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birthday, Blog, Clementine, Fall, st. louis

Clementine is Two!


I’m not quite sure how it’s possible but last week (October 4th) we celebrated Clementine’s 2nd birthday. It’s hard to believe that she is already 2 years old! Those of you who have been around since her birth may remember the sweet baby girl with dark hair, chubby cheeks, and the most perfect eyebrows I have ever seen on a newborn. She’s grown up so much over the past couple of years and it has been such a joy to watch her grow!

I was so excited to do a fun little photoshoot with Clementine for her birthday. With 2 year olds, you just never know if they’re going to even cooperate. But I knew I had to at least try. I ran to the store and bought a bunch of balloons (70+!) and got to work, blowing them up to different sizes. I used some packing tape to stick them to the wall and to each other. If I was wanting to keep them up longer than a quick photoshoot, I would have used better tape. But they did manage to stay up until the next morning when Primrose started to destroy them haha.

As you can see, she had so much fun with the photoshoot! Clementine is a major girly girl and was so excited to put on the pink tutu dress and crown (from Little Blue Olive.) She’s very opinionated when it comes to her outfits. So when she’s happy about what she’s wearing, it makes all the difference. The balloon backdrop was also a huge hit with her.

She has an obsession with “Baby Shark” and “Daddy Finger” that may drive us to insanity. But she also loves to sing the ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with the sweetest little voice in the world. She loves to dance, make silly faces, and has the most contagious laugh in the world. Her favorite thing to do is pretty much anything Desmond is doing–which is not Desmond’s favorite thing for her to do haha. She’s perfectly sweet and equally sassy. And I’m so thankful to be her mom.

On Clementine’s birthday, we decided to go to one of her favorite places–the St. Louis Zoo! They had their fall/Halloween decorations out which made it a little more fun.

Like I already mentioned, Clementine is very opinionated with her outfit and she insisted on wearing her crown to the Zoo. Everyone kept telling her she looked like a little princess. It was so sweet!

We’re in the process of letting Evangeline’s bangs grow out. Obviously the hairspray didn’t hold them to the side very well but I loved this picture of her.

One of our favorite places in the Zoo is in the sea lion tunnel. It started to rain right as we walked in so we hid in there for a little while until the rain passed. It was Primrose’s first time to notice the sea lions. It was so fun to watch her expressions.

Watching them line up like this is one of the best parts about the zoo. It won’t be too much longer before Primrose will be lined up right next to them!

Liam was very set on getting a picture with Clementine in front of the flamingos. Obviously she didn’t have the same enthusiasm as him haha.

I have a memory card full of pictures like this. But I’ll spare you and only post one haha. Everyone always wants a turn as each character so we always spend a good chunk of time at these cutouts anytime the kids spot one.

We just learned about bears in Science so it was neat for the kids to get a close up look. It was also encouraging to hear them list some facts about bears that they had learned. It helps me to know that they’re at least retaining a few things 😉

Clementine was so excited to watch the “dino” swim by her over and over.

When you look over and see your 5 year old planking haha. It just made me think of that episode of The Office. Anyone know what I’m talking about??

I usually try to get a group shot at the beginning of our outings. But people kept walking in the background of our shots. So we waited until we were walking back to the van and everyone was crabby haha. But getting (mostly) everyone in the shot always makes me happy and we managed to get a few shots with no one looking too crabby.

We came home to an unexpected little package. This tray of cupcakes was sent to Clementine from our friends at cuddle+kind. I honestly could not get over how kind and thoughtful it was for them to not only remember her birthday, but to send a treat to her with a little birthday note. I know I often talk about my love for this company. But my love runs deeper than just for their dolls and their mission, the people who make up the company are just so special to us as well. They certainly made the day a little more special.

The past 2 years with Clementine have been so much fun. I’m so excited to continue to watch her grow!

You can read her birth story HERE and see her 1st birthday photos HERE.

Blog, spring, st. louis

Strawberry Picking at Eckert’s


Hi! Remember me? The person who keeps saying I’m going to start blogging again and never follows through? Well I’m back again…at least for today haha. I wanted to share our strawberry picking from a couple of weeks back.

This was our 2nd year strawberry picking and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite spring traditions. This was our first time visiting Eckert’s Farm and we had such a great experience! Although, I should have taken our group shot as soon as we arrived. I didn’t want to disturb Primrose’s nap because I didn’t want a crabby baby. But that plan backfired because we ended up with 2 crabby, tired toddlers instead haha.

I feel like we’re finally getting the hang of taking our crew out and about. It doesn’t feel quite as overwhelming anymore. Of course it always helps when food is involved haha. When we arrived, we got to try some yummy strawberry treats so everyone started the day in a great mood.

Eckert’s has a children’s area with some rides, a bounce house, pony rides, and some farm animals. I have an irrational fear of carnival rides (is it actually irrational though? haha.) But I tried to push past my fears and let the kids enjoy a few. Thankfully they were only brave enough to ride the carousel anyway–so hopefully I passed down my fears to my kids and they won’t be riding them again anytime soon 😉

I love this view of all the kids watching Liam riding the pony.

After spending a little time playing, we took a little wagon ride over to the strawberry fields to start picking. The only downside to the ride over is when you’re dropped off at the field and your toddler insists we get back on and enjoy tractor rides all day haha. Much to his disappointment, that was not what we did.

The great thing about Eckert’s is that you can eat as many berries as you want as you’re picking. As a family who loves strawberries, this made it very difficult to fill up our boxes. As soon as someone found a ripe berry, it was eaten.

I didn’t get to pick any strawberries because I had Primrose in the wrap and it didn’t seem too pleasant to bend down with her in it. (I’m just thinking about next year and not carrying any babies!!!) But for this year, I was the official inspector of all berries–a job that I did not choose or enjoy 😉 Every few seconds someone was asking “is this one okay mommy?” That question isn’t too bad the first 3000 times. But after that, you start to get a little tired of it haha.

I thrifted this little strawberry romper for Primrose and was so excited for her to wear it strawberry picking. But she was in the wrap the entire 4 hours we were there (minus the few minutes that we got her out for pictures.) I had Don quickly snap this photo of her and she could hardly contain her enthusiasm for the moment.

 

The day wasn’t too hot, but after being out in the sun for a while, everyone was getting pretty tired and crabby. That’s when I realized that we should have done the strawberry picking BEFORE the kids’ area. Hindsight is 20/20. Oh well–we learned for next time! So after filling a box, we decided to head back and get some frozen custard at the farm.

The frozen custard was so good and perfectly hit the spot! My only regret is that I didn’t try that strawberry frozen custard. But Evangeline tells me that it was delicious.

After we got home and I saw everyone’s red shoulders, necks, and cheeks, I realized my major mom fail–no sunscreen! Poor little Primrose even had redness on the back of her head and I felt so bad. So that prompted a trip to Target for some sunscreen and hopefully those will be our only sunburns for the summer!

We had such a great time picking at Eckert’s and can’t wait to go back to try picking some other fruits this year!

I’ve been working on my “how we manage financially” post recently so that will be published soon! Honestly it’s just such a big subject with lots to cover so I just get overwhelmed and not motivated to work on it. But I’ll be pushing through and hopefully will finish within the next couple of weeks. I’m also going to put together a list of some fun things to do in the St. Louis area–so if you have some suggestions that you think I should add, let me know!

Thank you all for being patient!! I thought I would have a lot more time to blog with Don at home more often. But somehow life feels even busier now! Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend!!