madison's 6th birthday

only a week later...ok, so i have been swamped at work. ten hour days. i'm a bit behind on my social media including sharing some photos from madison's little family birthday party from last weekend. we had such a good time & she was so happy to have some family come to town to celebrate with her. we enjoyed treats, gifts & cheesecake. what kid doesn't like "real cake?"- it was wonderful! thanks to our amazing family for making it so special...you're 6 now kiddo!

madison looses her first tooth

just when i thought "the first's" were coming to an end with madison... she finally lost her first tooth! her tooth has been loose for over two months now & we've been dealing with the "i can't eat that apple, what about my tooth?" and "is it gonna come out yet?" well, finally after a lot of wiggling and tugging, she lost it! madison was so excited so i had to share with you all...she even made us walk to the pool to see if any of her neighborhood friends were there to show! tonight she will get an extra special visit from the tooth fairy... for some reason she thinks the tooth fairy brings her 3 special chocolates so i guess the tooth fairy must live up to her expectations ;) thank you pinterest for the quick and easy tooth fairy printable because this pregnant mama is exhausted. i hope you enjoy some photos of "toothless madison" 

our summer | through my iphone

this summer has been very different for all of us... this is our first summer with matt as a teacher and now he has been off from school and i go to work everyday. it's weird that he is a "stay at home" dad and i am off to work. i feel like i miss out on things sometimes but i am so glad madison is getting extra special time with daddy before the arrival of baby m. i still get to enjoy a lot of the summer fun so i figured i'd share some photos through my iphone- if you follow me on instagram you have most likely seen all of these, but for those who don't i am sharing a tiny peak into our summer.

our summer: lazy mornings, days swimming at the pool, trips to take out library books, momma being pregnant, fresh fruit daily from the local farmers market & more swimming. so far, we're enjoying these last moments as just a family of three. before we know it, baby m will be here and everyone will be back to school. time for another evening dip in the pool--what are you all up to this summer? anything fun? 

happy valentine's day : diy for under $6

i know i rarely blog anymore. i am trying to come back, i swear. ever since we've moved to greensboro, things have changed a lot around here. i am a working mother. and when i'm not at work, i'm helping madison with homework and reading, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. i hate that my blog has gotten so neglected especially since we're so far away from friends and family. now more than ever, i want to continue to share our lives with the ones we love.

speaking of love, valentine's day is right around the corner. i wanted to share a little cheap & adorable diy for your children's valentine exchange this year. this is all over pinterest. one thing you may not know about madison is she loves lollipop's so her and i are both thrilled about her valentine's to her friends this year. 

anyways, it was so simple. just take a photo of your child with their fist out. order photos. i ordered mine from walgreen's because there are always promo codes floating around. cut a slit at the top and bottom of the fist. and slide a lolli through them. i bought mine at target. $2.50 a bag. total cost- $5.50! easy, unique, and adorable! 

a quick letter to santa

today we wrote a quick & easy letter to santa. if any of the rest of you have a five year old, you know their attention span is short so last night i designed up a quick letter for madison to write to santa. it was short and sweet-- and just in time to see santa this week :)  if you want to write one too, i am adding the image that i created to this blog post- in gold letters as madison requested. so, just right click, save, & enjoy! (photo taken with my iphone) 

in pictures | thanksgiving feast at school

diy | hand stamped salt dough ornaments

the other day my good friend sophie from the forge posted on her IG a photo of salt dough ornaments. you can follow her @theforgeblog. anyways, it got me thinking how fun & cheap this would be with madison. so i instantly turned to pinterest for addition inspiration. you can check out my christmas board here, if you're interested :) anyways, i cut the recipe in half to make it easier to knead. madison & i started with the original recipe which i found here, but it was too much dough to knead & they dried uneven. so we tried again with a small ball of dough. 

anyways, here's how we did it (plus a few tips along the way)


1/2 cup salt 
1 cups all purpose flour 
1/2 cup luke warm water 
mix flour & salt first, gradually add water. it is important to knead the dough as long as possible for the minimum of 5 minutes. 
**tip- the first attempt we did not knead long enough, causing the ornaments to dry unevenly.

next: you can dry in the oven @ 200 degrees for 3 hours, but the next tip- ours had brown spots after drying and i really wanted mine to just be natural so it popped on our green tree :) so i let mine air dry for 3 days. (you can see in the gift tag photo, what it will look like during the drying process) 

anyways, it was easy. madison loved it. we chose to do simple circles because during our first attempt with the different christmas shapes, they failed to look anything like the shape. so we went simple. you can hang them on your tree, use them as gift tags, or gift them to family for the holidays. 
first photo: taken with iphone 

fall fun

now i remember exactly why i agreed to move to north carolina from pennsylvania. it's november and today we wore skirts and t-shirts. what a beautiful day & we still have fall leaves to play in. here are just a bunch of fall photos from our walk in the leaves today as a family. enjoy some photos of madison & i think husband will make an appearance in one :)  happy fall days to you all...i hope you also enjoyed some fresh air during this weekend.