I should be unpacking ...

 instead of playing with blocks.

 but then I might have missed this laugh,

 this proud speller (who hopefully has a decent enough vocabulary as well),

and Sophia's new castle.

Then I think, the unpacking will always be there but these times will not. 

We are loving our new house.  I think we will be here for a long time.  Watch our kids grow up here. I know that we will look back on this time and marvel at how little they all were.  (It's entirely possible that I am having a little trouble with Lakshman getting bigger and no longer being a newborn.  Ok, more than a little.) 

I know this is cliche, but I love them being little.  Time feels like it is rushing past me.  It makes me happy and sad all at the same time.  It is so good but I know it will be gone soon. 

And yes, there are good times ahead, but can I help wanting time to stop just for a little bit?

Yes, we have so many plans right now.  We had the house painted and kitchen updated a little.  (The walls were green before, ok? Yuck!) And now I want to build shelves in the playroom.  Maybe a dress up rack.  Or even a teepee and reading nook?  Hopefully I will get at least one those projects done but for now I feel like I need to hit the pause button. It will come together but I have to take my time and enjoy the journey a little bit too.

Ballet Austin

Avinash took ballet classes again this year.  Last year he took classes in Houston and they had a big recital for all the kids at the end of year.  Avinash got a standing ovation for his performance (and for being the only boy on stage too probably).  We were so moved by this.  I know that some people feel weird about having their boys take dance classes but we have never had anything but love and support from the different studios we have been to.  I'm not too proud  to tell someone that he is taking ballet to help with his sports footwork, but I haven't really needed to. 

The ballet school year ended this past week and his teacher very strongly encouraged us to bring him back next year.  His classes are at a real ballet studio so even though they get to audition for the Nutcracker in a couple years, there is no kids recital at the end of year.  We did get to sit in the studio and watch.  Ryan came along and all four of us saw Avinash dance. 

Lakshman was totally amazed by the wall to wall mirrors.

Hey guys, did you even know this kind of technology existed?!

Avinash, we are so proud of you!

Summer Plans

I made a summer bucket list last year and included it in my project life album.  We didn't get to everything on the list, like doing all the crafts in my old "World of Littles" craft book so I may put that back on the list this year.  We did get to reading 30 new books, taking nature walks and visiting friends.  

This year we have so many new things to explore around Austin.  

The Lady Bird Wildflower Center, just around the corner from our house.  They have free evening events for kids too.  

The Austin farmer's market on Saturdays.  The produce here really is incredible, better than whole foods and Central Market too.   This also means cooking with more fresh vegetables too.  I am totally going to make a ton of caprese salads this summer.

 Sea World!  It is an hour away, but the kids have so much fun here and I love it to.  Definitely worth the trip a few times.

I want to paint our way through the large roll of paper I bought at Ikea.  It keeps them occupied for quite a while and I enjoy it too.

Other things on the list: 

our neighborhood pool (and getting over his fear of waist-high water)

summer camp at Zilker Park for Avinash (and some fun Mommy Baby time for me and Nandini)

going to visit my parent

outdoor  concerts

checking out the food truck and restaurant scene, eating on patios (we're outdoorsy like that)

What summer plans do you have? Anyone know any great spots around Austin they'd like to share :)

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Day in the Life | May 2014

Lately the days have felt like they are rushing by.  The kids are done with preschool for the year.  Lakshman is no longer a newborn, but a real full fledged baby.  This is very hard for me to process.  Last week I joined in with Ali Edwards to take part in another Day in the Life challenge.  I love her use of a 4x4 mini album this year. 

This day very much reflected our current routine.  Wake up early.  Go to dance class.  Visit the new house to drop stuff off and unpack some more.  Target.  Play time at home.  After dinner walk around the neighborhood.  

I didn't record too many specific details about the day.  I love doing it but it just didn't happen that day.  The good thing about doing project life is that I always have a place for those silly little things my kids say (whenever I do get a chance to write some more current sayings down).  

For all these pictures I used my iPhone + the VSCOcam app to edit.  I love that app so much.  I almost don't miss the pictures from my big camera at all.

I will most likely put these pictures into an insert in my Project Life album, but I might add a page to the mini album I made last year with about 7 'days in the life' recorded. 

Here is a look at the mini album I made for Day in the Life last year.

ps. My giveaway is still open below.  If you want to get a project life kit check it out!

A Challenge and a Giveaway.

Today I have a post on the Studio Calico blog issuing a scrapbooking challenge about this layout, "Brothers".  Avinash loves to snuggle his new little brother all the time and I am always snapping pictures of the two of them.  Even though it is just an iPhone photo I love the lighting in it and had to scrap it as soon as I got my Camelot kit this month. 

To say that I am a huge Studio Calico fan would be an understatement. I nearly fell out of my chair when they asked me to be on the blog because I was so excited (luckily my husband Ryan understands my obsession).  So, in honor of this, I am hosting a little giveaway here. 

I have a complete Camelot Project Life kit to send to one lucky reader!  I am using rafflecopter so you have a couple of options to enter.  After you do that, please head over to the Studio Calico blog and take part in my challenge too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for visiting my blog! Be sure to check out my Etsy shop, my scrapbook pages and my pinterest boards for more great stuff. 

Choosing Paint Colors.

So funny to read this post by the Nester on choosing the perfect paint color.  Which is mostly a post about just choosing something and going for it. 

We are finally moving out of our rental and into a house. Most of the walls are currently muddy brown and green.  The rec room is a very aggressive dark purple.  So, before we move in we decided to paint.

Now, all I have to do is narrow down the 5 million paint colors at Home Depot to what we need.   So, naturally, I turned to the only place that could overwhelm me more: the internet.

I had been looking at this pin from Martha Stewart for a long time and it seemed like a great jumping off point.

I do really like this palette all together, but individually I wasn't sure if the colors worked for me.  I even bought a few samples and tried them out.  I was still wracked with indecision.  Back to pinterest I went.  

Our first thought had been plain white walls for the living room and kitchen at least.  But the rest of the house is painted mud or beige.  So, I started thinking what about a nice grey?  I keep seeing people talk about "revere pewter" from Benjamin Moore as the ultimate neutral.

 Our furniture is dark brown and our rug is grey and blue, so I think it could work well.  Typing up this post is actually convincing me we can stray from white for the living room.

I kept on looking at Benjamin Moore paint colors after this.  I know I don't have to go with the exact brand, since most places color match, but it was a good jumping off point.  There are a lot of great blues out there, but I really liked this pin. I think this blue is striking without being too much.  I'm thinking this plus white for our dining room.

Then a whole section on yellow rooms at Martha Stewart caught my eye.  Ryan informs me that it is pretty retro.  I actually tried to paint our first apartment yellow and ended up painting over the whole thing in pink, which shockingly worked way better.  Should I dare to try it again?  This color (from this pin ) seems pretty soft.  Our bedroom rug is white, blue, yellow and green.  Our duvet is also yellow and blue.  I don't know, it may be too subtle??

The kids room I think we will leave as is for now.  I can always add an accent wall later which isn't too hard to do.  The play room has to be repainted but I think I may stick with white in there.  The toys and everything else will make the place pretty busy anyway.  Plus, I just saw this gorgeous wall hanging on sale at Anthropologie.  I should never browse their sale section.  Like, ever. 

Ultimately I just have to do what the Nester suggests and just. pick. something. I am going to get started this week and will be sure to update our progress as we go.  Any and all tips/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Project Life| So Loved.

This week | My mom was in town.  I took 8000 pictures of Lakshman.  I sort of put a lot of them together here though they are not all from the same exact week. We had our usual bevy of parks, birthday parties and playdates.  We had a school event at the Midway and I managed to get this picture of Nandini with her teacher.  It is her favorite thing ever and she basically looks at this PL spread every day.  

 First side| A very photo heavy week.  I did some stamping on photos.  I used a few cards from Studio Calico that had a similar feel to them.  The vellum 4x6 card is also from a pack they sold. I used one SC label sticker, which I repeated many times on the next page.

Second side| I used an ancient 3x4 slot only page protector sheet.  I added some triangle stamps to the edges of my photos in white and silver. I loved all the fabric badges in the Bluegrass kit so I let it float in one of the pockets.  You know I love to keep something see through.  I didn't do anything super special on any one card this week but I did do a lot of stamping overall.  Calling it good.

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative and the Memory Nest this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.