A New Workspace

I'm so excited about my new space, and I just had to share it. I was perfectly fine with the previous layout, but my mom really wanted mine and the girls' sleeping/living space to feel like our own and she also felt I needed a separate space from the girls.

The girls' area is still a work in progress. 

I spent a lot of my childhood in Japan. Can you tell? 

I didn't realize how much I needed this space until it was done, and I am actually finding a lot of inspiration in here. I can spend all day in here working on my orders or various projects while the girls play in their room. I think the only problem is my parents may have a hard time getting me out of here when the time comes!

Fall Birthday Celebration

We've always held the girls' birthday parties together, but would still, as a family, celebrate their individual birthdays on their actual dates. This year has been a little different for our family so we celebrated both birthdays on Mila's birthday. My husband just finished his exams (!!!!!) and sadly was not able to stay long enough for Annabelle's birthday as well. It was a nice family celebration though. Not only did we get to celebrate with my parents, but also my sister and niece.

She's been dying for a Snack-eez.. however you spell it.

I love that both my girls were born in October. It just always feel like an exciting time of year and it's just so fun throwing their birthdays into the mix! My parents had a bubble/fog machine, which really was the coolest thing ever.

Annabelle was a little scared of the fog bubbles so she used Guy, the skeleton cat to pop them. 

Mila's been talking about bobbing for apples for a few months now, so that is what they did. Annabelle's technique was my favorite. She would scoop up an apple quickly, take a bite, and throw it back in.

We also did some (fake) pumpkin painting. It was getting late and we had to peel Annabelle away from the paint to open presents. 

My mom likes to go all out for events, but overall everything was kept pretty simple. Mila wanted tomato bisque, grilled cheese and cucumber sandwiches (her new favorite).

I had no idea the inside of the cake looked like this. We were all pleasantly surprised when we cut it!

A few months ago, I decided I was going to make alphabet photo books for them and I totally forgot about it until the last minute. I managed to get it all together and shipped right before the birthday and was very happy with how they turned out. As I've said before, I'm not big on excessive gift-giving. Every year we've kind of cut back on the gifting and I feel the gifts have more meaning. I love these books because they're about them, and they're fun, and they can enjoy them for years.

It was a great birthday and it sucked that their daddy had to get up way early the next morning to go back home :( And it sucked even more that Annabelle would not sleep, seriously at all, so I was running on very little sleep yesterday.