Let's Talk: Red White and Blue

Happy Almost 4th of July! Today Andrea and Erika are asking about anything red, white and blue. I wanted to do a 4th of July wreath, but time has escaped me and I didn't get to the store to buy anything. While at Hobby Lobby buying for my summer wreath I tried to buy the stuff for a 4th of July wreath but nothing was on sale and I refuse to buy when it's not on sale, because I know it will go on sale, it's just a matter of time...

Anyway, I thought I would talk about traditions. My Dad has 3 brothers, between the 4 brothers there are 12 kids, so I have a bunch of cousins, plus most of them (9 of the 12) are married now with kids of their own, so it's crazy trying to find a time when we can all get together. For whatever reason we've made 4th of July that time. It's hard with the holidays because everyone is switching off between Mom's side and Dad's side of the family, you know how it is. So probably 20 years ago the 4 brother and the 12 kids all went to Santa Barbara and stayed 3 nights, we would all stay in rooms next to each other and we would all watch the fireworks over the pier from our room or on the grassy part in front of our rooms

...well fast forward many, many years...2006 an one of the cousins got married 4th of July weekend, so that one was out, the following year another cousin got married the weekend before, actually at the same hotel we were staying at, but a week prior, so that year was out too. Then the following year it just got too expensive, so my Uncle decided a few years later to host 4th of July at his house, he gets amazing seats to watch the fireworks because he is on city council...so we all head there and most of the cousins go. It's such a blast. I love seeing my kids with my cousins kids, it's so sweet and reminds me so much of when I was growing up with my cousins, getting together every opportunity we got.

2012

2013

July 2014

July 2015

Now this year, and we're doing it again! So excited to see everyone in just a week or so.

Do you have any family traditions?

Totally bonus pictures...for our yearly calendar for our parents, I tried to dress the kids up for each holiday...yep I was THAT mom...

Baby Fox

Mini Fox....

Linking up here

Friday Favorites #75

Happy Friday Foxy Friends!

In case you missed it this week, this is what I've been up to on the Bloggy Blog.

Monday: $10 Target Haul: June Edition
Tuesday: Fast Forward 10 Years, Where Am I?
Wednesday: Create 28 and Hair Challenge Week 25
Thursday: Avengers Half Birthday Party

Mini Fox is rocking her swim lessons, we are rounding the end of week 2 and she's already floating and swimming by herself, we're just working on her doing that without command. Currently she would just keep swimming and never roll over but as soon as the Coach touches her head to remind her she flips over, so the next couple of weeks we'll be working on that.

Here she is mid flip.

And floating on her own, toy in hand and all.

Baby Fox wanted to be a Storm Trooper for Halloween so my cousin bought it for his half birthday, so sweet and he's been wearing it non-stop. He also got those Legos he's holding from another cousin. He was excited to get so many Storm Troopers.

Baby Top Knot, you can't really see it here, but it looks better then mine ever would, haha!

Father's Day was awesome this year, I took almost no pictures. Oops, I did take a picture of the kids making my Dad his Father's Day craft. Baby Fox drew the tree trunk on his own and then wanted to paint his own hand for the leaves.

Then we let it sit over night and I added a lot of white pant to the green to make light green and Baby Fox then painted his sisters hand and put them on the tree.

This is how it turned out, I think it turned out great, next time I would get a bigger sized canvas, but this is what I had on hand, so I made it work. I just used felt tip marker for the writing. Baby Fox did the writing, can you tell? And Mini Fox made the sun in the corner, team effort.

Some picture of things other than my little humans...

The kids talked me into this for dinner after swim lessons the other day because Mr. was working late, it was delicious. Tip: Get the fries with no salt you get WAY more! We ordered three  and got enough to fill 5 trays probably. Mr. even got some when he got home.

They just opened a custard place by us...they had a buy one get one free coupon, and of course the whole world went because of the coupon so the cookie selection was minimal. I would have preferred a non chocolate cookie, but hey beggars can't be choosers and it was still delicious.

For the party on Saturday we realized we don't have a proper ice bucket and we keep borrowing my parents, so Mr. got on Amazon and bought me a Kate Spade one! He said that this was only $20 more than the normal one, so why not? Matches my polka dot Kate Spade china...woo hoo!

Some of my favorite videos of the week, how cool is this. What it must be like to see color for the first time, amazing.

This is way above my hair skill level...but so darn awesome!

Happy Friday! We're off to a wedding and a birthday party this weekend...Oh and I'm getting my hair cut, after months of trying to find someone...I finally just decided to go to my old guy that is about 30 minutes away, anyone else do that? I figure might as well, since we're going to a wedding later that night, freshly cut/styled hair? Yes please!

Linking up here 

Avengers 1/2 Birthday Party

Hi Foxy Friends! I'm here to sort of talk to you about Baby Fox's Avengers Party. As always I fail at taking pictures when I'm hosting the party!  Oh well! The fun part of planning this was Baby Fox was totally into it. He wanted to come with me to pick out the party supplies and wanted to help me decorate. While we were decorating he said, I love decorating with you Mama...melt this Mama heart.

I didn't even get a good picture of the background I was doing! What, total blogger fail! I even started taking pictures to do a tutorial...and then totally failed. Luckily I have another tutorial that is very similar, just different building shapes. And I used grey windows instead of yellow because Baby Fox wanted me to, and I thought it would make it more dramatic.

I took this picture thinking I'll take another one when people aren't in it, then the night rolled aorund and I forgot and then the very next day it feel down so we just took it down totally forgetting to take a picture, darn!

I bought the Happy Birthday sign and the webs and spiders were left from last year. Getting two years using some of the same party decorations is a definite win! Got our money worth out of that one.

The food was Mexican, yum! Pork, chicken, beans, nachos. Then I added some fruit to be healthy and some hotdogs for those kids that don't really eat Mexican...namely the birthday boy! Again no pictures, blogger fail! I always say I'm going to be better...not this year apparently.

I bought this sign, and hung part here:

And the other part here, since the one wall that could fit everything was currently being used.

The rest of it we added above the French doors.

Baby Fox insisted that we have these streamers, it was one of the first things he put in the shopping cart. Plus we had some left over from our Spiderman Party last year. Baby Fox picked the exact location of each streamer and I hung them up.

Even the ones outside he showed me where to put them.

The Bam, Boom, Ka-Pow signs were left over from last year. You better believe I'm keeping these for another year...can we say three-peat?

These signs were left over from last year and we put them around the house, these were simple goodie bags, bought the bags with Avenger theme and then added a small coloring to-do book and some crayons and then put a bunch of candy it is to fill them up.

I think the best part of the party was the cityscape and then the cake! Remember his birthday cake for his actual birthday in December? Well I did the same inside but I totally different outside...he was in awe of it. I think I was too, carpal tunnel city, but worth it! And there is this electric thing I could have used, that of course a friend told me about afterwards, never again will I go through that pain! haha...

Those are those homemade Oreo Cookies that are always the first thing to do...my friends all call them Woopie Pies and basicaly expect them when they come to a party at my house.

Back to the cake, a close up, I followed this tutorial and in case you were wondering I used a #16 icing tip...

Hulk symbol

Thor Symbol

Captain America Symbol

I spent so much time on the icing that I completely forgot what was on the inside, so when I cut it open, it really was a surprise to me too! haha...

I followed this tutorial.

Cake was a huge hit, and I'm so happy that everyone liked it, especially the birthday boy!

So that was our Avengers/Spiderman Party, although people at work tell me that Spiderman is now a part of Avengers...so, I guess we're okay on that front.

It was hot, so a pool party was the perfect way to start the Summer. And then we'll end the summer with Mini Fox's party in September...I'm thinking she's going to with Little Mermaid...or maybe Frozen, but that is a distant second.

Linking up here

Create 28 and Hair Challenge Week 25

Hello Foxy Fashion Friends! Today we're back at it with another week of Create 28. Go check out this weeks recap on The Blended Blog, everyone did such a fabulous job this week!

This week I actually styled two looks! I know I can't believe it either. I was just feeling inspired! First up is Sunglasses Styled. Funny enough I rarely wear sunglasses. I am definitely not one of those people that needs to wear them as soon as I step outside. But I was just recently looking through my scrapbooking closet (and when I say that, I mean I can't find anything because it's so full), and found these pair of sunglasses Mr. and I had bought back in the after Christmas sales at Express. So here is the outfit I styled...

Without the sunglasses (man it was bright outside, all the pictures I took I was squinting...I guess I really did need the sunglasses).

These jean shorts, the most comfortable shorts EVER! I bought it when I was out shopping with some of The Blended Blog ladies, seriously, worth every penny!

And the hair...I actually wore this outfit on Saturday to Baby Fox's half birthday party...I knew it was going to be hot, so I wanted it all up, perfect excuse for this Knotted Mohawk style. I didn't feel like I had enough hair at the end to complete it how she did, I'm fairly certain she has extensions in, so I just left it in a ponytail which I think works just as great.

My second look is the Pinned It and Did It look. I have lots of outfits pinned, but I had been wanting to try a  to cut an off the shoulder t-shirt with one of my t-shirts. After getting my Chico's T-shirt from the blogging conference, and I knew I probably wouldn't wear it as is, I thought, this is the perfect t-shirt to try this with. So I followed her youtube tutorial and I think it turned out pretty good. I wish the t-shirt was a little bigger, but I think it still worked.

For the hair I did a twisted half do, and added some extra twists to cover up the rubber band. I think that it turned out great, I'm really into doing twists right now, not sure why, but I think they are just so pretty.

Onto my hair for the week...

Last Wednesday I did this simple braid...can you guess...it was day 3 hair, so a braid is necessary.

I fully admit I watch stupid TV, it's mindless and I like it...but I was watching Young and Hungry and Gabby had something similiar I was trying to copy, but it didn't quite work out like hers, but I went with it.

Back with more twists on Monday, it was 107° here, so fancy pony tail for me.

I wanted to do some twists again, but decided to do a braid instead, this wasn't exactly the look I was going for, but hey it will do :) It was still easy to wear and comfy all day long.

Random fact: See that white background behind me? If you see it, it means I'm at work, toasting my bread for breakfast... The toaster is in a corner of the building right by a window where no one walks unless they are using the toaster...perfect spot for a selfie.

This is our last week of Create 28, I can't believe it's coming to an end so soon! No fear we have something else planned for the summer months, plus something really fun for Fall. So stay tuned for details once we've hashed it all out. In the mean time, don't forget to hop on over to The Blended Blog for a full recap of all of the this weeks outfits. The prompts for our final week.

Link up one of this weeks prompts or any outfit post, hop around and meet some new people! Thanks for joining in on the fun!

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up here