Mother's Day Flower Pots

I have always loved the idea of painted flower pots for a Mother's Day gift, but I get sad thinking about the girls doing a project without me... So last year Ben, Cora, and I painted together and now our new Mother's Day tradition is to have a family flower pot painting session. I buy $1 terra cotta pots (like these from Home Depot or Lowes), lay out the drop cloth, put on some music, and we all get to work. It is fun to see what everyone decides to paint and I can't wait to have a huge collection of painted pots.

This year was extra exciting for me because it was Ida's first time painting. Cora started painting around 18 months, so I knew Ida should start painting soon. Ida ended up loving the project and doing such a good job. She only tried to eat the paint once and was surprisingly clean overall. She observed the rest of us as we would pick up our pot or move it around and followed along so well... Ida is basically a prodigy.

Ben started out with a simple plain white and brownish pot, then added this creepy character. The face creeps me out a bit, but it's growing on me and now I kind of like the weirdness of it.  

Cora picked a rainbow pallete and got straight to work. She painted stripes of rainbow around the sides and then took some inspiration from Ben and added a person. Cora told me it was "a zombie with it's leg ripped off"... thank you Cora, so lovely!

We repotted some mini roses that I already have and we'll find something new for Ben's pot. I love looking at these when I stand at my kitchen sink and I love the little memories from our family painting session.

 A couple days later, the girls worked on their Mother's Day pot for my mom.

What is your favorite Mother's day DIY?

Cora's 5th Birthday Celebrations

We're really stretching out Cora's birthday celebration this year. Not quite as long as last year, but we had multiple parties spread over a week. Cora loves parties and hanging out with people, so she has been having the time of her life with all of the family and friends and get togethers.

The weekend before her birthday, we had a joint birthday brunch with my aunt and uncle. We reserved the pavilion at a park near us so we could enjoy the outdoors and the kids could play at the nearby playground. It turned out to be really cold, so we were all celebrating their spring birthdays bundled up in our winter gear. We didn't let the weather get us down and we all ended up having lots of fun. We had a similar menu that we had at the birthday brunch last year (bagels, hard-boiled eggs, fruit salad, etc), but added in smoked salmon, parfaits, and coffee. I was able to make the day-of prep a lot easier by scheduling a grocery delivery and panera pick up early in the week.

Cora's actual birthday was during the week, so I took some time off work so we could take a little trip to the zoo and have lots of together time without feeling rushed or stressed. We brought some of our favorite cookie cake to share with her class and she asked me to make her a birthday shirt for her about an hour before school. She loved getting to share a treat with all her friends and getting to wear a crown for the day. 

We spent the afternoon just the two of us while Ida and Ben napped. As independent as she is, she always enjoys a good momma snuggle and uninterrupted chat with me, so it was perfect. That evening, my parent's had our family over for dinner. Cora picked the menu of spaghetti and angel food cake with strawberries. The girls loved running around with their cousin and enjoying the nice weather.

Saturday, we had a tiny party with a couple school friends and our next door neighbor. Cora loved running around with her friends and was so excited to have them over to our house. It started to drizzle towards the end of the party and Cora jumped at the chance to show her friends her room... until she realized that having that many people play with all her stuff made it a little messy. My mom said she saw her pulling toys out of her friends hands and putting them away because she wanted to keep her room tidy. We had a fun time and after everybody left, she told me "I wish my birthday could last forever!"


See some of Cora's past birthday celebrations here: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th

Birthday Zoo Trip

It's basically a tradition of ours to make a trip to the zoo on or around Cora's birthday to enjoy the zoo blooms (see last year here). Monday, I took a half day so I could spend some extra time with the girls and we could enjoy the nice weather on a small trip to the zoo. Cora has been asking to go for a couple days, but we wanted to avoid the weekend zoo rush so Monday was the perfect day.

We immediately found some good blooms to take a picture in front of so we could get that out of the way... and I knew they'd probably get grumpy as the afternoon goes on. I asked the girls to just smile at the camera real quick while I took a couple pictures (by a couple, I mean 50), but instead she gave her sister a hug and I got these sweet photos of my girlies doing what they always do.

Ida hasn't really been to the zoo since last summer when she was not even one, so everything was new to her. She was loving all of the activity around the zoo and couldn't stop pointing at the flowers and people.

Cora was tired from school, so she ended up riding along in the stroller for most of the time. Ida had no problem giving up the stroller so she could stretch her legs and lead the way . We stopped by the kids area and spent a lot of time watching the penguins run around. Cora seemed so big when she climbed up to peek over the railing, but so tiny when she needed to ride in the stroller. A contrast that has been popping up more and more as my little baby gets older.

We decided we didn't want to stay too long. We planned to ride the train then maybe start to head towards the exit as we visit a couple more animals. Ida loooved the train ride. She couldn't stop looking around and loved to wave and say hi to everyone as we rode by . Cora loved to make sure her sister was following the rules and watch Ida excitedly wave.

Outings by myself with both girls are pretty exhausting, but totally worth it! All three of us had a great time, but we were definitely ready to get home and spend the rest of the evening resting.