Aloha, Hawaii {Part 1}

Last night I uploaded over 150 pictures to put up on the blog, so I'm pretty sure recapping our Hawaii trip is going to take a few posts.  Bear with me as these posts may be a bit picture heavy...and my apologies to those of you with chronological OCD as most of these pictures will be in no particular order.

On Saturday, February 23rd, we left our house {not at all} bright and early to catch our 8am flight to Honolulu.  We lucked out and had seats in the same row as my parents and my brother and we got even luckier that the extra seat in that row was open!  Our flight out was fairly painless, but 6 hours on a plane with two kids under the age of four is probably nobody's idea of a walk in the park.  But we made it.

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and it was such a great resort to stay at with kids.  There is a lagoon that we actually explored a little bit the last time we were in Hawaii, five different pools and a beach right within walking distance from our condo.  My brother set us up with this whole location and convinced us to get a 2 bedroom condo for the week.  Our place was SO nice and roomy, we had a kitchen where we made almost all of our meals, and our condo was right below our parents.  Plus, it had a phone in the bedrooms.  What more could a girl want?!

Oh yeah, and this was the view from one of our balconies.

Exploring the lagoon on the first day.  She kept saying she wanted to surf, and paddleboarding was pretty much the same thing in her mind.

We basically went to Hawaii because my brother is obsessed with it.  Seriously, he loves Hawaii.  And he found us some cheap flights and he paid for Olivia's flight and yada yada, twist our arms.  I think he loves Hawaii so much because he loves shave ice.  I think he got at least one a day while he was there. And, Olivia definitely had a few too. Annnnd, so did Sydney.  {Mom of the Year!}

Olivia's favorite activity {besides eating shave ice} was to go to the beach.  The pools were cold {and compared to the 94 degree pool we get in at our house in the summer, these pools were freezing} and the ocean was even a bit chilly.  But, she loved playing in the sand and dipping her toes and legs in the ocean.  Every morning she would say, "I want to go to the ocean.  You know, the one with the waves!"  {Cue a gazillion pictures of the girls in matching swimsuits at the beach...}

She loved running down to the beach to get water for her sand castles/mud pies/swamps.  On this particular trip, she tinkled all the way up the beach.

Burying Doc McStuffins in the sand.

Stay tuned for more Hawaii posts and pictures soon!

Februarygrams + A Failed Fotoshoot

You know what happens when I take a blogging break?  I totally forget what pictures I have and haven't shared.  Ugh...I solemnly swear to be a better blogger...

Here are a few pictures I took before Valentine's Day {it was supposed to be of both girls, but Sydney had plans of her own}.  I really had big plans for this photo shoot - I even brought my mom along to help wrangle the girls, I got balloons for props, I thought I had a great spot picked....but it just really fell short of all my hopes and expectations.  You win some, you lose some.

{Obviously, I enhanced the colors on this one, but not some of the others.}

And, here are a few Februarygrams and my Instagram collage from my favorite February pictures.  If you are on Instagram, you can follow me - my username is ajoyfulgirl.

Happy Tuesday!

Just Another Weekend Wrap Up

Well, I am working on getting those Hawaii pictures edited and uploaded, but I thought in the meantime I better keep everyone informed on what is happening in our day-to-day lives.

Thursday, I dressed the girls alike in Liberty of London dresses.  ALWAYS a highlight.

Friday, there was more rain than sunshine and we were cooped up in the house all day where I got nothing accomplished, so you know I was going stir crazy when Peter Piper Pizza started sounding like a good idea.  It actually wasn't that bad - fairly clean, much brighter than Amazing Jake's and definitely closer to our house.

On Saturday, I tried to catch up on laundry and cleaning while David took the girls to the {soppy, wet} playground.

Family game night

The sun came out on Sunday, so we took the girls to the Ostrich Festival.  We went last year, but never got to see any of the ostrich races so we wanted to make sure we saw them this time.  We only stayed for a couple hours because that's about all I can handle when it comes to carnivals and fairs.  I love 'em for so long and then BOOM, I'm done.

Pony rides!

We came home for Sydney's nap and once she woke up we decided to ride our bikes over to Nana and Poppy's compound and do a little fishing.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good weekend!

Snip It Real Good

Well, that was a nice little blogging break -- in case you don't follow me on Instagram, we took a little vacation to Hawaii last week, and, well, we are still in recovery mode.  I have tons of pictures to sift through, even though most are just of our girls playing at the beach, so it will probably be a few days before I have a Hawaii recap up here.  

I had good intentions on getting this posted before we left, but I just didn't get to it with all the over-packing I did. {Please say I'm not the only mom who does that!}  So, here we go....a couple weeks after the fact.

I got to have a morning of pampering and while I sat there, I realized my sweet baby could use a little hair care pampering herself.

Her mullet was getting a little out of control and I thought a little bob haircut would be cute on her.

Oh that hair...

What I didn't think about until it was too late was how much she would HATE having to sit in the chair by herself and have some stranger fling scissors and spray water around her face.  

I quickly reached for a sucker {blue??!!}, but by the time I took this picture the lady had sprayed water near her face and it was over.  No more pictures until the one at the end and she was still full of tears.

{Can you see those teeth?  Bless her heart - they are still coming in.}

But, oh man, she looks SO adorable with her sweet little haircut.  I just love it.

Stay tuned for some fun Hawaii pictures soon!