This was supposed to be my Wordless Wednesday post but clearly I am feeling a bit chatty. Enjoy : )

My son thinks my friend Amanda’s son is the coolest guy on earth. He says they’re best buddies. I knew he wanted to play trains with his best buddy before we left for Indiana so I hit up Amanda. She kindly drove ninety minutes to Ithaca so our little guys could have a play date. You already know what photographer playdates look like. 

Amanda and I hauled three toddlers, an Uppababy stuffed with trains, a shopping cart, my Polaroid, a vintage quilt, picnic basket, beautiful chair, and a handful of gorgeous props to an open grassy field next to Cornell’s campus. When we arrived there was a group of deer eating peacefully a few feet away. The weather was nice and the sun was warm.

The kids were…somewhat cooperative. Amanda got some incredible shots of Preston (I’ll share those next week) but when it came time to shoot Cameron things went awry. She was crabby. Shocking, I know. She is the happiest baby ever until I *really* want her to do something (anything!) and then a tooth decides to poke through. Oh well. Amanda snapped some great photos of Cameron. I didn’t since I was trying to keep an eye on the boys but I got a few cute snapshots.

Hmm, why am I sitting on this chair wearing these crazy leg ruffles while the boys look for snakes in the grass?

Oh. I see what this is. You didn’t bring me out here to play, did you? DID YOU!?!

See Mom, this is why I scribbled on your white couch. I’ll do it again too.

Oh, thank Elmo my big brother is here to save me!

How adorable is this vintage dress Amanda brought? I wanted to run away with it. SO CUTE.

Oh, and Cameron if you’re reading this (it’s a stretch but she already counts to 20 soo) take note: if you don’t want pictures taken of yourself, stop being so cuddly and gorgeous. There. I said it.

Nap times at our house have been wonky lately. I have a pretty high success rate when it comes to tandem napping. It isn’t easy. There are some serious conditions that must be met to get two small children to sleep for at least an hour at the same time (goat sacrifice, black magic, etc.) but I found a system and it worked for us for a long time.

Not anymore.

I am trying to adjust to Pweezy dropping his nap and so is Cmoney. I took the pictures below on a day that tandem napping was a failure. Cmoney likes to wiggle Pweezy’s pillow, poke him in the face, and laugh loudly if she wakes up before he does so I rushed her upstairs before she could wake her brother.

She recently developed a serious affection for books and decided to read her bear a story. It was cute and distracted me from my lost, treasured quiet time.

I love my wild haired pumpkin.

It is also Sweet Shot Tuesday and I have a doozie to share. Look at Mr. Pweezy modeling his pea coat last weekend.

Could he be any cuter? Right after I took this shot he ran over to me hugged me and told me he loved me. I am so lucky that he doesn’t hate the camera…yet.

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It seems like forever ago that Cmoney was a newborn. She has always been a mysterious baby. I knew everything about Pweezy before he was born. From his giant eyeballs to his inquisitive nature. This was not the case with our princess. It has been a joy to watch her grow and watch her personality develop (even if she is aging me prematurely. Dios mio).

She has always been a very vocal and happy baby. We love it. She speaks in her baby gibberish and smiles her huge dimpley smile and instantly makes everyone’s day better. My favorite thing about Cmoney is her dancing skills. I always wanted a dancing baby. Pweezy would not cooperate. He bobs his head and does a little two-step shuffle but he is way too cool to really get into it. Cmoney has no shame. She dances from morning to night and it is phenomenal. Even Pweezy can’t help himself when Cmoney really gets going. They have been participating in baby dance battles and my life is now pretty much complete.

I adore my marshmallow princess and wanted to throw her a garden tea party for her first birthday. As was also the case with Pweezy’s party, time, space, weather, and location constraints dictated some creative planning on our parts. We had to move the party from our yard to the community center since it had rained earlier in the day. As the day progressed the weather improved so we decided to visit the Cornell Arboretum for some family photos. We then dined at a fantastic restaurant called Maxie’s Supper Club. It was a perfect day (even if I was threatening to cancel the party in the middle of the night the evening prior because Cmoney was up teething and screaming in my face until 1:00 a.m.).

I love and appreciate my family. My mother, sister, mother in law, and father in law drove 10-12 hours round trip for a one day visit. It meant a lot to us. We missed those that couldn’t attend but are thankful they were able to visit us in July to see the kids at Pweey’s birthday.

Happy birthday to Cmoney, the marshmallow princess, my eezo beezo. We love you more than you love stealing food from your brother. Yes. That much.

Strawberry whipped cream frosted cupcakes were a hit

I didn't want to take my party hat off.

Pweezy was either stealing petit fours, running around, or napping. I wasn't able to take many pictures of him but he had a fabulous time.

My sister and mother with the birthday girl.

She is a big girl now.

Boo. Missing Pweezy.

Best grandpa ever.

Missing my little man but beautiful nonetheless.

To say that we loved the decorations would be a huge understatement. We got the birthday hats and cupcake toppers from The Prop Shop Boutique. They are so beautiful that I cannot throw them away. I just can’t. I have *zero* space in this apartment but refuse to part with these party hats. You can check them out on Facebook too. I highly recommend them for your party needs.

Oh and Miss Cmoney’s fascinator is from Cabecita’s Lindas. She loved it and wore it happily. I wore it out to dinner once she had moved on to a headband : ) Visit this lovely shop for hats, headbands, clips, bridal, birthday, and photography prop needs. They are on Facebook too. Remember Cabecita’s Lindas because I have a really great review of their new no tug elastic hair ties coming up.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

I am happy to be linking up at my3boybarians for Sweet Shot Tuesday. I have something wonderful to share. Well, it is wonderful to me because she is my daughter and I love her.

Some of you might already be tired of this shot. I took it yesterday and I am absolutely delighted with it.

It has been a little chilly outside lately and we do not yet have full Fall gear for Miss Cmoney. Here she is in a hand-me-down of Pweezy’s and a cute sweater her Godfather Jordy and adopted auntie Sasha bought her.

I adore this little girl more than words can say and cannot believe she will be one year old in six days. I just can’t.

I had originally intended to show you my latest crafty fail but after taking a few pictures of my daughter in my latest creation I decided that my first rosette making attempt was not a fail at all. You are totally welcome to disagree and laugh at me though. If I catch you I will give you a wedgie.

I have a ton of unused grosgrain ribbon from several of my late night Etsy shopping sprees. I always forget to check the size of the ribbon I am purchasing which means I often find myself at a loss about what to do with my motley crew of ribbon. I saw a t-shirt rosette tutorial on The Creative Maven and a light bulb went off in my head. Why not try it with some of my ribbon?

Here is the finished product. Please excuse the finger paint on Miss Cmoney’s beautiful face:

Note: That is fingerpaint on her face.

I am not pretending to be a crafty blogger, in fact my poor husband asked me why there were little holes all over the onesie to which I responded “Hey! Don’t make fun of me I don’t know how to sew! I’ll freaking cut you!”.

However if you have some unused ribbon and plain white onesies hanging around then feel free to give these adorable rosettes a try:

Supplies:

• Plain colored (I used some of Pweezy’s old hand me downs) onesie
• Grosgrain ribbon (any size but the thicker the ribbon is the easier it is to work with)
• Glue gun/Hot glue
• Needle & Thread

Instructions:

• Take a six-inch piece of ribbon and begin twisting it tightly from the top (if you are using patterned ribbon make sure that as you twist the ribbon that the pattern is facing outward)
• Start rolling the ribbon in a circular fashion as if you were making a snail’s tail (makes perfect sense right?
• Periodically glue the ribbon to itself (make sure that the glue is primarily on the underside of the rosette)
• Keep twisting and gluing working outward until your circle becomes a rosette
• When you reach the end of your ribbon twist the end tightly and behind the rosette.
• Glue the end to the back of the rosette
• Sew rosettes on to the onesie.

That’s it!

So easy you don’t even need step-by-step pictures or a video which is great because there is no way these kids would ever let me do such a thing.

I have plenty of crafty fails I will eventually share but I consider this one a success for the following reasons: I found a purpose for a stack of old slightly stained onesies I was hesitant to throw away, used up a heap of ribbon, practiced my horrendous sewing skills that I am determined to improve, and Cmoney looks too cute in her new onesies.

What do you think? Any rosette making tricks or tips for me? I might attempt a headband next.