Fringe

This post is going to be all over the place. As I was removing all the pics off my phone and camera, I forgot I had these to share so I have thrown them all together in one post. Enjoy the scattered experiences. :)
This first one is what I found on the kids marker board the other night. Sadie had written Elliet such a sweet message and placed this by her door so she would wake up and find it. The next morning Elliet found it alright. Her corrections are in blue.

I had some extra phyllo dough in my fridge so I made up some quick apple pie filling and tried this technique with my mandolin. It was super easy and fast and the texture was fun so I wanted to share. Just wash the apple and slide it right on through. You can see I didn't even peel them. Add a little lemon juice, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg and sugar (I tried Agave nectar and it was great) and throw them in some kind of crust and bake. Mm-mm!

A few weeks ago TENNIS came to Vegas and played for free! S and I made a fun date night out of it. They are an awesome band if you want something beachy and fun to get you in the mood for summer approaching.

Beautiful sunset at Luke's soccer practice. I will never get enough of this large desert sky.

Here's another awesome sky photo I took a while back. One night I was driving home and could not stop gaping at this long, fat cloud hovering over downtown. It was so orange underneath with a crisp white line up by the moon. Beautiful! I didn't have my camera so I had to use my phone. It's not the best photo but it gives you an idea.

Thanks to a sweet online deal, a group of friends and I went to a local spa across the valley at the Lakes. We stayed overnight in this beautiful villa and this was the view when we woke up. I love that lime green color of new leaves each spring.

Wall Ball

My kids have come to the age where the recess games infiltrate family life. The hand games with rhymes as well as jump-roping while chanting:
"Bubble Gum Bubble Gum,
Cherry on top....
Who's your boyfriend, I forgot...
Is it
A
B
C..." until they trip and name a classmate with that letter.
But the most apparent addiction is Luke to Wall Ball. He has been playing for months. INSIDE our house.
It's been fun to play with him because he's getting good at it. The things that make me laugh the most are the names of the plays. I'll be hitting back and forth with him and when the ball falls close to the wall, he'll call "Waterfall!". Or if it's hit hard, a 'bullet'. I've learned a plethora of terms: cross country, slicey, butt crack...(ahemyes, you read that correctly).
I wake up in the morning to the bud-dam, bud-doom, bud-dom over and over again or the slappy-slaps of the jump ropes.
And as much as it causes some headaches, it's the sound of active, happy kids growing up and I love it.

Give and Take

While we were in Utah, we fit in a quick trip to the BYU Bookstore. I love that place. And they have an awesome section of childrens books so I wanted to take the kids and share it with them. As we were all reading different things, I pulled this off the shelf and laughed out loud through the entire thing. It is so hilarious. If you grew up on 'The Giving Tree', then this is a must in your collection. I scanned in a few pages to share with you here but I highly recommend you acquire one of your own. These scans post small, so click on them to see full size (i.e. to read the super tiny text).





I skipped a bit here, now he is older and returned again...

passed a few more pages.... aren't you so curious now? (and hopefully chuckling)

Ahhh.... so great. Hope you enjoy.

St Pattys

Well, as you know, sometimes we create fun that comes back to pinch us a year later.
Case in point, our leprechaun trap from last year.
So here we are this year heading to bed and I'm reminded last minute that we needed to set a NEW trap (ugh- why hadn't I thought of this before bedtime?). So here is our tale. Prepare for some amazing ingenuity.
(That's sarcasm)

I proposed we use the wastebasket from our bathroom as a trap. It's heavier than the cardboard box that the Leprechaun ripped free from last year.
But what to prop it on? How about an Avocado! It's green and he will slip inside, lured by all the treasure, and pull it to eat from within, hence trapping himself! (with enough food until he's discovered. Yes, his welfare was a concern.)

The hastily scribbled notes of temptation (we use old check stubbs for drawing on which is why this is especially ghetto).

The kids ran and grabbed some sparkly things and placed their notes inside.

Here is a close up of the goods. Did you know metallic pipe cleaner art and cheap mardi gras beads are highly valued to them? Neither did I.

Ooh darn! We missed him again. I remembered this time to write a tiny note with tiny letters to match his tiny footprints.

He tried to pull the treasure away but it was stuck in the trap. Oh well.
Good thing the kids haven't picked up on the fact that, even though he leaves small footprints as evidence he came and went, there is not a patch of mess for him to step in to cause such.
Give me ideas on that for next year because I'll need it.
Hope you had a fun Green Day!

To Utah For Earnest

My ever so talented Mother and sister were in a performance of "The Importance of Being Earnest" in March. We have not been up to UT in many months so we decided to make a quick trip and see the play.
I thought Elliet would be old enough now to follow the story a little so she joined us and really had a great time (I am so enjoying my children getting old enough to share these things with them!). We had watched the movie to prepare and as a result, the kids played dress up, or as they say, played "Earnest", while we were there. Here is Sadie playing a tune for a tired 'Earnest' on the couch. She has this funky feather thing stuck in her hair- it was so cute.
The play was very entertaining and they did an amazing job. Plus, the costumes were great! Too bad I don't have a sliver of acting skills - it would be fun to have that byproduct of such talent. As I reviewed these photos, I was smiling. I keep hearing my mom say, "Mistah Wuh-theeng..."
You girls were wonderful! Thanks for the fun weekend!

Banner Happy

I was privileged recently to be featured on the Bake It Pretty blog to design a fun printable for them.
{BTW-Bake It Pretty have some fantastic and fun baking supplies. I highly recommend you check them out!)
I made something like this for a friends Birthday cake and it turned out cute so I thought it would be fun to improve the idea and share it.
There were so many color ideas I had that I ended up making two instead of one. And I will probably make even more.
How can I use these, you may ask?
They look adorable glued onto striped twine and hung over a cake from tall skewers, but there are many more fun things you can do with them, all of which are listed on their blog. If nothing else, hang one on your computer monitor.
Click on the links here to have some fun!
MOD BANNER
SMALL BLUE DOT BANNER