teacher appreciation, collections, and a giveaway

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7th-11th).

Last year I missed Teacher Appreciation Week altogether.

I was also late with my end of the year teachers gifts.

This year, with a little thrifting and creativity I have my gifts ready early.

Inspired by some ideas on Pinterest and my collection of globes I made these…

I am going to attach a card that reads:

“Thank you for being a bright light in our child’s ever-expanding world.”

In celebration of teachers being bright lights in our children’s worlds, I am giving one of these pendant lamps away!

To enter, leave a comment answering the following question:

What do you like to collect?

Deadline is Thursday, May 3rd at 9pm Pacific.

Winner will be announced on Friday, May 4th on the home is what you make it and colton+cadence Facebook pages (and here on the blog)!

{By the way, I have pairs and singles for sale at colton+cadence.}

home is…being a bright light in someone’s world.

*linking up with…

{through the rearview thursday}

There are times when I get caught up in life and blogging takes a back seat to other things.

However, there are a lot of things that I wish I had taken the time to blog about.

Some happened before I had a blog.

Some just didn’t get documented because I am too busy living.

I don’t mind with life gets in the way, but there are things I still want to document after the fact.

So, I am starting a new post series called {through the rearview thursday}.

Tune in on Thursday’s where I will catch you up with things I haven’t taken the time to and fill you in on and some of my BB (before blog) life!

Also, stay tuned for a giveaway and big announcement…

home is…continuing to document life when living gets in the way.

{sunriver} take one

sunriver

I’m in Sunriver with the mommies from friday playgroup.

It snowed last night.

I’m not sure that the girls will be biking today.

home is…time with good friends.

an early spring walk in the burbs

So, I want to blog about our awesome weekend, but I need more time than I have tonight.

We’ve had some incredible spring weather here in the Pacific Northwest and we’ve been out enjoying it.

Our tulips are blooming and I couldn’t be happier about how our new landscaping is looking. We get daily compliments from neighbors.

We’ve had to use ladders for multiple projects lately and our monkeys are quickly learning how to use them!

And, after dinner we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Something that Ryan loves to do with the kids.

Lala brought her baby and Bobo brought his “weapon”.

There were new decorations in a tree in the neighborhood that the kids were fascinated by. I am not sure if they are there to scare the birds away (it might be a cherry tree) or just for fun. Either way, the kids liked them!

He was attacked by a bad guy and I had to save him.

Yeah, good mommy moment…too busy taking photos on my phone…”Hey, she fell down!”

But, if I hadn’t been taking pictures, I would have never caught this moment, right?!

Baby girl was fine.

She’s tough.

We live in the burbs. We only need to carry a nerf gun for protection.

But, leave it to Ryan to make sure we are safe.

And, we got home and the monkey wanted to climb…barefoot.

This guy has no fear when it comes to physical activity!

home is…a beautiful spring day.

photos from m{i}phone

It’s been a while.

Why don’t we catch up…

home is…lots of fun thrifting, playing, creating, and spending time with people we love.

breaking the rules

Yesterday morning I took a trip to Goodwill with the kids.

Usually, if they follow my rules, they each get to pick out a toy.

My rules are stay close to mommy, no running, and stay quiet.

They are usually VERY good at following these rules.

Yesterday was no exception, and they each found a toy.

The little guy found a Batman action figure from 2003…I hated to open it because it was new in it’s packaging and worth at least twice as much as we paid for it, but his happiness was worth ripping the packaging open once we got home.

Baby girl liked a little car with a pig in it. While she was riding in the cart and holding her car she realized that it actually  made noise and drove on it’s own and wanted to get out of the cart.

She immediately put it on the ground and let it go.

Oink!

Oink!

Oink!

ZOOOOOOOOM!

It raced down the aisle.

And, she raced screaming and giggling after it!

Breaking all my rules.

I have never seen her so happy about something.

She and the little guy set it on the ground and let it go again.

Oink!

Oink!

Oink!

ZOOOOOOOOM!!

I tried to keep them quiet as an employee looked around the corner to see what the noise was about.

She said, “I love to hear children’s laughter.”

So, I let them laugh.

And, run.

We were on our way towards checking out, anyway.

Baby girl screamed and giggled every time the car drove away.

This was one time that I didn’t mind them breaking my rules.

{Although, I think I came back to haunt me later in the day when they thought breaking my rules was OK when we were at the veterinarian learning how to give Hobbes his insulin injections.}

home is…sometimes breaking the rules is worth it.