ONCE UPON A FARM

Since Milo started eating I've tried to give him only organic foods & make the majority of what he eats, but that is pretty time consuming, especially when I have a toddler to chase after! So I try to split it by feeding him homemade food at home & giving him pouch foods while we're on the go because they're a lot easier & Milo is really loves to feed himself. One of my favorite baby food companies I have discovered since having milo is Once Upon a Farm. Their baby food is 100% organic & preservative free, which is pretty hard to find in baby foods. Since these baby foods are preservative free they have to be stored in the fridge & served cold. 

Once Upon a Farm offers so many different flavor options which is really cool, they combine such interesting foods together & Milo has loved every flavor he has tried. One of my favorite things about this brand is the little clear window on the package allowing you to actually see the food that your baby is eating. I really hate how you can't see the food in many of the pouch foods, so this is a huge plus in my book. 

If you are wanting to give your baby organic, fresh made & unprocessed foods I definitely recommend checking out Once Upon a Farm

LA ARTS DISTRICT + LACMA

Can you believe that I grew up an hour north of LA & had never been to the LACMA? Yeah, me either. I have been to hundreds of museums in my life from around the world but I always forget to explore what's near me. I always have the intention of going to all these super cool places, but then I get sucked into daily life & never go, but luckily the other day my friend Jann invited me to go to the Arts District of LA with her & I took her up on it. Jann is in the midst of starting a wedding dress line & is always running around LA doing all sorts of cool things, so she is a pretty good person to go with. The boys & I tagged along with her & her daughter to drop off some of her dresses, got lunch at the delicious Cafe Gratitude & topped the day off with a stop to the LACMA.

Cafe Gratitude is right in the Arts District. It has the cute heart wall outside of it & the restaurant is all about positive vibes & reinforcements. You don't order the typical way at Cafe Gratitude saying: "I want the chicken" its set up in a way that the items have names like, happy, brilliant, celebrating, etc & you order by saying: "I am brilliant". It's super unique & delicious. The restaurant is Completely vegan too. I highly recommend going if you're in the area, they have a few different locations throughout LA, so check it out.

After lunch we hit of the LACMA. Our time there was short, partly due to three kids that hadn't napped & the fact that I think Cedar almost got us kicked out... but it was well worth it & I will definitely be going back soon. It's a pretty big museum with amazing pieces. Cedar & Addison, Jann's little girl, loved the yellow installation that they could run around in & the classic light posts outside. They had so much fun chasing each other through the lights, it was pretty cute watching them play. There is also a kids room where they can draw & paint which was pretty fun, but besides that not a whole lot for the kids & cedar just about gave one of the guards (& me) a heart attack when he touched one of the modern installations inside the museum that was not to play with & then proceeded to run away from me & jump onto a stand that a piece of artwork was displayed on... talk about wild. That's what I get for forgetting my second stroller seat when going to a museum! After that we headed outside so the kids could get their wriggles out.

Oh & Jann & I were totally twinning, which is pretty cool :)

CEDARISMS

This week Cedar started pre-preschool & yes, that is a thing. Ever since September when all of his little friends started going to preschool he has been asking me when he was going to go to school & it kind of broke my heart to tell him he wasn't going. The thing is, when preschool sign ups we're happening we weren't sure how long we would be in California. With Austin trying to start his own company there was a really big possibility that we would have moved in October. Needless to say we did not move & I found this little class through our community center & signed him up for two of them. He looooved his first day. I was worried at first that he would have a hard time going because he was wanting me to hold him while we waited for the doors which made me think he was nervous but, as soon as those doors opened up & went straight in & didn't look back! After his school he told me how much he loved it, that they played, went to the park, painted & had lunch.

Cedar is getting so big. It is the funniest and a bit sad all at the same time. I am loving watching his personality come out more & more. Some of the things he says make me laugh so much & wonder where he learns these things. Here are a few of my favorites lately:

C- "are we taking Milo back to the store?"
Me - "back to the store? Why?"
C- "cause I wanna goirl baby."
Me- "you want a girl baby!? A sister?"
C- "ya. Like baby Wiwa"
Me -"we're going to keep Milo cause he's cute & we love him. But do you want another baby?"
C- "two more babies!"

Yikes!

C- "you're in trouble mom."
Me- "what? Why?"
C- "you tricked me"
Me- "how?"
C- "I found the toy in the basket. You tricked me."

I never tricked him, the toy was just put away!

C- "mom I want to go to Africa to see the animals!"
Me- "Africa? What animals?"
C- "lions, elephants, rhinos.."

C- "Miyo's crying cause he wants fruit snacks."
C- "Miyo told me he very wants to watch a show."

Apparently Milo tells Cedar a lot of things he "wants", haha. He is so cute & pretty smart. I love him so.

RAGS TO RACHES


These playsuits from Rags to Raches are the softest, most comfortable outfits for my little boys. They are so stretchy & cozy for the to wear, Cedar is constantly asking me for his "goose shirt", they make him feel so comfortable & it's really easy for him to wear them all day & through naps, which he normally requests to sleep without pants or in pajama pants, haha. I have loved these playsuits & highly recommend picking up a few for your littles :)

DONUT YOU LOVE HALLOWEEN?



A couple weeks before Halloween we were looking at the costumes at Target & Cedar was really into the donut costume & that is where the entire idea stemmed from. I had a few different variations that I was going between when trying to decide what to do / how to make a family costume out of a donut. I brainstormed what other foods go with donuts & then I got hooked on the idea of a milk carton with a box of donuts. Even though I had decided on the costume a couple of weeks before Halloween, being the procrastinator I am, Austin & I didn't even begin making our costumes till Sunday night & continued up until an hour before we left to go to our Halloween party on Monday night, haha. Luckily we finished them in time!

On my Instagram I had a lot of questions about our costumes, unfortunately I wasn't smart enough to plan a how-to while we were making our costumes, but I'll try & explain it all to you.

MATERIALS USED:
3-4 cardboard boxes
Lots of white spray paint
Pink spray paint
Sharpie Paint Marker
Red & White paint for touch-ups
Duct Tape
Hot glue
Box Cutter
Baby Carrier
Inflatable Donuts


For Austin's Milk carton costume we used two large cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other, about 6 cans of white spray paint, a whole lot of duct tape & a little bit of red & black spray paint. Pretty tricky stuff ;) After building the shape of his costume he then got in it & used a box cutter to cut out the holes for his arms & face. The front of his box read: Missing, have you seen me? call.. & then a random made up number. The back of it read: Milk does the body good & the sides said Whole Milk & had cow print painted on it.

My box of donuts costume was a lot easier. I used a box that my friends microwave came in, spray painted it pink & then cut a hole in the bottom for Milos little feet to kick through. The slightly tricky part was cutting the holes for the Baby Bjorn. The way that it worked was I put the Bjorn on & we cut two holes that the Bjorn clips would go through, so the back of the box rested against the back of the Bjorn & then Milos back rested against the box. The way that we did it made it so I didn't have to hold onto the box which was really nice.


After painting & cutting it, we hot glued two pieces of white tissue paper & these little inflatable donuts that I found on Amazon. They are really cup floaties but they worked perfectly. I then safety pinned one to a soft fabric headband to put on Milos head & we poked holes into a smaller piece of cardboard which we then got glued onto the box "lid" for 2 headbands (figured 2 would be good because it was pretty heavy!) to go through for me to wear

I have to admit, this was by far my favorite costume I have ever created/ thought of / been. & I am pretty proud of myself, haha.
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HOW TO DO THE BEACH WITH KIDS

I felt like I hadn't been to the beach in forever, so last week some friends & I decided to take our six kids to the beach & it was a perfect day, perfect with a little of wild :) I've said it before & I will say it again, kids are meant to be at the beach! They had so much fun running through the sand, up & down the lifeguard tower, chasing waves & birds. 

I love the two pictures above. You can totally see Milo eyeing down Willa's boy & then going for it!

Going to the beach with kids can be daunting to people that don't go that often & a lot of people ask how I do it. With kids you obviously have a lot of stuff to haul to the beach but I try my hardest to pack light & this is what I take with me:

Beach tent: this is by far the easiest tent to put up & take down that offers the most amount of coverage, we got it at Costco & it was only $40! 

Beach blanket: I prefer to take blankets rather than towels because they cover more space & if it gets chilly it's a dual use :) I have an old really thin, linen blanket that I take & have designated as my beach blanket & it stays in my beach bag, so that sand doesn't go everywhere.

Baby carrier: I use a carrier to bring milo down to the beach with me so that I can carry all of the other gear & Cedar gets to walk & carry whatever he can!

Beach bag: I have two bags that I go between using, one is made out of mesh which is awesome cause sand just falls through! & the other is a Poler bag that is smaller & can be carried as a tote or backpack which is great. 

In my beach bag: 
- Snacks
- Spray Sunscreen
- Sunshirt/extra shirt for both boys
- Face sunscreen
- A few shovels, buckets, cars
- Water Bottles
- Lip Chapstick
- Smaller bag with diapers, wipes, pull-ups (for if we have a long day & Cedar naps on the drive home). I leave this bag in my beach bag or in the garage so that I don't get my daily little diaper bag all sandy.

A couple of beach hacks I grew up with & have discovered not everyone that did not grow up going to the beach often knew is to ALWAYS bring baby powder because it takes sand off instantly. I drench both my boys in baby powder before putting them back into the car to try & contain how much sand comes back with us. & baby oil removes tar! I sort of avoid the beaches that are known for having a lot of tar, but you can't always guarantee someone won't step in some so its pretty handy to bring along.