A Balloon Birthday Party

I felt like I was a little belated in Lauren's birthday party plans this year.

We had a trip to California planned a couple days after her birthday, 

and we weren't sure what we would do.

But we decided to venture out of the birthday party in the home mode,

book a venue,

invite her class and friends from activities

and celebrate our Lauren.

She chose a balloon theme,

we chose The Little Gym,

and it all came together from there.

We had a lot of fun with the balloon theme

and the fact that I dropped off everything at Little Gym and they decorated for me...

amazing.

It also was perfect place for kids of all ages to play together. 

They explored the gym,

played games,

laughed, ran, and giggled.

Caroline had a very good time:)

After playing in the gym, we headed back for some cake!

Lauren's hair nearly caught on fire,

but Dad was quick to prevent emergency calls or hair cuts. 

Lauren was thrilled to celebrate with all of her friends 

and have Grandpa & Grandma McQuinn celebrate with us as well!

Mom and Dad were thankful for all their help as we prepared and got into party mode!

It was a wonderful little party,

fun theme,

great venue, 

lots of smiling faces,

and one very happy birthday girl.

we're still here

We've been a little quiet lately.
In our post-Harvey haze,
it felt a little strange to be posting 'cute' pictures
and telling funny stories about our daily happenings.

But we're starting to return to some sense of normalcy
and the focus seems to be shifting to the 'rebuilding'
part of Hurricane Harvey's aftermath.

While our daily lives may have felt a little off the past week or so,
the two girls in our house haven't slowed down one bit.

lake memories

our family of four

In February, we had Caroline's one year/family photos taken.

With a day after Christmas birthday,
it seems like everything gets pushed back a little bit,
but in this case it worked perfectly.

We worked with Shalonda from Chubby Cheek Photography,
our magic fairy photographer who we can't get enough of,
on a gorgeous and warm Houston, Texas February day.

I won't share every picture,
but I could.
That's how much I love this session.





Every picture makes me smile.
And while I will mention that the girls outfits
arrived in the mail the day of the shoot,
which caused us a near panic meltdown,
that's not what I see.












I see the love.
And those smiles.
And the little girl details.
And the sister kisses.
And a sweet little family of four.

I see all that and more.

rainy days

There's been a whole lot of rain in our forecast lately
and while it isn't always accurate
we spent the day inside...


I recently painted this antique school desk from my mothers collection. It was the perfect addition to Lauren's room as she has been working on writing her letters with the goal of writing her name before the summer is over.


We took horse rides around the house, with Lauren, the horse trainer as our guide.

And made the biggest train track we could...


Rainy days aren't so bad.
But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for some sun tomorrow.

February in Texas

I feel like Valentine's Day tends to take over our house in February.

I love a theme and the holidays provide just that!

While Matt and I have never been big "Valentine's folk" 

having kids to celebrate with changes everything.

We celebrated with our annual Valentine's Day card photo

making delicious cookies

and cake pops to share with all our friends

and finally celebrating the day with a class party at Lauren's school.

She brought donuts with heart sprinkles.

Surprise, surprise.

We filled the rest of our February days with play, adventures, and a few quiet moments too...

also known as, how many sleeping photos was I able to capture this month?

We also had the opportunity to shoot with a favorite child/family photographer of ours for
Caroline's slightly belated one year photos.

And y'all...

My midwestern self can't see to add y'all to my vocab yet, but its part of Shalonda's and she sounds so cute when she says it, so in honor of her...

this might be me favorite session yet.

We were seriously blown away by the photos and had so much fun shooting. 

I won't show you every photo,

but definitely enough that you grow bored and scroll through. 

February may be short,
but my goodness
this one was sweet.