Happy 3rd birthday Anna!

She wanted to go to Build a Bear for her birthday to make a Pinky Pie pony decked out with a song, scent, a dress, shoes, and roller skates! She's wearing the Maggie at Tea dress by Matilda Jane, Royal ruffles pants by Matilda Jane, and purple satin shoes from Baby Gap fall '12.

Rainbows=happy

It was a rainy morning, and we were excited to see the sun come out.  Anna is wearing a Carters tee that says "Rainbows make me smile." Her tutu skirt is Gymboree and her stripy leggings are Circo from Target last spring. She's wearing a little rainbow hair clippie that I made.  Henry is sick in bed, so he missed out on the photo op, which is too bad because he has the perfect coordinating "Roy G. Biv" shirt. ;)

Brave Men

My little guy is sick, so we went to the pediatrician this morning. Henry was a bit nervous about going because he was afraid he'd get a shot. Luckily, he had the perfect shirt to wear today. It's from Peek...Aren't You Curious and it says, "BRAVE MEN RUN IN MY FAMILY."  So cute! He's wearing blue shorts from Baby Gap outlet and his cool Adidas Neo sneakers.
Anna is wearing a Mini Boden dress with applique cherries and her pink sparkle Toms. She's also wearing a little clippie that I made her because her hair needs something or it just looks very messy.

Before we went to the doctor Henry was moping around and was acting so sick. Of course when we get there this is how he looked:

 

Sigh.

 

At Therapy

Anna has started attending occupational therapy once a week to help her with her sensory processing disorder. We've only been going a short while, but have already seen changes in her, and have learned great strategies for helping her get through her day with less meltdowns.



 

She's wearing THE red school dress by Matilda Jane along with those fantastic matching Target shoes. So glad I got this dress before it sold out, and also that I got a discount by being a "Jane" and hosting a trunk show for that release. Love it!

Here's Henry, who thinks that the fun therapy games and toys are for him. He's pouting in this picture I think because little sister knocked his block tower over. His shirt is Mini Boden, and the volume graphic is perfect for him because he is a LOUD boy. His shorts are Baby Gap Playtime favorites. His shoes are Crocs that change colors in the sun. He loves that, of course. 

A little electronic distraction

While Henry takes his taekwondo lesson there is very little for Anna to do. So I have started bringing along the Leap Pad and letting her play on it for the hour of his lesson. It's actually pretty much the only time she gets to play, so it really keeps her entertained. This was definitely one of "Santa's" better gifts!

Love her little tongue sticking out!

 And of course, the obligatory "I don't want my picture taken" photo. Gosh she's pretty...even when she's trying hard not to be.

 

Her top is a little Carters tee that I got last year and had forgotten about. Her turquoise skirt is another "back of the closet" find. It's a Kate Quinn organics, and I love the sweet little bow tie on the side. I added a white tutu from Target underneath to give it a little more length. Her fun necklace is from Carters and was basically free with rewards money I earned. Her shoes are the Oilily ones that I posted on awhile back. They are a bit big on her, but she insisted. 

 

Rainy gray day

It's a rainy, cold yuck April day, which is very rare for where we live. I didn't feel good so we just stayed inside all day and played. Since I stay at home with the kids, we are home more than we go out, so we wear lots of comfy play clothes. They have a whole separate wardrobe of them...things I don't mind too much if they get ruined from playing in the backyard or doing art projects.

Don't you love those FAKE smiles? Really great.

 

Anyway, I guess the rainy day made me subconsciously dress them in shades of black and gray.

Anna is wearing a Baby Gap tee that I got off of a Facebook resale page (how funny is that dog in the fanny pack?). Her leggings are dark gray with an adorable cream colored lace detail on the side and gray/black leopard ruffles at the bottom. I bought them in Korea when we traveled to get Anna.

Fun fact: Korea has AMAZING shopping. I bought quite a lot of stuff there, and I wish I had bought more!

Henry is wearing a Carters tee and almost too short Carters gray knit pants.

 

They are posing in their playroom, which doubles as our home preschool room. I should take pics of it sometime for you. ;)

 



Church clothes

I love getting the kids all dressed up for church. There is just something special to me about putting on your best clothes to go each week, and I'm glad that our church hasn't done away with the tradition of dressing up as so many other churches have. I am not judging against casual churches, and I know that many people like the "come as you are" approach. I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. It's just that I personally love the tradition of getting dressed up for worship. It adds a specialness to the experience in my mind. Maybe that's because I'm a clothes person? ;)

Anna's dress is from Beary Basics that I ordered off of Zulily during our long wait to bring her home. I added a pink tutu skirt underneath to add some fullness to it. Her giant hairbow is a favorite of mine, but it's a little much for some tastes, as it is literally as big as the top of her head. ;)

Henry is wearing an outfit from Crazy 8 that I had to buy as soon as I saw it, despite it being full price. I later went back two times to get price adjustments during a sale and with their coupon, so it ended up being very affordable. The pants and hat are blue/white seersucker, which I LOVE for spring. I just added one of their navy polos on top.

They are both wearing Stephen Joseph backpacks embroidered with their names (a sweet gift from their aunt). They take those backpacks to church every Sunday to put their artwork and papers in.
You can't really see their shoes, but Anna is wearing her white Kenneth Cole dress shoes, and Henry is wearing his Sperry Topsiders.

A busy Saturday morning

Every Saturday morning during the school year Henry goes to Korean school. It's been a great experience for him to get more exposure to the culture and be submerged in the language.

Here is a pic of him right before we left for school

He is wearing an Avengers "Heroes Rule" long sleeve tee from Baby Gap. It's their Junk Food line, which I think is the best of the character stuff out there. Long ago before I had kids I vowed that my kids wouldn't wear those "tacky" character clothes. Ha! My son has a drawer full of character clothes (especially superheroes) because they make him so happy. Back when he was smaller, he had a drawer full of Yo Gabba Gabba clothes because he was fully obsessed. So, I've clearly changed my mind about characters.
Henry's jeans are from The Children's Place, which I bought on sale for $5 during a bought of desperation when he suddenly outgrew every pair of pants he owned.

While Henry was at Korean school, Anna and I had a girl's morning together since James had to go in to work. Anna and I had breakfast and playing at McDonald's.

The girl loves hasbrowns (and any other fried potato). She wore her Matilda Jane "Mary Ann" lap dress. I think the lemon print is so cute, and she thinks the dress is really soft and comfy. Her flower headband is one I made awhile back for her.

After breakfast we went shopping several places. One place was a children's shoe store that I had never been to. I usually avoid places like that to shop because I know that I'm going to usually find the same item elsewhere at a much better price. To my surprise, they had a pair of Livie and Luca shoes 1/2 off and in Anna's size. They aren't my favorite style of Livie and Luca's, but they've grown on me. Anyway, when I tried them on her, I noticed that the Velcro closure was coming unstitched from the shoe. After talking to the store owner, I was able to get them for $12!!! These shoes were originally almost $50! It's going to be a very easy fix to reattach the loose Velcro, so I'm amazed that I got them for such a great price. The style of these is called "Trini Mulberry". They are super soft leather, and I think they will be very comfy for her.

 

Cute Piggie Tails

Anna was posing for me so sweetly with her baby doll before her therapy appointment. She kept asking me to take pictures, so of course, I obliged!

Her adorable little ruffly birdie shorts/top set is Lolly Wolly Doodle that I bought off of a Facebook resale page. Her pink rosette sandals are Mini Mia.

Her little piggy tails are SO cute to me, and topped off with little chevron tuxedo bows that I made (sorry you can't really see them).

 

Happy Easter

It should come as no surprise that finding the just right outfits for H&A to wear on Easter was a big thing for me, and that I began searching in early February. Luckily, I timed my search just right and found the perfect outfits at Janie and Jack during their big sale (friends and family, I think). It was one of those golden spotlight from heaven/birds singing on my shoulder/rainbows and unicorns kind of awesome when there was a sale with an extra sale reduction and a coupon. Have I mentioned that I live for those?

Anyway, Anna's dress was originally $99 and is a beautiful plaid silk. I got it for right around $20! It was a dress from last year's Easter collection that the store had lying around. All of her accessories (tights, shoes, headband, and purse) were also on major price reduction. Awesome!
We found a coordinating button-up shirt at J&J for Henry, which was also on sale ($7 maybe?) and some very handsome tan nubuck dress shoes for him at a steal price too. We already had his belt, khakis, and cap from another J&J sale. The only thing we paid full price for was his darn pink silk tie. I couldn't find one that I liked at a cheaper price, so we just sucked it up and bought it. I am glad we did. It really made his outfit.

We took them plus our new baby ducks Donatello and April (can you tell they like the Ninja Turtles?) to the Botanic Gardens and did a little photo shoot before Easter.

Gosh they're cute.

 

A serious one and a goofball

Title says it all. Anna can be a goofball too, but she is far more often our serious and moody one.
She is wearing the "Pink Lady" tee from Matilda Jane, along with the Blithe ruffle pants I got from a Matilda Jane resale page on Facebook. Before they arrived, I had no idea that they were velour pants, and I was a bit disappointed by that. Anna, however, loves them. The soft material is perfect for my little sensory girl. Her sandals are Mini Mia that I got at Nordstrom Rack before she came home. They are a size 6, but were too big last spring and summer (even though she was wearing a 6 then). Now they are nearly too small, so I'm going to put them on her as much as possible.

Henry is wearing a Tea Collection tee shirt that was part of the Korea line they did several years ago. He had a few pieces as a toddler, but he outgrew them all. After much searching, I finally found this shirt and the "Seoul" one as a set on ebay in size 5. He's kind of a peanut, and most size 4's either fit or are big on him. Tea Collection runs small, so this 5 fits. I hope he can wear it for awhile! He seems to be making the same face as the fish on his shirt.

Pretty {Grumpy}

Oh Anna. So very beautiful. So very spirited. :)

Henry was taking his tae kwon do lesson, so I thought it would be a great time to do a little photo session with Anna.

Not so much.

She was not into it.

At all.

In fact, I could barely get her to stand up. She became boneless at the very thought of posing for pictures. I pretty much forced her to stand up for me, but she told me "I not gonna smile." (Add in a few grunting noises too).

Here's the best of what I got.

 

 

 

Her adorable Asian girl dress is by Servane Barrau. I am crazy about anything Asian for the kids...because they are Asian?? Hmm. When I type it, it seems weirder than I think it actually is. Anyway, I saw this dress and HAD to get it for Anna. The leggings are from The Children's Place, and her well-worn, much loved shoes are Baby Gap. 

 

A Girl's Best Friend is....new SHOES!

I just recently scored some awesome new shoes for my gal. The first pair is from Target for $15. I usually like to wait for sales, but I went ahead and snatched them because I have a feeling they won't be around anymore when the clearance sales hit. The reason is because they perfectly coordinate with the spring Matilda Jane Good Hart line!

 

 

 

I know there are other mamas out there who want shoes to go with all the adorbs Good Hart stuff that we keep buying (even as we wonder how we'll pay our bills). :)  I know that the "thing" to do is to pay 50 or more dollars and buy those really cute Livie and Luca shoes to go with MJ, but I just can't. I won't. Matilda Jane outfits will have good resale for me, but shoes...forget it. Anna DESTROYS hers. No resale value there. So I will stick with $25 or less for shoes thankyouverymuch.

 

That brings me to the other pair of shoes I scored for Anna. Actually, my husband scored them. He went to Marshall's to look for Crocs for Henry and came back with a great pair of Oilily mary janes that he found on the clearance rack for $10! They are a size too big for her, but that's fine. I'm hoping she'll be able to wear them next spring, or maybe even late this summer.

 

 

 

 

Oilily stuff is so cute and always has fun little details.  Good job hubby!

Already messed up

So annoyed. I really wanted to do a daily (or very frequent) post of their outfits, but I've already messed up. The previous post today about jeans was actually from Monday this week, but I never managed to complete and post it. This post is about what they wore on Wednesday. Have I mentioned that today is Saturday? What a great start I've gotten off to. Oh well, what does it really matter? This is a shopping/clothing blog for Pete's sake. :)

Anyway, as I mentioned, their outfits in this post were actually from Wednesday when we went to church. I put Anna in her Matilda Jane Platinum "Fresh Brew" knot dress, which was an Ebay find. I paired it with the MJ Popcorn ruffles, and I think it's so adorable! She has worn this set twice, and she got lots of compliments. I threw a huge flower headband on her (can't remember where I got it), and her Lelli Kelly sneakers, which she is sadly about to outgrow.

Henry wanted to wear his new Baby Gap outlet tee, which has a bear's face on it. The cool part is that the bear's mouth unzips to reveal a menacing mouth full of teeth. As soon as I saw this shirt, I knew I had to buy it because Henry would love it. I also picked up some matching blue shorts, but it was a little chilly to wear them Wednesday, so we stuck with Henry's Children's Place jeans. His Adidas Neo sneakers are a surprising exact match for this shirt. Love it when that happens!

Here's how they take pictures. One will smile really cute and the other looks distressed/angry/goofy/anything but smiling.

See what I mean?

 

Henry wanted to show the camera how his bear shirt works.

 



 

Awesome, no?

 



A jeans kind of day

Today was one of those running to the grocery store kind of days. We actually went to Target and Walmart today with a trip home in the middle for a nap and to let an AT&T technician come over to set up our new internet service.

I got Henry dressed first this morning in jeans and a tee shirt (is there a more perfect thing for a little boy to wear, really?).  He's going through a long phase where he will neither look at the camera nor smile. Sigh.  His tee shirt is cool...it has a clear plastic "window" and a toy gecko inside. He loves it, of course. His jeans are Children's Place, which I got so cheap a few weeks ago. They actually fit him very well. He is also sporting his new Adidas Neo sneakers, which he thinks match everything in his closet. Not true, but try to tell him that.

 

Upon seeing that her brother was wearing jeans, Anna immediately began chanting, "I want to wear jeans, too!" I mean, can you blame her? Jeans really are comfy. Plus, she has a major obsession with pockets. So, we threw on her Baby Gap mini skinny jeans, which fit her better than anything, and added a Mini Boden peacock shirt that we scored from a Facebook resale page. The pink glitter Toms don't really match, but she insisted.

 

 

 

 

A closet pic and getting started

  I am a hardcore shopper. HARDCORE, people. I absolutely love shopping, especially for the kids. Now that we are on one income, however, I have to be careful how we spend our money. I constantly look for sales and deals so that they can be dressed as adorably as possible, but within our budget. I'm not going to lie, however, and say that I've never blown that budget way out of the water, because we all know how easily that can happen. I do get a huge rush when I get something on sale with an extra amount off on top of that! Bargain shopaholics like me live for those moments.
  My goals for this blog are to: 1) share bits of our life with readers 2)share daily pics of what outfits the kids are wearing each day 3)share shopping bargains/hits and misses as I come across them.

Here is Anna's closet. I admit that I get a real kick out of going in there, throwing open the double doors, and seeing all of her adorable stuff. The top row is all dresses, with coats/jackets in the back. The bottom row are her nicer tops and skirts. Her dresser, which is not pictured, holds all of her underwear, leggings/tights, PJs, jeans, and play clothes. Henry's closet is not nearly as full, or as neat, but I will get a pic of it soon. He currently has a situation from me dumping out a storage bin so that our ducklings could have a place to live. So for now, you'll have to just enjoy Anna's closet only.