Croix's 2nd Birthday

On Saturday we celebrated Croix' 2nd birthday with a Croix Town Party!!

Croix is obsessed with all things car and truck. Specifically red cars and red trucks. So much so in fact, I actually wrote him a song last year. Wanna hear it?

*Set to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star*

Red car, red car where are you?

We've been looking all through town. 

Up, up, up the road we go.

Down, down, down but no one knows. 

Red Car, red car where are you?

Red car, red car, We love you. 

It was an instant hit :) 

As we started thinking about what to do for his birthday, one thing was for sure...He was getting a red car!  And what does any car need? A town to ride around in of course! So, Brent and I went to work and built him a town full of places he frequents often.  Places like......

Target:

Complete with popcorn and apples - his favorite items to purchase !

And Home Depot:

He got this little workbench and tools for Christmas and he has been obsessed! Now he can officially pitch in on all of our projects around the house.

And lastly, there was a Starbucks, a bad habit he picked up from his Mom. 

One of the cool things about this car is it can be operated with a remote control. So, everyone took turns maneuvering Croix + friends (Hi Aria!) around the town. 

Even his cousin Gates enjoyed some time on the road with a red car of his own!

The town turned out to be our last DIY of 2017 and was relatively easy to put together. Weeks ago we made a run to Michaels and picked up wooden letters to spell out our 3 stops (Target, Home Depot & Starbucks). We also picked up some foam pieces to form the Target symbol + the red balls that sit outside of Target.

A few days before the party we started getting everything painted.

For the roads we cut out strips of brown paper and painted them black. Once dry, we used white spray paint to make the lines. The day of the party we cleared everything out of the garage and put the town together. It was relatively simple and super cute and most importantly Croix was all about it, especially THE CAR. When we brought the car down he said"wow!" Genuine excitement, it was so cute!

It's hard to believe how much he's grown in a year. The night of his first birthday he was able to stand by himself for the first time and now only 1 year later he can say whole sentences and run, skip and dance anywhere and everywhere. He's growing up and it's equal parts thrilling and heartbreaking to watch. But from what I hear that's what this whole parenting thing is all about. Happy Birthday Croix or as he says it "HAPPY DOO-DAY!!"

All photos are my own. 

Chit Chat ((August 17'))

August has been a busy month so far! Last week we had work + life the first half of the week and then on to a little family trip to Texas. My brother-in-law Jimmy's Mimi had a 90th birthday in Houston on Saturday, so we made a fun trip out of it by adding on San Antonio, Austin and Waco. This was my first time to visit Texas so I was all about seeing as much as possible in our short time. Each city was cool and fun in it's own way from the Alamo and River Walk in San Antonio to some delicious food and bats in Austin (yes, bats - google it!) to the charm that is Magnolia in Waco and finally a birthday party in Houston for the cutest 90 year old I know. We had a great time but we were excited to get back to Atlanta to see our little Croix Boy!

19 months old.

We did a LOT of walking in Texas and I wore these shoes every day. I brought tennis shoes as a back up in case my feet needed a break, but the sandals were comfortable and my feet were stylish and happy the whole time. For $49.50 that's a win.

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Before we get off the Texas subject we HAVE to discuss Magnolia. Are you guys Fixer Upper Fans? To be honest, I'm a new fan as I don't watch a ton of HGTV, but my Mother-In-Law, Cindy gave me their book for Mothers Day and I loved it. After that we started watching the show and Brent and I both really enjoy it. We were all super excited for the Waco portion of our trip and I'm happy to report that all things Magnolia did not disappoint. We got cupcakes at the bakery, shopped at the store, toured around the Seed & Feed, kicked a ball on the lawn and took a ton of pictures. It's just a happy place that is so well done and layered in consideration and inspiration.

The store was full of all kinds of good stuff and I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonably priced it was. It was hot and it was crowded but it was worth the drive and somewhere I would definitely recommend going if you get the chance.

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Let's talk food for a minute. Do you guys like pizza? If so, you need to try Varuni Napoli in Atlanta.

This place is not new, but it is easily our favorite pizza joint in the city. The pizza is made to order in a wood burning oven and it's the closest thing to the real deal italian pizza I have tasted here in Atlanta. Sometimes Brent and I go here, sit at the bar and watch them make the pizza, mentally taking notes in hopes the same tasty results will one day come out of our pizza oven.

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I found out about a little trick on Pinterest and now I have found myself using the site more than ever. Obviously Pinterest is a great place to get inspiration and ideas for anything and everything; house projects, outfits, workouts, recipes, costumes, etc. They have it all. But my biggest qualm with the site was you never could figure out where anything was from. Before, if you like a paint color, a piece of hardware, an earring, etc...you could click the picture and it may take you to a retail site, a blog, or just nowhere but often times I could never figure out where I could get what I was seeing and liking. It was frustrating and really turned me off from the site all together. But THEN I learned this trick....

Ok, we are going to use this pin of our dining room from our first house as an example.

So you are perusing Pinterest and you see this picture and really like the horse head on the table. It's just what you have been looking for! So you click the photo and it enlarges the image like this:

Now, do you see the little white square in the top right corner of the picture? If you click that a croppable square will appear that you can drag around the photo and then crop in around the element you want to know more about.....

Here you can see I have cropped around the horse head and now all kind of similar items are popping up on the right side.

How cool is that!? You're welcome in advance! 

Unless otherwise noted all photos are my own.