Valentimes & Matching Clothes

Me trying to get a shot of the kids...

At church the other day it was brought to my attention that our family 'matches' a lot.

Holden was photographer for these shots

I was asked if I did it on purpose.



Laughing I responded: "oh yes, I just want to make sure in case we're photographed that we have coordinating outfits for a family Christmas card."



I knew I coordinated a color scheme/theme for when we have official family photos done, but I didn't realize I was actually making our family matchuy-matchy.



Valentines was apparently no exception. Holden was still within in 24 hour widow of flu, so our Valentines plans got cancelled. That said, he had been vomit-free for 22 hours by the time dinner rolled around so I thought we'd get take-out Indian (it was my Valentines too, I wasn't cooking!) and celebrate with the kids.




I put them in something with Valentine Red and donned my red stretchy courds.



And suddenly, were the Von Trapps...again (minus the singing and the whole WWII piece).


Eventually, we found something that worked.


Oh, and lest you think I don't know the real word...yes I know it's Valentines... But Holden, like many a child his age uses the M. And I love it.



Hope everyone had a great month of LOVE!

Yoga Playdate: Try It On for FREE!

Me and Zoe-Bug Messing
Around This Morning

So on Wednesday mornings I teach a class at Salt Lake's newly rebranded "We Are Yoga" Studio.

It's called Yoga Playdate and it was created to go beyond a Mommy & Me class, or even a 'drop the babe at daycare while I workout' time.

Yoga Playdate was created for moms (and Dads) to have a safe place to get back into (or start) practicing yoga: where babies and toddlers can be right with them; practicing or playing.

The class, still in it's infancy (ha, see what I did there? Infancy, baby, get it?)... ok so the class was born from my frustration with a lack of resources for new moms --especially on the yoga scene. I didn't want to be practicing yoga at the gym with A/C blasting and the music pumping (I've done that before-never again).

As a brand new mom I wanted opportunities in community to connect with my baby, but most Mommy & Me classes were centered around signing songs for my child...Or the complete opposite where I had no opportunity to connect... Holden just lay on the floor beside my mat while I tried to get a workout in (or the in-house 'daycare' option that just didn't feel right for us.)

Yoga Playdate is a melding of asana (posture) and practice for Mom, unique access to community with parents in a similar phase of life and playtime for the little ones. If baby wants to crawl around- so be it, mom gets a hands free sun salutation.

If baby wants to be held, we modify Warrior One or work on mat stretches (I've had a nursing mom in Staff Pose more than once.)

And shared savasana is it's own reward.

I hope if you're in the Salt Lake are you'll join us. (Borrow someone's baby or toddler if you don't have your own.)

The studio is offering a promotion right now to try out the studio, so first class is FREE!

Wednesday mornings at 9:30 - 10:30 at the We Are Yoga studio (formerly Shiva Centre)  2065 East and 2100 South.

Washington's Bday

I picked up Holden from school last week to find two art projects included in his bag.

Here's the first one I saw:

Holden told me it was a mad-guy Washington. Then I saw another one that resembled our nation's first president a little better:

Grinning from ear to ear my son beamed and explained: "My teacher said I needed to try a little harder!"

The Ohio Cousins

I'm especially fond of the "Suite-Girl" Cousins

Cicely and the Cains were in town earlier this month. We took family pictures with the new additions of Zoë and Gwen. It was also the "babies" first time meeting. I say 'babies' because they are just over 3 months apart, but you'd think Z was a year older. I don't know what her rush is...

I love that she's a little person but slooow down!!!

At the Second Superhero Bash

The tragedy of the visit was that when the Cains arrived Zoë was sick with a head cold, a few days later (as I mentioned in Holden's bday post) they came down with ear infections and caught the stomach fly, and before they left both my kids had the flu too...

Making a Mardi Gras Mask at Discovery Gateway
And then Modeling it at Home

The good news is we did get some time together... And when Zoë was having her 24-hr bug, Holden enjoyed some time at Children's Discovery and the Planetarium, and Holden got yet another bday celebration out of it.

My mom sent over a bunch of pictures so I could be involved in a little of the fun times. These ones of Holden and Faye (just 6 weeks his senior) at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum came with the caption: "We only lost him once!" 

And the pic below is at the Planetarium - with Miles, Faye and Holden. I am so glad Holden got the opportunity to spend some extra time with them. I miss Cicely so much. Hope they return to us in SLC sooner than later!!!!

Holden's Superhero Birthday Bash

Sampling of the Decor

My kid loves superheroes. So the theme for this year's fête was easy. (Holden turned 4 on February 1st).

I have yet to give in and host a 'friend' party for my little guy, because by the time we invite first cousins, the attendee list is already eight-little-people deep (and that doesn't include parental "dates.") so family it is.

Captain Spears &
his self-made "Clown Mask"

Let me start off by Thanking the Academy, and Pinterest for giving me a host of options and ideas. I felt like it was easy to custom design Holden's party.

Liquid Superhero "Juice"

The best part for me was seeing Holden's excitement. As we were getting his 'Captain Spears' costume on, he said "this is going to be the best party ever!" Which totally brought me to tears because I had been working on it for more than a month, coordinating with my sisters and my sister-in-law about the date, and Cicely's kids (in town from Ohio) had come down with stomach flu and ear infections that morning.

Another collage:
Yes, some repeats

I felt sad for Holden, and even more sad for them ... They had been looking forward to it as much as we had. (We ended up celebrating with them a few days later so it all worked out--as it always seems to.

So here's the run down from Pinterest and what I used for party planning:

• Invites designed and 'customized' by The Patty Cake Press and I had them printed at Walgreens..
• Cake by my friend Ashlee Prisbrey of Topsy Turvey Cakes.
• Capes from The Southern Institute, though I used 'puff paint" from the 80s for a make-shift screen print using a freezerpaper-stencil.
• Masks were a free printable from Party Simplicity

The event flow:

Guests arrived to 'superhero training' and picked out a cape and decorated their own mask.

The AMAZING Cake:
Yes, I know we mixed DC & Marvel

Then went to our Fortress of Solitude in the basement for an obstacle course Danny had set up.

We returned upstairs for dinner (local free-range all beef hot dogs with vegan sourdough hogie-rolls for buns) and a collection of things Holden would eat ANY time: fresh strawberries, carrot sticks (no dip, just plain), seedless purple grapes, micro-brew (hfcs-free) rootbeer and Izzie sodas, and I even got chips for the occasion.

Holden and I had also made vegan chocolate cupcakes, because the kid loves frosting (though my frosting is never vegan), and I wanted to make sure our guests with egg allergies had a dessert option.

We did cake, ice cream and presents and it was a pretty perfect 60 -75 minute party.