Fiesta like there’s no mañana

August 17, 2016August 17, 2016 ~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

And just like that… the months of planning, hours of preparation and the days when my baby wasn’t one are all behind us. I have loved every second of it though! And I’m not as sad as I thought I would be. I mean sure, I miss him being a tiny little squishy baby, but I am so excited for him and all of the amazing adventures he will get to go on as he continues to grow!

Bur this day was going 100MPH until the party started. Everyone was decorating, cooking, cleaning or trying to help me keep El fed and watered until fiesta time! My family was, as always, such a huge help. I literally rely on them for everything. Jordan cooked, my Dad among others also cooked, my Dad’s Girlfriend helped me decorate, my little sister took pictures, and the rest of my family and friends played with Ellis and kept him uberly happy making everything go without a hiccup. Not that Ellis will remember this day, but we sure will. And it will be the fondest, most perfect birthday memory so far 😉

So- without further ado- welcome to the inside of Ellis’s First Fiesta!!

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(These chalkboards have literally been more useful than any craft I’ve ever made)

Balloons- Bargain Balloons

Paper Flowers- Homemade

Cookies & Cake- Bearded Fox

Blanket, Maracas, Papel Picado, Mini Donkey Pinatas – Amols

El Pato Cans- Jet

Ellis Banner- Hooray Everyday

Sombrero Pinatas & Streamers- Party City

Streamer Backdrop – Homemade

First Haircut

August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 ~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Hey, remember me? The girl who says she wants to blog and then week after week just doesn’t? LOL. In my defense, the last month has been a very busy one, mentally and physically! Since I last posted, Ellis has gotten his first haircut and turned ONE- and I’ve been to LA and back! So lets start at the beginning: The Haircut 🙂

We went to Lauren at Heritage Hair Studio and she was amazing! She also does Jordan’s hair, so it was an easy choice. But I still felt like she did very well handling Ellis swinging his head all around her scissors to see what she was up to. We also didn’t get very much cut off, just trimmed up his mullet a bit. Which was nice because it also didn’t make him look too much older, just cleaner:)

This will be different for every kid, but if your kid is a maniac for food like ours, BRING FOOD! Our savior for this trip with definitely yogurt bites. And Mamaw of course:)

Overall, his haircut was such a fun experience. We had our entourage there to watch/entertain/take pictures which was super helpful and made it more fun for him I’m sure. And Ellis even got a sucker out of the deal. So everyone wins.

CELEBRATE!

July 4, 2016July 5, 2016 ~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

Two big things to celebrate today- Fourth of July & Ellis turning 11 months!! We spent our weekend with family and friends, food and fireworks! And due to a combination of weather, and me popping our car tire with a screw today, we spent Monday happily confined in the house. Luckily for Ellis, that made it much easier for Mom and Dad to shower him in extra special eleventh month old kisses 🙂 And when I say luckily for Ellis, I’m not at all joking. His favorite thing to do is give kisses! He will kiss anything and then look to me for a huge smile of approval. It’s the sweetest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. His second favorite thing to do is eat, followed probably by sleep, and then playing. So a day in the life of an 11 month old Ellis- kiss stuff, eat stuff, sleep and play. It’s perfect:)

Short and sweet today, but had to check in for the holiday and El’s monthday! I’ll be back soon, swear this time!!

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Primping

June 9, 2016June 9, 2016 ~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

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I’ve started a few different posts in the last few weeks and they have all been demoted to the draft folder where they will collect web bunnies and start to smell like Granny’s basement. My creativity level has been at an all time high lately and I can’t seem to get any of it down on a post without feeling overwhelmed! So- I’m taking a step back today and going in a little different direction. Beautification is something that almost all women (and some men) do- whether it just be washing your face with your favorite face wash, or slapping on ten tons of make up (which I’m not knocking)- we all have some favorites in this area. One of mine is Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. This stuff is a god send, really. I’ve gone through different skin types since high school- from really greasy, to really dry during pregnancy, and currently tame- this stuff has always worked magic. My second and newest favorite face product is the ever lasting Cup O’ Coffee mask from Lush. Lush is, as many ladies know, just the most absolute. From bath bombs to face scrubs to numerous soaps- they have it all in the bathroom world. Not to mention they are 100% vegan, fighting against animal testing and all of their products are handmade with a little sticker on each product telling you the name of the person that crafted your purchase. Other items that I use almost every day are:

Clinuque’s high impact mascara
stay-matte powder
custom repair serum
Naked2 Urban Decay
and Ambre Essence (this is literally the best smell in the universe, buy it if you don’t believe me. it’s incredible)

So there’s a little look inside my every day prep! Not that you asked;)

Zoo Babies

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016 ~ alixbenton ~ Leave a comment

I can’t wait to do so many fun things will Ellis this summer before our schedules get crazy again! I am going to try to make it a point to go do something new and exciting for him every week. Whether it be a pool or a new park, I’d like to spend the summer discovering all of the child friendly places of Bloomington!

Last week we went on our first summer adventure and it was spent at the Indianapolis Zoo! I have always LOVED the Zoo and hope that Ellis will love it just as much someday! But for now, I think it’s still a little early. I think the biggest difficulty we had was the stroller. It’s hard to get up to the window to see the animals with any amount of other people there at all. And when I take him in and out, he doesn’t really like that:) It was also EXTREMELY crowded with last week of school field trips- so I realize that that many people/children isn’t the norm. But besides that, I think it was a pretty successful trip! El got to see lots of fun animals- but the highlights were getting to meet a friendly flamingo, admiring giant giraffes, eating french fries and trying dip n dots! I definitely see another Zoo trip in this summers future, and maybe one where Dad gets to join!