tatum's nursery inspiration board

Y'all, we have a baby coming in less than three months. And if she's anything like Graham, she might surprise us even sooner. So... I suppose it's probably a good idea for us to get started on the nursery, right? It's a little different for us this time around since Graham is still currently living in the soon-to-be nursery. We're kind of just working around that fact for the moment, but keep telling Graham how much fun he's going to have moving in with his big brothers! Cayden and Sawyer are in bunk beds, so our plan in to build a trundle underneath Sawyer's bed for Graham. It'll be low to the ground (since someone does still have a tendency to fall out of the bed every so often) and easily stored away during the day so that they still have room to play.

That photo above? That's what the nursery looked like the evening that we closed on the house. We have replaced the carpet to match the flooring in the rest of the house – we still don't really understand why they left the one room carpeted... Our cats helped us make the decision to go on and replace the carpet though. We won't go into detail on that...

Anyway, once we add some quarter round to the floor, the flooring is done. But everything else? Well, everything else still needs to be done. And what are we doing? I'm so glad you asked! Take a look!

We loved Graham's nursery in our old house. And still miss it a lot in this home. With that being said, we're taking a lot of inspiration from that to make a bright, happy space for our baby girl. Details below if you're into that sort of thing.

1 // Crib: Same one that Graham used; still in perfect(ish) condition.
2 // Ceiling Light: There's a pretty ugly fixture in there right now. This? We love.
3 // Wall & Ceiling Color: White walls with a bright pop of color for the ceiling (SW Charisma at 75%).
4 // Rocker: This is the one we bought for Sawyer's nursery. And used for Graham's. Still love it.
5 // Elephant: Fell in love the moment I saw this sweet little elephant. And possibly the starting point for colors.
6 // Lovey: Because my mama randomly picked it up to match the sheets. And it's adorable.
7 // Storage: I love this line at Target and would re-buy a ton of stuff just to get it all. We'll start with this basket.
8 // Crib Sheets: This line at Target went super-fast. I wanted to get the matching changing pad cover. No luck.
9 // Poster: I've wanted this poster For Like Ever. And a baby girl for just as long. It just works!
10 // Dresser: I think this dresser has lived in everyone's room at some point. We'll be refreshing it with an ombre paint job.

And that's it. There are a lot more details and artwork that we'll add slowly, but this is the beginning! With the long weekend ahead, I'm hoping to at least knock out some painting soon. One thing at a time, right?

cayden: a lego party.

Having summer babies means a lot of outdoor birthday parties. And this year was no exception! We purchased a new slide/pool for the party, and I ::think:: it went over pretty well. Ok, really well! Add in a pool to fill all the many water guns and some water balloons and you have insta-fun without having to do too much planning.

The kiddos entertained themselves while the parents chatted. We had birthday cake – strawberry with yellow icing! And yes, those colors together were just as strange as you're thinking. But it was delicious and one of my favorite things to make for our kiddos parties. I also enjoy making them marshmallow pops – it's always fun to see how we can tie them in to the decor. With Cayden choosing a Lego theme, we came up with an idea to cut a mini marshmallow in half to put on top so that we had pops that looked like Lego men heads. They turned out pretty stinkin' cute. I also bought some silicone molds to make Lego chocolates. The kids were wowed that they could eat their legos, ha!

I also decided to make our own piñata this year. I found a template online for a Lego head and went with it. It was super-simple, albeit a teeny bit time consuming. I also made it out of leftover moving boxes, so it may have made it a little sturdier to break into. Which worked out in the end because everyone had two rounds of trying to break it open. Even Graham got in on the action – complete with backwards bat in his hand. And y'all, the facial expressions we got from these kids while swinging at the piñata were hilarious!

This was the first year Cayden had wanted to invite a lot of classmates. It was really cool to see a few of them join in on the fun, along with all of our favorite other people. We're looking forward to repeating a similar style party for Sawyer next month!

sawyer: last day of 4k

It really is always so fun to compare first days with last days, right? Dude has probably grown at least two inches since he started 4k last September. I mean, that's not even a full year! I still think this one might be our tall one, but we'll see.

It also dawned on me sometime in the last year that Sawyer will always start and finish each grade the same age he starts because he has a late summer birthday. It also means that he'll graduate high school at 17. And, what?!?!? Yeah, let's not go there yet.

Anyway, this kiddo had a huge year. We've always felt that Sawyer is a smart little nugget, and he just continued to impress us throughout the entire year. He mastered writing his name pretty early on in the school year, but now? Now he's starting to read. And it completely blows my mind! (It did with Cayden, too!)

And in just a couple of short months, this guy is heading off to kindergarten... Crazy.