Hi Everyone!
Here is the first episode of Ask Ayesha! In this epsiode I answer three great questions from my readers. Watch below to see if I answer your question this week!
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: family
Rubber Ducky Pool Party
Riley’s first birthday is not until the 19th. I simply cannot believe she is going to be one! It’s completely bittersweet. I have an unbelievable amount of mixed emotions. I am happy, proud and excited to see what the next year has in store, but at the same time I’m sad that she has grown up so quickly. I literally don’t know where the time has gone. I now know how my parents have felt all of these years.
We decided to celebrate her first year early since we would be traveling on her big day. We threw her a rubber ducky pool party! It turned out amazing considering it had been raining all week. The sun made an appearance during her party and disappeared right after as the rain continued, it was amazing. God is so good, and he certainly does hear all of our prayers.
I purchased all of the items for her party at Target and ordered her invitations from Tiny prints. The party totaled about $400 including all food and we had about 20 people at the party. I made Riley’s smash cake from scratch. It was completely organic and low in sugar (I have a video tutorial in my previous post). All of the food was also organic for that day. We don’t always eat the best and organic, but we do when we can.
Thank you to all of our family and friends that came out to Riley’s party. It was truly a special day and we appreciate each and every one of you!
Here are a few photos from the party! Enjoy!
Golfing For A Great Cause!
My husband and father in law hosted their annual Curry Celebrity Classic golf tournament last week. We had an absolute blast and were able to raise 70,000 dollars for the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson, NC. It is always so wonderful to see the community raise both awareness and money to help our youth. As cliche as it sounds, “the children are our future”, and it is so very important to make sure that every child is given the attention and tools they need to flourish in life through education and extracurricular activities.
We really enjoyed the day on the course, and I had a great time hitting it off of the tee box for most of the holes Stephen played. He even eagled the 10th hole on a par 4!!! I am starting to LOVE the game of golf and have a pretty good swing. With some practice I could be a decent golfer! One can only hope. Here are some photos I snapped throughout the day on the River Run golf course. Until next year! Enjoy!
Also, check out www.adajenkins.org to learn more!
An Afternoon Of Baby Fun!
My husband surprised me last week with a small family adventure. He took us to the Discovery Place Kids Center in Huntersville,NC. We had an absolute blast. Riley had a little dance party all by herself and even got to splash in some water. I can’t wait to go back. It was so sweet of my husband to research family friendly places in our area and execute the trip all on his own. He is such an amazing husband and father, I can’t say it enough.
If you’re in the Charlotte area and have little ones, I definitely recommend checking this place out. If you see us there say HI !!! Here are some photos and video from our little afternoon of baby fun. Enjoy!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Riley’s 1st time at the beach (VIDEO)
We got to spend the entire week with our family at the beach. It has become a tradition in our family to spend some time at our favorite beach when summer hits. It was a bit gloomy this time around but we found little peak a boos of sunshine here and there. I wanted to share this video my little brother made of Riley in the ocean and on the sand for the first time. This is also the first official video post I am doing here on the blog. I hope you enjoy! Do you remember your first time at the beach?
Mommy Beach Essentials
Hi Guys!
I’ve been absent from my blog because we are on our annual family beach trip! We are having an absolute blast. It’s always nice to take a moment to enjoy your family alongside deliciously warm weather and icy cold drinks.
I wanted to some time out to share a couple of essentials that i’ve been taking with me everyday down to the beach. These are my “mommy must-haves.” Let me know if you use any of these products and if you like them. If not, what are your must haves for the beach?
Enjoy!
The List
*A sun hat! It’s so important to protect your face from the sun, regardless of if you’re wearing sunscreen or not. I bought mine from http://www.shopbop.com a couple of years ago.
*Leave-in! I always bring some sort of leave in hair product with me to the beach. The sun and salt water can be so damaging to hair. I put the product in my hair before, during, and after my day on the beach. It keeps my hair moisturized and protected from all of the factors of the beach. Any product will do.
*Sunscreen! It’s so important to protect your skin even on a daily basis. I use The Honest Company’s sunscreen (see side bar for link!). Remember to always reapply your sunscreen every 40 mins-1hr. I love this sunscreen beacause it’s baby safe so i use it on riley too!
*Face sunscreen! Your regular sunscreen will do just fine, but I like a product that’s specially formulated for the face. Most times this will ensure that you don’t get a mean white cast on your face from the product. The face sunscreens usually have a stronger spf and some sort of moisturizer in it to keep your skin hydrated. I love the Josie Maran broad spectrum spf 40 lotion. I bought it at sephora.
*Chapstick! To keep your lips moist and hydrated! Any lip product will do, one with an SPF is even better.
*Sunglasses! To shield your windows to the soul 😉 (Your favorite pair is most definitely necessary while at the beach)
*Detangling Comb! To avoid tangles after after you get out of the water! Mason Pearson makes an amazing comb, but any comb will do.
*WATER WATER WATER !!! It is so important to stay hydrated when your in the sun. Tons of water is key everyone!
The Calm …
The next couple of days/weeks are going to be a whirlwind for my little family. “Dada” is headed to the playoffs after a long season of hard work, injuries, and almost sleepless nights. It’s so wonderful to be able to witness this amazing journey first hand. Seeing the effort my husband and his team put in on a daily basis and now watching it all pay off is simply unbelievable, but totally believable. If you know what I mean. All I can say is to God be all of the glory and the honor.
With that being said I will most likely be absent from the blog for the next 3 days, but will come back with hopefully great news and amazing photos and tidbits from our little adventure in Denver, Colorado. Before this hectic but exciting time we were able to spend a nice day together by the pool last week. We enjoyed salmon burgers and fries from Nations and soaked up some sun(lathered in The Honest Company sunscreen of course! See link below or on sidebar and try it!). Here are a couple of pictures from that day. I got Riley’s pool toys from Target! Enjoy!
Weekend Roundup
Our weekend was fantastic! It started out with a nice mother-daughter lunch in the square. Riley became a big girl right before my eyes and decided she was more than happy to sit in her high chair with me for an hour and enjoy her food as well. It’s amazing that she’s growing up but so bittersweet and I tend to feel a great deal of sadness about it. Any other mommies out there feel the same?
Our neighborhood had an awesome sailboat event going on so we were able to check that out for a little while after our lunch. We had a great family breakfast the next day, complete with an impromptu early morning at the park and some smoothies! Your day is always better when it starts out at an empty park, as a family. Riley loved it and I think my husband loved it even more (see photos below). Stephen had practice on Sunday so we weren’t able to make it to service, but we did manage to blast our favorite gospel songs through the house and bask in the presence of the Lord as we got ready for our day. I met up with my good friend Sabina (my gorgeous Polish bombshell) for brunch and we had the most delicious citrus beignets and french press. I also had the best scrambled eggs to date. I’m definitely going to play around and see if I can make them myself, but I can’t quite put my finger on what made them so yummy.
Our Sunday continued after “dada” got out of practice. We took a trip to Babies R Us to pick up a baby gate. It’s our ritual to let Riley pick out a toy when we go there and naturally she picked out the scariest most life like toy in the building. She loves the big monkey whom we’ve respectively named Roscoe, but he scares me every time I walk into the room!
The night ended with a little home cleaning session, homemade bread, lasagna and red velvet cupcakes! I’ve included a link to a vine video I made of Riley at the park. 🙂
Happy Monday! Enjoy!
Walk In LOVE !
We attended a wonderful Easter Sunday church service last week and the message was just what I needed. Simply to walk “in love”. Keep your head held high, and know that you are where you are supposed to be. We are a reflection of God and it is our duty as servants of him to display his love and be a reflection of him. Ultimately letting our “little lights shine”!
No sin is greater than the next. We all have sinned and all have our faults. At the end of the day we should lend our advice in times of need, a shoulder to lean on, and praying hands for one another. We MUST walk in LOVE at all times. Free yourself from the judgement of others and simply pray for them if you feel that their ways are not of the Lord. I feel we are so quickly to judge and talk about other peoples wrong doings (we’ve all been guilty of this i’m sure), but aren’t as quick to pray for them. Lets start praying and loving and stop gossiping and judging. WALK IN LOVE.
Make it a point to display God’s love through both our actions and words. The tongue is a powerful thing. Lets use it for the good of the Lord and not for the negativity of the world.
“Follow God’s example, therefore as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5: 1-2
Weekend Fun!
We had a wonderful time this Easter weekend, attending a great church service and delicious brunch as a family. We were able to Skype with Riley’s godparents, Brittany and Bryant, so that they could read “The Easter Story” to her (she really has awesome godparents). We watched my brother in law Seth play the last college basketball game of his career for Duke University. Such a bittersweet moment but we are all extremely proud of him as he has accomplished so much and proved so many people wrong. Hard work and perseverance can certainly take you far!
I have now designated my sunday afternoons as “baby food sunday”, and prepare all of Riley’s meals for the week on that day! It’s actually very fun for me. I will definitely post my favorite baby food recipes in the near future.
Lastly, I prepared a wonderful Easter meal that consisted of sautéed greens beans, roasted squash, lamb chops with a fig sauce and my 10 minute pasta! You can find the recipe here on my blog for the pasta! Only, this time I added fresh basil, parsley and capers to the pasta (delicious) !
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with your friends and family! What did you do? Let me know in the comments below.
Little Lights Of Mine 