princess tea party invitations.

So.
Let's talk.

Did you watch The Wedding?
I didn't wake up early to watch it,
but I did record it.
Avery and I watched over coffee and milk and breakfast
and marveled.

My favorite thing Avery asked this morning:
"Is she real?"
{about Kate, of course}.

I loooved seeing how all the women were dressed.
Just once in my life I wish I had an occasion
to wear a hat like that.
I couldn't take my eyes off of them.
Especially the crazy ones.

Avery couldn't believe that they rode in a real princess carriage.
William looked very handsome,
but I'm a little partial to Harry.

I heard that Kate did her own makeup.
I love that.
And that dress?
Perfect.

It was only fitting that while we watched
The Wedding
I worked on making Avery's princess tea party invitations.

Craft paper + doilies + mod podge.
I printed the party info,
cut it out,
and glued it onto the doily.

Not too fancy,
and very easy.

I wonder if Kate's invitations included doilies?

thursday

Thanks for the well-wishes yesterday.
My neck is a little better today
and I'm feeling slightly less old ladyish.
Just don't ask me to look over my right shoulder.
Deal?

Getting out of the house today definitely helped.
After I picked up Avery from school we headed out to
pick up a few things from Michaels.
Her birthday is coming up,
so I'm in party-planning mode.

I'm making her invitations.
Think they'll be girly enough?

This afternoon all five of us went to the Farmer's Market.
It was crazy windy.
Like...the kind that gives you an instant headache.
But it was nice to be out in the sun.

You can't see it in this picture,
but all three kids are playing kazoos.
Some *lovely* gentleman at the market
gave them each a kazoo.
He didn't catch the death-glare I was giving him
as he was passing them out.
{those will get mysteriously lost.  mark my words.}

OK, I'm off to bed.
I have a wedding to attend early tomorrow.
:)

ouch

You know you're getting old when
you are awoken at 2:30 in the morning
with horrible pain and
a pulled muscle in your neck.

Yeah...a pulled muscle...while sleeping.
That was me Tuesday morning.
I pulled the muscle that is responsible
for holding up my head.

So for the last two days I've been on the couch trying not to move my head.
{which is not as easy as it may sound.}

I've also been laughing at the fact that I managed to
injure myself while sleeping.
But today I only felt like a 70 year old woman,
instead of a 90 year old woman like yesterday.

So...progress!

My family has been so nice to me.
Colin is constantly fetching me an ice pack
{whether i want one or not}
and I do believe there has been less bickering.
And Gary has done bedtime by himself.
Bless him.

Off to ice again.
'Night, all.

things i learned

This weekend I learned that I am a big fan of peanut butter M&M's.
Chocolatey M&M shell + peanut butter = oh yeah.
Yet Reeses Pieces?
No thanks.

I also learned that the coconut key lime pie must
have a permanent home on the Easter dessert table.
It's good stuff.

Watching kids hunt eggs is a happy thing.
I learned that 8 or so years ago.
I hope it's a long, long time until they outgrow the egg hunt.
{especially since i've just now discovered peanut butter m&m's.}

This group of silly kids had a blast together on Sunday.
These are Gary's sisters' and some of his cousins' kids with ours.
They played for hours until we made them come inside
because it was too cold.
I'm glad this group has each other.

Friday night some girlfriends and I saw Water for Elephants.
I hadn't read the book,
but I really liked the movie.
Robert Pattinson is in it.
I learned I like him much better when he's not pasty white
and shimmering in the sun.

Dreamy.

coconut key lime pie. yeah buddy.

I think Easter without some sort of lemon or lime dessert
would be a tragedy.
Give me lemon bars, lemon cheesecake, key lime pie, lemon meringue...whatever.

And since I'm usually at least partially in charge of desserts on Easter,
citrus it is.

This year:
coconut key lime pie.
Recipe courtesy of Martha.

This was my first time ever buying coconut milk.
Riley was so excited and took a drink
when I opened the can.
Let's just say I'm pretty sure coconut milk
is not meant to be enjoyed straight up.

But add sweetened condensed milk
and then we're talking.

Whisk together the can of condensed milk,
can of coconut milk,
1/3 cup of key lime juice
{i used bottled because, um, I was not about to spend $.99 for one teeny tiny key lime - crazy!}
and 7 egg yolks.

Then make your own graham cracker crust.
Please.
It's so easy and it blows that pre-made Keebler crust out of the water.
Recipe here.
{again, thanks Martha.}

Hello, lovely.

Pour the liquid into the crust
and bake for 40 minutes at 325.

Then while it's cooling
go ahead and toast some coconut.
I know...some of you are gagging.
I get it.
Not everyone is a coconut fan.
Feel free to avert your eyes.

This pie is good, I tell you.
I snuck a taste.

Tomorrow I'll cover that bad boy in whipped cream
and sprinkle some of the toasted coconut on top.

Martha, girrrrrrl, you do know your stuff.

{her full recipe here}

a good day

Today is a good day.

The kids are out of school
and we spent a good chunk of time with friends today
at an Easter party.
The kids hunted eggs
and the mommies chatted and ate croissant sandwiches
and Costco jalepeno artichoke dip.
Eating that stuff is the closest I'll ever come
to knowing what being hooked on crack is like.

At home, the kids dyed eggs
and have the green fingers to prove it.

The smell of vinegar always,
always,
reminds me of dying Easter eggs.

Colorful eggs are a mighty happy sight.

{fun fact: it is tough for me to resist the urge
to have the kids make their eggs perfect.
i cringe when they want to put an orange egg in the purple dye.
"ugh, really?  orange and purple? 
i mean...orange and purple?  okayyyyyy, sounds great!"
i think next year i'll boil a few for myself
to do on my own to help satisfy
my type-a perfectionist urges.}

Sorry.  Moving on.

My laundry is just about finished and put away.
Except for the socks.  I hate matching up the socks.

All of those things alone make this a good day.

It's really, truly, good, however, for another reason entirely:
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
(Romans 5:8)

That's it.
That's the good.
That's what it's all comes down to.

Happy {Good} Friday.

happy words

Ever since I went to the Alameda Antique Fair
and bought my chicken wire frame,
I've been meaning to make some clothespins to use with it.

But the clothespins are on an aisle at the grocery store
that I rarely walk down
{the fishing gear, picture frames, and nylons aisle}
so it has taken me a few weeks.

I finally remembered to head that direction the other day
and picked up some clothespins.

I printed some happy words in a typewriter font.
{rockwell, specifically}

Then I cut them out and got out the mod podge.

 
I don't use it very often,
but every time I do I start obsessing
about what else I can mod podge.
I love that stuff!

If you've never used it,
it's so easy.
Just use a foam brush to paint on a coat,
lay down your paper (or fabric or whatever)
and paint on another layer of mod podge.

I might add some paint
or buttons
or something else to jazz them up.
I'm not sure.

But for now they're doing their job on the chicken wire.

{a couple are holding up my print from meg's shop. love it.}

This is our old computer
on my upstairs desk.
This desk makes me happy.

I don't pay bills here.
I think that's part of why this space makes me happy.
:)

hello, monday

We had a low-key weekend
of nowhere to go
and nothing we had to get accomplished.

We went to Costco
{all five of us on a sunday...what were we thinking?}
and Lowe's and Home Depot
and did yardwork
and bought the kids Easter outfits.

The kids seemed particularly crabby
and bicker-ey this weekend.
And Colin came down with a cold.

I had a migraine for a good portion of the weekend.
{see above}

Avery was mad here because I had my hair in a ponytail
and wouldn't take it out.
For some reason she hates it when I wear a ponytail
and always wants me to wear my hair down.
I took my hair out of the rubber band and she said,
"There.  That's prettier."
Hmmm.

But my husband was home.
And we had a game night.

He used to play this when he was a kid.
The object of the game involves a lot of
chaos and yelling.
And more yelling.

 It's fun.

I fell asleep on the couch last night at 9:15.
I was so wiped out.
This morning I drank three cups of coffee...
and that was before I went to work out.

I've joined a new gym,
but it's not a gym.
It's something called the Dailey Method,
which is a mixture of pilates and yoga and ballet.
{if you live in the bay area, or near one of its locations you should try it once for free}

I love it,
but I'm pretty sure I'll need help walking up the stairs tomorrow.

the sweet smell of the weekend

I bought a bouquet of hyacinth flowers
at Costco on Monday.
They're sitting on my old red typewriter table
right by the couch,
and every time I'm near them their sweet smell
almost knocks me over.

I take a deep breath every time I walk by.

I'm also practically holding my breath waiting for the weekend.
The forecast includes a weekend of mild sun,
two days with absolutely nothing on the calendar
{the novelty!}
and a rare-as-of-late Saturday and Sunday with my husband
at home and not at work.

Ahhh....exhale.

Hope you get to exhale this weekend, too.

we are easily impressed

I'm adding this to my mental list entitled
"Why Didn't I Think to Invent That First?!?".
In the number one position on that list? Silly Bands.

{seriously.  you keep a list like that too, right?}

Riley loves pineapple.
He asks for one every time we're at the grocery store.
Even in the dead of winter when they cost $129 apiece.

Usually I'll buy him one,
but I dread cutting it.
I can never get the tough parts off
and I think I waste a ton of the good stuff.

But I was in the grocery store last week
walking by the pineapple display
and it was as if the heavens opened up and shone their light
on this wonderful little contraption.

The pineapple slicer/corer.
Am I the last to discover this wonderful gadget?
It's like magic.
The kids and I geek out every time we use it.

I mean, really.
How cool is that?

{it's the little things.}

strawberry shortcake

A last-minute dessert decision,
and it was a good one.
No special recipe,
I just pulled it from my Cook's Country cookbook.

Summer is getting closer.
I can feel it.

some days

The "mom prom" is over.
It was a fun night,
we raised money for our kids' school,
and even won a few little things at the silent auction.
Gary bought me a pedicure gift certificate.
Love him.

And now that dress up is over,
it's back to yoga pants and tee shirts.
Thank goodness.

So I pulled this out of one of my magazines last week.
Yikes.

I feel a lot of pressure when I think about having
the talk
with the kids.
We've already talked some with Riley,
but I know it has to be an ongoing dialogue.

I think I need to buy a book.
{any recommendations?}

Oh, these kids of mine.

Boy do they know how to push each other's buttons.

Some days are hard.
Some days they bicker and pick on one another like it's their job.

Those days are tough.
I feel exasperated.
I yell.
I feel bad for yelling.
I pray for patience.
I take a lot of deep breaths.

But I love these kids,
even on those bad days.
What did I do before they were here?

What will I do when they go away to college?
I might need a book for that, too.

happy things.

This week may not have started out happy,
but there ended up being plenty of happy sprinkled thoughout.

I have a hard time cooking a proper dinner when
I know Gary isn't going to be home to eat it with us.
So sometimes we have brinner.
{breakfast for dinner, of course}

Brinner makes me happy.
Especially when TJ's pumpkin pancake mix is involved.

My favorite brown sandals from last summer make me happy.

But I'm even happier that I got to wear them this week.
Ah, sun.

Agapanthus has always reminded me of fireworks.

I've never cut the blooms before,
but this one got damaged on the plant and I needed to cut it off.
I like it on my window sill.

On Tuesday I went on a field trip with Riley's class
to the Lawrence Hall of Science on the Cal Berkeley campus.

They got to do all these cool experiments
with acid.
The kids were all freaking out over how awesome it was
to add baking soda to lemon juice/soda/vinegar
and make things e-x-p-l-o-d-e.
Science is cool.

And the view of the bay from the LHS is pretty much unrivaled.
{you can kind of make out the bay bridge going into SF.  so pretty.}

This dog is so fat and needs a bath.
But she's lovable.

Don't these eggs look like candy?
They're the only type of eggs I can keep in the house.
I am powerless over the Cadbury cream version.

I was loving the sky today.

Friends that lend me their Stella & Dot lovelies
make me very happy.

Gary and I are going to our kids' elementary school
auction fundraiser tomorrow night.
{or, as i like to call it, the 'mom prom'}

And, for the occasion,
I got my (spray) tan on today.

Please, if I look like Snooki,
don't tell me until after the mom prom,
okay?