Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Goodbye OC, Hello Yosemite!

We are ready.
The food has been bought (after a 3 hour Costco trip with 6 kids.
can. you. say. crazy!),

the clothes and camping supplies have been packed

and there is barely a square inch of free space left in our car.

Tomorrow morning we trade the view of our little col-de-sac for the view of beautiful mountains and trees and Merced River.
I can hardly wait!

Yosemite here we come!

See you in a few days!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Cuties

Goodness,
my kids are cute.
really stinkin' cute.
At least I think so.

I can't believe how big Madelyn is getting!
It's all going by way too fast.

One of these days I'm going to dig up a picture of Mackenzie at this same age.
They could practically be the same person.

I can't wait until Maddie is old enough to play with Wesley.
I'm pretty sure they will be best buddies too.

a little sibling love

I'm so blessed to have these 3 cuties as my babies.
I love them so much!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Cars Birthday Party details

A few weeks ago we had a little birthday party for Wesley.
Since we moved the day before the party we wanted to keep things as easy as possible.
And with some simple decor, yummy food and good friends to celebrate with the party was a success.
Here are a few of the details from the party.

If you remember from the invitations Wesley wanted a Cars party.
Well it turns out all the Cars birthday party decor I thought would be super easy to find wasn't as awesome as I thought.
In fact it was all pretty cheesy so I decided to go my own route.

I covered the tables with the backside of some old wrapping paper and drew little roads on each table. I also added some cars on top for the kids to play with (which was a total hit!).

A little more hand drawn decoration.
That's the table for presents.
just in case anyone is confused :)

balloons hung upside down using fishing line=
easy. cute. party decor

I went with black and white balloons to stick with the racing theme (think checkered racing flag).
And I got the balloons at Target for only a couple bucks!

I also added some chalk art to spice things up a bit.
It's kind of hard to tell from the picture but I drew a car with a race track around the back yard.

And I added a few Happy Birthday messages as well.
I think I got a little chalk happy
but at least it was festive :)

Cupcakes with crushed oreos to look like dirt and a little race car for decoration.

My big birthday boy!
He was beaming as everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

He sure enjoyed his cupcake!

And opening his presents with lots of little helpers.

Happy Birthday Wesley!
We love you little man!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Best Buddies

Just like peanut butter and jelly,
spaghetti and meatballs,
or pizza and diet coke (is that just me?),
Mackenzie and Wesley are inseparable.
They do everything together.
The past couple days I have been snapping pictures for proof.
They are pretty much the cutest things ever.
Just take a look...

Wesley thinks Mackenzie is a pretty good pillow.
He was even petting her foot as they were watching the movie.

Here they are having a little M.M.A. match.
An all too common occurrence around here (all in good fun of course).
I'm surprised we don't go to the hospital a lot more.

Their current favorite outdoor activity...bounce ball races.
Notice the helmets.
My kids struggle with severe clumsy-itis.
I have no idea where they get it from.

Engaging in some very serious coloring.
In the last week they have gone from close to zero interest in coloring to doing it non stop.
I have to say I really, really like this new favorite activity.

Mackenzie rocking Wesley in their little kid rocking chair.

I walked into the room the other day to find both of them cuddled up in Madelyn's Bumbo seat.
precious.

Ah, they melt my heart!

I hope they stay best buddies forever.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Friday Randoms

Yay! It's Friday!
Here's a peek at our week through the lens of my camera phone.
Hope you guys had a great week!

My little ones have been really into coloring lately.

Like spend h.o.u.r.s. a day in coloring books and going through pages of stickers.

And having Mommy draw silly stick people for them.

We got to crash my parents timeshare in the desert for the weekend.
We had so much fun in the pool and on the water slide.
They definitely made the 105 degree weather more bearable.

This little girl keeps on growing.
Still can't believe she is 3 and a half months already!
I beat the hubby in a few games of Sequence.

Trying to fill his Daddy's sandals.

all smiles :)

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Tomato time!

How is it that homegrown tomatoes taste one million times better than the kind you get from the grocery store?
I just don't get it.

Since we don't have anyone to bum homegrown tomatoes off of we decided to grow some of our very own (what a novel idea, I know!).
We just planted a few winter tomatoes and I'm counting down the days until they are ready to eat.

Tomato planting helper #1

and #2.

Grow little plant, grow!


And tomatoes are just the beginning of our gardening adventures.
In a couple weeks we are going to be tackling a square foot garden of our own.
Stay tuned!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Hooded Towel Tutorial

My kids love hooded towels.
However my kids are giants.
They pretty much outgrew the hooded baby towels before they could walk.

Luckily hooded towels are the world's easiest thing to make.
And not only are they easy and fast
they are super cute and practical as well.
Just my kind of project :)

Oh and most importantly the kids love them!

Ready to get started?!

You will need:
-1 towel
-1 hand towel (or even a large washcloth would probably work)

I found these awesome vintage towels that were the perfect pair for this project.
Score!

Step 1:
Take your hand towel and fold it in half hamburger style. Cut along the fold.
*One hand towel will make 2 hoods :)

Step 2:
Take one of the halves of your hand towel and cut it to measure 12 inches in length.
(Do you see how I left the pretty finished edge and trimmed it to size on the edge that I had already cut when I cut it in half).

Step 3:
Pin the right (or good/front) sides together and sew along the top.
*The top should be the side you cut along.

Step 4:
Sew a small diagonal line across the back corner of the hood (the folded edge). This will make your hood a bit rounded.

Trim off the corner your just sewed across and flip right side out.

This is what the hood should look like when it is finished.

Step 5:
Lay your finished hood onto the center of your large towel, pin...

and sew down.

*I sewed the hood down on the front and the back to make sure it was extra secure.

See, wasn't that easy?!

Now try it on your little one

and enjoy!

Happy towel making!