft because it allows you a wonderful opportunity to work creatively with your child, and it also provides you with darling nostalgic keepsakes that you can display each and every fall.

The finished cardboard pumpkins are so full of character and can be used in all sorts of ways:

String several pumpkins on some twine and make a garland
Glue a magnet to the back and use it to hold photos on your refrigerator
Tuck a few into your fall decor
Tie one onto a gift (they make great gifts as well!)
Add loops to the backs and hang them like ornaments
Mount one pumpkin on a piece of card stock and frame it.

The possibilities are endless! Where else could you envision these cute little pumpkins?

Isla and I had so much fun creating a hyperlapse video of the pumpkin making process! Being our first attempt at making the video, it is clear we still have plenty to learn, but we are hooked! Most importantly, how cute are her little hands?!

Our Little Leopard’s Big Cat Birthday Party

10.15.19

We celebrated the sweetest little leopard’s 6th birthday this weekend with a big cat inspired party! And yes, it was a roaring good time!!!

Isla became obsessed with big cats this year, and has dedicated lots of time to learning about them. So, lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs were the inspiration for the party– the decor, the face painting, the crafts, and even the food!

We were able to keep the party decorations relatively simple and economical. Here’s how:

We used items we already had on hand. My mom had a huge bolt of this leopard print upholstery fabric (so convenient!), so we used some for the table cloth and propped the remaining fabric up behind the desert table.

Dollar Store, baby! Plates, napkins, and silverware all came from the Dollar Store– such a great place to get these consumables!

Homemade decorations. We framed and displayed some of Isla’s big cat drawings and used them to decorate the food and dessert tables. Isaac made all of the signage and we printed it at home.

We ordered 8 take and bake cheese pizzas and I decorated each to look like the patterns of different cats’ coats– tiny pepperonis for the cheetah pizza, minced olive stripes for the tiger pizza, mushrooms and olives for the leopard pizza, and I left a few plain cheese for the lion pizza.

I had so much fun making Isla’s big cat birthday cake and found the BEST tutorials for creating tiger stripe and leopard print cakes! The patterns were surprisingly easy to make. I used a simple vanilla cake mix and food coloring, whipped up a homemade caramel frosting, and sprinkled mini chocolate chips between the layers. Lastly, I topped the cake with graham crackers and this sweet little cheetah family.

We kept the food simpler for this party, so we had a little extra time to create these tiger tails (chocolate caramel pretzels) that our sweet neighbor often makes for us. It was a super fun project for my mom, Isla and I to tackle together.

We planned a few crafts for the kids, including a station where they could create their own big cat ears (with the help of their parents). I bought simple black headbands and cut out little ears from different colored felt. We printed cards with each of the cats’ patterns and placed them next to the ears for reference, along with a few black paint pens for the details. It took just a couple of minutes and a few dabs of hot glue for these darling ears to come together!

Supplies needed:

colored felt
black headbands
scissors
hot glue gun
fabric paint pen (like this)

The absolute highlight of the party was bringing in a face painter to transform the kids into big cats. She did such a fabulous job, and I can say, without a doubt, that getting to look this much like a real leopard was one of the most thrilling experiences of Isla’s life!

We set up a second craft station so the kids could make leaf lions– the perfect activity for a big cat celebration taking place in the fall. Isla sketched a lion face and we photocopied it on to sheets of watercolor paper for the kids to paint. While the faces dried, we took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood to collect leaves (and burn a little energy!). Then they used the leaves to create manes for the lions.

Supplies needed:

lion face on watercolor paper (use a template or draw your own)
watercolor paints
watercolor brushes
liquid glue
scissors
colored construction paper
leaves

After Cole woke up from his nap he joined the party and had his face painted like a tiger!

Love these sweet little cubs SO MUCH!!!

Then, upon the suggestion of some creative parents, Uncle Tristan had his face painted as a zebra, the big cats’ prey. So, of course…

the big cats all chased and mauled him!

I’ll tell ya, the secret to a great birthday party is having an Uncle Tristan who doesn’t hesitate to play like a big goofball with the kiddos!

After chasing the “Uncle Tristan zebra” all over the neighborhood the kids were ready for cake! Isla was absolutely beaming as everyone sang to her. She then turned and invited Cole to come up and blow her candles out with her– and our hearts exploded with love!!!

Don’t worry, that’s graham cracker dust, not spit!

Isla was thrilled to open all her thoughtful gifts and cards! She has so many great books and new crafty activities to enjoy.

It’s hard to believe our sweet girl is turning 6. Isla has grown so much this year and we are madly in love with the thoughtful, creative, passionate, and imaginative little person she has become. We have so much fun crafting birthday celebrations that reflect Isla’s interests— each party becomes a nostalgic time stamp of who she was during that stage in her life. And believe it or not, Isla is already dreaming up ideas for her 7th birthday! Of course she is– she’s so my girl! I can’t wait to start planning with her!

See Isla’s past birthday celebrations!

Isla’s 5th Birthday | Cinco de Isla

Isla’s 4th Birthday | A Mermaid Celebration

Isla’s 3rd Birthday | Collection Party (My FAVORITE party ever!)

Isla’s 2nd Birthday | Our Baby Boo Turned 2!

Isla’s 1st Birthday | Xiao Nangua: Our Little Pumpkin’s 1st Birthday Party

Lastly, the inspiration and our big cat party details can be found on Pinterest.

Favorite Halloween Books for Kids

10.09.19

Now that October is in full swing we have been poring over our favorite Halloween stories every evening together– bliss!

We have a vast collection of favorite fall and Halloween books that we eagerly rotate into the kids’ libraries every September. Many of these books were mine when I was a child, and like the Christmas stories I’ve shared across generations, it fills my heart to overflowing that our kids love them as much as I did. I’m so excited to share my childhood favorites, along with newer cherished titles, with you all!

First up, some Halloween stories from my childhood:

The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches We have the original version. Wendy is a sweet little witch who believes she no witch power, thanks to her older, bossy sisters. When Wendy accidentally loses her broomstick, she has to stay home on Halloween. That night she goes on an unexpected adventure, makes a new friend, and learns she does in fact have her own witch power.

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever Two little mice both unknowingly fall in love with the same pumpkin. Their collaborative care helps the pumpkin grow into the biggest any mouse has ever seen!

Scary, Scary Halloween This spooky rhyming tale is told from the perspective of a mother cat and her kittens as they watch trick-or-treaters parade near their home on Halloween night. It’s just scary enough to be exciting, and the illustrations are out of this world!

Humbug Witch A little witch struggles to make any of her spells to work– all she succeeds in doing is make her cat, Fred, terribly sick to his stomach. The sweetest story that is reminiscent of those childhood days where we tried to mix up our own magic potions with peanut butter and toothpaste and goodness knows what else!

Little Big Feet Laura discovers Irma, a tiny runaway witch, next to her toothbrush one morning. As they talk, Irma confesses she’s left her home because the other witches had been teasing her about her big feet. Laura shares that she has been teased about her stick out ears. The two offer one another support and learn appreciate their unique characteristics.

The Thorn Witch I was so enchanted by the whole Ivy Cottage series when I was little! Ruby Buttons and Violet Pickles find an unexpected friend in the Thorn Witch, and teach her about kindness and hospitality.

And moving on to some of our newer favorites:

Grimelda the Very Messy Witch Grimelda loves living in a messy house, but when she sets out to make pickle pie and cannot find her pickle root (the most important ingredient), she decides to do some deep cleaning! This is such a sweet and imaginative rhyming story, and definitely appeals to those of us who aren’t always tidy.

Little Blue Truck’s Halloween Beep! Beep! It’s Halloween and Little Blue Truck is picking up all his friends en route to their Halloween party. Lift the flaps to reveal the animal behind each costume. We love everything about this adorable book– especially the charming illustrations!

Pick a Pumpkin This new favorite of ours boasts the most vibrant illustrations and follows a family from pumpkin patch, to carving, to Halloween. Love pumpkin books? We have lots of great titles in our collection of favorite fall books!

Spooky Wheels on the Bus Count from 1 to 10 on a spooky Halloween bus to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus. The illustrations are super bright and playful– and far more cute than spooky. Cole is obsessed!

Room on the Broom A witch’s windy broom ride leads her to befriending three animals who later help her evade a hungry dragon. Witty, rhythmic, and wonderfully original!

At the Old Haunted House Count your way from 1 to 10 with a host of spooky creatures and their babies, all to the tune of Raffi’s Down in the Meadow. We love that moms and dads are represented in this book.

And Then Comes Halloween This book makes me feel all kinds of nostalgic as the author poetically describes all of the traditions and rituals surrounding Halloween and the fall season.

Mr. Pumpkin’s Tea Party An adorable counting book with the most enchanting illustrations!

We have a few favorite non-fiction Halloween books too:

Dem Bones This book is the perfect blend of the old song and factual information about the anatomy of our skeletons!

Halloween Is… Learn about the history behind, and evolution of, the celebration of Halloween and its many spooky symbols.

Bats An early non-fiction reader that teaches all about one of the most recognizable symbols of Halloween!

Our favorite Halloween board books for the littlest pumpkins in your lives:

Boo! Follow along with this adorable baby as he picks and carves a pumpkin, chooses a costume, and goes trick-or-treating for the first time! We love all the books in this series, especially Toot!

B is for Boo The most charming Halloween ABC book ever! The retro illustrations are beyond fabulous!

Can’t Scare Me! A sweet little lift the flap books that follows a brave kitty through a haunted house. We have never seen so many flaps in one book! This will keep your little kiddos busy for a long time!

I am Bat Well, this is not technically a Halloween book, but it does focus on one of the holiday’s most well-known symbols! This is the funny story of a bat who loves cherries, but does not love sharing! Parents who have toddlers in the “it’s mine” stage will definitely get a kick out of this cute book!

If You’re Spooky and You Know It Perfect for toddlers who love the If You’re Happy and You Know It song!

I’m the Scariest Thing in the Castle This overly confident little bat thinks he is terribly scary, but it turns out he is actually cute! It’s similar to our one of our favorite board books of all time: I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean.

Believe it or not, this list is just a small selection of our Halloween books for kids. See ALL our favorites by clicking the ORANGE button below!

FAVORITE HALLOWEEN BOOKS FOR KIDS!!!

Fellow holiday enthusiasts, what are your favorite Halloween books for kids? Please share them in the comments!

Cole’s New Truck– What Car-Obsessed Kids’ Dreams Are Made Of!

10.06.19

With all the rain and party excitement on Cole’s actual birthday, we decided to wait to give him his big birthday present: his own truck! Then he was sick the whole week following the party, we were unbelievably busy with work, there was a long stretch of rainy weather, and before we knew it several weeks had passed! Finally, the stars aligned and we had a healthy boy, a free afternoon, and lovely weather. It was truck time!

This is THE COOLEST truck! Not only can Cole drive it, but we can control it with a remote! Toddler parents, this is a game changer! It is the perfect way for us to help Cole while he’s still a little bit young to manage the steering and acceleration all by himself.

While Cole was thrilled, Safa was not so sure about the new truck.

Cole had the best time cruising up and down the sidewalk, exploring each and every feature of the truck, giggling like crazy, and proudly waving at all the neighbors. It was amazing! I foresee many happy neighborhood drives in our future.