Yesterday, during naptime, I made the girls a new toy - a mini tent! (The pattern and tutorial are free) Usually, I'll file diy toy projects away for birthdays or Christmas (hello pinterest), rather than making them. But I want to do that less. Plus, last month I hardly made anything because I was sick and the month before that we were traveling so I feel like my creativity took a major nose dive. Overall, I'm trying to make more, which probably has a lot to do with Christmas looming on the horizon! Anyways, the tent was really easy to make, it took about 2 hours. Holly and I went to Home Depot together to get the piping. The pattern calls for faucet connectors, but HD only had those in stainless steel. So instead for $6 I bought 25 ft of polyurethane tubing. Holly chose purple duct tape to wrap it in, The duct tape added some needed sturdiness. The only adjustment I made was I added an inch to the bottom panels (so 12.25" instead of 11.25"). I thought that the tent would be perfect for the little lalaloopsy dolls, or other small to medium dolls. But Holly thinks it was made especially for her corolle doll, aka our third child. When Greta saw the tent, she dived at it thinking it was the perfect size for her! Hopefully they get a lot of play out of it! When I was a little girl I had a tent that I loved to play with.

This green eyelet dress is maybe my favorite dress ever on Greta. When I was pregnant with Holly I bought it from Gap. It wasn't the perfect color on Holly (blues look fabulous on Holly), however, it really suits Greta. I'm sad that the seasons are changing. This past weekend, we had a heat wave come through and so I could justify putting Gigi in it one more time. I just had to take some more photos of her wearing it! Fortunately I recently finished up a super cute fall dress for Greta. And of course there's more sweet dresses in her closet. Still, she may need a green dress like this one for every spring/summer of her life!

It's been so hot this past weekend due to some crazy heat wave. Today, the girls and I hit the beach and hit it hard. I'm not going to lie, it ain't easy to get out the door with two little girls on a long outing (seriously laughing at how I managed to go to the beach last year! I've got skills!), but it is so worth it! Today was the hottest day I've ever had at the beach! The cold pacific ocean water has never been so enticing! My girls love playing at the beach. Holly always does her best to scout out a friend and she's excellent at it. Her social skills have officially surpassed mine. Haha. Greta likes the beach, however sometimes her emotions get the better of her and she drops flat, as you can see in the photos below. We went to Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. I was excited to take some B&W film of that beach and it's wonders (ah, the delayed gratification of film is so exciting!). There was a ton of washed up seaweed. Greta spent a decent amount of time exploring in it and collecting these bulb things that are attached to the seaweed (no idea what they're called). And then she spent quite a bit of time playing with them. She even stuck the pointy end of one in my ear. Yup it fits. Thanks for checking Gigi. Baby girl cracks me up! On the way home, we stopped for pink ice cream. Holly couldn't give a darn about the flavor, it's all about the color with that kid. It was a fantastic day! I'm so glad we decided to ditch our hot and super messy apartment for a carefree day at the beach. Major mom points. And yes, full disclosure, we had melt downs when we got home. Whatever. We went to the beach today and it's October! I love California!

I love your peanut butter face!