[Christmas in July] The goodies.

Merry Christmas in July! In a few short months (less than five!), it will be actual Christmas, but for now, we celebrate a little early with some gifts in July!

I especially love this exchange because it falls during Mason's birthday month and makes it extra special for him. I literally feel like presents were arriving daily and he was SO excited to open them! Seriously though, the kid was so spoiled in July, he's going to be a little disappointed come August!

As for buying gifts, Mason and I were lucky enough to be paired up with Tia and her daughter, Malia. It was so fun to shop for a little girl since I don't get to do it very often. Tia mentioned a few things that Malia likes and the things that stuck out for me were that she likes pink and purple and likes to play with her kitchen and I immediately knew what I wanted to get her. I found a couple books -- Fancy Nancy: Too Many Tutus and Fancy Nancy and the Delectable Cupcakes (I LOVED these books when I worked at Barnes and Noble and even bought a few in hopes that I would have a girl so I know they are super cute) -- and this Melissa & Doug Slice and Bake Christmas Cookie Play Set. Now I know what you're thinking... Christmas cookies in July, but I thought it fit the theme of the exchange well :) Mason and I hope Malia loved her gifts!

And as for us, we were paired with Jamie and Reese from Cocktails and Carseats to receive gifts from. Mason was so excited when the package arrived and wanted to open it immediately and I was super excited to see there was a few things for me too!



And apparently Mason thought it was for him because he immediately grabbed the cup and tried to drink out of it.



But then he saw his gifts and was SO excited!

This Melissa & Doug Water Wow Coloring Book was by far the biggest hit (with him and with me)! I loved it because it was mess free and he loved coloring the vehicles. He colored for a good 10+ minutes which is a total win in my book because he usually has the attention span for coloring for 1 minute max.

Jamie and Reese, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I love that you included a little something for me and Mason, of course, LOVED his gifts! Seriously you hit the nail on the head with the Planes toy, the water gun, the bubbles, and the coloring book.

Now, link up with us and show us the goodies that you got! I can't wait to get some ideas to add to Mason's Christmas list.

Merry Christmas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Friday Five!

Holy moly! I can't believe it's Friday already! No joke, this week went by SO. FAST. I thought it would drag since we were nursing our Disneyland hangover all day Monday and into Tuesday, but now it's Friday and I couldn't be more excited! Seth and I are off to our July date tomorrow night and Mason is set to have a fun date day with his Nanny.

But before we jump ahead to the weekend... here's what I'm loving this week!

ONE.
Paw Patrol.

I think I've mentioned before but Mason has recently become OBSESSED with Paw Patrol. He saw the show at a baby shower we were at a month or so ago and has become obsessed -- so much so that we had to download the Nick Jr app so he could watch it since we don't have Nick Jr. So when I was at Target yesterday, I knew I HAD to get this shirt for him. Seriously, he's going to FLIP when he sees it!


TWO.
Old Navy Half Zip Pullover Sweaters.

blue/grey/oatmeal // all stripes

These sweaters. I literally bought 5 of them online yesterday (blue, grey, green/white stripe, maroon/blue stripe, and blue/grey stripe) -- NO JOKE. I have LOVED them ever since I bought my first one for Seth's cousins twin boys many years ago. And then I had my own boy and now I get to dress him in these cute things. They wash well, wear well, and Mason looks dang cute in them so since Old Navy was having a huge sale yesterday (I got 40% off my purchase for spending over $100!), I stocked up on these for the Fall. Seriously, I HIGHLY recommend them if you have boys (or need presents for boys)!


THREE.
Hanna Andersson -- Nordstrom sale.

 

long sleeve // short sleeve

If you love Hanna Andersson jammies, you need to shop the Nordstrom sale! I knew Nordstrom sold Hanna Andersson but I was surprised to see them on the Anniversary sale at such a good price! I miiiiight have asked for both of these for Christmas for Mason as I am LOVING this dinosaur print and this space ship print! #allthehearteyeemojis

FOUR.

FAVORITE birthday present.

Magformers

Mason was so, so spoiled for his birthday! Seriously, every morning he walks over to hand me a new present to open. So much for holding some items back for a "rainy day". He's loved everything he's opened and played with but hands down, these Magformers are his FAVORITE present! We don't really build what they say you can build, but we more just build a tower but Mason is in heaven and seriously plays with them for a good 30 minutes straight. I'm definitely adding another set to his Christmas wish list!


FIVE.
The potty.

Arm and Hammer Potty Seat

You guys. THIS IS HAPPENING. I started putting Mason in pull ups a couple weeks ago because I thought maybe I could talk them up and say they were "big boy underwear" and maybe we could start the potty training process that way. Preschool ran out of diapers and asked for more so I gave them pull ups and said we were going to try those now. I don't know if they thought I was starting to potty train him at home (I wasn't) but they started at school (suuuuuuuuuper slowly) and said he is SO happy sitting on the potty! I immediately had Seth ask them which potty they were using and I just bought one last night. (Oddly enough, this was not the first kind they tried. They tried a different one and he hated it and refused to use it, and then tried this one and he loved it. I was surprised when Seth told me it was this one as I figured it would for sure be Mickey!) I'm hoping he loves it as much at home as he does at school! We have no expectations and no timeline but I'm just happy he's ok with the idea of it. Since he still doesn't talk, I wasn't going to push it because how would he tell me he had to go, but if they want to work on it at school, I'm all for it. Right now he sits on the potty, won't pee, and then helps them pull up his pull up and his shorts so he starts to get the concept. As much as I'd LOVE to not have to buy diapers/pull ups anymore (save money!), I'm actually ok with him still being in some sort of diaper. What do you do when you're checking out at the grocery store and he yells he has to go potty?? Or you're on the way home from school and he yells he has to go potty?! I'm not ready for this! Wish us luck!


Happy weekend!

[3rd Birthday] Disneyland!

I decided to split up the birthday weekend into two posts because, let's be honest, I took a ridiculous amount of photos and I thought it would be too overwhelming for one post (#truth) so today I am recapping Sunday, July 19th :: Disneyland!

For Mason's 1st and 2nd birthdays, we had parties. We had joint parties with my niece, Addison, because her birthday is 2 days after Mason's (technically 2 years before and 2 days later which I guess is really 1 year and 363 days before, if you're being technical) and it just made sense. (In case you're interested, for Mason's 1st birthday, we had a Muppet themed party and for his 2nd birthday, we had a Pirate/Princess themed party). But this year, I just wasn't feeling the party. Parties cost a lot and let's be honest, he's only 3 and probably won't even remember. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not against parties by any means (I LOVE a good party!), but I was thinking I wanted to do something more for him, something where even if he didn't remember the day, I would remember how much fun he had, so, I decided we were going to Disneyland.

I didn't want his birthday to go completely unnoticed and I still wanted to celebrate with our family, so we had a small, family only, BBQ dinner/party on his actual birthday (that I recapped yesterday) and then... we went to Disneyland on Sunday!

Now with the threat of rain all weekend (and with it actually raining on Saturday), the smart thing to do would have been to postpone, but I was dead set on going for Mason's birthday so we still went. Thankfully it didn't rain until around 4:30/5 but it was HOT and HUMID and I pretty much looked like a sweaty mess all day. AND because I was sweaty, when I re-applied sunscreen to my chest and back, apparently it did nothing and I now have a sweet tan to commemorate the occasion :) BUT regardless, we had the best time and I'm still trying to get Seth to agree to annual passes (please?).

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Warning! There's A LOT...

Casey Jr. train

Dumbo

It's a Small World

Autopia

Matterhorn

I LOVE Disneyland churros and this was my churro... and someone wanted one...two...three bites...the whole thing! Good thing he's cute!

My FAVORITE thing at Disneyland (really in California Adventure) is Carsland. 

Looks IDENTICAL to the movie!

He's not looking but... his face! He was SO excited to meet Lightning McQueen! Plus he was wearing a Lightning shirt so that made it extra special!

Radiator Springs

Heimlich's choo choo

King Tritan's Carousel

We had the BEST BEST BEST day. Mason refused to nap because he was having so much fun but it worked out well because we got to go on so many rides and really enjoy ourselves. We picked up a little Matterhorn macaron cookie on the way out and the birthday boy licked all the chocolate right off that thing.

And then the second we got into the car, he fell right asleep. We stopped to get dinner and he slept. We got home and got him out of the car, he slept on the couch. Finally at 7pm, we decided to put him to bed since he probably wasn't going to wake up, and lo and behold, he slept straight through until 5:45am on Monday morning. Guess someone had a little too much fun at Disneyland :)

 And Seth and I? We pretty much fell asleep shortly after putting him to bed, but not before I checked my Health app on my phone which told me...

... that I walked 16,600 steps and over 7 miles! WHOA. Who knew exercising could be so fun?! Think I could use that in my favor when trying to convince Seth we need Disneyland passes? =P

Needless to say, we had the best time celebrating our birthday boy turning THREE and can't wait until our next trip back. I didn't miss the birthday party celebration one bit and think maybe we could turn this into a tradition and as he gets older, he can invite a friend along? 

But that's too far in the future to even think about! For now, I'm just so happy my boy had a great birthday!

Happy THREE my sweet boy! xoxoxo