Lincoln and the Art Museum

Today I had this charming companion join me for a visit to the art museum. It was our first time to go with out the rest of our gang. Just the two of us and it was so very sweet.  I could have spent hours there, but Lincoln isn't quite ready for hours of wondering through the museum, so we made it a short visit. He did great and we only made the alarm go off once for stepping over the "do not cross" lines on the floor-overall a success for a two and a half year old!  We focused on the Impressionist wing and the Modern Art floor.

Lincoln's favorite memory from our outing-the construction cranes outside the museum-huge!
My favorite memory from our outing-Lincoln posing like the Titan statue in the entry hall of the museum-adorable I tell you!

Friday

It's almost time to flip to April! This morning, as we were walking out the door for school, Emma and Stella were dreaming up some secret April Fools pranks.  I don't know if they will actually follow through with the plans they were making, but it's fun that they are thinking about it.

This weekend I plan to finalize everything for Easter. I found some vintage dresses for the girls at a thrift store, and hope they fit.  Next on the list is finding shoes.  Lincoln will be included in the planning too-I'm just not sure what I want him to wear.  

Jeremy and I also have a date night tonight and it's perfect weather for eating outside. Brisket tacos are what I'm craving!  

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

What I Wore: Pencil Skirt

The last time I posed for a picture of me alone was for my wedding portrait eleven years ago!  I decided to venture into posting some of my favorite outfits with you.  I love reading outfit posts and "what's in my bag" posts just as much as home-tour posts, and I love home tour posts a lot! 

 Jeremy kindly took these pictures for me early on a Sunday morning, out on our roof top.  While we were out there, the kids were inside watching us through the windows waving at us and grinning at us with huge smiles on their little faces.  That was all the encouragement I needed and it made me feel like I should do this more often.

Outfit Details: Top/Target, Skirt/Vintage-Goodwill, Tights/Target, Shoes/Old Navy, Necklace/Goodwill, Bracelet/Booth at Festival of the Nations, Ring/Vintage-Inherited

I found the skirt at the same Goodwill where I found my sofa.  There was no tag sewn inside, so I think it may be homemade. It was in excellent condition and fit me a perfectly-no alterations were needed, making me one happy woman.  

 There's a collection of women I look to for inspiration on what to wear or how to mix and match what is already in my wardrobe.  A few of those gals are personal friends of mine and they have blogs!  

Thrift Finds!

Last Thursday, Jeremy told me I could have the whole day to myself! He watched the kids and I got to run around the city. I stopped at few thrift stores and found some treasures. I always look in the children's book section, I'm pretty picky about what books I bring home and have learned my lesson to make sure there are no missing pages.  I learned that lesson the hard way.  Ahem.

I plan on using the floral curtain for a spring project and that pyrex loaf pan had my dreaming of baking a some of my mom's banana bread.  How have we gone this long without owning a copy of Where the Wild Things Are?  Our family loves the classic Winnie the Pooh stories-so much humor for us old folks to enjoy and Lincoln loves the little size of these books.

Our spring break is over and Jeremy's break is just beginning. We never made it to the botanical gardens, but we did end our week off from school with a picnic at Tower Grove Park, complete with friends, fried chicken and coleslaw. I'm wishing there were leftovers for today!

On the first day of Spring

We welcomed in spring with tulips on the table, a new book from one of our favorite seasonal series and an easy craft.

Have you heard of the Brambly Hedge series? They are some of the cutest little books with sweet stories about a community of mice. The illustrations contain all kinds of dreamy domestic details. I've been collecting the books over the past year and hiding them away from the kids, then surprising the kids with one on the first day of each new season.  Today our kids got the last of the books I had hidden away, Spring and we read it in our pj's after breakfast.

I had planned on taking the kids to the Botanical Gardens, but I was feeling under the weather, so I kept that plan to myself and instead gathered some supplies to make a quick springtime craft.  Hopefully we can go the gardens another day this week!

Emma received a flower press for her birthday last year. All of our pressed flowers and clovers came from some flowers the girls collected and pressed last summer.

We stamped the letters, then glued the flowers onto cardstock and after everything dried we sewed the pieces together on the sewing machine.

The kids are right in the middle of spring break this week, Jeremy's is next week.  It's kind of a bummer they don't line up, but we're trying to make the most of it.

And I just wanted to mention that I am part of the Amazon Affiliate program, if you are interested in purchasing the Brambly Hedge books or the stamps we used to make the banner, click on the links in the post. The links will take you to Amazon and where you can purchase them. We receive a small percent for each purchase made from my links and that small percent is a huge help to our family while Jeremy is in school! Thanks for your support!

Lincoln's Second Birthday

Lincoln turned two...last fall.  We invited some of his favorite friends here in St. Louis to celebrate his birthday.  As is evident from the tree outside his window, even on our city street we get to enjoy the seasons!

The girls made shirts for Lincoln to sleep in. We couldn't find any car shaped stamps so we made some out of sponges from Trader Joe's and we picked up some fabric paint from a craft store.  His sister's loved making these shirts for Lincoln, and he absolutely adores the shirts.

We hung pennant banners made from graph paper.  One of our favorite party decor ideas was dreamed up by Jeremy.  He snapped a photo of one of Lincoln's (and Jeremy's) prized matchbox cars, a 1969 Nissan Skyline GT-R (I had to ask Jeremy what it was). Then took it to Kinko's and had it blown up to this large format (for just $4!). We had two, one for the wall and one for the table. 

Sneakin' some snacks!





The Danny Driver book has great illustrations! I picked it up along with a firetruck book in a similar style at a local antique shop.





We gave the kids matchbox cars for party favors.



The party was last fall and not too long after we had moved in, so we had plenty of cardboard boxes laying around. Jeremy made a race track from a box, covered it with duct tape and the kids raced their matchbox cars on it.



We also printed smaller versions of the posters and used it for a coloring activity. Lincoln was the only little boy at his party, the rest were girls and they all love to play with cars, so everyone enjoyed the party.

It was a joy to celebrate this little guy.  We have about 9 months until he turns three and I think I would like to freeze time for a little while, before I know it he will be in preschool and I'll miss spending my days with him.

sprucing up for spring

This weekend I got the laundry under control and spruced our place up for spring.  I moved some of our lamps and pillows around to satisfy my need for change. The best thing about my sprucing up was that all my changes were free!  How are you getting ready for spring?