We celebrated Lucille’s golden birthday this past weekend with family and friends. Since it was her golden birthday, I knew I wanted to do something with Golden books. I collect vintage tea cups so I wanted to try and work those in as well because most of them have the prettiest florals on them. The end result was sort of a  vintage/tea/book/fairytale-ish little party and it was prettier than I could have ever imagined. I thrifted around for a couple months to find all the perfect pieces and it was a blast! Treasure hunting is totally my thing.

Planning a party for a sweet little girl, after so many parties for our boys, was prettty darrrn fun. I used light peaches, mints, and golds for the party because those are the colors of Lucy’s room, and I knew I could repurpose all the decor in her room afterwards. I thought I would have a hard time finding all the Golden books I wanted,  but I ended up with about 100 of them! People donate those like crazy apparently? What?! People be crazy. Classics! I found a lot of the vintage books on Etsy, and the rest I hunted for…they had to be just the perfect pastel cover and binding.

This mint tray is super old…my dad and I found it at a flea market last year and I paid 1 dollar for it. This tray was the inspiration for the scalloped edges on Lucy’s walls in her room. 

I mean how perfect was this book find ^. And of course, a perfectly peachy juice fountain for all the kiddos. 

Oh take me back to these macaroons! I mainly ordered them because they were pretty (duh), but they were delish!

This book next to the candy bar I bought at St Vinnys for 75 cents. It had one of those cheesy grandmother poems on it. I wrote a little story about Lucy and mod podged it on with a photo of her on the other side, and then hot glued a flower on the book mark. I love the way it turned out!

This cake tasted way better than it looked if you can even wrap your brain around that. The top layer was vanilla with strawberry filing, and the bottom was lemon poppy seed with lemon curd filing. I even thrifted all the cake plates…about 35 beautiful, vintage plates. I found the best stack at Goodwill that had a prince and princess ballroom dancing on the front with gold trim around the edge of the plate. I didn’t pay more than 75 cents for a plate! 

The birthday girl did not like her flower crown unfortunately…

So two of my friends wrote a Golden book about Lucille, dressed up as fairy godmothers, and read it to everyone during the party. It was the sweetest, most hilarious moment! I am so thankful we got it on tape!

S

Only one piñata mishap…but Uncle Chris saved the day!

We love you so much little Lucille Estelle. Happy Golden 1st Birthday!

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It was a beautiful 70 degree weekend (finally) and we spent ever moment possible, outdoors. Memory boxing this weekend as one of the best.

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Mother’s day is right around the corner so all you dads and kids better listen up RIGHT NOW. When you ask your mom what she wants for mothers day she is going to tell you one of two things. 1. All I want is hugs and kisses. or 2. I don’t need anything. Well I am here to tell you she is lying. Well she probably does want hugs and kisses, but let’s be real. What she really wants is something on this list I went ahead and put together for you all. You’re welcome. How do I know what mom wants? Because I am mom.

Also, make her a card. Don’t go buy one because they are crazy expensive and she will love that you took the time to make her one.

1. Framed art prints from Minted. 

Have y’all heard of Minted? They are an online marketplace of beautiful artwork made by independent artists from all over the world. They offer invites, art prints, and stationary to name a few. I am in love with this company. The quality of everything I have ever ordered is beyond ahhhhmazing. And what’s really cool is that they have all of these wonderful designs to choose from but they remain completely customizable. I just ordered Lucille’s birthday invites from Minted and they are so perfect. If you are planning a wedding they have the greatest save the date section ever. But my favorite thing from Minted are the framed art prints. They are so beautiful! You know who would love one? Your mom. There are a handful of  fun frames to choose from and they are super affordable. So here are my picks for your mom, whichever mom she may be.

For the trendy mom, try this pineapple print, because pineapples are trendy right now, or something?

For the vintage-loving mom, try this Grecian floral print with the antique filagree frame.

For the mom who needs to be reminded of her beauty, go pick the most beautiful picture of your mom that you can find and put it on this simple gold foil print.

For the adventurous or elegant mom, this gold foil map of Paris will do juuussst fine. Dreamy.

For the sophisticated mom, this gold foil pigment print is perfect. When in doubt, just pick something with gold foil. Trust me.

For the sentimental mom, or the mom that needs reminding how cute you are because you have been driving her bonkers lately….this mom love photo print will do the job.

2. OILS.

Your mom loves oils. Your mom wants you to get her oils. Your mom will be SO thankful that you are generous enough to think about her well-being. Essential oils for mother’s day = brownie points for you. I suggest the premium starter kit for maximum brownie points. If you need to get your hands on some oils, e-mail me this week so they get to you in time.

3. Succulents.

Super trendy right now and they are so easy to manage. Your mom will love to look at those beauties all day. If you can’t acquire succulents locally, I like to order mine from this etsy shop.

4. Air plants.

Do you know about air plants? They are so intriguingly beautiful. They are just plants that don’t require any soil, they simply survive on nutrients in the air. You just need to soak them overnight in water, once a week, and they are pretty much impossible to kill.

5. Lastly, a massage. You know mom needs and deserves one, but she will never schedule one for herself. Get her a gift card to a nice place, for an hour long massage. While you are at it, go ahead and snoop in her datebook and schedule it for her. That way she can’t let the gift card sit unused for the next year. If you really want to spoil mom get her a massage AND oils. She will probably let you have ice cream before dinner if you do that.

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1. I’ve waited years to put an Easter bonnet on a sweet daughter of mine.
2. Liam, always with the dramatic shoulder shrug.
3. Becoming a gamer was inevitable.
4 & 5. Easter egg huntin’.
6. All my boys playing pac man.
7. Again, Easter bonnet.
8. I promise you Remy is a happy camper..

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1. potted some new succulents around the house.
2. planning a birthday fit for a storybook princess.
3. waiting on our Easter grass to grow.
4. a boy and his pup, always nearby.
5. 2 new teeth this week! so silly.
6. so many owies for this dude.

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Guys, I promise you I have been cooking. I have just been so gung-ho about my oils that I want to tell everyone about them because LIFE CHANGING. I know some of you are just here for the food, and I can totally relate to that. Story of my life. So this is for my foodies.

Whenever I have nothing planned for supper and I am hunting through the cupboards trying to muster up the ingridients for a meal, I almost always will make something Mexican. Why? Because it’s MY favorite and I am a selfish human. God forgives me though.

Every day whilst making supper the boys ask me “what are you making for supper, mom”, and if it’s something they don’t like, all 3 of them in whine form, sing back to me, ” AWWWWWUHHHHH.”

Because we are mean parents and they know they will have to eat it regardless. SUCKAS.

If it’s not rice, beans, plain tacos, or nachos, don’t even think they will entertain the idea of Mexican food.

But honestly we didn’t have to force this one down their throats. They really liked it.

Those little stinkers…most times, once they try something they end up liking it. If they just listened to that scoundrel Daniel Tiger that they watch every day, “we gotta try new food cuz it might taste good.” Daniel and I don’t agree on many things but this is a song I can get behind.

It’s just getting them to take that first bite. Oh the tears and tantrums we endure to force our kids to eat food that is good for their growing little bodies. How dare we. (By the way, we do use an oil for those tantrums! I knew I couldn’t go too long without talking about my oils. Rub a little Valor right on the spine…even sneak hug it on if you have to, and it calms an emotional meltdown so fast!)

One more thing. CROCKPOT. Did you read that in the recipe title. You’re welcome.

For this recipe you will need to use enchilada sauce… this is our favorite enchilada sauce. Choose wisely because the sauce makes this one.

This is the recipe source.

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1. oh Cille do. You took 3 steps this week and worked hard on poking 3 more teeth through your little gums.
2. memory boxing this forever. This is how you take 4 kids to weekend sporting events. I love that she still falls asleep in the wrap.
3. cheesin’ soccer star.
4. roughing it for a night in the tee-pee.
5. boys and their pup.
6. patient grocery store shoppers while we check out.

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I have a handy dandy free printable chart that will help you use your oils to really enhance your life in a safe natural way. I have personally used all of these oils many times to combat most of the ailments listed. This is such a helpful reference to have around and a great tool to help you if you are just beginning to get into oils. All of the oils featured in this chart can be found in the premium starter kit. If you are like me, once I got my starter kit, I felt very overwhelmed and clueless on what to do with my oils. I wish I had something like this to help me out! Remember there are 4 different ways you can use the oils, depending on the ailment and the severity:  you can learn those here.

Just click on the image, right click it to save, print it, hang in your oily storage space, and go save the world with oils friends.

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For those of you just starting to follow along…I have challenged myself to post pictures weekly for the entire year of the kids and our weekly happenings. Honestly can’t believe I have made it to week 10. hashtag self confidence

1. It was 67 degrees here the other day. 67 DEGREES. Last week there were mornings that were below zero so….thanks Wisconsin. White tulips forever.

2. Almost all of the Holzmann boys playing a game of catch.

3. Crafting with my boys.

4. Ralph and I snuck out for a few hours with some great friends, alone, WHAT? Very much needed, we had a great time letting loose.

5. And a dirty Lucille who just found her first sucker and opened it all on her own. I decided to reward her hard work by letting her suck on it for a bit in her highchair. That is until she dropped it and Crosby polished it off.

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A few of my oily friends and I are hosting this awesome event. If you have been waiting for the push to get started with essential oils, here it is! Be sure to RSVP as spots are limited and they are actually filling up very fast!

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