Hey friends!

It’s that time of year again, I can’t even believe it! This second part of the year is just flying by.

The girls are pumped for Halloween. Already made decisions about their costumes, Evelyn is excited about trick or treating, and Hazel loves all things pumpkin! I wasn’t always a huge Halloween person but these two little girls make it so fun, I can’t help but get into it.

I love putting together boo baskets for them to really kick off the holiday season. These baskets will keep the girls busy for days going through everything.

The girls don’t really need a whole lot of little nick knacks, so I reused a lot of stuff we’ve gotten from previous years for their boo baskets this year. I also use this opportunity to grab a few holiday themed clothing items for parties, adventures, and pictures for the season.

Here is a breakdown of what we did in each basket.

For Hazel:

1. Pumpkin Pez Dispenser

2. Orange Striped Pajamas

3. Boo Straw

4. Witch Hat Clip

5. Handmade Black Star Wand

6. Handmade Ghost wand

7. Black Shoes

8. Little Poppy Co. Bows

9. Spooky Season Sweater

10. Skeleton Bubble Wand (Target Dollar Spot)

11. Cat Glow Wand (Target Dollar Spot)

12. One Black Cat Book

13. Orange and Black Leggings

14. Black Jelly Bag

15. Ghost Name Tag

For Evelyn:

1. Ghost Pez Dispenser

2. Black and White Striped Pajamas

3. Boo Straw

4. Witch Hat clip

5. Handmade Black Star Wand

6. Handmade Ghost Wand

7. Black shoes

8. Little Poppy Co. Bows

9. Cat and Jack zip up sweater

10. Skeleton Bubble Wand (Target Dollar Spot)

11. Cat Glow Wand (Target Dollar Spot)

12. The Witch Book

13. Orange and Black Leggings

14. Black Jelly Bag

15. Ghost Name Tag

I always try to include pajamas, a shirt or sweater, and a new book to go along with whatever holiday or season it is for.

Do you do holiday themed baskets for your kiddos? What did you include in yours?

Happy October!

This post contains some affiliated links, however I wouldn’t recommend anything I don’t already love!

An apple a day keeps away anyone if you throw it far enough.

If you’ve been around these parts for awhile, you know that one of my favorite fall activities is apple picking. I posted about it in a blog post here. However, I am pretty particular about when we go. I like to wait for (usually) the one cool day in fall we get here in Southern California.

We got lucky this past weekend when a storm moved in, and despite early reports saying it would be a pretty bad storm, it basically brought a touch of rain, low lying clouds, and some much needed cooler temps. We headed off to Los Rios Rancho, in Oak Glen California.

I’ve added a few more tips here now that we’ve gone with two kiddos, I hope you find them helpful! Don’t forget to read my previous blog post with more tips too!

1. Go early in the season if possible. We went two years ago at the tail end of the season and the apples were pretty picked over. You had to really search which was frustrating for Evelyn when we told her “no” to every bruised apple she tried to put in our bag. This year, we came so early in the season, the girls had no problem finding great apples to pick! You’re paying a premium price for these apples because of the experience so you want to get good ones! I also think the premium price for these apples is well worth the memories we were making.

2. Bring layering clothes. This is for mostly cool days but even on those warm days. The temperatures in the mountains can fluctuate depending on wind, cloud coverage and time of day. It was in the high sixties most of the time we were there and coming from 100 degree temps all week, it felt pretty cold when we first got up there. But after hiking around the orchards for an hour, we all got hot and were grateful to be able to start peeling off the layers.

3. Get there right as they open! If you are there to grab some special family pictures, get there first thing. Otherwise, you’ll have people walking into your photos for the rest of the day. We were one of the first families in the orchard. We also make sure we take pictures first before we let the girls go since it’s harder to stop them once they realize how fun it is. So we make sure we grab those family pictures early in the morning right when we get there!

4. Call the orchard before you go! These are working farms generally and times and offerings can vary depending on things at the farm, including weather. The day we went was the day after they had wind gusts of 70mph. I called and made sure they were open but they were opening a bit later so they could start fixing up the damage they got from the wind the day before. So always check, it could really ruin your day if you get there and they are either closed or half of their offerings are unavailable.

I’m so grateful we are able to get find a weekend to make these memories and start this little tradition with our girls. Now I’ve got this bag of apples and I need to use up! Anyone have any good recipes?

I really can’t believe that Valentine’s Day is already around the corner. The years are just flying by here. With kids, these little holidays aren’t so little anymore. Drew and I were never big Valentine’s Day people however, now that Evelyn learns about the holiday and does crafts and stuff for it at school, she really enjoys celebrating it.

This year I got ahead of the game, and designed some Valentine’s Day cards that Evelyn could sign and take to school pretty early. She got one of these mini palettes at a birthday party and she loved it. Kept her busy for hours. I try my best to stay away from candy for these classroom giveaways, having been a teacher once before. When I found out that I could grab a 24 pack of these palettes for $15 on amazon, I knew this was the route we were going to take.

I designed this printable, two valentines to a page, and I just used photo paper to print on. I try to keep the ink usage to a minimum. I’m super excited with how they turned out! What do you think?

This is Evelyn’s second year in school and so she knows exactly how this is all going to go down. She’s super pumped about it and won’t stop asking when she will get to pass them to her friends.

Like last year, I’ve decided to share this printable if anyone else wants to use it. Don’t forget to snag these awesome watercolor palettes to tape to them to. I just used double sided sticky tape to attach the paint and cute washi tape for the paint brush. Just sign up below (full disclosure, you’ll also be added to my newsletter list but who doesn’t want to get updates on new products and sales?!) and I’ll email you this downloadable printable for your own use! I recommend on printing on thick cardstock or thick photo paper, there are two per page. Let me know what you think!

Make sure you tag us in your pictures if you use our printable so we can share them!