While my hair is still pretty Shorty McShort {as my husband calls it} I still love wearing headbands or even the idea of pulling my hair back. I found a few little favorites via etsy…

{1. Camelia Fascinator in Fairtrade Organic Cotton 2. Athena Silver Headband 3.  Monarch Wire Butterfly Crown 4. Metallic Copper Beaded & Sequin Headband}

Which one is your favorite?

I’m going to be trying a new little series to get me back on my feet with blogging – wordless wednesday. Why? Well, since I work with so many ridiculously talented photographers, I’ve been inspired to push myself artistically to make my photographs better. And, two, sometimes I think I talk a tad too much. see? already I’ve said too much on a ‘wordless’ post. Right?

School started yesterday… on the hottest day of the year. 107 degrees. Yes, 107. yikes.

{But that didn’t stop us from walking to school with a few friends.}

{Second grade… here we come!}

I am happy to return to a little more routine, but am I going to miss having him around all day! Hope you’re enjoying a good start to your school year too!

Are there any worse words to hear uttered over the phone from the Apple store? I think not.

Have you wondered where I’ve been? I’ve been in a computer induce state of frenzy for the past week. After pushing and pushing to get a ton of work done so I could enjoy those last few drops of summer… only to have it all lost in one fail swoop. So, I’ve been steadily working to get my stuff done all over again while the kids enjoy maybe a tad too much tv (but, hey, it’s been 100+ degrees for 3 weeks straight so what else are they going to do? right?). I’m going to try to start blogging again back to my normal routine soon!

Ummm… I would have posted a fun image from our summer here… but I’m still working on trying to recover all of them.

Every girl needs a few hats in her closet in case a bad hair day ruins your morning. I love hats and really think that I don’t wear them nearly often enough… here’s a few of my recent favorites {via etsy}

{1. 1940s Style Linen Hat 2. Speckled Newsboy with River Stones  3. Beige Classic Newsboy Twill Cap 4. Retro Sun Hat in Burnt Orange Pinwheel}

Okay, it’s official. i’m old. Yes. I suddenly realized it just this past week, when I was chatting with my friend Tonya (who just happens to have the same name as me) when we launch into a full discussion on our favorite Costco buys. seriously? Remember the days when we discussed boys… and, well, boys. Oh, and maybe shopping?

Now all the boys we talk about are under the age of 7 and the shopping is grocery shopping? yikes. I told you… we’re officially old.

But I digress… I love finding out about great finds that I can keep on hand to help delay the inevitable whine of what’s for dinner, so I thought I’d share a few of them here with you:

1. Frozen Edamame – seriously nuke these babies for 3 minutes and Kate & I are in heaven. Such an easy thing to throw on the table while I’m scrounging for lunch.

2. Lemon Juice – I know you’ve seen those ridiculous jugs of lemon juice at Costco. And like me, you probably thought, who possibly buys this stuff? But, I’m not kidding… it’s makes the best lemonade that tastes fresh squeeze and even better – the recipe is on the bottle!

3. Morning Star Farm Black Bean Burgers – Great on a bun… but even better chopped up and thrown on some tortilla chips with cheese for an easy, easy taco salad.

4. Alaskan Pollock Fish Sticks – I know… fish sticks? But these are tasty. And they make an easy meal if you just wrap them in a tortilla and add a little cheese & salsa. Viola… fish tacos in about 10 minutes.

5. Madras Lentils – I have to say, if they weren’t offering this as a sample, I probably never would have tried it. {don’t you love samples night at Costco? me too.} But these are delicious… they’re perfect in the place of chili on a hot dog or poured on top of some Fritos for a quick Frito Pie…. an easy lunch.

*So, I know that this is not my typical Foodie Friday, but I thought it would be fun for a change. I’d love to hear your top five Costco buys.

After 1,700 miles of traveling this past week it was so nice to fall into my own bed again on Friday night. We had a wonderful trip, though, to Denver to visit my grandmother. The added bonus was, of course, getting to send time with my cousins and their own kids. Unfortunately, we weren’t so good with taking pictures – I think we were too busy soaking it all in. Which is why it was such a good time…

{Have you ever seen 3 kids more excited about going on a tour? Ok, it was a tour of a candy factory and they’d already eaten their body weight in sugar at this point, but still.}

{Kate & Charlie enjoying some reading time}

{Zoo time with our cousins}

{Kate enjoyed feeling grown up with her map… never mind that she was reading it upside down. She felt official.}

{Kate is modeling an Indian head dress handmade by my grandpa out of an old baseball cap. And you wonder where I get my love of DIY?}

Jack has continued to blow through his summer bucket list… the summer is about half over and I think we’ve made a pretty good dent in his list.

{#1 on Jack’s list? Go to a Bounce House Place}

Those 2 blurs are my children zooming down the bounce house slide. Jack has now gone to 2 different ones. One in Austin & one in Phoenix. I think we can feel pretty good about checking this off our list now. don’t you?

{#10 – Wii Night}

Now I know this is a pretty lame picture but the only other choice would be to show you one of him sitting on the couch, slack-jawed staring at the tv. Jack is obsessed (and I don’t use the word obsessed lightly here) with Harry Potter, so he saved up his money for the new Wii game. All those pennies & nickels added up and he was so pleased to make the purchase himself.

*Wii Night, by the way, was such a success he’s already requested another.

{#8 – Swim the Length of Grandpa’s Pool}

This was a big one for us – I’m so proud of him! It’s not a big pool by any stretch, but him finally feeling confident in the water is a victory in itself!