High Five for Friday!

Trying something new thing week & linking up with some lovely bloggers for "Five on Friday". I'm all for blogpost prompts - it helps with getting the ball rolling & helps with consistency. So I'm excited to play along! Plus, Five on Friday is easy peasy lemon squeezey! All you have to do is blog about five things! That I can do! Click on the button below for more details & link up! Here we go!

// one

BAHA! You did it! Happy last day of JK, Aiden! Summer here we come!

// two
We're kicking off Summer vacation with a road trip! To Cape Cod we go! We leave on Sunday and we're gone for the week! Woot! First time road trippin' with two babies & I'm feeling blessed that my parents, brothers and sister are coming along too! Excited for the change of pace, change of scenery & seafood! Now, who wants to pack for me? .... anyone?

// three

Ryan is obviously the cook between the two of us, but because he works 5737543 hours a week, I do my fair share of cooking for our babies and I. Sometimes, I fail haha ... & sometimes ... fish tacos happen. YUM! Recipe to follow :)

// four

Sadie and I dropped Ryan off at work yesterday & we popped inside because I needed to pee. I haven't gotten the chance to explore the restaurant much yet (or enjoy a meal!), but I am in love with the space. How dreamy is the exterior? I'll need to take more photos next time around!  

// five

This girl turns ONE in four freaking days. O-M-G.

Insta-Life

My obsession with Instagram has yet to fade. As much as I'd like to use my "real" camera to capture these every day moments, my iPhone is usually always within arms reach ... and 98% of the time, it gets the job done. Ryan on the other hand, doesn't quite share the same deep rooted love I have for the app. He's totally missing out.

Tell me you're obsessed too.
& now with mini videos?! I die.

sneak peak to Sadie's first birthday invitations // Aiden with his game face on (before the game) 

melting in the feels like 40 weather // my people, xo

Monday morning shopping with Ethan // our #1 guy gets straight A's on his JK report card!

thank you for helping me get sharp for SK // hand delivering Sadie's invitations #craytalk

Find me here if you want to follow along!

Monday Mantra & First Giveaway Ever WINNERS!

We made it! It's the last week of school! Aiden is a JK graduate, only I don't know two decades or so left of schooling! :)

I'm an ambitious person & I've yet to determine whether or not it's a pro or con. I know my limits, for the most part - but I am constantly trying to push the envelope. Even when our babies go to bed every night, I have these glorious plans about how I will conquer the world - or at least clean the toilets - but time always gets the best of me. Time management is probably something that I struggle more with & doing things that I want to do (craft, design, scrap) versus the things I should do (laundry, dinner prep, clean our home). With Aiden being home with Sadie and I all summer long, I will definitely need to switch up my focus - two babies is a whole different ball game versus one. I'm out-numbered and I'm constantly being questioned, lol. So I will have to continue to challenge Aiden while school's out. Expose him to different things and continue to feed his sponge of a mind. He got his JR report card today and straight A's baby! (In JK land, "A" really means "almost always"). It's the highest rank you can get, so we'll take it! Aiden we are so so proud of your achievements thus far - woot!    

& of course, as promised ... 

Thank you so much for all those who played along & entered! & to the lucky winners, please email me (pphprintshop@gmail.com) with your print choice & I'll send it off your way! :) 

The Loves of my Life

I take a crap load of photos. I guess being semi-addicted to Instagram (how awesome is the new video feature, ek! #ripvine), I always feel the need to point & shoot. I'm all for living in the moment, but I love documenting everyday life.

& though I have a bajillion photos, I'm trying to make a more conscious effort to get some family shots of the four of us. Slightly more challenging than your average selfie. But with the help of our mirror closet in our foyer & some behaved kiddies ... sometimes this happens ....

 

 

Ryan's such an instigator, hence Aiden's cray personality in all the shots. & Sadie's reaction to it all, I die. I love capturing semi-candid moments like these. Now to print & frame, since I've been slacking on the printing department. The downside to the digital world.

Apparently we're supposed to get a whole lot of sunshine today with temperatures feeling like 39, yikes! So thank goodness our plans are to hang indoors while I source some help (my sister and mama) to come over & be my assembly line for Sadie Q's first birthday invitations. I'm so so excited for them & can't wait to share! T-minus 10 days until our baby girl turns one! 

Captain Aiden's Birthday Bash & High Five for *Giveaway* Friday!

Earlier this month, we celebrated Aiden's 5th birthday - Captain Aiden style. I swear, he doesn't even like Captain America, but I feel like he feels a huge attachment & association with the "A" emblem, lol. This was the first year that we didn't throw him an over the top famjam - and if you know us and our family ... that's almost 100 guests, give or take a few - yikes! Instead, his birthday party consisted of some friends from school (if he has his way he'd invite the entire class but we limited him to 8) and a few friends that he's "grown up" with. & I must say, intimate parties - what a breath of fresh air! Since his birthday is in June and we typically have nicer weather, it only made sense to have the party outdoors. We held the party at Andrew's Scenic Acres and because strawberry season hadn't started yet, we had most of the space to ourselves, major bonus! Two hours was just enough time to eat, run around, play & blow some candles on an ice cream cake, yum aaaand thanks to my sister Chelsea and my friend Rachel, my vision of DYO (decorate your own) super hero cape came to life! They were def a fav during the party & so so adorable to watch the kiddies run around in them! I even got hubby kuddos for running a smooth event (ha!). Seeeeee sometimes I'm not just a scatter brain who has all these plans and ideas. Sometimes, I take action & get shiz done!

It's so hard to take photos while hosting! Luckily my brother and dad got a good bunch :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy birthday Bunks, high five for five! We love you too much! xx.

▲▲▲

Annnnnd, here's some more fun stuff! Cool things are happening with pph print shop in the next little bit and to celebrate ... I'm hosting my first giveaway ever! Woot! Three winners will receive a print of their choice from my shop! 

Two easy peasy ways to enter:

1. Head over to my shop & leave a comment after this post letting me know which print is your favourite

2. Follow me on Instagram & repost the photo below with hashtag #pphfirstgiveawayever

Enter daily if you wish! Giveaway closes Sunday June 23 at midnight EST. Winner will be chosen at random & announced on Monday June 24. Good luck :) 

Happy Friday!

Monday Mantra: Let Them Be Little

In anticipation of Sadie's FIRST birthday (ahhhh!) & having celebrated Aiden's 5th birthday earlier this month, I'm focusing my energy on my babies. As if my energy is ever focused on anything else, ha! But this week I'm trying extra hard to keep some simple words in mind.

If I could freeze time, even just for a moment ...
Sometimes, I get so caught up in things being "germy" or freaking out because I need things to be in their place or being short because it would be nice to, I don't know, pee without someone screaming "maaaaaa!!!!!!". I've learnt that having a sink full of dishes before bedtime is ok especially when the trade off is hanging out with your two littles before they doze off for the night. Sometimes I can't wait until bedtime because I'm dying for some alone time or some adult conversations but when their snuggled in their beds, I find myself browsing through my iPhone starring at photos we took throughout the day and replaying videos because it's the closest thing to reliving the moment.

I came across some words on Pinterest (my love for Pinterest is coming back with a vengeance!). But I hate when I click on the photo and it doesn't bring me to the source, ugh. So after some googling and some searching, I found that the words were from a book titled Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load (um, what an awesome combination of words) by Jen Hatmaker.

& of course, after reading the words - buckets quickly filled under my eyes. They couldn't be anymore true ... so simple, so sincere. I wish I could keep them as our littles forever!, lol. But I as much as I have anxiety thinking about them as teenagers & grown ups ... one of my fav things is watching them hit milestones & grow. We're shaping human beings, how lucky are we! Relish the charms of the present. Soak it all up baby.

a good bunch of one liners ...

1. YES, I am very much alive.

2. YES, it's true I have yet to find the balance between home life, mama life, wifey life, blog life, shop life, design life, creative life .... the list can really go on, and on, and on ....

3. I will try to strive for consistency.

4. I'm starting to smell summer & it's refreshing.

5. Our guy turned FIVE & our girl turns ONE in a few weeks, oh my my.

6. I am excited for the big leap (of faith) that we're about to embark.

7. I am in a happy place.

8. My laundry on the other hand has seen better days.


& since our clothes have yet to figure out how to fold themselves, I leave you with this face ...

#bestposeever.

Happy Friday!