o crafty day: ice cream watercolor.

This year I put on our summer list
that I wanted to do a weekly craft with the kids.
Actually, if I'm being honest,
it was on last year's summer list too,
but I never was able to pull it off.

This summer, I'm determined.
So yesterday, we painted.

I saw this idea on
Art Projects for Kids.

Have the kids draw a tall ice cream cone on
a piece of watercolor paper.
{i drew avery's for her.}
Watercolor paper is a little pricier than regular paper,
but worth it. 
It's very sturdy and
doesn't curl when it gets wet.

I cut the paper in half, so it was 4.5"x12".

Then they trace over the pencil in black crayon,
so the watercolor will stay inside the lines.

We talked about different ice cream flavors,
and then they painted.

Whenever we get ice cream,
the flavors they order are so gross to me.
Their favorite: blue bubblegum with gummi bears.
Blecccccchhhh.
I'm a rocky road girl, through and through.

I made one, too.

Riley wasn't really interested in this craft.
He painted an ice cream cone,
but only to make me happy.
He did give me some ideas for next week, though....

Here they are, in all their glory.

For further artistic research,
I promised them that today we could
go out for double scoops.

Life imitates art.

on june 28th...

...when the temperatures remain in the 60's all day,
and the rain doesn't stop,
you don't have any choice.

You bake.

Even though it's summer
and you should be grilling
and sweating and eating popsicles at the pool,
you bake banana bread to heat up your house
because you refuse to turn on your heater
IN LATE JUNE.

Not cool, mother nature.
I want the sun back.
Stat.

monday. in snippets.

I wrote this on the chalkboard today:

It's Monday.
The reminder couldn't hurt.

Tennis lessons again this summer.
Love it.

Post-tennis trip to Costco to restock the fruit basket.

I might need a nectarine intervention.

From Target:

"throwback" Garbage Pail Kid cards,
back to gross-out another generation.
The kids are loving them,
for better or worse.
{my brother and i had quite an impressive collection of these in the 80's.}

In my front yard:

the lavender has exploded.
The bees couldn't be happier about it.

On my front door:

A Saturday with nothing to do
equals time to whip up a 4th of July wreath.

Straw wreath + cut strips of burlap + hot glue
+ misc fabric flowers + felt centers.

Aaaaand...that's the extent of my decorating for the 4th.
I'm lame.

This was dinner last Monday:

crock pot pulled pork.
Easiest recipe ever:
layer cut onions, pork shoulder, pour one can of sprite, add more onions,
cook for six hours on high,
remove and shred and add a bottle (or less)
of bbq sauce.
Return to crock pot and cook another hour.
{if you don't have time you don't really have to cook it another hour
it just really cooks the bbq flavor in.}
Serve on rolls.
{with pickles + mustard, of course}

And this is dinner tonight:

leftover pizza from Zachary's.

You must do everything in your power to
get yourself to the bay area at least
once in your life to eat at Zachary's.

And invite me to go with you.
And order the stuffed chicken special.
And swear off any other pizza for life.

For reals.

random friday randomness

This morning I woke up to the familiar sound
of Lego's being dumped out of their bin.

{if i had a dollar for every time i woke up to that noise...}

I snuck downstairs before the kids heard me
and made coffee
and started the morning
reading some of the book of Mark.
{it has some of my favorite stories about jesus:
one being him healing the woman who touched his robe.
so much compassion}
and wrote in my little journal.
Love that thing.

The boys were gone to a playdate
all afternoon,
and Avery had a friend over.
Four-year-old conversations are so funny.

We took the kids to see Cars 2 tonight.
If you take your kids to see it,
look for the Effects Supervisor's name
near the front of the credits.
I think he's swell.
:)

{oh, and check out this link to a day in the life of John Lasseter.
especially what he's doing at 3:13 pm.}

The kids are finally asleep
{the sun setting at nine is not conducive to early bedtimes}
and I have stumbled upon My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on TLC.
Wowwwwwwzers.

Finally, I told you the other day
how much I love Pinterest.
And then, as if I couldn't love it any more,
I found this:

Awesome.

insta friday - a summer week edition

I think we did summer proud this week.
There were lounge-y days,
pool days,
and a few choruses of "i'm booored".
Good stuff.

A first for Avery:
her first game of Uno.
We played three games,
and she won one.

Hanging out at the strange metal sculpture downtown.

At the farmer's market eating peas,
trying to distract myself from the ginormous
bag of kettle corn that kept staring at me.

Dinner outside on a summer night.
One of my favorite things.
{especially if salsa is involved}

A peek at the red carpet at the Cars 2 premiere.
Surreal.

One of my favorite moments: almost bumping into
Cameron Mathison when we both walked out of
the bathroom at the same time.
My years of watching All My Children in college
all came rushing back to me.
He's not ugly, my friends.
:)


Happy Friday!

Linking up with Jeannett's Insta-Friday

at Life Rearranged!

maui, part 1

Back in March,
when Gary was working a ton of hours
and I was close to being committed to
a mental institution,
we decided to plan a summer vacay.

I needed something to look forward to.

The kids got out of school on Friday June 3rd,
and on Monday the 6th we were flying west over the Pacific.

Paradise.

I love it when you get off the airplane
in Hawaii and the air just smells different.
I think it's the flowers.
{or the mai tais?}

The first half of our vacation we rented a condo.
It was on the beach.
ON the beach.
I've never stayed on the beach before.

The sun set right in front of us every night.
I miss that sunset.

We found some awesome beaches.
Gary bought a book and had us driving
all over the island finding different places to explore.

This beach was my favorite.

Riley and Colin discovered a love of boogie boarding.
It made me nervous, because I kept worrying
that they would get tumbled in a wave,
but they were fine.

 {waterproof camera = hawaii must}

The sand.

Oh, the sand.

I would kill to have to sweep up that soft sand

from my floors everyday.

Really.

If I could move to a warm beach

{no northern california cold beaches, please}

I would do it tomorrow.

I am most relaxed at the beach.

Oh, and apparently I have good taste in beaches.

And directly above Clint and Tiger's houses...

Oprah's Hawaii house is up there,

but I'm not jealous.

I'm not.

Seriously.

Quit looking at me like that.

More another time,

but I'll leave you with three lesser-known Hawaiian wishes:

Peace be with you,

hook 'em horns,

and hang loose.

i'm home and i'm unhip.

Right now I'm sitting on the couch
and watching two episodes of
The Real Housewives of New Jersey that I
missed.

It's the first time I have sat here in two weeks
and it feels good.

We got home from Hawaii on Thursday,
and Saturday morning Gary and I
turned right around
and headed back to the airport.

We spent Saturday night down in Los Angeles
at the Cars 2 premiere.
It was...
like nothing I've ever experienced.

I'll tell you about it soon,
but I *will* tell you that I'm pretty sure
that I'm too old and too uncool
to hang out in hip
Hollywood hotels like the
Roosevelt Hotel on a Saturday night.

First,
do you know they play LOUD music
by the pool until the wee hours of the morning??
I like Enrique Iglesias,
but I really don't want to hear him at 2:30am when I'm sleeping.

And second,
let me introduce you to Mr. Creepy.

I'm sure if I was a cool, hip, girl on the
Hollywood scene I would
understand why you'd want Mr. Creepy's
photo above your bed.

I'm clearly not a cool, hip, girl
on the Hollywood scene.

****************************

Ok, back to RHONJ.
Doesn't your life just feel so
boring and drama-free compared to theirs?
:)

so....

...we've been gone.
...for the last ten days.

We've been in Maui.

{sigh}

It was fantastic.

We logged a lot of beach time.
And pool time.
And, for one of us,
some surfboard time.

And we saw a lot of these.

I'll be back tomorrow
after I head to the grocery store
and tackle the mountain of
{what else}
sand-filled laundry.

But in the meantime,
this picture pretty much sums up
how we all felt about Maui.

{sigh again}

my dad builds things. cool things.

I think I've told you before about my dad.
He's pretty amazing.
He's a woodworker.
The house I grew up in...
the house my parents still live in...
he built.

I know I've told you before that
he made our hutch.

He's made me a bunch of other things, too:
cutting boards
a recipe box
a bookshelf
a toy box
cabinets...
and he has done tons of other things
for us in our various houses over the years.

{any junk you see on my recipe box is because i use it all. the. time.}

But I don't think I've shown you
what he made for me most recently.

When we moved into this house
I showed him a picture from a Pottery Barn catalog
of a media center I loved.

And, boom.

He delivered it on my birthday.
It was the best present ever.

Seriously.
How awesome is he?

And...in case you're local and need a woodworker...he's licensed.
and a perfectionist.
and does the most amazing work.
and I can get you his number.
:)