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Growing up my mom used to call me a junk food junkie. I LOVE horrible food. Not so much deep fried or anything like that. I can take or leave french fries and crisps, and I would rather not eat candy then eat the sugary stuff aka sweet tarts, nerds etc. My junk of choice is chocolate, with a little ice cream on the side and washed down with a freezing cold soda. My mom didn’t let us drink soda as kids except for special occasions, like birthdays or Christmas. We would also get a can of our favorite in our field trip lunches, which incidentally were always the best lunches EVER! The fact that I ate a ton of crap as a teenager never seemed to have much effect on me. I swam competitively through my freshman year at college so this meant I was working out several hours a day. Instead of the freshman 15 I was down to my smallest weight since I was a young teen. This was mainly because my diet consisted of nothing for breakfast, a candy bar and soda for lunch and something carbie for dinner. I chalk this up to the fact that I lived in an apt freshman year where you made your own food. I just decided it was easier not to eat. Honestly if my mom hadn’t come down once a week with some groceries I think I might have become malnourished ha! Once I stopped swimming competitively  my mom warned that my metabolism would catch up to me. Honestly I was genuinely scared about this. Ironically enough though when my metabolism did catch up to me it turned out I inherited my dads. He could always eat what ever he wanted and only fluctuate a few pounds in either direction. What is completely unfortunate about this is it meant I didn’t change my habits at all. I STILL eat horribly. I never eat breakfast. It is always the most hectic time at our house. Chris sits down and eats with the kiddos so there is a parent there while I am running around the house like a mad women trying to remember all the various “show and tells” and “theme of the day” items. Once I get Sawyer on the bus and the rest of the kids in the car to take Finn to school I have kind of lost that hunger edge and figure I will just wait for lunch since I will be running around all morning. Once I drop Finn off generally head one of three places, Target, Giant grocery store  or Costco. We are always in “need” of something that I forgot on the last trip. We race through the store and I toss in my favorite, a york peppermint pattie and a coke at the check out. This now becomes my lunch because by the time we pick up Finn and get everyone back in the house the kids are demanding various items for their own lunch and before I know it the girls are down for naps and it is Finn and me time. He doesn’t especially like when I am distracted during this time so there goes my chance to eat some sort of normal lunch. Evie wakes up, we all head down to the park and wait until we go meet Sawyer at the bus stop. Sawyer of course being Mr. Social has already scheduled a bazillion play dates so we stay outside until Dad gets home. At which I time I think “Dang it! Dinner!” I attempt to throw together some semblance of a meal. We have family time, bathe the kids, get them in bed and I sit down for “free time”. It is now I realize I am still hungary so I grab some oreos or another coke etc. This goes around and around. Often dinner ends up being take out because I have forgotten a key element in what ever dinner I miraculously thought to thaw the meat for. Where is the water? Where is the fresh fruit? It isn’t that we don’t have them. Our kiddos are fruitaholics. When we are out of apples I literally get a lecture from Sawyer. Now maybe I should be grateful that I have a speedy metabolism.  The thing about it is, I feel awful. My Dad (Dad if you happen to be reading this I love you!) is a slender guy, he plays tennis several times a week with buddies. A few years ago he went to have a body scan and they found some heart trouble. He ended up having a sixtuplet bypass. SIXTUPLET! I didn’t even know that was possible. Looking at him you would never think we would have a heart like that but guaranteed it is due to all the horrible food he eats. My mom used to say you are what you eat and apparently I am junk. I am just horrible at food planning.  I really genuinely want to make a change but it seems so over whelming. Where do you start? Have you seen the rise in cancer and other diseases? I swear it is because we are such an unhealthy society. I don’t want that for my kids, but I have no idea what to do. How do you handle it? Is there a book I should read? A method I should follow? I want this to be realistic. We are not going vegan. But there has to be some way that I can make us healthier with out dominating my life. We have tried weekly schedules but it gets so boring. I guess what I want is someone to tell me “when you go to the grocery store get these items A B & C this will mean you have everything to need to make these meals X Y Z”. I would LOVE to find something before we head to Paris so then when we get there we can just pretend to the kiddos that paris doesn’t have fruit snacks and goldfish crackers etc. I know this is a big change, a lifestyle change but I am beyond ready to make it. So, I am asking for some friendly advice. If someone has written a healthy cook book for the none healthy cooker that would be perfectI know ya’ll have some suggestions lets hear them!

Cheers!

Kelly

(as I write this I polished off my pattie and coke from Target….yeah this is sad)

I am proud to introduce our newest sponsor Birdsong Bows!

The first time I was introduced to Birdsong was on one of my favorite photography blogs Peekaboo Photography. I drool over that site and am always wondering where in the world she gets her girls adorable accessories. Now I know!

What I love is that you aren’t purchasing the actual bows but e-books teaching you how to make your own!

I love this because then I can choose the colors and patterns that I specifically want.

Plus it means I can make an unlimited amount for half the price actually buying a bow like this would be!

It isn’t just hair bling over at Birdsong though. Look at this amazing ribbon cockade ornaments:

You know what I am making for Evie’s birthday party in a few weeks!! Plus they just added this adorable tote pattern:

I am actually pretty excited for Evie and Chloe to get into Barbies. I was HUGE into them when I was little. When she does we will totally be making this tote for bringing them to playdates!

Please take a moment to hop on over to their Etsy store here: Birdsong Bows or their main website HERE and support this lovely new sponsor! You can also follow along on the lovely blog HERE.

Cheers!

Kelly

This week we celebrated Sawyers Sixth Birthday.

(This is one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken of him. It was 5:30am while we were vacationing with friends on a tiny island off the coast of East Timor. It was too hot to sleep and Sawyer begged to go swimming. This is him on the dock getting ready to jump in) 

Sawyer is positively thrilled to be six. After his birthday while I was tucking him in he said “mom I totally can’t believe I am six!”
I can’t believe you are six either Sawyer! Time goes by WAYYYY to fast.
Though I have to say I am loving this age! He still believes in “magic” and doesn’t know for sure what is real and what isn’t. But can be reasoned with and understand actions and consequences so much better. The other night after watching Kung Foo Panda 2 we had this funny conversation:

Sawyer: “Why wasn’t monkey hurt when there was fire on his head?’

Me: “Because this isn’t real Sawyer it is a cartoon. Panda bears also can’t do king foo”

Sawyer: “I know that. Just tigers can do king foo”

Me: “Sure bud. I think we should go to the zoo again for a reminder of what Pandas and Tigers actually do”

He is such a sweet boy and we are so infinitaly blesses having him as the big brother in our family

So adorably goofy at times

He already takes this role very seriously and really tries to be a good example to his brother and sisters

He is extremely tender. He still gets scared relatively easily

He is like me and doesn’t like to see other people be embaressed. If there is an awkward moment for someone on a movie he hides behind his hands

He and his brother are best friends and 99% of the time Sawyer is extremely patient with Finn.

He still lets me snuggle him and reminds me every night to give him good night kisses!

In each class he as joined in the past year his teachers always remark on his ease in making friends.

He has a talent for including everyone and making sure no one feels left out

He LOVES apples and will literally eat almost the whole thing often spitting out the seeds.

He adores “creating” and art. Given the choice of playing video games, legos etc or an art project he will hands down choose the art.

He has become a really good sport about having his picture taken and will often ask for it to be taken.

He is becoming a better reader every day, even if he hates wearing his glasses

I have a fun shoot planned for his birthday but didn’t want to drag him out ON his birthday and force him to do a big photo shoot so that will come soon enough

Along with Foreign Service Friday I thought it would be fun to have a series where I post about what we are doing to get ready for our family to move to Paris. We have started the 9 week ticker and suddenly I feel like time is going way to fast yet simultaneously not fast enough ha! I will try and share and tips or tricks I have found that work when moving an entire family transatlantically but I also want to be able to recieve suggestion from you. Believe me I read each and every comment and LOVE advice! Lets get the party started!

Today I decided it was high time I go through our kids clothes and get things organized. This was also spurred by the fact that I did SIX read it SIX loads of laundrey, and our apt has those big ‘ole industrial washers. I figured while I am washing basically everything we own I might as well pull out the horribly stained or too small items. I am not going to lie, I absolutely enjoy doing this. I know, some of you are gagging at your computer. I also love to iron but that is another story ha! I have been crazy about organizing the kids clothes since Sawyer was little. This picture was taken in our toy room at our law school home after one such feverish organization session.

Yup, those are alllll boy clothes for the first year. Scary right? I went a little over board with the boy clothes ha! Today it was mainly about Chloe. I had received a big package from my lovely parents containing her 6-12 month hand me downs. I love this process because along with the fact that every outfit has a memory it also shows what I was “into” with each child. Getting Chloe’s clothes organized for example showed me I apparently could not get enough baby legs with Evie ha! This is probably only half the collection of leggings I had packed away.

It is kinda funny because as I folded and put them away I realized they were barely worn, some didn’t seem like they had EVER been worn. I think that is because while I liked the idea of baby legs I just never remembered they were there ha! So cute but not really all that practical. I was sad packing up Chloe’s 0-6 month knowing that we personally will never be using them again. knowing that they would be handed of to another Crawford munchkin I went through and removed the ones covered with stains and the ones I thought I could oxyclean the stains out of and put the rest of the items in one of her size one diaper boxes. I also put a yummy smelling sachet in each or at the VERY least a scented dryer sheet. This is my storage method of choice, though the boy’s clothes were all in labeled tupper ware bins just like Rachele on Small Notebook does:

The main problem that faces our family was that Foreign Service homes rarely have ample storage. Do we really want to use a large chunk of our weight allowance for clothes we might or might not ever use? This is why I am fairly heavy handed when it comes to my sorting. If I loved something and it was worn often (but doesn’t look shabby) then I will keep it. If it is in pristine condition you can probably bet I never put in on one of the munchkins and thus goes into the donate pile…. I know giving away perfect condition clothes seems silly but why keep it if you aren’t going to wear it right?

Before we started our life in the Foreign Service we would store all our children’s clothes in my in-law’s basement. They had a huge unfinished basement and this was where all six of Chris’s sisters would put maternity clothes and children’s clothes that they weren’t using. This was trickier for us since we quickly moved to Williamsburg after Sawyer’s birth but if you have a large family with lots of hand me downs having it in a neutral place is AWESOME. That is if you have a willing party with an empty basementIf you are overly concerned about water or moister in a basement or storage unit Attempting Aloha suggests using comfortor bags you can buy at the dollar store:

Our kids clothes are now clean and organized ready to be shipped to Paris! Hooray! As a side note while I was looking through our family blog for pictures of previous organization sessions I could not believe how much Finn and Chloe look alike:

I love how you forget things so quickly. Chloe already has two teeth. Chris and I have both been saying how this is the earliest any of our kids have gotten teeth. But Finn is only one in the picture above and already had a mouthful! These two share a bond that goes beyond look alikes. Finn proposes to Chloe on a daily basis. I love how these two have connected. They are both such chill kids that I think they like being around one another. Today Finn told me he needed to become a ninja to keep all the bad guys away from Chloe. Best reason I have hear to become a Ninja!

Anyhow, do you have any tips or tricks for packing away your hand me downs? Do you tend to hoard or purge? Have you ever gotten rid of something only to regret it horrible a week later? (I have soooo done this!)

Cheers!

Kelly

Tonight I finally got all the emails sent out about the spring swap. Thank you for your patience if you are paticipating. It was quiet an undertaking and I really tried to get people what they wantedI cannot tell you how much fun I had reading all the countries and states. While we had way more international participants then I had thought we would there were still more people state side who wanted an international partner so next time I will try to really pump up our international audienceIt made me absolutely giddy to know I have readers from all over the world! I loved seeing all the pictures in peoples profiles. So many gorgeous women! My absolute favorite though were reading the three words you used. I just HAD to share some of them and inspiration for things you could send that would apply to them:

all images are linked back to their original location…. just in case browsing turns to buying ha! All are $15.00 or under

Vintage:

here

Numerical:

here

Dots

Nerdy

Found here

Turquoise

found HERE

Red

Found HERE

Green (The color most often mentioned)

Found HERE

My personal favorite: Awesome

found HERE

or….

found HERE

Thank you so much everyone for participating. It was really fun to organize. I can’t wait to see the packages that are created from it. If you get a chance please email me a picture of your creation!

Cheers!

Kelly