4th of July was lovely as usual. The weather was perfect, the food was good, and the festivities were fun. Couldn't ask for more than that.
I like taking pictures of food, don't know why.
Extreme close-up pictures of food.
Chatting away....
Playing games.....
Cheese.....
These pictures were SO unbelievably typical....they cracked me up.
Mariah is being a smart-ass cause I told her to smile bigger, and Mallory is annoyed that I had to take a second picture because Nana wasn't looking at the camera.
Then Mariah started crying because Arissa yelled at her.
Then I asked Jesse to take the camera so I could get in the picture too. And this is what happened.
Then FINALLY, he got it together and everyone looked at the camera and smiled and all was good.
Then we went to Nina's to watch fireworks.....it was sooooo cold! Much colder (in July, mind you) than it is now (October). Weird.
4th of july
I love Dollar Tree, it's WAY better than the .99 store. But, it's been my experience that if you go into either of those stores looking for something specific, you will not find it most of the time.
If you are throwing a luau party in June, the Dollar Tree will NOT have tiki torches or grass skirts. They'll either have random, junky stuff or nothing but Disney Princess stuff from wall to wall and you'll have to go somewhere else and pay a bunch more for stuff you'll never use again.
BUT if you're throwing a Disney Princess party and you go in there, it'll be luau central with every imagineable luau-themed party supply item you could ever think of.
HOWEVER, if you go in there assuming they will have nothing good, and figuring that you'll have to spend money on stuff at a real store where stuff costs way more than a dollar, you will find something perfectly suited for what you need......which, best of all, you didn't even know you were looking for.
The hunt for luau stuff happened to me, and then this weekend I was hunting for small/simple birthday gifts for a few friends, and teacher-appreciation gifts for the girls' teachers.
I passed by the knick-knacks and saw this little guy:
Which looks like just an ugly, tacky, weird statue of an eagle with claws that are disproportionate to his body.
But what it actually is, to me, is a perfect little gift for the girls' teachers since their school mascot is an eagle. Obviously if that thing cost $5 or $10, there's no way I would have gotten it....but for $1, it was perfect.
Other things I picked up:
1) Mr. Eagle
2) Cute lil snowglobe, perfect for one of the bday gifts I need because it's for one of Mallory's friends' moms....not necessarily a friend of mine, but her bday is on the day of Mallory's party so I wanted to just give something as a gesture.
3) Pretty boxes to send cheesecake-stuffed strawberries in for the girls' teachers on "yummy treat day" of teacher appreciation week (Mr. Eagle is for "gift day" of teacher appreciation week).
4) Solar-powered dancing flower..I have one and it makes me happy when I see him dancing. It's for another friend who I haven't worked with in 4 years and wasn't even super close with, but her bday is the same as Mallory's so I always remember it and like to send her something small....again, just as a gesture.
I like gestures. :)
The girls' gestures to Nana & Grandma for mothers' day were from a pin I saw on Pinterest.
I almost feel bad for the recipients, because I feel like I give potted plants somehow incorporating photos a LOT as gifts. I know my grandma has a least two or three from me.
If I see a craft involving a clay pot, I must do it. :)
This is Nana's:
(Arissa's eyes look freaky there on the bottom center, but it's got to be the angle cause they look normal when you see it in person, I swear.)
For Grandma:
I ♥ that polka dotted ruffled ribbon.
Used it again for my sister-in-law's:
I was excited to do that one, because most of the pictures were ones I'd taken when we had been babysitting Abigail and I had never shown her.
I printed the pics on regular paper, cut 'em up, painted the pots white, mod-podged the photos on, then mod-podged over them to seal them. Put some foam squares in, arranged the flowers & stuck 'em in, added moss on top and then glued my pretty ribbon.
Happy Mother's Day!
new years 2012
We started off shopping....I liked that very much. :)
The girls played around with some after-Christmas sale stuff.
Mallory said this was a sombrero, but then started doing a hula dance....I think she was confused.
We went to dinner (I also very much liked that!). Nowhere fancy, just the best food on earth (or at least in Lemon Grove):
They were also happy to suck down every last juice box offered:
There were new babies there, which Arissa especially had fun with:
still feeling christmasy
It's March, it feels like August because it's so hot, and I am looking through Christmas pictures. I'm all over the place today.
cookie party
A friend of ours invited us to a cookie/gingerbread house making party on December 21st. The girls were happy to go because of the kids and the cookies, I was happy for that too but I was also very excited to be in this kitchen, which is kind of my dream kitchen. It has an "island".
We mixed everything together:
Rolled it out (on the island!) and got to work:
If our oven had a window on it, I never would have almost burned 144 gingerbreadmen.
Well I probably still would have.
My girls wore their aprons. :)
Time for decorating:
Then they all ran around like wild animals for 15 minutes:
It was a lot of fun, and we were still snacking on cookies well into the new year!
I also did a lot of reflecting and I think I might have been a completely different person with a whole different life, if I had been fortunate enough to have an island in my kitchen growing up.
If I had a reading nook and a kitchen island in my house, I would probably never leave. And I would be very fat from all the baking I would do on my island. And very smart from all the books I would read in my nook!
Posts
