birthday mornings.

so…. regardless if my kids have a friend-birthday-party or a family birthday party, we always have a family birthday morning.

and, birthday mornings are a big deal at our house. from the minute our kiddos wake up, we celebrate…

peek behind the cake: see that blue blob? kj requested blue crepes and bacon for breakfast!

we called them smurf crepes.

sela woke up early and tip-toed in to our room. she whispered to me

mom, don’t feel bad. i’m not going to snuggle with you this morning because i’m going to wake up kj with birthday snuggles…

right then. my heart melted just a bit.

we spoiled our handsome ten year old with ten gifts.

the first eight were fun, small, practical things – and then the last two were the big surprises:

new baseball catcher’s gear and a new bike! he’s been begging for a bike with gears! look at the shock on his face, it was so fun!!!

today was good. so good i get all weepy when i look at these pictures. kj called the shots all day – we went to his sisters soccer game {and played catch while there}, had lunch at his restaurant of choice, played games with him throughout the afternoon, he went to the baseball park with husband in his new catcher’s gear for practice, at 8pm he requested ice cream at a local ice cream shop, so we obliged. and now he’s still on is computer playing games.  it’s been all about him today.

i don’t have the words to describe how good my sons heart is. it may even drive his daddy a little crazy he’s so sensitive and sweet. but boy oh boy, it melts his momma’s heart. he kisses me, all the time. he tells me, you are so cute mom! you are looking fyne today mom! the sweetest words, all the time. he still leaves the dug-out in the middle of a baseball game to come over and kiss his little sister on the top of her head. he gets all choked up every time he talks to us about anything that affects him emotionally. he is a gentleman. he loves scouts. he loves sports. he likes all games, but especially chess. he’s an avid video-gamer. he will defend what he believes in. he’s ridiculously good with technology and fixes things around the house for me. he’s a very good friend. he adapts easily without complaint to almost every situation. the kid has been in three elementary schools and makes friends instantly. sorry for the ramble – my boy has a heart of gold. and i love every bit of it.

dude. in a nutshell, birthday mornings rock. and my son is ten.

{photos by me, Jane Rhodes}

Posted in birthdays, husband, kiana, KJ, myla, parties, party plans, sela | 7 Comments »

Roster stores + a giveaway {with three chances to win!}

happy monday! happy april 1st! and, most importantly around our home – happy first day of the Red Sox 2013 season!!!

i have an incredible giveaway for you today, i am thrilled to introduce one of my favorite shops: Roster stores! Roster is offering a generous $50.00 gift certificate to THREE winners! this is perfect for all the New England sports fans, and an exciting way to kick-off the Sox season today! and! i’m giving away one classic Red Sox baseball hat to one lucky seejaneblog reader!  keep reading for more details…

when we moved to Boston twenty-one months ago {can you believe its been almost two years?!?} during one of our first trips out shopping we discovered a Roster store. instantly, we were all fans – especially my husband! ROSTER carries leading sports lifestyle brands such as 47 Brand, Mitchell & Ness, Touch by Alyssa Milano, Old Time Hockey, Adidas, Nike, New Era, Majestic, Original Retro Brand, and more. it’s fashionable; high-quality merchandise features all of Boston’s favorite professional sports teams: Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots, and Celtics!

through-out this post, you can see some of our favorite apparel selections for this season. while sports apparel has been historically geared toward the male audience, Roster carries a wide selection for women, and kids! for men, they offer something that’s a significant upgrade from your typical licensed apparel.

“Until now, most licensed product has been sold through your average sporting goods stores,” said Tom Emmons, Executive Vice President, ROSTER. “Today’s sports apparel merchandisers want to sell their more fashionable lines in boutiques. That’s where Roster comes in, its America’s first Sports Lifestyle store”

My favorite? i love ’47 Brand with it’s retro-inspired unique looks.

are you a New England sports fan? if so, you realize it’s more than a sport – it’s a lifestyle. and Roster totally gets it. i’d love to hear what teams are your favorite?!?

ROSTER has existing locations at Legacy Place in Dedham, Natick Mall, Cambridge Side Galleria, Providence Place, Faneuil Hall and Philadelphia Airport. ROSTER opened their eighth store at Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham this past November – located on a corner across from Whole Foods.

as i mentioned – there will be three winners, with three ways to win a $50.00 gift certificate: you can enter to win on facebook, instagram, and twitter! one winner on each social media network!

how to enter:

on facebook: “like” Roster stores and “like” see jane blog – share a link to this blog post on your facebook page, and you are entered!

on twitter: follow @ROSTERSTORES, and @seejanetweeet – tweet the link to this blog post, and you are entered!

on instagram: follow @rosterstores and follow @see_jane, you will find the roster giveaway image i have posted there, re-post it, hash tag #seejaneRoster and you are entered!

side note: for those of you not in new england, and you would not be able to get to a roster store – leave your name and a comment below, i will be choosing one see jane blog reader to send a classic Boston Red Sox hat to – just like the one i am wearing in the pictures above – i believe the classic Boston Red Sox hat is the best baseball hat ever.

yes, you are welcome to enter on all three networks. the winners will be announced in two weeks on Monday, April 15th. this is not an april fools joke.

good luck – to all of you – and the Sox this season!!! xo.

***

the winners are:

Bostonianlofa via instagram
Cassie Ford via Facebook
Star Willette via twitter

and, the seejaneblog winner who will receive a classic Boston Red Sox baseball hat is – Kat Campagna!

congratulations to all the winners!

please email me, jane@prolook.com so i can get your email addresses for Roster or your mailing address for the hat! Go Sox!!!

***

this is a sponsored post. however, i contacted Roster stores myself and made an arrangement to work with them — that is how much i like their store and products. if you are interested in sponsoring seejaneblog with your products or services, please email jane@prolook.com

{all pictures by me, Jane Rhodes}

Posted in husband, jane, kiana, KJ, myla, sela, sponsors | 22 Comments »

happy fifteen.

i don’t even know where to begin.
and so i sit here, just staring at the screen, wanting so badly to be able to take this storm of feelings and find words that are worthy.

my baby girl turned fifteen years old yesterday.

for starters, we had our traditional family celebration pre-breakfast…

we are following a new trend to have a tower of donuts in place of a cake… for now, our kiddos seem to love it. {and it saves time!}

party favors for the younger siblings…

yesterday was a really rough day emotionally. and while i can only say so much about mothers, daughters, and teenagers in this space. more specifically: me and my teenage daughter. i will say, life can present the most unexpected challenges.

i’m looking through the pictures from her birthday, and i’m sitting here all kinds of weepy. i continue to think about the little bundle of brown skin and dark curly hair that was in my arms fifteen years ago. thinking about how my girl was the cutest-chubbiest of all chubby babies, and how she is the most incredibly beautiful young woman today. cue more tears.

we started our day with the family party, we woke up extra early to get out the door and have breakfast at one of our favorite local restaurants.

then… i picked her up after school and made an unexpected stop by pinkberry on the way home. secretly, i had planned a surprise yogurt bash with her girlfriends, family, and some family friends —

my favorite moment? that split second she looked up at her dad and smiled at his puckered face donning pink glasses:

going with the “pink” theme, the bash included confetti + pink party totes filled with pink party favors:

fun idea:

the night before this bash i was trying to create a “cake” topper that was not a candle and could be used in the yogurt when i thought of using pipe cleaners!

ta-da:

there is more i’d like to say, but i am emotionally drained.

the weekend is almost underway, our thick snow is slowly melting, and we have a mini-massachusetts road trip planned for tomorrow. do you have any idea what that means? country music, baby. we’ll be singing our way across the open roads. do you have any plans?

happy weekend!

p.s. 38 days till the Red Sox opening game. you knew that, right?

*****

party details:

pictures can make things look pretty and more time-consuming than they are. really, this entire day was very simple to put together.

for the marquee light letters:

i used Danni’s tutorial here via oh hello friend. i skipped a couple of steps, i wasn’t trying to make perfect marquee letters for this party, i was simply trying to get the effect – quickly. i will probably go back and improve these letters now that the party is over and i ‘m thinking about hanging them in our play room.

so, if you check out her DIY post. i used the same 12″ cardboard letters. i found mine locally at Jo-Ann’s. i cut along the edge of the letters to remove one side with a knife, i didn’t use a ruler, and didn’t leave an edge. I skipped spray paint. i planned on using a string of circle bulb lights but after calling a dozen stores here in new england and driving to a half dozen others – i couldn’t find any. this was the day before kiana’s birthday, so there wasn’t time to have any shipped to me either. so, i used one strand of white christmas lights.

i marked the holes for spacing, used a drill to make those holes, and placed one light in each hole. that’s it!

i hid most of the wires behind the letters when “happy” was standing on display on the table. since my letters are not hanging, it was challenging to get them to stay balanced and stand up straight, so i used a few zots placed on the bottom of the letters to help them stand up on the table. afterwards, these peeled right off.

poof ball party favors here. my kids loved these, they are still playing with them! think: designer spit balls. there was a serious birthday battle! big papi causing the most raucous! ::wink::

white tissue garland, here.

wrapping paper found at paper source

polka-dot totes, pink nail files, pink face wipes, polka-dot compact mirror, and pink glasses found at Forever 21.

Posted in birthdays, husband, jane, kiana, myla, parties, party plans, sela | 4 Comments »

our little video: talk of the town

last september we had our family pictures by blue lily photography. at the same time they shot a little video of us. i absolutely adore those blue lily peeps, and if you haven’t checked out their site – you should. they are currently touring the world teaching photography and shooting incredible photos in the process. they may be near you soon! they will be in boston again this Fall.

each time i watch this video i catch myself smiling from beginning to end. so many little things that you might not notice that happen every day in our family are caught on tape.

hope you enjoy the video. music by jack johnson.

I want to be where the talk of the town
Is about last night when the sun went down
And the trees all dance
And the warm wind blows in that same old sound
And the water below gives a gift to the sky
And the clouds give back every time they cry
And make the grass grow green beneath my toes
And if the sun comes out
I’ll paint a picture all about
The colors I’ve been dreaming of
The hours just don’t seem enough
To put it all together
Maybe it’s as strange as it seems
And the trouble I find is that the trouble finds me
It’s a part of my mind it begins with a dream
And a feeling I get when I look and I see
That this world is a puzzle, I’ll find all of the pieces
And put it all together, and then I’ll rearrange it
I’ll follow it forever
Always be as strange as it seems
Nobody ever told me not to try
And the water below gives a gift to the sky
And the clouds give back every time they cry
And make the grass grow green beneath my toes
And if the sun comes out
I’m going to paint a picture all about
The colors I’ve been dreaming of
The hours just don’t seem enough
To put it all together
Always be as strange as it seems

Posted in husband, jane, kiana, KJ, myla, sela, video | 6 Comments »

the blizzard of 2013

during our nineteen months in new england, we have lived through hurricane irene {and!}, hurricane sandy and now the biggest snow storm to hit new england in the past thirty years: nemo.

myla created a homemade bobsled run. if you have the app: vine, there is a fun video on there of this moment!

the perk of extreme weather: our family is very content staying home together. meaning: we love it. really. no sarcasm here. our governor banned driving on saturday at 4pm until sunday at 4pm. luckily, our house was stocked with food and all we needed. more luck: we never lost electricity with this storm!

we watched lots of tv, played monopoly, spent time outside shoveling snow, snow-blowing, and sledding. the neighborhood boys picked our house to be the hang-out headquarters, so i fed extra mouths at every meal. we matched the record breaking snow totals with record breaking laziness.

i hope everyone here in the northeast faired the storm well. remember punxsutawney phil did not see his shadow this year, and spring should come early!

{photos by me, Jane Rhodes}

Posted in boston, husband, jane, KJ, winter | No Comments »

snow in boston!

two hours before myla’s birthday party, the first snowflakes started falling. by the time her party ended, and the guests were being picked up, we had about four inches of snow! {best birthday present for my girl ever!} then, by the next morning we had ten inches of fluffy, white goodness! one of the things we anticipated with moving to boston was to experience intense new-england-style-winters with a constant blanket of snow. so, we were slightly disappointed last year when we didn’t use a single snow day, and didn’t have hardly any snowfall the entire winter!

at bedtime, sela was outside:

the next afternoon, i rallied husband to go out with me, and build an igloo. complete with twinkle lights:

{we used snow block molds similar to this. i purchased ours locally for only $2.00/mold, so it surprised me to see them priced higher on amazon. look at your local toy shops/walmart/target/etc. our igloo took about three hours to build, for those who are curious}

due to cold temperatures, our snow is still here! this past week, KJ ran home from school every day, checked-in with me, grabbed our sleds, and as i listened to the crunch of boots to snow, he went back to school to sled on the school hill with his buddies. the weather forecast is saying we get more snow tomorrow too. yay!!!

from the warmth of our home, i can peek on my little man sledding from the third floor of our house. it’s so fun watching them go down in long trains and open the window just enough to hear all the laughter:

sela asks to play in the snow every half hour, and returns even quicker with chilled rosy cheeks. we are making lots of cocoa at our house, the fire is almost always ablaze. i love it all. i love every season for what each offers. in the midst of all this, i am thinking about resolutions–because that’s just what you do this time of year. i want to find more ways to let the people i love know i appreciate them. i want to let go a little more–of fears, of insecurities, of the things that hold me back. 2013 is going to be amazing.

dear readers, is it snowing where you live? are you thinking about resolutions?

{photos by me. all via my iPhone, + VSCO filters, and instagram}

Posted in boston, husband, jane, sela, winter | 3 Comments »

christmas

we have this rule: no one is allowed down where santa delivered the goods until everyone is awake. everyone goes down together. this rule has never been broken.

so, here is sela and kj, obedient children as they are — standing at the top of the stairs trying to see as much as possible, and almost dying from the pain of waiting. waiting for their older sisters to wake up and get out of bed so they can go downstairs {insert: kiana moaning from her bed about how tired she is, each time sela sneaks in and tries to wake her up…}

this is new: santa footprints… because our fireplace was hot, he magically had to use the front door.

…but the real magic unfolded about a billion fold when all of the smiles start to appear:

{these pictures are blurry because when children are pulling you by the legs and arms to get your attention, mom! hurry! look at this! look here! momma! it’s a little challenging to be taking pictures at the same time and get them in focus. plus, lets be honest, christmas morning is usually a bit blurry to the memory.}

family christmas brunch:

we spent christmas afternoon/evening with friends at this charming new england home:

sela was so excited about christmas dinner, it was hard for her to sit down.

so, she stood next to her chair {eating. and dancing.} at times…

we returned home at the end of the day, and all i kept thinking was, today is absolutely my favorite day of the year. xo.

{photos by me, Jane Rhodes}

Posted in christmas, husband, kiana, KJ, myla, sela | 2 Comments »