Pirate Birthday Party...

If you bake a cake, you should have a party.
For anyone.
Even pirates have birthdays... right?

Go all out!
Invite the whole neighborhood... I've heard they don't eat much!

A real candle to make it official...

Pirates are pretty rude so he might not send hand written Thank You notes.
But a verbal "thank you" should suffice!

Check out more Wordless Wednesdays at Angry Julie Monday and here.

Get some Green in your house... quick!

In case you didn't get the memo, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.

If you haven't adorned you home is shamrocks there is still time :)

Make this adorable shamrock garland in minutes:

She's Crafty - Shamrock Garland from Kara Noel Lawson on Vimeo.

(you can see my belly getting bigger!! I'm 24 weeks preggers!)

I'll be making the traditional corn beef for dinner and I'll do a drop of green food coloring in our Martinelli’s. Dessert = green cupcakes.

One of my friend's family traditions is to have green pancakes!

Any other fun family traditions?

Please share!

Wish it was a Taga ride...

Confession: I'm kinda a lazy gal. If I can get more than one thing done at the same time, I'll do it!!
We had a wagon walk with 3 objectives:
#1 Get the kiddos out. (Cabin fever from the two days of rain... we are so weather spoiled in the OC!)
#2 Errands at the grocery store.
#3 Exercise for mommy.


 Objective #1 Get kiddos out - COMPLETE!
Kiddos were out and running. We climbed and played and got sufficiently worn out for naps. (Also, a little too worn out for a "pleasant" shopping experience... more below.)
Eli always picks me flowers. I can't wait to give him to his lovely bride someday. If he is anything like his daddy (and he will be) he's gonna be the best hubby ever!

Objective #2 Errands - Complete. But with casualties...
We did make it to the store. But I kept knocking down displays with my hard-to-maneuver wagon and the kiddos kept hopping out to climb on the patio furniture. At one point, unbeknownst to me, Cora Jane was standing in the wagon and I gave it a firm tug.
She ate it! 
Then screamed the whole rest of the shopping trip. Not fun.

Objective #3 Exercise- INCOMPLETE! Arrgggg!
Since we played and walked at about .3 MPH there was no exercise for mommy. I probably did burn calories in the store trying to get everything as fast as possible with Cora Jane screaming. BUT that was counterproductive because the stress/embarrassment probably took a couple of years off my life expectancy!

The whole ordeal trip took over an hour.
I'm sure it didn't help much that I had seen this little ditty at the Silicon Valley Moms Group event a week ago...

This sucker (aka Taga bike) converts from a bike (double seat is optional!!) to a stroller in seconds. 

REALLY! 

I did it.

Here is a picture of the lovely Carla Duharte Razura of Baby JJ Design riding on one and the pic she took of me while riding... 

Can you imagine?

I'm riding my Taga.

The kiddos would have had the wind in their hair.

We could stop off now and then for some nature fun.

I could convert that thing to a stroller when we got into the store. 
(STRAPPED IN!!!)

Quick in and out. (FYI - there is ample room for shopping goodies in the bottom of that thing!)

Then maybe off to the lake for a few calorie burning laps before heading home.

I could even use this for the too-far-to-walk-but-still-super-close-to-home trips.

You know the kind... It takes longer to load/unload/load/unload the kiddos than it takes to drive there!!

Sigh...

Too bad I was just imagining.

I want one!

Don't you??

Follow them on Facebook here to get all the details.

Mini Cookies

In the midst of rain and tornados (in the OC!) a mom needs to think of something fun to do.

(There is only so much Hi Ho Cherry-O a person can play in one day.)

Make cookies!

With a "little" twist.

Miniaturize them!

They are tasty.
And your kiddos will get a kick out of it.
See...

Plus you can eat like 10 and it doesn't feel so bad because they are so teeny tiny!

Lids on a Puddle Hunt

When it rains out here we like to bundle up and go on a...

You'll need...

...and of course you have to take a...

We didn't find many puddles.

But we looked great!

(I'm adding this to a great Carnival I found over at Good, True Beautiful about our JOY. Add yours here.)

Tea Party?

We were sick a couple of weeks ago and had to get creative with our indoor fun.
I hosted a tea party...Step 1:
Make tea.
(I put a drop of food coloring in Sprite... a different color for the sugar and cream)

Step 2:Ignore the messy house...

Step 3:

Be sure everyone is dressed up (PJs or no pants) and that you take turns hosting (pouring every one's tea).

Step 4:

ENJOY! (FYI - These pictures will be saved to show all of Eli's future girlfriends!)

Smores in the Fireplace...

One of the great things about being a mom (and dad) is that you are the boss of your own house.
So, if you want to be super cool (and who doesn't) you should make smores in the fireplace...
(or on the gas stove top if you don't have a fireplace!)

It takes Hot Hubby about 10 minutes to roast the perfect smore.

Weak.

I can make and eat 3 in that time span.

Visit She's Crafty (my alter ego) for some awesome Thanksgiving Crafts!!

Autumn + Dinner = Candlelight

Dinner in brisk Autumn weather means candlelight in our home!

I'm carrying on the candlelight dinner tradition from my magical childhood.

Don't forget to enter all our current Birthday Bash giveaways...

...Messy Bow from Joy's Hope here Ends 10/16

...Custom Header/Button combo from Design Chicky here. Ends 10/17

...Pillowcase surprise in the mail for 6 months(you have to read about it to get it) here. Ends 10/20

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For more Wordful Wednesday go here!

Eli is 3 today!

3 years ago today I birthed a blue conehead zombie troll with no neck and squinty eyes.

He had a face only a mother could love.

<<---And I did!

Still do!--->>>

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Eli's gifties: awesome books and an easel.

He wanted a rocket.

We drew one on his easel.

Eli loves Blues Clues.

Oddly enough Blue came to our house in the night and left a Handy Dandy Notebook and a note. All the clues were fun things we did before his first day of preschool!

Go here to get the graphics to make your own Notebook and clues.

Here is his birthday note.
The 1st clue was on his preschool backpack. And the backpack was filled with new books (Eli is a book worm!)
The 2nd clue was on his new easel.

The 3rd clue was on the waffle mix to make chocolate chip waffles with Daddy (who stayed home from the office).

Eli can write his name. The preschool teacher told us how impressive that was.

And we were like "His name is ELI... not that hard. I mean the "l" and the "i" are basically just two lines."

She looked at us funny..

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Then we headed out to preschool.

It was Parent orientation.

I have the first snack duty for the class... so you know I'm going to rock the snack and set the bar super high. I'm going to be the obnoxious mom who does birthday favors for the class.

When a Box is Not "Just" a Box

Remember when Eli "helped" me get out all the foil and I had loads of foil to get rid of?

One of our great foil creations was this rocket ship...It's had a bit of wear and tear since we made it but it is endless hours (minutes) of F-U-N!

Be sure to draw loads of controls and buttons for more make believe realism (LOL)!

Click here to print out the controls I made.

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We have had more fun playing in this box that is so much more than a box.

The kiddos just keep adding scribbles.

I just keep counting down from 10.

Wanna see when Marcy's son (from the Glamorous Life Association the host of yesterday's giveaway) made a box into so much more than a box. Click here.

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Don't forget to enter to win...

...a Rock n' Roll Lid and an iPod shuffle here!

...a vintage inspired cartoon tee shirt here!

See the full list of giveaways coming the next 2 months here!