Mama Monday: Toy Wrangling

One of the things about having children so close in age is that when one outgrows a toy, the other is not far behind in age range to play with said item. Due to the fact that they also get new toys for Christmas/birthday/good behavior/general cuteness, you can imagine that toys in our home multiply quite quickly. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of our family and friends because my children have no shortage of things to keep them busy!

That being said, toys will march through the house and take over faster than I can say "preschool frat party." And if I'm not intentional with picking up and teaching our children to pick up too, that is exactly what this place begins to look like.

Originally we had intended that our study would be an office for me to work from home on occasion since I had always planned to be a working mother. However, now that I'm staying home with our children, it stands to reason that most of my "working from home" work would occur in a play room. Jack started calling it a toy room about a month before Christmas, so it was time to begin the transition.

It's taken me some time to get used to the idea of having a playroom, if I'm being really honest. Growing up, my toys were kept in my room, which seemed just fine to me. The idea of needing a separate room to keep toys in seems like a first world problem to the max, however, since we are home quite a bit, I see the need-slash-want for a place to corral everything.


Inspiration pic
I can't find a source for this picture. If you know where it originated, please let me know because I would love to give proper credit. I love this room.

While I realize this is a dining room, I think the colors work great for a play room, and we even have a play table in the center of ours. The overdyed turquoise rug is already in place, and I love it against our dark wood floors.

Up next we need to decide on a good storage solution, and then we'll be ready to hang some decor on the walls. Then comes the task of actually keeping the toys in the toy room. That'll probably be the hardest of all!

Where do you fall on the play room spectrum? A necessity? An indulgence?

Five on Friday: Valentine's Date Night

I'm linking up again today with more about Valentine's Day for a Five on Friday with The Good Life blog!

For the past several years, our Valentine dates have consisted of dinner at our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Joe T. Garcia's. It works out fairly nice now that we have children since it's casual, and they can join right along in our tradition. (We are Aggies, and Aggies love tradition.) My parents never celebrated a holiday like that without us (now, their anniversary? yes, we stayed home!), so it seems right that we would include our kids.

But if I were going out on a fancy date night for Valentine's Day, here's what I'd be deciding on:


C. Luce Poppy fit and flare dress.

This style is flattering on so many body types. Reviews say it runs small. Bonus, it's machine washable!


Geojacquard Dress
The two reviewers of this dress give it 5 stars. I keep thinking I'm totally over the high-low look, but this one is done really well. I like that it either looks lined, or the back of the fabric is black so you can't see a weird back fabric print in the "low" part of the high-low cut.

Am I making any sense? It's one of my pet peeves about high-low cut skirts.



Printed Fit and Flare dress
I noticed this one in store last week. A great heavy weight material that will be perfect with boots for a while until the weather warms up. V-Day and everyday! It comes in just a skirt too.


Pleated swing dress
This would be a departure for me, but I think it would look so cute with patterned black tights and black heels.


River Island Sleeveless Ruffle Shift
This one is on super sale, and I feel like someone should snap it up. That is a gorgeous pink and apart from V-day, this one could get a lot of miles at weddings, special dress up nights for vacation, even Easter. Very cute!

So tell me, on a scale of jeans and a t-shirt to LBD, where do your Valentine plans fall?

Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I would use personally! Thanks for reading!

New Ruffles at my House

This is kind of one more Christmas post, but I'm busy nesting over here. I'm decorating the house for Valentine's Day and moving things around to create a "toy room" (Jack's words, not mine) in what was formerly known as the study. In the process of all this, I snapped some shots of one of my favorite Christmas gifts.

On my mom's side of the family, the adults draw names at Christmastime. My cousin's wife got my name this year. She's a talented seamstress, and when I started brainstorming some suggestions for her for me, it was a no brainer. I have been wanting a neutral, ruffled table runner for a while, but I don't think my sewing skills are quite up to par for it. So I threw that out there to Andie as a possibility.

She took it and ran with it, and I love the results!


And yes, that Christmas greenery on my chandelier is the next thing on my list to take down and store. I forgot to do it before we put all the other Christmas decorations in the attic, so I'm dreading having to pull a box down from up there to put it away. I'm always scared I'll fall off the ladder.


She did such a beautiful job. I love the lace trim and box pleats, along with the grosgrain trim. It's perfect! Now to keep my crumb crushers' fingers off of it! She just recently listed it in her Etsy shop, if you've been on the hunt for something similar.

She also subscribed me to Southern Living for the year. Such a perfect combination!

Weekending

I had a really sweet weekend. We have quite a few exciting things coming up, so to spend it at home in anticipation of those was nice.

Saturday morning, praise the Lord and hallelujah, I had a hair appointment. My hairstylist books up fast, and about the time I decide to call for an appointment, she's solid for two months. I had an awesome, restful morning with a Pure Barre class and trip through Bluebonnet Bakery for a diet coke and a petit four before climbing into the chair for a trim, highlights, and blow out. Along with a copy of February InStyle. Yes and yes.

I wised up this visit and pre-booked my next appointment right before Easter. And then I wrote it in my planner. Such a novel concept, I know.

Saturday evening we loaded up to try a new pizza place in the shopping strip across from the TCU campus called Pizza Snob. It's a build-your-own pizza concept, and we all liked it a lot! Even Annabelle had her very first bites of pizza. The crust definitely made it.


And then we happened to be right next door to Cold Stone Creamery.
Sunday was a full day. We are prepping for D-Now, and I'm coordinating the 11th and 12th grade groups. Between rounding up drivers to move kids here and there throughout the weekend, getting t-shirt sizes for adults helping my groups, making sure food is covered, encouraging students to sign up, and various other tasks, I have a long to do list. This is right up my alley, so I'm glad to be able to serve the Lord in this way. We're excited about the weekend!

Mama Monday: Review of the BOB Revolution Duallie

Last week I sold my practically brand-spanking-new BOB Revolution Duallie. The reason? I straight up was not using it.

I bought it back in April, about a month before Pure Barre opened here in Fort Worth. With Pure Barre, I've found a workout I love, and all that running I envisioned to chase away the baby weight went by the wayside.

Here was my experience with it while I had it:

Pros: It is a fabulous, smooth ride. Great suspension and lots of mesh pockets to store stuff: toys, sippys, etc. It folds up easily, and unfolds fairly easily as well. It's incredibly sturdy and well made--like the Hummer of strollers. You could run over anyone on the trail in this thing. You can purchase a baby carrier adapter, separately, and still have a preschooler in the second seat.

Cons: It's heavy, weighing in at 34 lbs before you add two children to it. (Of course, if you're getting in shape after baby, this might be a pro for you!) By the time I got the kids ready and loaded into the car, plus the stroller loaded into the back of my SUV, I had already gotten a workout and was worn OUT. This really discouraged me from hitting the trail to run on a whim. Also, being a side-by-side double stroller, it's incredibly wide. I would like to take this opportunity to educate the mommies of America that this is not a stroller to take to the mall. Stores in the mall are not set up for side-by-side double strollers. Please and thank you!

(If you're looking for a great mall stroller, catch my review of the UppaBaby Vista here!)

Retailing around $500, it was too expensive of a stroller to continue to let lay in my garage, dejected and unused as I stepped over it on my way to Pure Barre. Thankfully, it resells quite nicely.

I love doing reviews of products because usually I take to the Internet to read everything about something before I purchase. I hope you find my personal experience helpful!

Housekeeping! Reverting from Google+ Comments

Pardon this interruption for a little blogging about blogging. Back in the summer I had enabled Google+ comments. While I liked the look and feel and the idea of Google+ comments, I found that anonymous users were not able to leave comments, and some Readers weren't able to see them at all. I also was never able to set up comment notification to my e-mail inbox, and I relied on that before to know when someone had left a note!

In addition, I never fixed the problem in the code that would link the true Google+ comment count to what was displayed on the main page. That's why every post said '0 comments' even though if you clicked it, there was usually more than 1 comment. My two children don't particularly care to give me much time for debugging, and I let it go as long as I could stand it.

What all this means is that since I reverted back to native Blogger comments, any comment you may have left using Google+ has now disappeared. I know. It's sad. I love the community of ladies that leave notes/advice/fun info on here, and I'm sad to see those months gone. (All of your old comments prior to my switch this summer are still there.)

But it's a new day and now even you, my anonymous readers, can weigh in on whatever it is that I keep posting about. Please do. I love hearing from you!

Thank you so much for reading Being Mrs. Gentry. See you in the comments!

Five on Friday: Valentine's Day Prep

I'm linking up with The Good Life today for another installment of Five on Friday!

I love Valentine's Day so much! I feel like I need to move on to it pretty quickly because I have even more important things going on in February--namely, celebrating the birthdays of BOTH of my children.

I've already started doing a little decorating around the house and am thinking of arts and crafts for the kids (ok, Jack) to do. I'm searching Pinterest for fun (easy) valentines, and I'm excited just over the prospect of all the happy pink cookies I plan on eating making. Easy recipes here and here.

But today I've been doing a little shopping to outfit the fam in Valentine colors!

I got an e-mail from Old Navy earlier this week, and this scarf kept me from deleting it immediately. It would wear well into spring and summer, as well as February 14th.


Striped infinity jersey scarf
This would be perfect for my sweetie girl. To Valentine it up, I'd have it monogrammed in red, and I'd pair it with Valentine tights that I bought her while she was still in the womb last year. Tights are so easy (for me) for her since she can't pull them off. That girl takes her socks off faster than I put them on. A regular sock Houdini.


Mix striped dress from GAP
OK, so maybe you can spot (or stripe) a trend here. I think this says "Happy Valentine's Day" well without being over the top. I feel like my little man is past the age of monogrammed clothes for holidays. Boohoo. This would coordinate with Sister, in a non-matchy sort of way.


Polo by Ralph Lauren Cotton Long-sleeve T
Bringing it back to Mama for a little bit, this option is so cute, and on sale! It reminds me a little bit of a J. Crew heart sweater I missed out on buying while I was pregnant.


Halogen Crew Neck Sweater
And just because 'tis the season. I would wear these in a heartbeat. (See what I did there?)



Heart Shaped Sunglasses
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I would use personally! Thanks for reading!