It's Party Time!*

Sweet Table Settings: Check

Pretty Birthday Girl: Check

Uncle Aaron on Trampoline: Check

Party Crown: Check

Uncle Rhys enjoying tea with the kiddies: Check

*Said in the same manner MC Hammer says "It's Hammer Time!"

Happy 4th!!

Thanks so much for the sweet birthday wishes. We had a pretty laid back day since the real birthday party will be on Saturday.

Hope you all have a great 4th! Please think of/pray for my Marine brother who is currently in Iraq for his third tour. He has been there a week today, and will be there for 8 months. Here he is with his wife Ashley last July.

Happy To Me!

On my sister's second birthday we took her to one of those make your own bear places and she went around the store saying "Happy to me! Happy to me!" As a result we named her teddy bear Toomee and frequently will say "Happy to me!" Instead of Happy Birthday to each other.

Today is my birthday, so "Happy to me!" We aren't doing much today since I will be having a big party on Saturday (yes, I still give myself birthday parties). I did take the kids to have cupcakes for breakfast and to the zoo in celebration. I forgot the camera, which is a huge shame becuase the bakery I took them to was adorable. These are the cupcakes I made for Monkey's birthday, I haven't made anything special for myself today.

I am celebrating the rest of the day by cleaning house and watching the history channel. The Presidents is on and I am a sucker for American history. This week has been chock-full of entertainment for me. It just now occured to me that its probably because of the 4th. Duh.

So. Back to our trip. On Tuesday we went to Disneyland, which was actually fun despite the fact that it was the middle of June. We didn't have to wait in line longer than 30 minutes, though my Monkey just couldn't understand why he had to wait in line at all. It is suprisingly difficult to convince a 3 1/2 year old that he does, in fact, have to wait in line like everyone else. The last straw came after a particularly long wait for a ride that ended up breaking down just before it was our turn. We gave him the choice of seeing Mickey or waiting for the ride to work again and he chose to leave the line and see Mickey.

I won't go into detail about what transpired during that wait. I'll just leave you with this picture and the knowledge that we packed it up and called it a day right after this.

My family assured me that Monkey was very well behaved for a 3 year old in a theme park for 8 hours, but I still have my doubts.

There's No Place Like Home

I am soooo glad to home! We had a great trip, which was only a teeny bit exhausting with 5 little ones and two unruly dogs. The chaos was like nothing I have ever experienced. These 5 munchkins woke up and hit the ground running each and every day. They didn't stop until they passed out each night. They were all pretty much a blur for the entire week.

We took them to dinner at the marina in Oceanside, looked at the boats, and made complete messes of ourselves with ice cream. When we got home we tried to get them all settled down for bed, but that was a complete failure. At one point my monkey was so tired and wanted to go to sleep soooo badly, but his cousin was playing cars on the race track that was on monkey's sleeping bag-while monkey was in it. Poor monkey couldn't cope and wanted to call it a trip then and there, but I managed to calm him down and get him to sleep in the dining room in his little beach tent.

In the morning all was forgotten, probably just as much because we were going to Disneyland as because he got a decent nights sleep (sort of). Tomorrow I will tell you all about Disneyland and why you shouldn't take tired children to theme parks. Oh wait, you all are smart enough to know that already...

Maker Faire

The Maker Fair/Bazaar Bizarre was this weekend and I went on Saturday to keep Missy company, who had a booth for Mohair Circus. It was so fun and there were so many cool things to see. Unfortunately the only pictures I took all day are the ones here, but Missy, Bethany, Michelle, Sonya and many others have tons to make up for my deficiency. Good thing-we wouldn't want anyone to feel like they missed out!

I met bunches of cool people, Jenny from Sew Darn Cute, Michelle from Green Kitchen, Sonya from Knit Sonya and blog reader, Cori, to name a few *Hi Girls!* They were all very very sweet.
Baz Biz was in a huge room where there were booths and demos where you could make your own jewlery, screenprints, lamps, vases, paper...you name it, it was there. I didn't really get to see everything, which was a bummer. Maybe next year!

First Snow

Being the Californians that we are, we don't see snow unless we travel to the mountains. On Saturday we took and impromptu trip to Lake Tahoe and rode the Heavenly Gondola up to the top of the mountain. Monkey and Peanut were absolutely thrilled by this new thing called snow.

And being the Californians that we are, I had no gloves for my kiddos, so both were a bit shocked and not a little ticked off when their hands got cold (don't worry, we were only at the top of the summit about 10 minutes). Monkey thought it was worth it to be cold if that meant he got to bean mom and dad with snowballs.

On Sunday we went to a birthday party for Aaron's Dad and on the way home saw the most spectacular rainbows. There were double rainbows and at one point we were able to see a full rainbow, but I just couldn't capture it all with my camera.

Fairytale Dreams

Monday was a day off for Aaron, so instead of being good and working on the house like we should have, we took the kids to Fairytale Town. It was the first time going since Peanut learned to walk. She had the time of her life going down slides with Daddy and Monkey, walking from slide to slide, and climbing up on play structures by herself. It was funny because you could tell she was so proud of herself. She thought she had made it big time.



See that pic below? It's of the entrance of FTT. See how the grown ups are crouching down to enter? My kids think it is the coolest thing that they don't have to crouch down. About 30 seconds before I took that picture as we were leaving someone wasn't paying attention and conked her head smack on the stone. She was pretty embarassed and her husband laughed at her. Guess she shouldn't have been fooling around with her camera and should have been looking where she was going... Poor thing. I personally feel really bad for her. ;)


Afterwards we took the kids to another Sacramento landmark, Gunther's Ice Cream, which has been in business since 1940. My grandmother used to go there with dates and her friends when she was in college and my uncle worked there when he was in high school. Some of my earliest memories are of me and my parents going to pick him up from work and me watching the ice cream being made through the window. They always have the best flavors of the month. This month is Cherry Cobbler ice cream. Y. U. M. I am always completely wracked with indecision on what to get when we go there.


Not suprisingly both kids conked out in the car on the way home, so I got to work on some brooches, cards, needlebooks, etc and Aaron put new closet doors up in my craft room and the kids room. So I guess we had a bit of a productive day!

Gimme Some Lovin'

I set out to be productive and productive I was. I was able to get oodles done despite a fruitless trip to the hardware store and a late breakfast out at Pancake Circus (I took the camera and got some good pics! I'll blog about it in the mornin). I finished up my Valentines for the Flickr Valentine Swap. I started out hand embroidering them all and well, that got old real fast, so I put my sewing gals to good use. They turned out pretty cute considering I changed my plan halfway through. A few lucky peeps will still get a hand embroidered one. Next time I'll start earlier!

Then I moved on to my collages.


I picked my girlies and played around with colors and vintage buttons and seam binding....

...and came up with these! I am really happy with how they turned out. Especially this one down here. I'm a bright color kinda gal and I think she really fits the bill, don'tcha think?

I like these gals, too, but I think next time I'll put some patterned paper under the pattern tissue. I really like the textures on this one. I mod podged the tissue to the plaque, which gave it a cool wrinkly effect and then I used spray adhesive for the girls to keep them smooth. It feels really cool to touch! I wasn't sure I was going to like the plaques over canvas, but I think they turned out quite nice. I still want to try some with canvas, but I think I'm going to favor the plaques.

I'm going to call the collages Kae Collages after my husband's grandma. She turns 90 this year! In the 60s decoupage was pretty hot and she was a decoupaging fool. She made all sorts of cool pictures, most are 3 D, and pretty fab. Whenever I pull out the Mod Podge I think of her. The next time I go to my inlaws I'll have to go around the house and take pictures of her stuff. My mother in law must have at least 10 around the house. It is really great how timeless they are.

A Birthday, a Momiversary and a Dinner to celebrate it all...

Look at that face! That little face turned three today. Last night we took him to our favorite restaurant, the Tower Cafe for dinner and dessert. My aunt is the pastry chef there, which probably plays a role in why that place is our favorite. The food is great, but the desserts are amazing, and I really don't think I am being biased because I even like the desserts that aren't her recipes.

Well, when we got there, we were lucky enough to catch Lou before she was heading out for the night and she joined us for dinner. My monkey boy was so excited to Auntie Lou with us and even made me move so she could sit with him (which made her day). We had a lovely dinner (Texan Skirt Steak, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, three different desserts...) and enjoyed our little celebration.
Some of Lou's yummy concoctions in this snap above. She has been noticed by a local artist Kathrine Lemke Waste. Katherine paints desserts and has asked my aunt if she could paint some. Wouldn't that lemon tart be an amazing painting? Yum! If you ever find yourself in Sacramento, be sure to check out Tower Cafe and maybe take in a movie at the adjoining Tower Theatre.

So today being monkey's birthday also marks a very special day for me...it's my Momiversary (and Dadiversary for A)! The three year anniversary of becoming a mommy! The last three years couldn't have gone by any faster or been any more fun. This little boy has made Aaron and me so happy (and frustrated and mad...) and was the first link to completing our family. He showed up 3 1/2 weeks early when we were completely unprepared. I thought first time moms always had their babies late, so I figured I could pack my bag later.

But, no. MB wanted to be part of the show early and while standing in church I felt my water break. Nothing like breaking your water in a public place! It was pretty funny because I scurried out to see what was what and a few people saw me leave and then a few minutes later saw someone come back to get Aaron and him jump up, grab our stuff and run out. 12 hours later almost to the minute we greeted our baby boy. That day was definitely one of the happiest days of our lives!

Our Monkey is an amazing little guy. He is the most encouraging kid. He will tell us "Good Job, Mom. Good Job, Dad" for the most mundane tasks like buckling him into is car seat, making toast, changing sisters diaper...Last week he was thoughtfully sitting on the couch and he turned to me and said, "Momma, thanks for buying food." Well, OK! He tells me that my clothes are nice and that I am pretty and beautiful. He tells us that dinner is "delicious" and sometimes "disgusting". He loves his little sister and in the morning if she cries we'll hear him saying to her "What's wrong little peanut girl? Don't cry!" Lately he has noticed every bump, scratch, cut on him body and thinks he'd going to die. Just this morning he came to me and showed me the palm of his hand and declared "My arm is broken" very seriously. Life with this kid is never boring and almost always fun!

Happy Birthday!!