throwin it back to the fattest baby

giggles from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

our favorite book to read together.

mooo baaa la la la from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

disneyland, again.

i may be crazy but thursday after hazel finished school we took off to disneyland!  it takes a little bit longer to get there in 2pm traffic but it's disneyland so... worth it.

we saw both parades and stayed for fireworks {which were unfortunately canceled.} and had an amazing time!  i could get used to this.

during the parade, hazel kept waving to all the characters and saying hi.  "hi, mickey!" "hi rapunzel!" "hi olaf!" it was the best.  cora enjoyed it, but was comfortable keeping her distance ;)

waiting for the parade... and cora's dumbo face.

here's my snapchat story from the day we went to disney.  there's a little bit of cora and me goofing off on snap before disney starts, so if you want to go straight to the parade, start at .39.  xo!

snapchat + disney from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

supermoms.

Lately I've been trying to strike a balance between giving my girls activities to encourage their development; and letting/making them play with their toys and outside without structure. I have been try to give them opportunities to imagine and play without micromanaging every single second of their day. There is so much pressure to give our kids hours and hours of structured developmental activities throughout the day. A simple Pinterest search yields thousands of hits when you search for activities to keep your kids occupied. They advertise these activities as "boredom busters", or "development activities", but as parents, is that really our job? Must I really buy 10 bags of rice, color them with food coloring, and then let my girls "play" (EI. throw rice all over my house)? 

There's a sweet mom I follow on Instagram who basically runs a preschool for her four children. Each day is themed. With themed art projects, themed snacks, themed books, themed games. I honestly wonder how she has time to think up, buy stuff for, coordinate, supervise, organize, and clean up these extravagant activities, let alone cook dinner and clean the house. And frankly, my hat is off to her and other "supermoms", because she's obviously figured out some secret that the rest of us are missing. And it's making us look bad. And what's worse, it leads to guilt, and a lot of comparing ourselves to others.

Today, my girls didn't get a grand lesson about volcanoes, complete with volcano snacks, a volcano book, and a volcano science project.  They got dragged to costco to pick up a pizza, they were fed, they were read to.  They watched a short movie while I folded and put away a mountain of laundry.  They napped.  And i'm chosing not to feel guilty about it.  

labor day shenanigans.

we had a fun labor day disc golfing with the girls.  while our frisbee golf outings have changed a lot since our dating days, john and i wouldn't have it any other way!  john and i let the girls walk around and play with dirt and sticks, and then switched off holding cora and throwing.  a lot more labor-intensive but definitely still lots of fun ;) after disc golf we went to cielito lindo on olvera street and got beef taquitos.  we were all the way up there, the traffic was surprisingly non-existent and we just couldn't pass up the chance to get the best avocado sauce in the entire world.  

disneyland!

my family has always been a little obsessed with disney.  my grandma instilled a love for all things disney (especially the parks) in us from a very young age.  i can remember going at least once a year for several years growing up, which may not seem like a lot to some, but when you only take two vacations a year... making 50% of them to disneyland is no joke.  so you can imagine my excitement at moving here to LA and having the chance to get a year passport!  it took us awhile to commit (because i'm afraid of the freeway and traffic...) but i'm so glad that i got brave and took both the girls on friday.  they were in heaven!  (especially hazel!)  and the drive is only about 45 minutes.  not bad!

of course we cruised through fantasy land, small world, and a lot of the kid rides first thing.  cora napped while hazel and i shared a dole whip and met snow white, cinderella, and ariel.  hazel's face in that picture with ariel has to be the best thing ever. and then we enjoyed the jungle cruise, tikki room, and pirates.  cora was really brave on pirates, snow white, and mr. toad's wild ride.  all of which are a little scary for a one and a half year old!  

cora's favorite seemed to be dumbo.  although she's doesn't look happy in the picture we took on it because we had just gone on snow white and it is terrifying.  

hazels favorites:

small world and peter pan.  hands down!

every day since hazel has asked to go back to disneyland, see minnie again, and fly with the stars on peter pan.  i'm hoping we can make it out there on wednesday :)  what a dream you are, CA!

the beach from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.