emerald city diaries

{The girls in their matching shirts that Mimi and Paga brought back from Greece! Eloise chose her shirt to wear and then insisted that Daphne wear hers too.}

{When Papa leaves out his headphones and Xbox controller, Eloise likes to pretend she is watching TV. That is pure joy on her face!}

{On Saturday morning we (Daphne) slept in so Eloise was up before I could finish our morning feeding and pumping. Since Aaron was out for a run, Eloise sat in her room and read with Stella until Papa got home. The sweetest!}

{Eloise and our neighbor Maxine drawing all over the sidewalk. And that white hat is covered in chalk…}

{Daphne in the sweetest outfit from Uncle David and Aunt Jodi. We don’t wear a lot of ruffles and bows, but it’s pretty cute!}

{Eloise was lying in the grass and enjoying the shade since “the sun is so bright Mama!”}

{Aaron was busy on Saturday afternoon working on building a frame for some art for our bedroom. This map has been hanging with painter’s tape for a while now, so it has been nice to see it in a frame!}

{We added a few new diapers to the cloth stash and I am pretty excited about it!}

{Driving across Lake Washington to the Eastside this morning and it was so beautiful. The mountain (Rainier) was out!}

{We got to celebrate the birthday of a very special and dear friend, Miss Madeleine, this morning. The happiest of birthdays M!}

{Eloise had a ton of fun at the party making a macaroni necklace, painting, eating cake, and playing in the water!}

{This afternoon I headed to my 25th barre class to end the Summer Challenge and this is how I felt at the end. I was SO tired and did not want to go, but the air conditioning was a pretty influential factor given the near 90 degrees that Seattle hit today!}

{Aaron and Eloise had a pretty good time at the Summer Challenge Celebration Party at lululemon this evening.}

Summer is officially here and it is already too hot! 🙂 Seattleites are known for complaining about it being too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer, and I am no exception. Today was hot, hot and when you have a little one who wants to nurse and snuggle all the time, you just cannot cool off! But, that said, we are embracing summer with open arms and enjoying the next three weeks that we have Papa home!

We had a fun weekend mixed with house projects and visiting friends. I think any weekend that has these two things is the best kind of weekend!

How was your weekend?

M

{The Roosevelt High School Marching Band had its final neighborhood show (they have been practicing in our streets all spring!) on Saturday, complete with uniforms and police escorts. Eloise was VERY excited to see them!}

{Eloise reading Brown Bear Brown Bear to Daphne while we worked in the nursery.}

{Finally (finally) hung the gallery wall in Daphne’s nursery. We need to patch a few old holes from Eloise’s old art and then it’s ready to share! I never got around to hanging a gallery wall for Eloise when she was in the nursery, so this felt like a major win!}

{No one wanted to cook dinner on Saturday so we headed to U Village. The playground was a must and Eloise loves these hand print tiles that decorate the walls. And can you tell what her favorite color is??}

{Eloise made the sweetest gifts for Father’s Day for Aaron at school. She was so, so excited to have him open them!}

{I shared this on Facebook and Instagram, but Daphne’s side-eye was worth sharing again!}

{Off to lunch we went! We used the stroller seat with the bassinet (rather than the car seat) and it worked so well!}

{Indian lunch buffet was Aaron’s choice and we picked up Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site for Eloise at the local free lending library en route!}

{Trying to tame the rhodie a bit while the girls napped this afternoon.}

{We crashed a friend’s birthday party and got to see Uncle Ben and Aunt Sarah. Of course Daphne had to try on the tiny sombrero.}

{These two. My heart.}

We had a pretty quite weekend that was slightly cool for my taste, but was so, so fun! Sometimes not having too many plans is the best way to spend the weekend.

And Happy Father’s Day to all of the amazing fathers out there, including our own Papa, Papaw (Aaron’s dad) and Paga (my dad)! And a Happy Birthday to Paga as well!

How was your weekend?

M

{Milk drunk. Love her.}

{Eloise and Grammie building a block tower.}

{Fist in mouth and grabbing hanging toys. Daphne’s awake time has gotten pretty exciting!}

{Painting with Grammie. Eloise would have painted every single minute of the weekend if we would let her! And blue was her choice of color since purple wasn’t available.}

{Dinner delivery is the best – no cooking!}

{Eloise was up early and Aaron headed to the gym this morning, so I asked her to stay in her room and read while I finished pumping. And she did! It was so sweet.}

{Grammie and Eloise made play-dough and then some cookies. This is the best “cheese!” I could get.}

{Baby D is can almost sit up with this Boppy pillow. Seriously, she is growing up way too quickly!}

{Our little garden is doing so well! We had our first salad from some of the greens and they were delish!}

{Running out the door to my regular Sunday afternoon Pure Barre class… I am always rushing out the door! This was class 17 out of 24!}

We had a nice sunny weekend and Grammie was in town, yay! We laid pretty low and hung out around the house. Just what we needed.

How was your weekend?

M

{Seriously, you guys, sisters are the best!}

{Making avocado dip for this amazing recipe. It’s definitely a go-to in our house!}

{Sleeping in and a morning barre class really put Daphne and I out of sync in terms of feedings on Saturday, so I spent a fair amount of time pumping.}

{Oh so happy!}

{Birthday party this afternoon. Happy birthday Andrew and Ford!}

{Lunchtime at this cutest tiny picnic table. Word on the street is that it is from IKEA. We may or may not need this for our girls!}

{Eloise and her friend Harlon enjoying some frosting together. The sweetest! These girls have known each other basically their entire lives and are BFFs!}

{Daphne napped thru basically the entire party and enjoyed some snuggles with Papa!}

{Some of the kiddos enjoying strawberry shortcake!}

{Basically my entire adult life I have wanted to have a strawberry planter and I finally picked one up this weekend. SO excited about this!}

{Tummy time this afternoon. She spent the first few minutes rolling but then stopped as soon as I got my phone out… She has been enjoying talking to herself in the mirror though!}

This weekend flew by but was so much fun! We got some stuff done around in the yard and also got to catch up with some friends – the best kind of weekend, right?

We are gearing up for the week and so excited because Aaron is on paternity leave! Eloise is still in school (for another three weeks!) so our daily/weekly routine will be similar, but we are hoping to squeeze in some fun summer activities too!

How was your week?

M

{We visited Papa’s office – and dropped off some new artwork Eloise made for him for his birthday – on Friday afternoon.}

{The kids’ table!}

{Family Dinner Night at the Sadliers. Good food, great company. The kids had so much fun playing together, Amanda made an amazing sangria, the weather was beautiful, and we all played Ticket to Ride for the first time which was super fun! Thanks for the BEST time Sadlier family!}

{With the sun out Eloise insisted on being outside basically every minute of the weekend. She even wore her hat (most of the time), sunglasses (some of the time), sun shirt, and reminded me to put sunscreen on her! Also, she always has these sneakers on the wrong feet…}

{Milk drunk.}

{I made it to Pure Barre Saturday AND Sunday morning! Just into the third week of the Summer Challenge and have 9 classes done!}

{Daphne is almost always this happy! And she wore this romper on repeat this weekend because it is so incredibly cute. Thanks Great Aunt Yaya and Gigi!}

{We picnicked at Sascha and Brad’s Marital Dance Party on Saturday night, and the food was delish!}

{One of my best friends from law school Sascha got married a few months ago and it was so amazing to see her this weekend and celebrate!}

{Ah my heart. I love these sisters.}

{Rocking tummy time.}

{Eloise spent all morning outside with Aaron and apparently insisted that she help him with his shoes! Such a helper.}

{Yes, my peonies are blooming. Well, two out of three of the plants are!}

We had almost no plans going into the weekend but amazing weather forecasted. I surprised Aaron with 2 hours of weeding (via the Neighborly app) for his birthday which inspired Aaron to be outside all weekend long. I didn’t get many pictures (but I will be sure to soon) but our yard looks AMAZING! The lawn was mowed and edged, the front flower bed next to our driveway was cleaned out (dirt, weeds, and extra plants out, landscape fabric down, bark on top), and the area around our raised bed was all cleaned out. And I spent most of today cleaning the house and doing laundry plus we already got our weekly grocery delivery, so things are pretty spectacular around here as we kick off this coming week! (Also, how is it almost June?)

Things are very exciting around here as we finally (finally) are going to have a stretch of “summer” weather PLUS this is Aaron’s last week of work before he takes the summer off – wahoo! We can’t wait to have Papa home during the week and have all sorts of summer adventures together.

I hope you had an amazing Memorial Day weekend! Also, do you know the difference between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day (and Armed Forces Day)? I didn’t until today.

How was your long weekend?

M

{Friday brought gorgeous sunny weather so we met Amanda and Elliott at Ella Bailey Park (in Magnolia) for a play date. The views were spectacular!}

{After the park we headed to Serendipity Cafe for some lunch. There is a great little play space for the littles and the food was delish. Thanks for such a fun morning Amanda and Elliott!}

{Daphne sporting her Pagliacci Pizza onesie. If you order a Pagliacci pizza to be delivered to your room in the hospital right after you have a baby, the delivery will include a special onesie! Needless to say we had pizza delivered to the room for dinner.}

{A package from Freshly Picked always makes for a great mail day. I ordered a pair of new sandals for Eloise and I can’t wait for her to wear them!}

{Daphne has been enjoying time in her playmat, and her hand too, and is starting to really roll from side to side. Once she is in her shoulder though she can’t roll back!}

{The sunny and warm weather meant we officially started grilling season! I love not having to cook in the kitchen when it’s hot.}

{Aaron vacuumed out the car which was such a nice surprise, even under the car seats!}

{Eloise was trying on her new summer hat. And since it matches Daphne’s new summer hat, Stella got to wear Daphne’s!}

{Aaron’s brother David was in town for a quick visit, and he and Ben and Sarah came over for dinner and shenanigans on Saturday.}

{Eloise was pretty excited to have Uncle David around. He kept telling her that something was on the ceiling and when she looked up he would tickle under her chin!}

{And Daphne was giving Aunt Sarah so many smiles.}

{And after Eloise went to bed, Ben, Sarah, and David played this hilarious game called Overcooked. I could never play it but it’s so funny to watch!}

{Milk dunk Daphne this morning. And she let me sleep in until 7 after sleeping without a peep all night!}

{Aaron hung some lines for our future peas to climb. All of our little veggie starts are finally  starting to grow!}

{Eloise was teaching Stella how to walk down the stairs like a big kid. And let her borrow her red sandals too. I promise this was safer than it looks!}

{Eloise was helping me with Daphne’s weekly photo shoot by taking some on her camera!}

{Thanks for coming out the visit Uncle David!}

We had a super fun weekend which was only made better by the amazing weather! It feels like we skipped spring and went right into summer. At least for the next few days… it is amazing how much difference the sun makes in our lives. 

I finished my first week of the Pure Barre Summer Challenge and only have five more weeks left. I was worried about taking 4 classes per week, but after the second class, I was feeling really good! The evening classes during the week are rough but it’s only for two more weeks until Aaron starts his paternity leave! Yes!

How was your weekend?

M

{Eloise made a few Mother’s Day presents last week and brought them home for me. Not sure exactly what they are (paperweights?) but I still love them!}

{Love my girls!}

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{You guys, Daphne’s little voice!}

{Aaron and his brother (and Eloise!) had a good time on Saturday afternoon. I didn’t even ask when I saw the wigs come out…}

{All out of lactation cookies, better make more!}

{I think I may be out of my mind, but I joined the Pure Barre Summer Challenge which started today! 24 classes in 6 weeks – no joke. My legs are already jello after this afternoon’s class! But, it’s so great to have an hour in the studio for both my physical fitness and mental sanity!}

We had a low-key weekend which is pretty much what we needed after hitting the ground running this week. Gearing up for a busy week full of playdates and Pure Barre classes (and praying the rain lets up – seriously PNW!). How was your weekend?

And Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mamas out there!

M