About once a day I hear from someone about how similar Ella is to me – or the other way around – usually from my husband, and usually when she’s copping an attitude. Since there doesn’t seem to be a lot of confusion whether we’re related, I have yet to take the leap into “mommy and me” outfits and I probably have missed the window – either because she is too old for that to be cute or because she has a pretty forceful opinion regarding what she wears each day. So I may as well save the $500 or so on matching Lilly Pulitzer dresses, which may never see the light of day. But when I saw this Ann Taylor sweater right on the heels of the order I placed for Ella’s darling Boden birdie leggings, I couldn’t resist.

Kerry:J Crew shirt (similar here) | Ann Taylor sweater | Banana Republic pants | Tory Burch heels and bracelet | Tiffany & Co. sunglasses | kate spade new york earrings | Melly bracelet | Michael Kors watch | Chloe handbag
Ella: Boden leggings, shirt (alternate colors here) and jacket (similar here)| Tsukihoshi shoes | Gap socks

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Reality Check. The original intention was to take pictures in a spot where earlier that day when driving we had seen hundreds of birds right near the shoreline. Get it? Birds on our outfits, birds in the background. I was forgetting that just a few weeks ago we had an unfortunate outdoor dining experience with lots of birds surrounding the table, by the end of which Ella was crying and yelling repeatedly, “Don’t eat me, birds! Dose birds bite my butt!” Thank goodness by the time we returned the birds were far from the shore, otherwise a happy Ella would not have been making an appearance in these pictures. Even with the birds in the distance, she kept a watchful eye and asked as we headed to grab burgers at the town diner, “will birds be at the restaurant to eat me?”