I ripped out this sweater and knit this dress up using no particular pattern for Sunny’s sixth birthday. It was a nice way to repurpose the rainbow yarn she’d picked out in Fall of 2013 since that dress no longer fit.
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015.”
Sunny: Snuggles With Chicks I
Kaki: Snuggles With Chicks II
All baby chicks are alive and thriving – and we are now officially half-way through 2015!
More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.
Today we went to the hair salon for summer ‘dos. We captured some “BEFORE” shots of the ragged manes eager to be tamed.
We determined that for the sake of everyone’s sanity, short hair would be crucial to surviving the summer without lengthy, tear-ridden battles in the bathroom, particularly between the hair brush and Sunny’s epic locks (which when infused with chlorine (regardless of many preventative measures and anti-chlorine shampoo) is a perfect storm for tangles and tantrums). If you or your kids have long and natural dreadlocks, you should shop now for the necessary haircare products.
Courtland was ambivalent about the process, and insisted that she did not want short hair. She wanted her hair longer than Sunny’s for the first time in her life. So we only snipped off an inch and her feelings turned unequivocally positive with the result. (I think we’ll be going back in in a few weeks for a shorter chop, especially as those bangs continue to grow, but I didn’t want to rock the boat too much).
Meanwhile, Sunny opted for the dramatic chop so that she could once again donate her hair to someone in need. We’re trying the Beautiful Lengths program through Pantene having heard good things. She managed to donate two very full 10 inch pig tails.
The resulting look is irresistibly adorable and summer-ready. In many ways she looks so very different and yet so very the same. Love her heart and hair of gold.
Here she is in 2013 and now in 2015. Fortunately, I feel like she doesn’t look THAT much older.
It was a good day. Which ended in ice cream celebrations. Naturally.
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015.”
Sunny: That gorgeous head of hair is getting chopped this week, as she’ll be donating it yet again to Locks of Love. It will prove far easier to manage this summer at a shorter length – but I’ll miss all the braiding potential.
Kaki: Those bangs are nearly grown out. She too will get a trim to help expedite the process. (Sweet lord, she’s looking so grown up! I can picture her just this way at 15).
More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.
Reunion 2015 was truly spectacular. I count this year as a win both personally and professionally. The kids clearly loved their nametags and were jelly of The Pantsapreneur’s magical purple and gold ensemble. It was a good weekend.
This weekend, we celebrated Auntie Kimmy’s 30th birthday. More photos to come of the tea party turned garden party turned tiki bar bonanza (three fetes in one – it was indeed awesome), but today is Kimmy’s actual 30th birthday, so I wanted to share my toast from Saturday’s celebrations.
My life would not be the same without this woman. She is my Day 791 (since that’s how many days it took for her to arrive in my life).
I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for coming together to celebrate Kimmy. When I was explaining to people that I was putting together a sit down tea party slash garden party for my little sister’s 30th birthday, I was on the receiving end of many quizzical looks. All of us in this space, however, aren’t surprised in the least.
In fact, Kimmy has been owed a tea party from the Cart family for over six years. In the final weeks of my pregnancy with Sunny, Kimmy hopped off a research sailboat sponsored by world famous scientist Craig Venter having just sailed through the Panama Canal (of course she did – her life is endlessly cool) to be with me in LA to get me through the hard final days of maternity and to be by my side during the birth of my first child. We played at the beach. We got pedicures. We ate spicy foods. We even scaled some cliffs to try and induce labor (terrible idea while 9 months pregnant with a 9lb baby). She kept me distracted and happy when I was my most anxious and uncomfortable. She wanted to make sure we had something every day to look forward to so I wouldn’t just stew with anticipation. Ever a lover of tea parties and flower gardens and art, she made reservations at the The Huntington Library Tea Room for the afternoon of Monday, May 18th.
Addison was born at 4:48pm on Monday, May 18th.
So today, I get to begin to payback the endless list of gifts and care she has bestowed upon me and my family. From dropping everything to be by my side at the birth of both my children, to sitting on the phone for hours with my mother discussing flower arrangements for my wedding (because I didn’t have the interest or patience and Kimmy’s got both in spades), to creating the most enviable baby shower banners, to west coast tea parties in honor of our engagement, to caring for our children and guaranteeing that they will always be the most fashionable and festive party hat clad kids around, she’s gone above and beyond from such a young age (which happens when your big sister decides to have all her major life milestones before the age of 30). And I’m only just scratching the surface.
To know and love Kimmy is to embrace a wonderful world of paradox. Fancy and salty. Lily and carhartts. Ballerina and sailor. Quiet, humble and yet the world’s best, most dramatic storyteller. Wooden boat restorer and intricate paper snowflake maker. Scientist, mermaid, and expert setter of fancy tables. Independent and confident and the most loving, present, involved friend, sister, daughter and auntie. My family is endlessly blessed to call her our Kimmy for 30 years. And so today, we celebrate you.
Happy 30th birthday, Kimmy. We love you!
because you remind me of everything there is in this world to love…
Happy Father’s Day to all the papas helping us to love better and stronger, but especially to our James, and our Doda, and our Ranger.
Today she graduated from Kindergarten. Tomorrow is Move Up Day and she’ll spend the morning in her new first grade classroom.
And yes, I am breathing deeply in and out of a brown paper bag.
During the graduation ceremony, the kids all sang “Kindergarten Wall.”
I’m fortunate my camera didn’t malfunction from water damage.
When I was a little kid not so long ago
I had to learn a lot of stuff I didn’t even know
How to dress myself, tie my shoes, how to jump a rope
How to smile for a picture without looking like a dope
But of all the things I learned my favorite of them all
Was a little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall
Of all you learn here remember this the best:
Don’t hurt each other and clean up your mess
Take a nap everyday, wash before you eat
Hold hands, stick together, look before you cross the street
And remember the seed in the little paper cup:
First the root goes down and then the plant grows up!
