lovely chaos

little two year olds. my organized musician.

if you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember how lula used to organize her toys like this too. it's funny that they both like to do this even though their personalities are very different.

diesel also LOVES music. lula does/did too, but diesel definitely is drawn to music more than she was. he's like me...if music is on, his body is moving. toes are tapping, hands are clapping.

we've started calling him "one man band" since he gathers all of his little instruments around him, turns a song on on his little B microphone, and then tries to play his instruments all at the same time while singing into the microphone. it's hilarious! considering how sweet and sensitive he is, i can see some artist/musician-type future for my little guy.

little toys. magical toys for all ages at magic cabin.

magic cabin has a lovely array of unique and whimsical toys for kids of all ages. if you need some new games for the summer or have a slew of summer parties on the horizon, magic cabin is a great place to grab something fun and exciting! and right now magic cabin is offering free shipping over $65 for the month of may. Use Code: MCSHPMAY here are some of their new items that i love.










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little two year olds. thanks for the gun, daddy!

i think it's funny (in a non-humorous way) how kids get introduced to things. you think you'll protect them from this or that, but it just doesn't happen that way. there are too many outside forces interfering with your pefect ideal of parenting!

i hadn't given it a whole lot of thought, but kind of subconsciously knew i didn't want to introduce diesel to guns, violence, weaponry, etc. until he was a little older. jay and i hadn't really discussed this, and since lula is in preschool which means she sees little boys making guns out of anything they can find, i figured the introduction would just happen naturally at some point.

i just wasn't expecting it to happen NOW and from JAY! so i was slightly annoyed when he casually handed diesel his first toy gun without any thought to the matter. as i said the other day... mothers over-analyze everything!

i don't have a strong opinion about the whole gun issue in our country. there are very good pros and cons to both sides. so i just stay out of it. but did i want my two year old to be introduced to guns? not really! but it's too late now!

of course what he's really attracted to is the ultra annoying sounds and lights the thing produces. he doesn't really understand what it is. so is it a big deal? probably not. i'm just not gonna worry about it because it's exhausting worrying about every little thing!

parenting 101. clutter kills creativity.

yesterday while i was working and the kids were out of the house, i cleaned up the playroom. it had been in utter chaos for at least a week and continued to get worse. i used to make it a point to pick up and put everything back in its place every night. but as we've collected more toys and the kids have gotten older, the chaos has gotten worse.

sometimes it's just too overwhelming when i'm tired and ready to relax. but the mess just grows everyday when you let it go instead of picking up a little bit everyday. however, whenever i do pick up, magic happens. alright... that's a bit of an exaggeration. but i've noticed something... when the toys are where they're supposed to be, lula and diesel play more, whine less, ask for less tv, and in general are more creative.

think about how uninspiring it is to work at your desk when there are papers everywhere. or how hard it is to cook when the kitchen is a wreck. it's the same for kids. when their toys are everywhere, and not only that, but when the toys are unorganized, they become overwhelmed and try to get away from the chaos.(aka getting under your feet and whining that they have nothing to do!)

this is speculation, but they also take better care of their toys when they are neat and clean. i miraculously watched as lula and diesel both found things to play with in the clean room, then PUT EVERYTHING AWAY WHEN THEY WERE DONE WITHOUT ME ASKING!!! now that truly is a miracle! they liked the clean room so much that they subconsciously tried to maintain it!

enough said... this is as much a post to me as to anyone. i need to remember what i'm giving them when i keep their toys picked up and organized. and of course they're plenty old enough to help me out, but when everything's a mess NO ONE wants to pick up because clutter kills creativity and motivation! 

little spaces. a finished playroom play kitchen.

on labor day, while the kids napped, i worked on some curtains to finish off the play kitchen playroom area, and jay worked outside on a little landscaping. i'm so happy with the results of our play room. it came together so nicely and it's just perfect... a lovely little place to play. the curtains to hide the toy shelves gave the whole area the perfect finishing touch. i'd bought these curtains a while ago for the old play room and simply cut them down and re-hemmed them to fit this space. i just have a couple of pictures to hang over the kitchen and it will be complete. like complete complete! it's hard to believe we'll be able to live our lives soon and not have any "finishing" projects to do! what in the world will we do with ourselves?!

diy. little girl's vintage apron with pockets.

i love it when lula plays with her kitchen, and i especially loves it when she wants to put on her aprons or oven mitts! above she's wearing one of the cutest vintage aprons i've ever seen received at her birthday party.

i promised i'd show pictures of the little girl's vintage apron with pockets on lula when she finally put it on. so here you go! click on the link above to see the diy tutorial for the apron.

life. body painting and sprinklers.

i mentioned on instagram (@lulainlondon) that lula has become quite the artist. she's really been into painting lately and will sometimes spend hours in a day smearing paint around.

so the other day i had a brilliant idea! the kids received a sprinkler type globe for their birthday and it was finally hot enough to use it. why not combine the painting and the sprinkler?! after their nap one day, i laid a cheap plastic tablecloth out in the yard, placed some brown paper on it, and squirted fingerpaint all over the papers. then i stripped the kids and let them "body paint". lu was completely buck and had fun rolling around in the paint. diesel was actually a little more timid and was more interested in the paint bottles. (diy on simple way to display kids art coming soon!)

when the kids were finished, diesel found the hose and started pulling it around as if to say, "alright, mom, time to get cleaned up!"

so we blew up the globe. (by the way, i've decided i hate things that blow up unless it comes with an electric source of air that automatically blows the object up!) the hose attaches to the big globe and water shoots out in several places. diesel immediately "dove in" and was drenched within seconds while lula tip toed around for a while. she eventually ran through some of the lighter spray and then splashed in the puddles forming on the deflated bounce house. there's something joyous and peaceful about watching your kids play. it's so simple.

hot days mean lots of fun in the sun. what are your favorite outdoor activities?

life and crafts. how to keep a three year old busy.

lula has always been pretty easy to entertain. she'll spend large amounts of time putting toys in order or doing very meticulous tasks. (i don't think diesel's going to be so easy!) here are a couple of her favorite things to do:

1. organizing her magnetic alphabet letters. these have always been a favorite toy, and she's continuously finding new acitivties to do with the letters. currently she likes us to help her spell words with them or she "sells" them to us by asking what color we want.

so what we thought was a lazy eye is actually extreme far-sightedness in lu's left eye which causes her eye to get all wonky sometimes. we're actually picking up her glasses this week. that was a tough decision! (not getting her glasses but deciding on the frames!)

this is lula's new chair. it's a retro vintage counter height bar stool we found at a flea market that's perfect for her. she can climb up herself. the only thing we don't like is it swivels! so she likes to bang it against the table. ugh!

2. lula LOVES to play with beads. although since she kept dumping them all over the floor and then wouldn't help pick them up, she's now limited in her use of them. thankfully she's moved on from dumping to actually stringing beads together to make necklaces and bracelets. she'll literally sit for an hour and work on this. i let her use a really large, not very sharp needle to string the beads. she does a great job with it and is very careful.

and this is my little project... my mom bought lula this doll when we were in new york city. it's supposed to be a doll that the child (ages 5+) can put together on their own, but i'm really not sure how they're supposed to do that! so i took over the project and have been working on the doll here and there. it was fun for us to be "sewing" together. i'm looking forward to lu being older and being able to work on "serious" projects with her. she'll be my little side kick!

our lovely chaos retro vintage housewarming birthday party.

in honor of lula's actual birthday (today), i thought it'd be appropriate to share their birthday party. this past saturday we threw a double birthday party for lula and diesel. we already had a private family party for d in march. so this party was more for lula, especially since she actually knew what was going on!

(there will be lots of little diys coming from the party over the next few weeks!)

the theme was a vintage housewarming party. of course i had grand plans for this party and in my mind it was beautiful beyond measure. sadly, for me, most of what i had imagined didn't happen. but i learned a good lesson this year... IT DOESN'T MATTER! not one single person cared or even knew what i had dreamed up that didn't happen. i was the only one disappointed. my kids were happy as larks, and isn't that the whole point?!

so here's what did happen...

the kids were shipped off to gramma's house for the morning while i prepared everything at the house to later transport to the church. jay came in at the eleventh hour to assist in my mad preparations.

we set everything up inside the church since it was still muddy outside from torrential downpours that morning and rather windy.

we blew up balloons at literally the last minute. some of our guests helped us before lula and diesel arrived. (it was that kind of morning!)

finally the birthday kids arrived and we got the party started. we began with blowing out the candles and eating. (the beauty of having it at the church is they already have tons of little tables and chairs!)

the menu:

vanilla cupcakes with less sweet white buttercream frosting (i doubled the vanilla in the frosting. it's AMAZING!)

peanut butter cracker sandwiches dipped in white chocolate

cheddar bunnies

bunny peeps on lollipop sticks

quick lemon and garlic quinoa salad (for the adults! i like to double the carrots in this.)

fresh berries, grapes, and watermelon

 it was so cute to see diesel sitting with his little friend who's about the same age. he sat there for the longest time eating cheddar bunnies and watching the activity. then he started trying to climb on things!  "so i was thinking... since you don't really have much left on your plate, why don't i finish that off for you?"

"oh don't worry. you won't even miss those tiny little pieces!"

the bunny peeps on lollipop sticks were very popular with the kids! (the plan was to dip the bottom half in dark chocolate and then insert the stick... but time did not allow it, and it really didn't seem to matter!)

after everybody got their sugar kick, we opened the presents. since jay and i bought the kids a vintage retro yellow metal kitchen, we requested that everyone bring relative gifts. we were overwhelmed by everyone's creativity and generousity! the kids received so many awesome vintage and wooden kitchen items in really cool bags and containers. and diesel got the coolest vintage drum that goes perfectly with his new teepee!

but the opening of the presents was utter chaos! i stupidly kept the presents on the floor in the gift teepee and there was literally a swarm of little bees trying to help lula open her gifts. it was hilarious. we gave up trying to figure out what was going on and just let nature take its course! diesel had no idea what was going on! he just crawled all over the place enjoying the excitement in the air.

the kids really enjoyed playing with the retro kitchen and the vintage stroller pram we also bought lula. everybody was "taking turns" stolling the pram around before we started opening gifts.

after a while, lula got tired of the madness and suggested we all go outside to play on the playground. we said, "good idea!" so everyone headed outside while i stayed in to start cleaning up.

the party favor was a six pack of pretty white flowers to plant.

after the party, lu and diesel roamed around, played with the stroller, and did some rock climbing while jay and i loaded everything up. overall it was a lovely day and we are overwhelmed with the wonderful friends we have and their lovely children.

diesel is wearing a vintage romper; lula is wearing a jumper from lula in london by alsolete. 

little toys. fisher price vintage classic milk wagon truck.

our sweet nanny wanted to find the perfect toy for diesel's first birthday. so she asked a friend of ours what the friend's two year old boy still played with that he had received for his first birthday. the friend's answer was fisher price's classic milk truck. since i love old vintage things, this was the perfect gift for mama too! i love this sweet little truck with the cute driver and the six milk bottles. the milk carrier is removable too.

both of my kids have loved playing with this. lula loves to organize the bottles and put other things in the carrier. diesel has found all sorts of things to do with the colorful vintage milk bottles as well as the milk wagon. he loves to push the truck around the floor on his knees. he also loves to crawl around while holding a milk bottle in each hand and banging them on the floor as he crawls. sometimes i can't get the bottles out of his hands without a fight! anyway, the classic toy was a success! we love it!