Jolly Holiday with Elizabeth Mae

 

My baby is THREE! I cannot believe it. To celebrate the occasion, we decided to have a family party (Covid year). I wasn't going to do much for her party, but when she chose Mary Poppins as her theme, I started having way too much fun coming up with ideas. The costume company we carry at the shop has that adorable Jolly Holiday dress she's wearing, so we went with that part of the movie as our inspiration! Love the colors and joy in that scene. The morning was captured by my talented friend Alison Moore. 

We worked with our local gardens, Botanica, to host the party in the Carousel Pavilion. At the shop, we help them on random projects throughout the year and they wanted pictures to promote events when they start hosting again next year. Elizabeth LOVES the carousel, so it was such a fun spot. The girls rode the carousel so many times - highly recommend! For the invitations, I used an adorable Mary Poppins clip art I found and played with a font that reminded me of the movie. I went for color this year on the decor and balloons, pastels with pops of bold colors. I found the Golden Books banner from the cutest Etsy shop - I have always tried to incorporate books into her parties, so this was a perfect touch. My shirt was also found on Etsy, I wanted a fun way to add Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to the party! Fancy horses, London houses and little rose plates were the perfect table settings for the occasion. You can find all of those at Love of Character!

Treats, I used my go to local gals - cupcakes by September Moon Cupcakery, cookies by Sweet Sugarlicious. They nailed it with the designs - those little spoons filled with sugar! We also picked up some birthday cake popcorn from The Popcorner. We didn't serve food since it was late morning and just family. For party favors, my mom helped me put together cute bags of penguin gummies from the shop and we added these adorable tags from Etsy. I also purchased some carousel tokens for the kids to use the next time they visit and called them "Tuppence" to reference the movie. 

It was such a magical morning bringing her Mary Poppins dreams to life. I loved having something fun and happy to plan this crazy year. Thank you so much to our families for joining in on the celebration. 

Now, if anyone has tips for sassy three year olds, send them my way!

Lots of Love,

Backyard Playhouse

Why work on real house projects when you can do mini ones instead? That was our mindset this summer when we worked on Elizabeth's new playhouse. Back in May I got the urge for a fun project to distract my mind from the million things going on with work (anyone else add more on their plate to distract? Ha - maybe not the best idea). When doing a Target wander, I saw a cute little wooden playhouse back in the spring. Fast forward a few weeks and I decided we needed it. It was on sale and I figured now or never. Plus, it'd be fun to have for the summer instead of waiting until her birthday in October (and we all know she'll get plenty then from family!) Loaded up Elizabeth and off we went on our little adventure. I will link all the items at the end of the post.

KidKraft Coastal Cottage Playhouse

At our Target out West, they had a floor model, which was helpful to make sure it was what we wanted. I knew I wanted to paint it, but liked this one for the style and cute accessories. Plus it was affordable (watch for a sale!) and a good size for her. After loading up the box, we headed to Lowes to pickup our paint. I was on a mission. I picked up the cheapest outdoor white paint option and then grabbed a sample of pink paint for the door (we ended up needing a couple more sample containers because that's what Dustin ended up using on the roof after doing a coat of plastic bond spray paint). First coat went on during nap time and then I had to admit my impulse to Dustin when he got home - luckily, he's more of a sucker for Elizabeth projects than I am. He naturally took over when I went out for a meeting that night.

Naturally, summer schedules took over and we got a little behind on finishing up the playhouse, but this past weekend we finally got it out and put together. It comes as folded walls, so you screw together two sides and then add the roof and door - actually pretty simple. The balloon garland was me being over the top for photos, but when balloons are your thing, why not!

I struggled a little bit on what to put inside the little house. She already has a play kitchen in her playroom, so I decided against that (if I would have done one, Ikea has this great small one). Since it has a cute shop/stand aspect to it, I decided to play off that. I originally thought I would do a table with chairs and a side table to hold the accessories. Apparently I'm not good a dimensions in my head because obviously that was too much! Luckily, the Ikea side table I purchased was perfect by itself. I got cute glasses to make it like a little lemonade stand (Parker Palm Springs inspired of course) and then my mom ended up getting her this fun ice cream set. The lemon stools are my favorite! Perfect size and my bossy child likes to move them inside vs. the outside lemonade bar situation I was going for. To finish off the space and add a little cushion on the concrete, I found this cute striped outdoor rug from Ikea. It is longer than the house, so I folded it in half (thicker that way too). Dustin of course added his tech-y touch by adding a strip of LED color changing lights along the inside of the room - ice cream shop by day, club by night.

The big reveal was better than we hoped and little miss is officially obsessed. She would live in there if she could, and if we aren't outside she's staring out the backdoor asking to go outside. Her favorite part? Ringing the way too loud doorbell - my one complaint of this beauty - I'm sure our neighbors feel the same. We (I) wrote cute letters for her mailbox and it came with a fake phone, so naturally she has been making lots of calls. First play date was today with her little neighbor friend, and I think this early birthday present is one of the best we'll do!

Cost Breakdown:
House $299 (on sale)
Paint ~ $50 (white & samples of the pink)
Accessories ~$60

Shop this post:
Playhouse | Lemon Stools | White Plastic Table | Colorful Glassware | Metal Pots | Striped Rug | Ice Cream Set | Doormat | Lemon Napkins | Daisy Sunglasses & Hair Bow - Shop In Store at LOC | Balloon Garland - Order Here

If you come visit, we now have a guesthouse for you! You might need to bring something to sleep on though.

Lots of Love,

Formal Introduction, Baby Elizabeth Mae

A couple months ago, we welcomed Miss Elizabeth Mae into the world. It's amazing how much you can love a tiny human after being in labor for 20+ hours! We were smitten from the start. She was a little lady weighing only 5 lbs 8 oz, but was decently long at 19 1/2 inches. I worked with my incredibly talented friend, Alison Moore, to capture her newborn photos.

I have to be honest, I was not a great pregnant woman. I was pretty sick for the first 20 weeks, and I'm not sure if it just finally wore off or my medicine finally started working (I was too scared to ever get off!). That was followed by terrible heartburn and restless nights. I was ready for my baby girl to show up (but also scared of how it would all go down haha!). My doctor felt I could go early the way she was positioned, and after my 39 week appointment, I started to feel cramping. I had been having the Braxton Hicks contractions quite a bit at night, so I figured I was getting more of those. I went back up to the store, talked with a mom friend and she assured me I would know when they were real. Well fast forward a couple hours, and I was having regular contractions. I knew we didn't need to hurry to the hospital because my doctor told me to wait until I was in major pain. Dustin came home from work and went into new dad panic mode the minute I told him. He kept bugging me that we should head over to the hospital. We checked in at the Birth Care Center and unfortunately, I wasn't progressing, so I was sent home to "relax" - yeah, okay. After a night of painful contractions every 5-6 minutes, I woke Dustin up (I had told he should get some rest, so he was ready when I'd be exhausted) and told him we should go back. The uncertainty was definitely the hardest part.

When the nurse told me I had progressed and we could stay, I wanted to kiss her! She said I could get the epidural now and let me tell you, it was so nice. After that, things were a breeze. I hung out with Dustin, and then my mom came over. We were able to chat and I finally could actually relax. Labor moved pretty quickly and after a couple hours, I was ready to start pushing. Of course, my doctor had just stepped into a C-section, so I had to wait another hour. Luckily, the epidural helped me stay calm and relaxed, so I was good. I pushed for about an hour and then our little lady appeared. My mom was in a room next to the room and was keeping Dustin's parents informed. She heard Elizabeth's first cries and said it was the best sound she had ever heard. She was so tiny! The nurses kept commenting on how cute she was, and I just remember being in amazement this little baby that was inside of me, was now out in the world. Our little Elizabeth Mae was finally here! ...and I was no longer pregnant (woohoo!). I knew she was going to be so sweet and immediately loved to snuggle. I couldn't believe she was ours to keep and I felt so lucky!

This girl captured her dad's heart immediately. He was (and still is) so smitten by her. He wanted all the snuggles. In the hospital he helped calm her down, learned how to change a diaper and talked about his new daughter to anyone that would listen. The second night, my mom and I told him to take his sister out to dinner to get out for a little bit - he rushed and was back in 30 minutes. He has been beyond helpful and loves spending time with his girl. I honestly don't know how I could do this parenting gig without him by my side. I can tell he loves being a dad (I knew he would), and I'm excited to see them play together in the future. I know deep down he'll love princess movies and tea parties (haha!).

Teddy definitely has had his world shaken up, but we can tell he loves her. The first time he reacted to her crying, it was so sweet. She was up in her bassinet and I had run downstairs to get something. Dustin let him back inside, and he heard her, immediately running upstairs to check the situation out. He then proceeded to run back down stare at us with a "What are you doing! She's crying!" look. He also is  usuallyvery stubborn about letting us take pictures of him, but not now when we are taking pictures of the baby. When Ali was taking our newborn photos, he tried to photo bomb them all. So much so, he ended up being in a majority. So happy he was! I am so excited for the two of them to play together - I think he's in for a surprise when Elizabeth starts moving.

I was so excited to show Elizabeth her new room. Putting it together was my favorite part of nesting and it had become my happy place. Even though she doesn't sleep in there quite yet, we spend time in there rocking in her chair, changing into cute outfits, and taking pictures. When Ali asked where we wanted to take her newborn photos, I knew I wanted a majority in that space. You can see more details on the nursery post from a few weeks ago.

I am so grateful to have friends like Alison Moore, who captured our new family perfectly. I love that we were able to take the photos in our home, where we are learning to be parents and incorporating our adorable daughter into our life. I highly recommend if you are looking for a family photographer. She was so easy to work with - patient (because of course Elizabeth decided to be awake for awhile when Ali came) and so good with the baby. I enjoyed spending the afternoon with her! I also recommend having your mom or a family friend around to help during pictures. My mother was there to help me get the baby ready, and ended up staying, which was so helpful. She was able to move things out of the way, feed the baby when she wasn't ready to sleep and help change her outfit.

I couldn't wait to share the adorable pictures with our friends and family, so I worked with Minted to create some gorgeous birth announcements. Last summer, I started carrying Minted in the shop, and I was excited to create something for us. Even though the holidays were coming up, I decided to go with this watercolor floral design because it seemed to fit her so well. There are so many beautiful and fun options, it's hard to choose! The scallop border was an extra, fancy touch and they currently have free recipient addressing with pretty designs. Reach out if you are interested in some of your own! They make me so happy and I'm going to frame one to hang.

Thank you to everyone that has helped us welcome baby Elizabeth Mae into the world. We have loved having you meet her, and would not have survived without all the encouragement and support. We are so lucky to be her parents and can't wait to see her grow (except I am definitely enjoying her being tiny!). Thank you to our parents that have been beyond helpful from the beginning and unconditionally love her to the moon. Thank you again to Ali for capturing these gorgeous photos! You can check out more of her work by following her on instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/alisonmoorephotography/

Lots of Love & Happy New Year!