Alice in the Village, Mystic CT

It's very rare that I get time with just my girl. With David's work schedule, I usually have both kids or no kids, and if I ever have just one kid, it's usually Tyler, while Emmalee is at dance, a friend's house, or at school. So, needless to say, I jumped at the chance to go out with just my girl while Tyler was at school last week.

We adventured all the way to Mystic, CT, only about an hour away, to go to Alice in the Village, an Alice in Wonderland inspired cafe.

Emma and I are huge Alice fans (even waiting in line 40 minutes last time we went to Disney!) so it seemed like a great place to go for tea.

Because it's situated in Old Mistick Village there is tons of parking and lots more to do so we decided to start with tea and then head out shopping. Entering into Alice in the Village is pretty magical.  I fell in love with the door handle-- it was perfect!

It feels like you're walking into a hedge garden and are immediately greeted by tons of Alice in Wonderland toys and memorabilia that you can purchase.

If you don't make a reservation for  Afternoon Tea or High Tea, you can order a pot of tea and a tray of desserts to bring to your table. Emmalee stocked up on marshmallows and macrons but I grabbed a lemon petite-four to enjoy.

Not only does Alice in the Village offer tea, but they also have a selection of bubble teas and "cocktails"- tea mixed drinks. The treats were delicious and we sat surrounded by wall art right from the Alice in Wonderland story. 

While we were only there for about 20 minutes, it was a great girl date with my favorite girl- we'll absolutely be heading back again!

xo, Heather

Emma's 5 Year Old Interview

What is your name?
Emmalee

How old are you?
Five.

When is your birthday?
June thurteenth.

What is your favorite color?
Maybe pink or purple.

What is your favorite food?
Cookies.

Who is your best friend?
Avery

What is your favorite song?
Dancing through the fiiiiiire (complete with hand motions)

What is your favorite show?
Creative Galaxy

What is your favorite animal?
A giraffe.

What are you scared of?
I'm scared of .... remember the burgens in Trolls? I'm scared of that.

What makes you happy?
Playing outside with my mama.

Where is your favorite place to go?
To Acushnet Creamery

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A vet to help baby animals.

Putting the ART in STEAM Learning with Build & Imagine

Disclaimer: I was provided product to facilitate this post, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.  I may be compensated for purchases made through these links. For more information, click here. 

I've been talking about Christmas shopping a TON, especially in my savings group on Facebook, but I seriously think I'm done this year.  IN addition to the normal dolls, board games, and clothes that Emmalee normally gets, I've found myself adding a new category to her toy pile: STEAM! STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics; all integral things for my little girl to be confident in doing.

Emmalee has always loved art but STEM is a new speciality in her school, right alongside music, library, and gym, and since she's started, everything has become a project.  We mix food coloring in water to blend colors, we have "water discoveries" to see what sinks and floats, and build towers with obscure objects to see what we can create.  I love that it pushes her brain!

Build & Imagine has lots of play sets that encourage kids to think. Each magnetic play set comes with multiple pieces at allows the kid to build and create as they want!

The Draw & Build Dollhouse  comes with four dry-erase markers, one character, four dual-sided panels with wipe-off surfaces, four equilateral triangle building panels, a functioning front door, and a microfiber eraser. It is complete freedom for my girl! The first time she used the set she wanted to just stick to solid colors and patterns, but as she grows older, those pieces may become flower shops, post offices, or a grocery store. 

The pieces are magnetic so they connect to each other in as many ways as your kid can imagine.  Sometimes it's 4 pieces standing next to each other and some times it's a 4 sided home. One of my favorite features is that since they are stand alone pieces, Tyler can be working on one piece while Emma works on the others. 

I love that the Draw & Build Dollhouse can stand alone or it can work with the other sets that Build & Imagine has like:

Malia's Home, the Pet Portrait Studio, Career Dolls, 

the Marine Rescue Center, the Day at the Beach set, and the Fairytale Theater.

Emma has used it every night since we opened it and even brought it on vacation with us since it was such an easy to pack toy! I think I'm going to buy the Career Dolls next so she can start customizing her Draw & Build pieces to go with some o those amazing careers!

Which play set is first on your list to purchase?

xo, Heather

Fairies in Our House!

Five is such a magical age.  Everything is awe inspiring and anything is possible.  Emmalee has been in love with fairies this summer. We love to sit on our front porch and look for lightening bugs.  She is convinced they are fairies she can make magic wishes to.  Her wishes are always the cutest; wishes like "I wish we could watch fairies forever" and "I wish I had a fairy for my very own", adorable right?

I was super excited when I had the opportunity to meet The Irish Fairy Door Company at Blogger Bash a couple of weeks ago and even more thrilled when they asked Emmalee if she wanted an Irish Fairy Door to set up in her own room!

The Irish Fairy Door is amazing and there are so many door styles and add ons like wall art and garden accessories! You can purchase them on their website, or through my affiliate link on Amazon.

The first step is to set up your Irish Fairy Door, and leave the key by it.  Then you log onto the computer and enter your special code, letting the fairies know that you are ready for them.  When the key has disappeared, a fairy has moved in! Emmalee was so excited to set it up but in her logical little mind, she couldn't understand where the fairy's door led to, since her mind, there was no actual house.  We talked about magic and how it is hidden and only fairies could see it, and while she was excited after understanding, she was sad she didn't have a fairy house to watch the fairies in.

Thankfully, there's another company that can give Emmalee even more fairies in her life! Dreamland Fairy offers a paint your own fairy home and an adorable, plush 6" Fairy!

You can buy the items from their website or through my affiliate link on Amazon.  I love that Dreamland Fairy allows Emma to believe in the magic of fairies, but also let's her be creative through art and pretend play with the fairy doll.

Both fairy products offer hours of imaginative play and cost under $25! The fairy doll is only $9! At such a great price point, it's easy to get both!

I can't wait to see Emma' face in the morning when she sees that the fairy has moved in!

xo, Heather

Three Years Old : An Interview

Three. Three years old. Are you kidding me?

It's amazing how fast little babies grow up into independent assertive little girls.

I can't believe my little girl is three today so last night I obviously sat in her room pouring over her baby book, loking at every memory for when she was tiny.

And then I realized I stopped updating that book pretty much this time last year, right after 2nd birthday.

So obviously I'm full of mom guilt (I should prob start Tyler's book...)

but I just don't have the time (or the set up) to do a book right now so I am jumping on the idea of the birthday interview.  I'll do a page each year with these questions and see how her answers change each year!

What's your name?

Emmalee "Difford"

How old are you?

"Free"

What's your favorite thing to do?

Have a birthday party

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Three

What is your favorite food?

Celery and tea

Who do you like to spend time with?

 Mia, Miss Karen, Miss Liana, Miss Jill, Daddy, Mommy and Baby Ty-lah

What can you do really well?

jumping ropes and flips

What makes you laugh?

a silly puppet and Ty-lah makin faces

Whats the best time of the day?

marshmallow time

What are you afraid of?

the boogey man

Who is your best friend?

Elsa (from Frozen)

What do you like to do with your family?

play outside on my "flayground"

What do you like to learn about?

presents

What is your favorite book?

Little Einsteins and the witch

If you had one wish what would it be?

to be Sophia (from Disney Jr.)

Some of these make me laugh and I'm so excited to see her grow into the amazing girl that she is. <3

I love you a million red m&m's.

Torn and A Little Stressed Out

I'm having a really hard time with something.

Emmalee has this (not so new) thing where she wakes up in the middle of the night and walks over to my bed and crawls in.

The master is on the first floor, the other two bedrooms are upstairs. 

Because of these middle of the night wake ups (and the fact that there are no heating vents to the upstairs rooms- whole other vent), we moved Emma's toddler bed to our room so I didn't have to worry about her falling down the stairs while drowsy during a middle of the night wake up.

Well now it's a habit. Every single night.

But here's my dilemma, I don't mind it. I love 'nuggle' time with my princess.

But I know it will be short lived because in a few short months, there will be another little munchkin who will have to be in bed with me to nurse.

So do I enjoy the snuggles for as long as I can, or do I start weaning her off of them sooner rather than later?

I'm afraid if I wait too long she'll feel like she's being kicked out for the new baby.

Any advice? This is totally stressing me out!!

Build A Bear Workshop

Emma was given a Build A Bear gift card for Christmas and we just HAD to go use it immediately!

Warning: Picture Heavy!

A Trip to the Boston Children's Museum :: Photo Dump

I'm still working on our summer bucket list so when I had a Friday off, we headed towards the city to go to the Boston Children's Museum!

 How do you know you're in Boston?

Red Sox stuff all over the place. Everywhere. <3

I especially love the the Children's Museum has an "Under 3" room.  My kid can hold her own but when there's 13 kids from one field trip group playing with all 6 balls in one room and their camp counselors aren't doing anything to control them... well, that's when I'm happy there's a room those other kids aren't allowed in.

We don't watch Peep and the Big Wide World but we still had a blast in that section of the museum!

However, I grew up with Arthur and loved sharing Arthur's area of the museum with Emmalee!

Seriously kid, could you be any cuter?!

Between lunch in the cafe, and running up and down the 3 levels of play for 4 hours, by the time got to the car, the princess was exhausted.

At $14 a person (over the age of 1), it can get expensive with a larger family but we were able to use our local library's passes and get half price tickets! Even if we hadn't gotten the discount, the museum would be worth every penny!

We can't wait to go back!

Sesame Place : A Family Vacation Photo Dump

I've already written about our vacation to Philadelphia a bit.  About our visit to the Philadelphia Zoo, The Please Touch Museum, and walking around historic Philadelphia, but really, the real reason we went was to go to Sesame Place!

Emmalee was just shy of two when we went and she loved it!

We got there bright and early, right when it opened at 10.

Characters are randomly around the park throughout the day to take pictures with. And no, I don't know this child.

Emmalee wasn't sure if she liked the teacups and carousel more, but we went on each of them about 4 times a piece!

I wouldn't recommend bringing a child much younger than 2.  Many of the rides you have to be 36" to ride and my daughter was about 1" too short. 

I absolutely recommend checking out on of the free shows that goes on during the day.

All the showtimes are listed on the back of the days map (located by the front gate).  Try and get there a bit early to get a good seat!

Even better than the free shows? Lunch with the cast of characters!

Sesame Place offers lunch, brunch, dinner, and special cookouts on certain days!

We opted for lunch in the middle of the day, which was a perfect way to take a break after going on all the rides.

For about $50, all 3 of us had an all you can eat buffet and it was super good!

Emma didn't even have to pay since she wasn't 2 yet!

The best part about it was that since Emmalee still wasn't sure how she felt about the characters, they could walk by and wave, without her freaking out that they were too close! There were no lines to meet any of them and some of the characters even said hi to the grown ups!

 After lunch, we put on our bathing suits and hit the water park area of Sesame Place!

I really love the wading pools in Twiddlebug Land... and the HUGE Ernie!

We spent a good 3 hours just in the pools!

We absolutely loved Sesame Place and we would love to go back in another year when Emmalee is big enough to ride on more rides!

If you are thinking about going:

1. Have a bit of a game plan.  We knew we were going to do rides, then lunch, then the water park so we were able to leave our bathing suits in the car until after lunch.  Just remember to get your hand stamped before you leave!

2. Book a character meal! They are so so worth it! However, if you don't want to, pack a lunch! there are picnic tables by the parking lot to sit and eat but again: remember to get your hand stamped!

3. Take lots of pictures! It was so much fun!