What's My Kid Wearing Today

We are gearing up for a few days of very hectic travel this week.  We are driving up to Columbus, OH on Wednesday for Nationals.  Ashni fences on the 4th.  Then we have to turn around and shoot back to Jackson, MS on the 5th so that Jena can fly to Paris on the 6th. So the last few (and the next couple of) days have been filled with errand running.  Today we got a little down time to hang out with Jena and Ashni's girl scout troop.  We went to one of those paint your own pottery place.  I have never had the desire to go to one of those places, but the kids had fun.

This is what Zion wore (outside of the pottery place).  She decided that she needs to start carrying a bag.  It currently contains chapstick, a bottle of water, a journal and a pencil.  She wrote in that journal all day.

Shoes - previously featured

leggings - Circo ($.99 at Goodwill)

denim shirt dress - Wrangler ($.99 at Goodwill)

bag and headband - handmade by a friend (free)

Total Outfit (without shoes) - approx. $2

Ahhhh, summer.

Tomorrow is the first day of summer!  Yay!  So, I figured I'd share some things that we've done over the past couple of weeks (as well as some cute outfits).

We took a group field trip to a small local farm and look at the sweet little farm girl that I found there!  The girls had a great time.  They picked and ate blueberries, fed sheep and horses, milked goats and fed the babies.  Zion gathered eggs and diligently (and carefully) carried them in the little basket for the rest of the trip.  She was excited to bring these eggs home and have them for dinner.

Summer has provided us with much more time to spend with our friends.  There's nothing better than sweet friends, sprinklers, Popsicles and backyard picnics!

Then there's this.  This girl is the sweetest little human being.  And this frilly, sheer floral top (Guess - $.99 at Goodwill) is one that she LOVES!  Look at that face...

Ashni is discovering her love of accessories.  This fedora gets worn a lot.  She looks so grown up when she accessorizes.

My girls are plagued (ha) with long legs and super thin waists and my husband is plagued with his disdain for them showing too much skin.  This makes buying shorts difficult.  Bijou, on the other hand, is just the right size for her shorts to fit in the waist, but not be too short.  Yay!

pink shoes - Keds ($2.99 at Goodwill)

shorts - not sure of the brand ($1.49 at Goodwill)

tank top - Land's End (free, hand me down)

Total outfit - approx $4.50

Our annual Father's Day spread.  Every year on Father's Day, I make my husband a spinach, portobello and Gruyere quiche.  It only happens once a year and it is a huge hit every time.  This year, we also had roasted potatoes, cherries with fresh whipped cream (thanks Jena) and the girls squeezed two dozen oranges for juice

School, of course, continues over the summer.  Bijou has been working on adding two digit numbers with carrying and Zion is still working on her letter sounds.  She really wants to learn to read.

It's always fun to find pictures like this on my phone.  This is what happens when kids sneak and use your phone while you are getting dressed.  (Notice the stockpile of Girl Scout cookies in the background.)

The playground is a good (free) way to kill time between afternoon activities.  We spent a little time there this afternoon.  I love this lucha libre shirt (Boo Homes - $1.49 at Goodwill) that Bijou is wearing.  LOVE IT!

Zion at the monkey bars

desert boots - Crew Cuts ($2.99 at Goodwill)

trousers - Old Navy ($.99 at Goodwill)

popsicle tank - Gap ($.99 at Goodwill)

Total outfit - approx $5

This is what big sisters are for - to wear little sisters like hats! 

pink sneakers - Vans (previously featured)

shorts - Judith March ($2.49 at Goodwill)

t-shirt - Cherokee (free hand me down)

Total outfit (without shoes) - approx $2.50

We leave in two weeks to take Ashni to fence in the Summer National Championship in Ohio.  Jena leaves for France two days after.  We will go to St. Louis at the end of July to pick up my mother for a visit.  There will be field trips and play days and workshops to fill up all the rest of our long summer days. I'm looking forward to having a great and productive summer!

What's My Kid Wearing (in 95 degrees)

It hot.  There's really nothing more that I can say about it.  We went from early spring weather to mid summer weather over night.  Today, we did a lot of running around and carting kids from place to place (library volunteer hours, ballet supplement classes, writing workshop, fencing, garden work).  Apparently summer will NOT be the time that I get to slow down (or stay cool)... Here's what Zion wore today.  All of these pieces have been featured before except the shoes.  We just got those at Goodwill yesterday.

Desert Boot - Crew Cuts ($2.99 at Goodwill)

This outfit was super cute with her pink checkered hat, but it was WAY too hot to wear a hat today.  I think it may be shoved under the car seat somewhere...

What's My Kid Wearing Today (and a Summer School Update)

Ah, I just completed my first full week back home with the kids.  I think it was a productive week.  We did some school work and decided on a summer school schedule that everyone is happy with.  We will do math and writing everyday and the rest of our subjects will be:
Monday - Science
Tuesday - Grammar/Essay Writing
Wednesday - Geography
Thursday - History
Friday - Art
This way, they have time to really get immersed in what they are working on without having to be concerned with the 4 other subjects that they need to get done before the end of the day. We also got the house somewhat organized (color coded our school library...again).  And my husband has been able to get more than four hours of sleep each day (working nights and homeschooling days is tough).  So, I think everyone is happy.
Yesterday, we were invited over to a friends house for a crawfish boil and general smorgasbord.  Bijou, Ashni and Jena even tried raw oysters for the first time.  They oysters received mixed reviews.  They gorged themselves on fruit, crawfish, cheese and crackers, veggies and popsicles.  SO many popsicles. And I'm pretty sure that several hula hoop contests occurred.  Anyway, this is what they wore.

This is five minutes before they all turned into America's Next Top Model and the pictures got goofy.

Bijou

pink sneakers - Keds ($2.99 at Goodwill)

dress - Cakewalk (free from a hand me down bag)

Total Outfit - approx. $3

See the madness...

Zion

Grey sneakers - Converse (gift from my mom...pretty sure they were $3 at Goodwill in St. Louis)

leggings - Old Navy ($.99 at Goodwill)

denim skirt - Justice (previously featured)

Super Grover t-shirt - Old Navy ($.99 at Goodwill)

Total Outfit - approx. $5 

Jena (and her legs...)

shoes - ana ($6.99 at Goodwill)

tights - Target (maybe $2 on sale at Target.  She bought these herself, so I'm not sure)

patchwork skirt - Gap ($1.49 at Goodwill)

ruffle tank top - Crewcuts ($1.49 at Goodwill)

Total Outfit - approx $12

Ashni

fancy pink tank top - Old Navy (free from the hand me down bag)

black jean leggings - Gap ($8 from Gap)

yellow sneakers - Converse ($6.99 from Goodwill.  She bought these herself)

Total Outfit - approx. $15

What's My Kid Wearing Today

Ahhh, summer!  I'm so thankful for warm weather, blue sky and disabling my alarm!  Waking up at 8am is like a spa vacation after waking up at 6:30 every morning.  Today, after our school day, we spent a fabulous afternoon with friends.  The kids played in the sprinkler, shared some food and generally ran amuck.  This is what my sweet Zion wore today...

She's just so stinking cute!

shoes - Red Ape (previously featured)

pants - Children's Place ($.99 for Goodwill)

tank top - Gap - this was Ashni's shirt when she was 4, so I'm not sure where it came from or how much it cost.

hat - $7 from Target (this is, by far, her favorite thing to wear)

necklace - hand made by Zion yesterday.

Total Outfit - approx. $8 (without the shoes)

Better late than never...

The Brown-David clan has been away for a couple of weeks.  The girls got to spend a couple of weeks in St. Louis with my mother and the hubs and I finally got a honeymoon (sort of).  We spent 10 days (child free, mind you) on the East Coast visiting friends and family.  We divided our time between Washington DC, New Jersey and New York.  We had a great time and ate more delicious food than I thought humanly possible!

There was a great video game exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in DC.  Couldn't pass up a chance to play giant PacMan.

I have been hearing about Ethiopian food for the last two visits to DC.  We finally got to go for Ethiopian.  Look how happy he looks.

The "Little Old Lady" suite at the B&B where we stayed in New Jersey.  It was close to the beach AND provided bikes for the guests.

Apparently in Bradley Beach, you need badges to actually get onto the beach.  These came with the room, of course.

Don't I look like I'm enjoying the bike ride?  I really did!  The weather was pleasant, the ride was easy and there was not a hill in sight.

My only good picture of the Verrazano Bridge.  It's difficult to take pictures from a moving vehicle.

This is his excited face.  We spent the afternoon at the Dekalb Market in Brooklyn.  There was great food and music.

Notice the beer and donuts (in the box) in the background.  It was that kind of day!

Awesome street art!  Notice the box of donuts still being carted around.  Those donuts saw all of Brooklyn that day.

Our first trip on a NYC subway. There's a much better picture than this somewhere...

I got the COLDEST popsicle known to man in Central Park.  The vendor had them in dry ice and the condensation was refreezing on the popsicle.  It was literally getting BIGGER as I ate it (and my lips kept sticking to it)

Cooling off (or trying to cool off, anyway) in a little pavilion in Central Park.

A trip to Chinatown always means ducks (and chickens and a variety of other animals) hanging in the windows.

It also means really tasty, cheap food.  We had giant, steamy bowls of noodles and balls of various origins.  These particular ones were fish.  I had shrimp balls in mine (which looked almost exactly like this, only pinkish).

I saw this sign while were in Manhattan and I thought it was humorous.  Hopefully my Keen sneakers were acceptable.

 I love Urban Outfitters and that's really all the I can say about this picture...

The kids also had great time in St. Louis, but because I had the camera, there are no pictures to share.  I'm sure my mom will have to sleep for the next two weeks to recuperate from spending two weeks with my four little girls.  They can be handful.  Now, to get back into our regularly scheduled routine.