I'm Back!

A little bit. I'm trying to back into the swing of my blog. I know I was never really in full-force before. I mean, c'mon! Once a week blogging? It's for blogging wimps.

I am a blogging wimp.

I love my blog, I love sharing things with you, and I LOVE reading your comments, but sometimes blogging is a little bit of a labor of love. I kind of enjoyed my summer off. I may do it again. Watch out!

Anyway! Let me start off with a super short post about what we've been doing a lot of lately:

Which is, mostly, laying around this house in different places, trying to find the coolest place possible in this UN-RE-LENTING HEAT.

Because we moved! Yay! But we have no air conditioning! Boooo!

Today was ONE HUNDRED. AND THREE. Because just one hundred degrees is just not enough. So nature threw in an extra bonus three degrees. Damn you, nature.

Anyway, Penny has found her perfect spot. On the cool stone next to Norman the Meditating Gnome. I may kick her off soon because that most definitely looks cooler than my place on the couch.

Tomorrow is only supposed to be 94 degrees. Don't be jealous.

Father's Day Frame 2012

It's Father's Day Frames Time!

We've done these for 4 years in a row! You can see the other years AND the How To here and here.

I really, really recommend this craft. It doesn't take all that much time, or effort, or money. It's super personal and my kids love making them every year.

I think they mostly love it because I leave all the major decision making up to them.

I drag a bunch of photos from the current year into a folder (about 15-20 per kid). Then I let them each choose 10. Not all pictures will work because of the placement of people in the picture and the shapes of the letters, so 10 seems to give us enough good options. BOTH kids wanted to keep all their leftover pictures. I'm telling you, they love this stuff!

This time, Ella decided that she didn't want any black lines of the letters showing. When we cut the letters without the black lines, we had a little bit of extra space inside the letters. So she decided to pack two pictures into each of the D's. I love it! They look really cute! She also decided to back each letter with colored paper, just like she did last year.

Check out the bottom of the second D - Happy F-Day. "It stands for Father's Day!" she told me. Obviously.

Although... when I see Happy F-Day, it's possible I think something else. AM I THE ONLY ONE?



Peyton wanted the black lines of the letters showing, but he liked Ella's two-photo idea, too, so he did some of that. He did not want colored paper on the back, just like last year, so I backed the letters with some light cardboard to give them more stability. It's funny, I didn't even show them last year's frames, but they both still picked the same backing as they did last year. I wonder if they remember, or if it's just their personal aesthetics coming through? It's adorable either way.

Check out the Y - To: James. You know he did that just because this is really important to him and he wanted to be very serious and proper. So sweet. Oh, and the third D. He wrote Peyton J W Jr. He's not a junior, obviously, his dad's name is James. I guess because he is his father's son? I didn't want to call him on it because he was just so proud.

I just LOVE these! Simple traditions are the best!

Happy Father's Day!

You Totally Want To See My Vacation Photos

So here's what we did.

We drove a gazillion hours:

                                      

And then we went through this tunnel:

And then we saw this:

YOSEMITE!

Half Dome:

Dogwood flowers:

They're so pretty!

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls:

Lower Yosemite Falls:

The Merced River:

Happy Isles:

Bridal Veil Fall:

Where you can get soaking wet!

And you'll never believe it, but this is where we camped:

So, so beautiful!

I've never been the biggest fan of camping (or a fan AT ALL for that matter), but this... 

This I love.

Especially since I got to be there with my family. 

But not just my little family. 

My family AND my mom and her husband, my brother, sister-in-law, and their kids. 

It was a big, fun group!

Bonus! We even got to see this little sweetie as we began to drive home:

The perfect ending to a wonderful camping trip! 

My Thrift Store Coffee Table and A Surprise!

Here's what happened. We had just moved back to California. We had ditched our old coffee table before the move, because it had been demolished by years of kid abuse.

So I  see this little thrift store, and outside this little thrift store is this little square coffee table that would fit perfectly in my little apartment.  I loved the size and I loved the double decker look and I loved the lines of it. 

I said I loved the lines! Not the scratches! Didn't matter, it would look like that within one week after entering the kid zone anyway. But, wait, what does that little white price tag say?

Are you freakin' kidding me??? I sprinted into the store with my crazy eyes and my cash and demanded that it be mine. 

The owner looked at me like I was nuts. 

Maybe because it was one hundred-ish (or eighty) degrees outside and so that little mad dash into the store had turned me into a sweaty-haired disaster, or maybe because I had looked that way anyway. No, couldn't be that. I'm awesome ALL THE TIME. 

"I really want that square table!" I yelled with all my excitement.

"Really? That thing's been out there for months." 

"Oh really? Then then town must be full of ... Never mind. If I try to look extra cute and flirty, with my sweaty, whacked-out hair and crazy eyes, will you load it into my car for me?" Or maybe I didn't say that out loud, but I did it, and it worked. Maybe because I was super cute. More likely because he wanted to get me the hell out of his store.

And I cannot tell you how filthy that thing was! I scrubbed with all sorts of toxic and non-toxic solutions and still, the layers of dirt impressed even me. And I once lived in an apartment in which cockroaches greeted me on my pillow on a nightly basis. With song. Ah... to be 19 again. The glamour of it all.

Anyway! Are you so proud that I scored that table for $10? Will you lose all that pride for me if I tell you that I didn't do anything with that table for A YEAR? Meh. I wanted to, I swear! I just... didn't.

And one night, I did.

Get your mind out of the gutter!

I sanded and painted. Oh - see the drawer! It perfectly fits all our remotes for the TV and Wii. It's all kinds of wonderful, this table.

And I stained (the same color as the dining table, since it's all basically in the same room) ...

And I still haven't polyurethaned it. And I'm not at all hanging my head in shame about it.

I'll get around to it sooner or later. 

(We have a kindergarten groundhog on a craft stick that has lived in our flowers since Groundhog Day. Ella put him there. I think he's adorable.)

The table's good, right?

BECAUSE I LOVE IT!

Oh, and it is still decorated for Valentine's Day. Because I put A LOT of effort into my Valentine's Day decorating. Before this year I had zero Valentine's Day decorations and now I have: These and these and these and these! I'm thinking I'm going straight from Valentine's Day decor to Easter decor. I never said I wasn't lazy. In fact, I do believe I've admitted it quite often on this blog. Oh, and I got this cute candle idea from pinterest!

You know who makes me feel better about not following through with the poly? 

She's kind of a big deal around here.

HER NAME IS PENNY! AND SHE'S 10 WEEKS OLD!

Oh, and I distressed the table, too. That should count for something. Penny especially likes the way this table leg is distressed. It saves her the trouble of doing it for me. Or maybe it still needs a little more. I'm sure she'll decide later.

She totally deserves her own blog post. Coming soon!

$10 Coffee Table!!!

It's a Happy Day!

3 Things

1. New Blog Header

Did you notice? Did ya? Did ya? I did it all by myself!!! I used this awesome tutorial (just liked I used to make this header) and it was really easy! I find myself checking my blog just to look at its beauty and happy colorfulness.


2. Rainbow Cake

Do you remember when I first made a Rainbow Cake and it totally rocked it out?

The holiday season is crazy for everyone, of course, but it's a little extra crazy for us because Peyton's birthday is December 17th (he turned 8) and Ella's birthday is January 9th (she turned 6). Oh, and our wedding anniversary is December 15th (we made it 10 years!), but that's beside the point.

The point being: Rainbow Cakes are awesome!

Usually we do cupcakes for our birthday parties because they're so easy, but ever since The Rainbow Cake came into our lives, things have changed for the better. Peyton wanted a rainbow cake for his party, Ella wanted a rainbow cake for her party, and we were Rainbow Caking it up all over the place this winter!

The best part ever is when you cut into the otherwise-normal-looking-cake and suddenly everyone realizes that there's something special going on in there. Oh man! Kids are amazed, parents are amazed, it's all kinds of awesome. And I loved watching my kids bask in the glory when their friends saw the uniqueness of the cakes. Peyton and Ella LIT UP when they got to tell everyone how they picked their own colors. I loved that!

But really, what I wanted to do here was to peer pressure you into making a Rainbow Cake of your own. And this is why: No matter how imperfect your Rainbow Cake is, people will still think you are a Rainbow Caking Rockstar.

Example 1 - My first Rainbow Cake - Didn't even have enough frosting to cover all the sides. See all that side-cake sticking out? Didn't matter - Rockstar! (When I said side-cake did you think of side-boob? Admit it - you totally did!)

Example 2 - Peyton's Rainbow Cake:

Not even a real Rainbow Cake. He wanted blue and green stripes. Look at how uneven the frosting layers are - fail! Doesn't matter - as soon as the party kids saw the inside...

Rockstar!

You'll notice these pictures are a little messier than my First Rainbow Cake. It's one thing to carefully slice a cake when you're at home. You can make your family wait on the sidelines for five minutes while you get a good photo. It's a completely different situation when bunches of loud and crazy party kids are sitting around a table at a bowling alley or Chuck E. Cheese's waiting impatiently for their fair share of sugar intake.

Example 3 - Ella's Rainbow Cake

She chose her colors, too, and she wanted them in a very specific order. Look at that huge layer of frosting in between the purple and blue layers - fail! I didn't actually cut this one, the host from our Chuck E. Cheese party did. As soon as she cut into it, she said, "Whoa! Is this rainbow striped!?! Cool!" And you know she cuts into all sorts of homemade cakes for a living, soooo...

Rockstar!

What I'm saying is this: I'm not a baker, I've made lots and lots of Rainbow Cake mistakes, but it doesn't matter!

So, go! Go forth and make a Rainbow Cake! If I can do it - ANYONE CAN DO IT!


3. Family Portrait

Yesterday, I gave Ella a canvas, some paint, and paintbrushes. She grabbed some paper craft hearts that I was working on and some glue. Then she disappeared for a while to create her masterpiece.

She's obviously very talented - I mean, C'MON with the mixed media fantasticalness! - but just in case you have a hard time recognizing us, from left to right we have: Peyton, Ella, Mommy, and Daddy.



Seriously, I love it so much!!! Drawing with actual paintbrushes rather than markers or crayons is difficult - I think it's pretty impressive for a just-turned-6-year-old!

I framed it and put it on our Valentine's Day mantel and I'm going to keep it forever and ever.

Happy Valentine's Day decorating!