Easter Style For Your Little Guy

We've literally just finished one holiday (like, literally, I'm still trying to get the green food coloring out from underneath my nails), and another is quickly upon us.

St Pat's was a lot of fun. We bought shamrock balloons, drank the heck out of some green milk and I suckered Cruz into a little photo shoot. I really just wanted to get one good shot for a St. Paddy's Day pic and then he goes and gives me this.

Tee // Moccs

I mean, come on. Seriously this boy.

But now that St Pat's is over, I can get back to figuring out Easter plans.

I think we are planning to go to my parents again for church, dinner and an Easter egg hunt with the kiddos. The best part, Nick's mom and man friend D come over as well so we don't have to feel bad about splitting our time and Cruz gets to see 2/3rds of his grandparents in one place.

Did I tell you how munch I love that our families get along??

Obviously I've been thinking about little man's Easter outfit for the last few weeks and finally have started ordering some of the items. I was just turned onto Next, an amazing UK company that one of my besties who is originally from Ireland buys from for her little guy. I have an order coming and cannot wait to get it. Seriously I think every item on their website is amazing. (After posting this, I was told Next has a US site. How did I not know this? Check them out here!)

Mix some of those items with some of my other faves and you have these two outfits that I can't get enough of. And you know I had to incorporate a little yellow into his Easter outfit, didn't you??

Navy Gingham Shirt // Navy Vest // Yellow Trouser // Suede Boot // Belt

Oxford Shirt // Bow Tie // Suspenders // Navy Chinos // Chambray Tom's

What are your Easter plans? Hopefully they include lots of good food, even more mimosas and being with the ones you love!

Cheers to our Independence

'Merica Tank

You know you had a great weekend, when...

• You're actually looking forward to Monday so your body - aka liver - can detox.
• You've consumed so many Coronas, you're confident the Mexican economy is going to have a great second half of the year.
• You were too busy playing with your kiddo and hanging with your family & friends out in the sun to take part in ANY of the great sales going on all weekend. Unless you count the fact that Hy-Vee had an 18-pk of Corona for sale cheaper than the gas station. So you bought two.
• In your morning TRX Cardio Bootcamp class, you can barely hold a plank for 15 seconds. Let alone drag your knee up to your elbow in that same position. #nothappening
• By the time you make it to the Starbucks drive-thru window on your way to work, your hand - and arm - are quivering as you accept your Venti Iced Coffee because you need caffeine that badly. And it actually takes you three tries to spell caffeine. Even with spell check.

And now for a recap...and the pictures. There are a lot of pictures.

Friday 
Friday consisted of working from home with little man plopped under his teepee during back-to-back movies. Wouldn't you know on the morning he could've slept in - lord knows he never wants to get up on school days - he wakes up right before 6am. Hence the movies. All the while, whipping up some festive treats for our friend's BBQ later that afternoon.

As you all know I'm a whiz in the kitchen, so getting this out of me, was nothing short of a miracle.

Yep. I dyed noodles for our pasta salad, which consisted of three pots of boiling water at the same time. That's the most action our stove top has seen since, well ever. Ok. I realize boiling noodles in food colored water isn't a feat, but it's me we're talking about. (Although I'm not sure these were worth the effort, especially since I let the water boil over the pots so much that it ruined our stovetop. And I haven't heard the end of it from Nick...)  I also made chocolate covered strawberries and mini s'mores - jumbo marshmallows on a stick, dipped into dark chocolate and then crushed graham cracker. Does anyone else use other people's parties to whip up your own favorite treats? I definitely do. It's like a green light to eat what I want so why not ensure I have some things I actually like. =)

The backyard party was a blast - little man was actually the oldest kiddo there. Love watching him playing with his cousins and our friends' kids. We ate, watched the kids swim, played yard games, chilled and took in some fireworks. It's a tad bit different than how BBQs used to go - meaning less kids, more shots - but I'm a pretty big fan of the way things are these days.

Saturday 
We got an early start and packed up for the day/night at my sister's cabin along the Missouri River. My parents met us all there and we immediately decided to beat the heat and take the boat out. I'm pretty sure this was Cruz's first time on a boat....but I don't actually remember. Is that bad? Let's just go with it. He was a bit hot and cold with the whole experience. And let's be honest, it's not like we were boating on a beautiful lake - the mighty Mo is pretty dirty and with all the rain we had to dodge floating trees and other objects that I'm not sure should be floating in rivers. We were only able to go down a few miles before we stopped at a sandbar and let the kids jump out and play in the mud - well, not my kid, I was a bit nervous to let him out of my sight and there was no way I was jumping out of that boat away from the cooler. Kidding. Sorta.  

It was a great day - just relaxing, letting the kiddos play in the dirt and run around the entire campsite, swimming, watching Cruz man wow with his wiffle ball skills, grilling, eating, drinking, sitting around the campfire. Until I did my ol' "well I guess Cruz is tired, I better put him to bed' where fell asleep myself, while everyone else hung outside until the wee hours of the morning. #lame

Sunday

We packed up and headed out somewhat early - it was nice to get home and unwind but the weather was just too nice to stick around inside so we pulled out Cruz's fish pool from last year (p.s. disregard the pool pic from last year...I didn't get any but the pool is just too cute not to share. Right?) I pulled my lounge chair right up to the edge so I could dip my foot while getting some color on my pale bod, while Cruz man walked around telling me the pool was for a baby and squirting me with a hose.

And that, my friends, is what makes a pretty kick ass weekend. Hope you all had a great one...and if you also food colored some noodles this weekend, please do tell! =)

Happy Heart Day + Friday Fives {February 14}

It's Valentine's day, y'all!

With this being V-day and all, I have to work late tonight so made sure to kiss the hubby, give Cruz man his gift (movie, fruit snacks, & markers), and then drop him & his valentine's off at school.

He has a party at school this afternoon.

I'm wrestling over whether or not to go. I mean, it's not that easy. I would have to cancel a couple meetings, drive 30 minutes to his school, and then afterwards another 30 minutes back to work.

Surely all of the other parents can't just leave work for a 3:30pm party, right?

Right?!?

I'm sure it will be super cute.

And, of course, I would love to go.

And what if all of the other parents show up. And I'm the only one who didn't. I would feel awful.

What to do... What to do....

While I think about it...let's just take a look at Cruz's valentine's this year. I probably went a tad overboard, but I had the glow stick idea, then saw the "main squeeze" on Megan's blog (thanks girl!) and then it spiraled out of control and now I've got tootsie rolls, balloons, washi tape and straws to add to the mix.

one

two

three

four

And we couln't forget his teachers.

five

So there you have it.

When I haven't been at work, at a concert or having dinner with corporate folks who were in town this week, I have been spending my time putting these bad boys together. Because, let's be honest, I didn't give them much of a thought before Sunday.

Hope you are spending your day with someone you love....and hopefully with a heart shaped pizza with a bottle glass of red wine!

Darci / Natasha / April / Christina

#tbt Happy Heart Day

Ok, can we just get this out there that I finally - finally -  feel cool now that I've used the #tbt hashtag. This is my first time. =) (but let's just skip over the fact that this was actually posted on Wednesday, although most of you won't get it until Thursday. Mmm 'kay?)

Let's move on.

As I was thinking about what to do for Cruz's Valentine's day cards, it made me think back on our last two Valentine's Days with this little love bug.

{2013}
Last year we had a mini photo session in his room and since we had a nanny at this time and didn't really need Vday cards to hand out at school, we made a cute little card to send to our family.

Could those feet be any cuter?? And of course little guys in jeans...just about the sweetest thing ever.

{2012}
Would you just look at this little stud? How cute is this pic? I still have it in my office at work because I love to just stare at all of his sweetness.

On the backs of the above pics, we personalized them with his cute little feet...into the shape of a heart, of course!

Any great Valentine's Day card ideas...I'm still at a loss and will more than likely be until last minute. Per my usual. #mommyfail

PS. Speaking of love, I would love it if you would show me some! I just got all fancy and created a Yellow Mango Life facebook page and twitter account.  Just click the links to the right and let's become pals. Thank you in advance. =)

Christmas Cheer...and A Lot of Other Christmas Stuff {Part Deux}

 

Alright, now onto the good stuff - the Christmas celebrations. As per our usual, we had four Christmases in four days. While it can be a bit hectic only getting to spend a day in each location, I can tell you we've done it this way for so long that we wouldn't know any different. Plus, I love being able to see ALL of our family over the actual Christmas holiday itself and not in the weekends before and after.

{If you are dying to read more about our early December happenings, you can find part one here.}

Here goes....

Christmas Eve3 (Sunday before - Christmas on the farm)
Sunday morning was spent on the farm in northeast Nebraska at Nick's grandpa's house. Per our norm, we had a day full of eating, drinking and playing cards. Cruz had a great time opening presents, not just his own, but helping everyone else there since he was the only one under age 26. He loved the black cat grandpa picked up for him in a gas station and did not like the Sully monster that came with his Monster's University movie. To be exact, I believe he said "Sully needs to go back in the box" no fewer than five times. That didn't stop uncle Mook from torturing him with it. Afterwards, we had to go check out the cows in the field and the masses of cats that have shown up to help grandpa "mouse" on the farm.

 

 

Christmas Eve Eve (Monday)
This was a relaxed day at Nick's mom's place which also included more eating, drinking and some Cards Against Humanity. Prior to all that nonsense, we made a trip to the movies - the guys went to Anchorman 2 and the ladies & Cruz hit up Frozen. This was the first time we've taken Cruz to a movie in a theater since he was still an infant and he was so good! I'm sure it didn't hurt that we had the biggest bucket of popcorn ever to occupy him.



 

 

 





Christmas Eve
The morning of Christmas Eve we headed to my parent's house and were the first to arrive so Cruz had lots of time to himself with Grandma and Papa. As soon as my brother showed up, he immediately took off my niece's jacket and revealed a "big sister" tee - ahhh, so excited they are finally expecting again as they have been trying for some time. This time next year we will have a little baby at Christmas!





Santa brought him the truck he wanted...a John Deere pick-up of course!

Christmas
After filling up with twelve three helpings of mom's egg casserole (seriously the stuff is bomb), we got on the road for Omaha to see Nick's dad's side. And as you can guess we had one last day full of food, cocktails and fun just relaxing with the fam and watching the kiddos open mountains of presents.

Ahh, my heart is just so full of love for our families after the holidays! We are very fortunate to have some of the best family to celebrate with and love every minute with them all.

Hope you all had the best holiday season ever. Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!