A Day In The Life // Our Daily Routine

So many of you have asked me to post more about our daily routine and I always find myself looking over my shoulder thinking you must be talking to someone else?!  Our life isn't all that interesting, but we do manage to always pack some fun into our days.  I'm finally sitting down to share more about our daily routine, hopefully I don't bore anyone too much ;).  This is generally how our days go, but I am also pretty flexible.  If we're having a blast somewhere, I don't think twice about pushing nap back.  And summer has definitely made mama a little more relaxed on the whole schedule thing!

The girls usually wake up around 8am (give or take fifteen minutes) and I don't wake up until they do.  I wish I was a morning person and woke up before them to get ready, but that's just not me.  I love sleep!  And I've also found that whenever I do set an alarm and wake up before them, they hear me (or sense me) and wake up early.  So we all get up around 8am each day.  I always go into Sloan's room first and give her a minute of cuddles.  Then we walk into Phayre's room together.  Sloan always says, "Good morning sister!!  How was your rest??" and Phayre lights up at the sight of her big sister.

We head downstairs and I get the girls both sippy cups of milk while they play in the playroom (our kitchen looks right into the playroom).  While they play, I make myself an iced coffee and get started on breakfast.  Both girls are loving a fried egg and toast right now, but P's most favorite breakfast is yogurt and fruit.  We sit at the island and eat breakfast together while Sloan tell's us stories and sings us songs.  If you follow me on snapchat or my Instagram stories, I'm sure you've seen the milk water rap.  After breakfast, the girls head back to the playroom while I clean up the kitchen.  I eventually join the girls in the playroom and we play and read books for awhile.

Around 9:30am, we head upstairs and I get the girls dressed and brush their teeth.  There's usually laundry to be done, clothes to be put away, and beds to be made.  So I run around tidying up the upstairs while Phayre follows me around saying, "Mama! Mama! Maaaaaama!!"  Phayre usually get's sleepy around 10/10:30am so I rock her to sleep while Sloan either plays in her room or has some iPad time in my room.  Once P is down, I try to squeeze a workout in, shower and get ready, or I just decide to ditch responsibility and play with Sloan.  If we have an early playdate or plans far away from home, P will just nap in the car or on me in the front pack or wrap for her morning nap.

Phayre usually naps for about an hour (hour and a half at most) and as soon as she wakes up, we run out the door to get errands done or play.  Home bodies we are not, so we get out pretty much every day.  Plus it's summer, so there are so many fun things to get out and do right now!  A lot of the time, I'll bring lunch with us and we eat lunch on the go.  Except for 2 days a week when Eric comes home for lunch.  Eric works pretty long hours, so when he comes home for lunch it's a great time for him to spend a little extra time with the girls.

Both girls go down for nap between 1:30 and 2pm.  We all read books in Sloan's room and then I head into Phayre's room to rock her to sleep.  While the girls nap, I clean the house up, answer emails, blog, or do other chores around the house.  The girls are usually up around 3:30pm.  They wake up within minutes of each other almost everyday... I think they sense each other.  I bring the girls downstairs and Sloan watches a cartoon for about 15-20 minutes while I make the girls a snack.  Then we play, read books, or do an art project (lately, we've just been playing in water in the backyard) until about 5pm.  We also have a park across the street from our house so if it's not too hot, we head over there to play.  A little after 5pm I start making dinner.  Eric is usually home between 6-6:30pm so I usually try to hold the girls out so that we can all eat together.

The rule in our house is "I cook, you clean."  So after dinner, Eric cleans the kitchen up while blaring the disney pandora station.  The girls run around the house and I take the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes!  Once the kitchen is cleaned up, we'll either play in the backyard or playroom or go on a walk around the block.  By 7:15-7:30pm, we throw the girls into our big soak tub (they have their own bathroom and have bathed in there maybe three times) for bath time.  They play until their toes are wrinkly and then we lotion them up, brush teeth, and put jammies on.

Eric usually takes P into her room and rocks her to sleep while I read Sloan a few books in her bed.  P is down by 8:15 and Sloan by 8:30!  Eric and I head back downstairs for some alone time and to catch up on our shows.  Pretty wild and crazy, my friends!

For those of you who asked about our daily routine, I hope this is what you're looking for!  Please post comments below if I missed something.  Of course there are cuddles and tantrums and 98273478234 outfit changes mixed in between all of this!  Our days may not be the most exciting, but we do have a lot of fun!

Xo

Marisa

Hello Baby Brown Basics Set // Miss Rubylocks

My good friend Julianne from Miss Rubylocks recently asked me to design a bow set for her shop and I jumped at the opportunity.  No secret here that mama loves bows!!  I had so much fun choosing the perfect fabrics and I love the way my set turned out.

Florals and polka dots are my two favorite patterns so I knew I had to choose one of each.  I wanted fabrics that could easily transition from summer to fall and I think I nailed it.  The floral fabric is dreeeeamy, I cannot get enough of it.

Once I found the perfect floral and dot fabric, I started looking at solids.  Chartreuse is one of my most favorite colors right now so that was a must.  I stumbled upon the prettiest dusty rose fabric and knew that was the perfect color fabric to complete the set!  These bows really can go with so much, the perfect set of basics!

I hope you guys love this set as much as I do, I'm so happy with how it turned out!  You can purchase the set here!  And make sure to take a look at all of the other goodies Miss Rublocks has to offer (Julianne basically offers bows in every fabric imaginable)!

Xo

Marisa

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The Girls Right Now

Well it's no secret that my blog posts have been few and far between lately.  The girls have just been WAY TOO MUCH FUN this summer.  All we do is run around and play.  Very little gets checked off my to-do list each day and I wish I could say I was mad about it, but nope.  I'm having way too much fun!  I thought I'd do a quick catch up on the girls as they're changing SO rapidly!

Phayre is 12.5 months old, which is crazy because I still have not processed that she's one.  She's walking right into toddlerhood and this mama is not ready at all.  And by walking, I mean really walking!!  Girlfriend is walking up a storm these days!  She took 33 steps today!  33 steps right across our garage!  She still crawls sometimes (when she feels like it), but for the most part she's walking!  I love the drunken wobbly new walker walk, I think it is just the cutest ever.  She's also talking a bunch.  She says "hi" and "bye" to anyone who looks her direction.  She also loves talking to Eric on the phone while he's at work and says, "hi dad!" and "bye dad!".  It's seriously way too cute.  She calls all dogs "boo boo" since thats our dogs nickname.  She yells "BABY!" when she see's a baby, which is very cute but also kinda breaks my heart because even she knows she isn't much of a baby anymore.

Phayre still loves food (shocker, I know), she can eat about twice as much as Sloan at any given meal.  I weighed the girls this morning and they are only SIX POUNDS APART.  Crazy how different they are (in seriously every way possible!).  I'm not complaining one bit about having a good eater though!    Sloan is still picky and a total string bean.  While I'm glad she likes a lot of healthy things, our options are still pretty limited.  Thank goodness for ranch dressing, she dips everything in that stuff.

Phayre doesn't know a stranger and will let anyone hold her, but she is such a mama's girl at heart (and I love that).  She loves me so much!!  She follows me around all day saying, "Mama! Mama! Maaaaama!" and when I pick her up she lays her head on me and then gives me kisses.  She totally thinks Sloan is the shit though.  She watches everything Sloan does and tries to copy her.  Oh and she thinks Sloan is hilarious.  All Sloan has to do is look at P and she starts cracking up.  Then I try to do the same thing and she looks at me like, "Mom, what's wrong with you?"  I should probably get used to my daughters doing that to me.

Sloan is three years and three months old and is having an "I'm a three year old and I'm either going to be the sweetest thing ever or I'm going to be a major ass hole" kind of week.  Sloan is SO incredibly loving and affectionate, which is one of my most favorite things about her.  She is also very sassy lately.  And having a really hard time listening.  I feel like I repeat myself allllll day long so we're really focusing on that and working on it right now (hello sticker chart).  She rarely gets into too much trouble though because she is so sweet with Phayre (it is definitely her most redeeming quality).  They play together all day now and I couldn't be happier about it.  They're constantly kissing and cuddling and making me wish I had a sister!  There really is something so incredible about that sister bond.

Sloan's imagination is on fire right now.  She has an imaginary friend named Mahara and an imaginary daughter named Gizabelle.  She takes care of Gizabelle all day long, it's so sweet and freaking hilarious.  She is super interested in the interworkings of the family tree so she regularly tells me I'm Gizabelle's grandma.  And then sometimes when we're in public, she screams that I'm grandma and will only refer to me as grandma.  We've gotten some real fun looks with that one.  Best damn looking grandma around though if I may say so myself ;).

About two or three weeks ago Sloan conquered her MASSIVE fear of water and I cannot keep her out of the water now!  The last few weeks have been amazing, she's constantly swimming, jumping in the pool, and just having the best time ever.  Phayre is very much a water baby so we've been beating the heat one pool sesh at a time.  The girls are also obsessed with our new blow up flamingo pool, and if I'm being honest I'm totally obsessed with her too (plus she's more than 50% off right now).

So yeah, summer is treating all of us pretty darn good.  Sloan is getting ready to head back to preschool so I'm trying to prepare for fall and for life to go back to normal.  Which means I'll have to start staying caught up on laundry and making dinner regularly #bummer.  But until then, it's all play, very little work, suntan lines, sticky popsicle faces, and late night walks around the block.

We heart you summer!

Xo

Marisa

Swan float.  Flamingo float.

Welp, we know she's mine :-P

Flamingo pool.

This adorable swimsuit is by Minnow Swim (I'm obsessed!).

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Recently I had the most amazing pasta salad from my local grocery store.  I knew I had to recreate it and I am so happy with how it turned out.  I don't mean to toot my own horn, buuuuut toot toot!  It was amazing!!  I knew I had to share it with you guys and bonus it's SO easy.

What you'll need:
-12 ounces cooked farfalle (bowtie) pasta
-1 cucumber (diced)
-1 pint cherry tomatoes (halved)
-1/2 red onion (sliced)
-1/2 cup pitted kalmata olives (I cut them in half)
(I didn't add these, but you could also add sun dried tomatoes or diced bell pepper)
-1 container (5 oz.) crumbled feta cheese
-3/4 cup balsalmic dressing (I used a 'white balsamic and honey' salad dressing from my local grocery store... you may want to use a little more or less dressing)
-1 teaspoon honey
-pinch of red pepper flakes
-salt and pepper to taste
-chopped basil (I topped the salad with a ton of basil because I love basil, add as much as you'd like)

What to do:
1. Cook the pasta, drain, and then run cold water over it for about 30 seconds so that it's no longer hot.

2. Put the pasta in a large bowl and mix in the cucumber, tomato, red onion, olives, and feta cheese.  Mix well.

3. Drizzle the balsalmic dressing, honey, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes over the salad and mix in the feta cheese.

4. Top with chopped basil.

That's it!  Easy peasey right!  This salad is perfect for a weeknight dinner or a barbecue with friends.  When I made this salad, I also made grilled chicken (which I marinated in the same balsalmic dressing that I used in the salad).  Oh and rosè paired very well with this meal :).  The only downside of this meal is that you can't really make it the day before, the veggies get pretty soggy.

I'm obsessed with our  outdoor wine glasses, plus they're on sale right now!

I hope you guys enjoy this salad as much as my family did!

Xo

Marisa

Oh and shocker, our resident foodie LOVED this pasta salad!