Weekend Recap

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! We had a fun, relaxing weekend here on Kwaj. We have fallen into a really nice routine....our weekend's are simple, but we love them! Our weekend's are Sunday and Monday so that our weekends happen at the same time as the weekend days in the states. This means Johnathon's work week ends Saturday evening. Johnathon got home from work, and since I had nothing planned for dinner, he got to grill us some chicken teriyaki! (I'm a good wife like that). After dinner, we took Hadley and Sadie on a bike ride, then it was home for bath time.

Someone loves her some bath time in the kitchen sink!

...she also loves some post bath belly kisses from daddy!

Johnathon is such a great dad, and always helps me out in the evenings with bath and bedtime. I know Hadley LOVES seeing her daddy in the evenings, and it's so much fun to watch how she lights up when he gets home! After bath and bedtime Johnathon and I assumed our regular Saturday evening positions on the couch to continue our binge watching of Sons of Anarchy! Seriously, if you haven't watched it, you should probably start now, then thank me later.

Saturday, we had a lazy day around the house doing chores and playing with Hadley. I ran to the store, and when I got back Johnathon and Hadley were exploring outside....

Discovering the wonder that is...grass

Just a girl, her dad, and her trusty steed

Saturday night our group of friends went to go see a band called Igor & Red Elvises at the Vet's Hall. Our friend Cher sent her husband and kids off on a camping trip that night and generously gave up her evening home alone to watch Hadley while we had a date night! THANKS CHER! Kwaj has a Quality of Life council who's job entails paying comedians and musicians to travel to Kwaj and provide us with some much needed off island entertainment. None of us had ever heard of the band (apparently they are wildly popular in the Eastern Block), but when they are your only proper off island entertainment in months, you don't ask, you just go.

For those of you wondering what genre Igor & Red Elvises fall into, I'm here to tell you....you can't really categorize this band into one genre, and that's only because their genre doesn't exist yet. They describe themselves as "Siberian Surf Rock." Wondering what Siberian Surf Rock look like? To the best of my descriptive abilities it looks like a large Russian man wearing satin, leopard pajamas with open toe sandals, accompanied by 4 women who look like they walked out of a 60's themed European Disco tech. It was magical. In case this isn't painting you a good enough picture, here is a band photo from their Instagram page:

Their music is exactly how they described it...Russian, meets 60's surf music. If your confused, your not alone, but I have to tell you...they were one of the most entertaining bands I've ever seen! Like, conga lines were forming, extended drum solos were had while the rest of the band chugged drinks backstage, it was nuts. And their music really isn't the kind of stuff you can "cool dance" to, it's more like the kind of music where you jump around a lot  and just leave all hopes of looking cool at the door. It should also be noted that the lead singer (Igor) had an incredibly strong Russian accent, and after each song would yell into the mic "The Red Elvises...YOUR FAVORITE BAAAAANNNNNDDDD!" as well as "Everyone has drink!" Aside from the fact that Igor was not a fan of using articles in his speech, I was a big fan of his. We stayed for both sets and danced up a storm! It was such a fun night!

another band pic from their IG...the Red Elvises enjoying Emon Beach

Johnathon and I unintentionally rocking color coordinating outfits

Me and the usual suspects ;)

Since my normal bedtime these days is a rowdy 10pm, I was exhausted by the time we got home, so our Monday was pretty low key as well. We did end the weekend with a nice dip in the ocean. Hadley wasn't a huge fan at first, but now that she has a couple of ocean experiences under her belt, she is much more comfortable in the water. I can't wait for her to be 6 months so we can take her to the Merbabies swim class.

Hadley is always a little hesitant about the water at first

I love those baby blues :)

She finally let me dip her in

family shot

I think she feels safer when Johnathon holds her cause she started enjoying it much more :)

Lifeguard Sadie on duty

Great end to the weekend

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Our friends have some family coming in town this weekend so we are gearing up for another fun weekend of Shrimp boils, a Wine and Cheese fundraiser, Book Club, and Father's Day fun!

Hadley Kate's Nursery

I've been meaning to post pictures of Hadley's nursery for awhile now, but...it's me, and procrastination is my middle name! To be fair, those levels of Candy Crush won't beat themselves. But I digress...ANYWAY, when we were trying to decide how we wanted to do Hadley's nursery we were feeling kind of limited because:

A) we live in Army housing, and it's really difficult to make cinder block walls and linoleum floors look cozy and baby friendly.
B) We wanted to be surprised with the gender so we couldn't really commit to pink or blue. And if you've ever spent time on pinterest searching "gender neutral" nurseries you could easily substitute that search topic for "beige and boring," and you would come up with the same results. Sigh.
C) We live on a tiny tropical island with nary a Homegoods or Hobby Lobby in sight, so everything had to be purchased online and mailed or barged out here which can get expensive.
D) See above mentioned cinder blocks.

I was brainstorming ideas with my friend Sarah who was also pregnant, and I mentioned how I love the book Where the Wild Things Are. Sarah immediately sent me this link for an awesome guide to a Where the Wild Things Are nursery:

 The second I saw this nursery I was sold. Even though it was designed for a little boy, I thought it was soft and neutral enough that it could work for either a little girl or boy. So I set off to do my best replication given the cinder block and remote location constraints. Conveniently, a lot of the "Wild Things" themed items were bought from Etsy so I was able to order them and ship them out here easily. A lot of the other items we picked up on our vacation back to the states. The chair, bookshelf and dresser we blindly ordered online. We had to hope for the best that the wood colors matched because it takes six weeks to barge them out here, and to be honest I'm not sure we could have returned them even if we wanted to. Thankfully everything seemed to match fairly well and we are so happy with Hadley Kate's Wild Things nursery! Take a look:

Welcome to Hadley's nursery

We tried to stick with a yellow, gray, blue, and white color scheme

This is looking back at the door. The bookshelf is from Walmart and the end table we got from the furniture warehouse on island! Score!

The white owl is a nightlight from HomeGoods and the stuffed animals were gifts from our Michigan baby shower

The Where the Wild Things Are blocks are from an Etsy store called Storybook Blocks

This was a cute sign I found at Francesca's...I bought it just in case we had a girl and needed some pink ;)

The chair is from Target and the Wild Things pictures are from an Etsy store called Olive and Burch

Prints from Olive and Burch

The birch tree decals are from Naturewall, the paint is Fashionable Gray by Sherman Williams

Sidenote on the tree decals. In case you find yourself trying to stick decals to a cinder block wall (not likely) just know that it is a real pain. First, it's not a huge party trying to hang the trees straight in the first place, but about 24 hours after we hung them, the trees immediately started to peel. I don't think this is as much a reflection of the quality of the decals, as it is a reflection of how poor a choice cinder blocks are for wall material in a home. Our solution...rubber cement for the win!

Hadley's crib (hand me down), mobile, and rug (from Target)

The crib sheets are from Carousel Designs

 The sheets were an ordeal to order, because I originally tried to purchase custom sheets through a store on Etsy. Needless to say...that didn't happen. It's a super long story that was traumatic enough the first time, and truthfully, I'm still not sure I'm over it. Basically, all you need to know is after not hearing from the Etsy store for months, I found out that the fabric I wanted had sold out a long time ago and the seller chose not to tell me that until the bedding set was already way late. Like...I ordered them in October and Hadley WAS ALREADY BORN by the time I heard from the store. It ended with me hormonally yelling on the phone to Etsy customer service trying to get a refund which they were very unwilling to give. In the end I did get the refund and bought these sheets from Carousel Designs instead, and they are amazing. The quality is great, they arrived within 2 weeks of my order, and Hadley likes to obsessively strokes the paisley pattern while she's laying in bed...not napping :)

I couldn't find the exact changing table, but its Target as well

Hadley's view...its more of a "garden view" than an "ocean view," but she still loves looking out the window while she gets her diaper changed

Hadley was my photographer assistant today ;)

Thanks for checking out Hadley's nursery! Hope you like it as much as we do!