Last updated on November 19th, 2023 at 12:59 pm

Oh, we are on final countdown to America and the end of the school year. Another school year down, and time is not slowing down with three in tow. If anything it seems to be going faster and faster with each child that starts school. MM’s first year of school seems to have blurred by faster than her older brother’s did the previous year. She seems so grown up lately too. We are all looking forward to some slower pace of life at my parents’ house this summer and the hot summer (even though we have been getting our fair share here for once). At least we won’t show up pale white this year and burn on the first day, a nice sun kissed tan is already kissing us all.

It’s been such a busy few weeks preparing for the five of us to be gone for almost six weeks. Like every year, there is things to take care of here before we go ad things to take care of over on the state side and a whole lot of buying and shipping things to where we are staying so when we land everything is ready to go. I love that my mom gets our grocery list and fills the fridge with all the kids favorites (my favorites too I am her baby after all). Each one of us has our own room and our own dressers and closets to hang our closet. It really is like moving back home just for a short period. I love every minute of it.

THIS WEEK I AM LOVING…

I have been reading more interior and fashion blogs lately. Don’t worry I love my mommy bloggers too much to stop reading those too. I am looking for interior inspiration for our loft as we are building an office and a room for B and I can’t decide on a look for either yet. You can find me over on pinterest pinning like mad and I shared some design ideas here but would love feedback as always from my readers. What’s on trend? What should I look out for in the summer sales? I am also looking for fashion inspiration. I am a mother of three now and post pregnancy not the same shape or size I once used to be and if I don’t ever get back to that I need to have plan b on a style for me. I feel like I was in a style rut for a long time after my first two babies. It’s that age where you can’t dress like your 20 and don’t want to dress like a granny either. I think I have slowly found the styles that suit my body not just the styles I like in the shops. For so many years I just wore what I liked on the hanger not necessarily what looked good on me. I am all about comfort first now and what fits me right. So if you have any favorite interior or fashion blogs shout them out below so I can check them out.

Teri from The Lovely Drawer is one of my favorite interior bloggers and I have tried and made so many of her diy projects they are amazing. She just wrote about her Summer Balcony Makeover and it’s inspired me to style corners of my garden a bit more. Do check her blog out! She also has the most adorable baby and gorgeous nursery it will make you broody, I am warning you!

photo credit from Teri’s makeover

Have you heard of  Love to Dream zip up swaddle? With the heat being so hot at night, he is literally sleeping in just a diaper. At first he kept startling himself with his arms because they weren’t snuggled tight to him with his blanket. I started putting him in his zip up swaddle and what a difference his sleep has been. He doesn’t wake himself at night at all. I wake to feed him and can easily change him with the reversible zipper without taking the whole thing off him and disturbing him too much. I love that they thought of everything for each stage of a baby with removable arms after 4 months to transition into a sleeping bag style with the arms out. You can literally have one arm in and one out and then once they get used to that do both. It’s brilliant. I already have two of these ready to go to America with us for the summer. We also always had to rock him a bit to get him to bed at 7pm. I am not lying when I say as soon as we started using the zip up swaddle he started to settle himself to sleep. So now I can get him changed, feed, burped, and lay him down wide awake and every nap and bedtime for the past six days he has gone to sleep within minutes. It might be that he is getting older and learning to self soothe or it might be this magical swaddle. Either way, I wish I had these on those endless nights of re-swaddling both of my first two babies.

I am back to vlogging and have a few videos to get live before America and make up for my absence on youtube, apologies. Having a baby will do that to you! We had a lovely weekend full of MM’s birthday celebrations and her first school friend birthday party too! Would love you to pop over have a peak and give it a thumbs up or a quick comment. I am working on using my YouTube for all our family memories, days out, traveling, reviews and family related topics such as baby updates etc. I really wanted to make my IGTV channel different content and style. I have started to share on my IGTV my weight loss progress after baby number three from the beginning. A lot on eating healthy and exercising to do it the right way. I am also going to be doing more lifestyle fashion vidoes, shopping hauls, wishlists etc. So more food and fashion on IGTV so it’s more fun content for you all to watch. I hope you will enjoy both channels and just hope I can keep up with the forever added social networks.

I have a thing for changing bags for my baby. If we are on the school run, popping in and out of shops and running errands I like to use my tiny Doona bag that snaps onto my stroller/car seat. But for days out, longer periods out of the house I need more room for more baby necessities like a ton of outfits for this boy. He seems to be a puker and likes those infamous poonamis. EEK. I love this gorgeous Yummy Mummy hummingbird changing bag from Pink Lining. It’s got all the pockets and storage you need without being way too big. Sometimes there are limits to what us mommies can carry. This is the perfect size for a day out at the park or going to summer bbqs. But of course, we travel a lot or stay over in various places so we do need those bigger bags for these overnight and plane rides. Because backpacks are a huge trend right now, I had to have a hummingbird backpack bag to match. This is going to be the perfect bag for traveling in America this summer and for baby’s carryon too. I mostly likely will fill it with my camera, tripod and all my props on the go and have the Yummy Mummy bag as my changing bag. I love a bit of luggage matching. How gorgeous is this pattern?

We made a little oasis in our back garden for the kids and made a little after school routine since the weather turned hot. We have a large, rectangle paddling pool that took me nearly two days to blow up myself before someone kindly told me to use a hairdryer it would be faster. I am just thinking of the calories and stomach tightening I did for two days instead. The kids run in and grab an after school snack and thrown on their swimsuits. We put the big speakers outside and have a little disco pool party before dinner to cool off. We eat outside, wrapped up in towels and chat about their day. I love that it feels like summer is here to stay before we trot off for some more sunshine. It really does make everyone so happy especially my two little outdoor kids. They seem to play so well together inventing games and silly things to do in the water. It’s hilarious watching them.

If you missed it do pop over and see our family of five snapshots from June. It was a busy month but we managed to capture us one day at the park. NO one cried or refused which is unheard of and even Mr P enjoyed some baby snuggles while we snapped them. Usually I get three chances to get us all in and one of them gives up but I got to grab a few and everyone was so lovely about it. Why can’t every month go this way? hahaha I love looking back and having that family snap every month for the baby five years. It’s something I hope we always do as the kids grow up.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead! Thanks for reading! You can catch my weekly roundups every Friday.