Do the Loco-motion

Sydney had her first dance recital today. All of the songs were from the 1980's (love!) so Sydney danced to 'The Loco-Motion'. All of the girls did a great job but most of them did freeze up at one point or another. Sydney kept looking at the ground and not at her teacher so she missed a few steps but she did awesome. She was very proud of herself and so were we. My little tiny dancer!

Can you handle the cuteness? Gah.

Mother's Day Finds: Around the Web

As promised, here's another round of fabulous and affordable Mother's Day gifts from some of my favorite shops around the web. My favorite picks are circled. Now if only my husband would read my blog, then I may actually get some of these goodies! (My kiddo isn't quite old enough to read them herself.) Happy shopping!

To Buy: 

West Elm Owl Measuring Cups.  Anthropologie Candle.  Barnes & Noble Nook Cover.

Amazon Mamarazzi Photography Book. Photojojo Camera Cookie Cutters.

To Buy:

ASOS Polka Dot Purse. Modcloth Sandals. Marc Jocobs Perfume. 

Stella & Dot Bangles. Uncommon Goods Mother/Daughter Necklace.

Mother's Day Finds: Etsy

I just realized that Mother's Day is only a mere 3 weeks away! What! I am really bad at keeping up with holidays that are at the beginning of the month. So I decided that each week I will come up with some great gifts for Mom that you can buy and some great gifts that you can make yourself. 

First off, one of the best places (in my opinion) for gifts, Etsy!

To buy: 

Moon Necklace. (My personal fav!) Chevron Bracelet. T-shirt.

Tote Bag. Bird Necklace. Shoe Clips.

To Buy:

Tea Towel. Art Print. (My fav!) Jewelry Dish.

Coaster Set. Wall Sign. Wall Hanging. 

Wooden Flowers. Tote Bag. Tissue Cozy.

IPhone Case. (my fav!) Canary Planter. Bicycle Notecards.

Instagram Friday

Happy Friday folks! I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend since it seems like we've had something going on every weekend since Christmas. Relaxing = good. 

 S'more Cupcake. Amazing.

Play-dough glasses.

Play-dough crown. (We are really into play-dough lately.) 

Pink = Favorite flats! 

Oh the emotions displayed here are just crazy.

My fav is the one with her arms crossed. Hmph. 

Instagram Friday

Okay time, slow down....the weeks are really flying by! Just lots of holiday activities going on around here, decorating, baking, crafting, singing, etc. Sydney is really into the Christmas songs this year, it's so cute to hear her sing Jingle Bells. Also, anything that is decorated like Christmas (anywhere we go) she has to talk about how beautiful it is really loudly. It's pretty awesome. Toddlers are fun.

Dapper dog headed to the Holiday Pet Parade

Actually keeping a headband on

Off-roading in her VW

At school

Tea Party time

She insisted on all those bows together

Pipe cleaner garland

Painting on coffee filters

Give Thanks

So, I've been MIA for a few weeks. My bad. I've had a lot going on, just no time to blog about it. I'll catch up with everything soon, but I want to be cliche for now and talk about what I'm thankful for since it's Thanksgiving tomorrow.

My Daughter

This kid is amazing, I know we all think that about our kids but she is MY amazing.
She is freakin hilarious. (She told me last night that we needed, no demanded crab legs. That's my girl!) She is loving. (She actually hugged and kissed ALL of the mannequins at Old Navy.) She is intelligent. (She was carrying on a conversation with the bag boy at the supermarket like it was nothing. He said she was awesome. Agreed.) She is sassy. (I was told last night that I needed to 'chill out'.) She loves to sing. (Walking on Sunshine is her favorite as of now.) She is so many other kinds of awesome that I could go on for hours but I won't. I am so lucky to have her.
I truly am thankful every second of every day that I get to be her Mom.

My Hubby

This guy has put up with my craziness for around 13 years now, so you know he's a good man. He works his rear off everyday to provide for our family and I am so proud of the successful man he's become in both his home and work life. I've known he was a keeper for many years now but when I saw him as a Dad it was like, BAM. I'm a lucky lady.

The Family

Poor Sydney, look at her, she's already looking at us like, 'what the heck is going on, you crazy people.' We love some drama and a good laugh in our family. Oh, and a competitive game of Yahtzee. I love these guys. They rock.

My Furry Friends

These three are my furry children. Penny Lane, Rita and Ringo Starr bring another kind of joy to our daily lives, some days it's playing ball outside or a sweet lick on Sydney's face. I feel thankful for the fun they bring to our home, even if I do threaten to throw them in the lake sometimes. (All I want for Christmas is a Ringo that doesn't bark at EVERYTHING.)

Friends

These lovely ladies are two of my oldest friends. Ginny and Debbie (Dark Horse) have seen me through the good times and the bad. Luckily, we've had more good and things just keep getting better. Even though sometimes we are far apart, when we get together it's like we've never been apart. Love you guys!

What are you most thankful for this year?

Daily Life

Fall has finally arrived here in FL (well, most days) and we are enjoying lots of playtime outside these days.

Gotta love those lopsided pigtails. She is constantly searching for dandelions in our yard, it's so cute.

The afternoon sun, a quilt, a good children's book and the iphone (for Instagram pics) equals a great afternoon with my kiddo.

Mommy & Sydney time....love.

Taken from my backyard, the sky that night was breathtaking. Sydney said, 'Oh look how beautiful the sky is Mommy!' She says the cutest things now!

Instagram Friday

Happy Friday! We are looking forward to a busy weekend of crafting, friends, the fair and pumpkin carving. My main goal this weekend is to start and finish Sydney's Halloween costume...Moma is kinda running behind schedule since Halloween is next weekend!

Syd & I at the Mother's breakfast at school
Future rhythmic gymnast?
Blowing bubbles
Cheese!

Felt leaf garland
Fluffy clouds

Syd's behind that mask somewhere
Now she's a pirate, argh!

Instagram Friday

Happy Friday! This weekend, we are off to attend the wedding of some very dear friends, Sydney's godparents actually, so hopefully I'll be boozing it up and watching my husband TRY to dance! Hope you have a great weekend!

Giddy-up!
Fat Cat. Seriously, she's bigger than the dogs.
Little Monkey.
Bumblebee girl.

Painting wooden pumpkins.
Love these Melissa & Doug puzzles.
The view on my way home.
Glow star wand = awesome!

Whiny McWhinerson

Hi, I'm Sydney and I am in full toddler mode lately! Seriously, please tell me that this is just a stage and it too shall pass. She whines about everything now....E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I swear, she's like a menopausal woman, you say one little thing (like please stop torturing the cat) or she drops (or ahem, throws) something and it's all over. Full on cry mode and/or whine mode.

The only thing that seems to make her totally happy is playing outside, which is great but it's still in the mid-90's here everyday and Moma can only last so long before she starts to melt. I, sadly, cannot fit into her kiddy pool to cool off. Also, she loves to help me in the kitchen but if I just need to microwave something or throw something in the oven, she loses it since I didn't, 'let her cook'.

Poor thing is just so pitiful most of the time but I'm hoping this will pass quickly and we can go back to being happy 90% of the time. Sorry to vent but I know I'm not the only one. Any advice?

P.S. I love my kid more than anything even when she is pulling my hair and kicking me. :)

Instagram Friday

Today was a good day: I love my job, the weather is gorgeous here, we had Italian for dinner (yum!) and Sydney went to bed easy! Plus we're going shopping tomorrow...maybe I can convince the hubs to take a detour to Anthropologie. Hope your weekend rocks!

Swinging with Daddy
Chalk art with Grandpa
Happy Girl
Me!

Whee!
Peek-a-Boo at the park
Little Photographer
Lacing work at school

Linking up with Life Rearranged!

Tweet Me & Something

So I gave in and joined Twitter like a few hours ago and I'm already obsessing about it. I knew this would happen! So if you wanna be twitter buddies, follow me (see the flag on the sidebar). I promise to follow you back because I know you are all awesome.

I am actually home sick today so I thought I'd take the chance to blog something since I haven't in like over a week. So here's something:

Such concentration.

This is how Syd rolls, an apron and a diaper.
What more do you need?

Love these books, paint with water over and over again.

Printing with leaves we found at the park.

She destroyed it two seconds later. See above.

Insta Friday

I can't believe it's Friday already! It seems like I just did this post for last week, I guess times flies when you have a week off from work. :)

Mommy rocks. I ♥ those shoes.
Cute tulip shirt. How adorable is that?
Ringo the dog. He's a Starr. Hehe!
Playdough girl. Molds do not work on your face.

Shopping at PetCo. All the fish we bought died within 2 hours!
Syd's chalk artistry. I think that was supposed to be a frog.
Band aid butt. How these things happen, I don't know.
Green toes. She insisted on green. Wait, demanded.

We are trying not to melt here...it feels like 103 today. (This is a good excuse to go hang out at Target!) Makes me really wish we had a pool, you know other than the one that only Syd can fit into.
We hope you all have a great weekend!

Summertime Fun

I know that I probably post WAY to many shots of Syd playing in the water but we do live in Florida and it's like 100 degrees here almost daily in the summer so we play in the pool/sprinklers or go to the beach pretty often. Plus Syd just always gives me the best expressions when playing in the water which I love because half of the time, I can't get her to look at the camera anymore. Did anyone else have that problem when your child was around two? If I tell her 'don't look at the camera', then half of the time she will, so that's the trick I'm using right now.

Tumbling...

Man, this 2 year old age is so much fun! Sydney started tumbling class a few weeks ago and she absolutely loves it. She asks me every day if she can go, 'do tumbling'. Unfortunately, the last class is next week until it starts back up again in August and I think I'm going to enroll her in dance classes then too. I decided to try the tumbling first to see if see liked it and would listen/follow directions and she has done great, so I'm thinking that I see a cute pink tutu and tap shoes in our future.

I seriously LOVE this picture. Look at that hand on her hip and that smile!

Mommyland Life Lately.....

This is what we have to look forward to every weekend....

Though it's not technically that time of year yet, summer has arrived here in Florida. We are hovering at around 85-90 degrees on most days so that means lots of water play, including spraying Mommy with the hose and watering the flowers. Cute little, polka dot and ruffle covered swimsuits; let's face it, little girls have the most adorable swimsuits! Big bubbles, little bubbles, colored bubbles (that stained my porch!), and bubble machines. The bubble machine was the best $15 that I've ever spent at Target and I spend a lot of time there.

And last but most importantly, lots of giggles and fun!