Our House in the Middle of Our Street

I have *so* many trips to attend to on the old blog. I am now keeping most of my traveling records on my Instagram, but this geriatric website seems a permanent spot for some of the excitement. It's my goal to (this Christmas break) catch up on many years of travel!  This trip was a GSW to where our friend Ali was stationed - in Albuquerque, NM, along with some close-by Sante Fe adventures! We did 4 states, 2 national parks, a protected wilderness, did an international event, took horse rides in the desert, tore up Moab on a side-by-side, went to a million (?) museums, and had delicious New Mexican food.  Every single one of these photos, I believe, was from my friend Emily or Ali. The only one I took (I think?) was the picture OF them during sunrise at the Arch.  Nothing is in order, either! Just bear with me (wipes brow from 2022).  Day 1:  We drove to Sante Fe to visit Meow Wolf (WEIRD and I loved it), visited historical Sante Fe (the buildings are beautif...

view of Bellingham Bay from Boulevard Park Last week the kids and I spent an entire day in  Bellingham, WA, and mostly, we spent it at the beach near Boulevard Park . The sun was shining and there was blue blue blue everywhere! It was a warm day, but not horribly hot that you had to stay in the water. A cool breeze was blowing through and after we got our three or four errands done, I parked myself with a book on a bench, a picnic table, and then in the grass on my blanket while the kids played at the park, in the sand, and rested quietly while listening to me read aloud.  new sunnies! It was one of the best days we've had in awhile. I took them to Chipotle for lunch (a rare treat for us now that we don't live by one!), we had plenty of food and water for the entire afternoon, and aside from a bit of grumbling about sunscreen application, these kids had an absolute ball playing on the rocks, in the sand, and just enjoying the gorgeous view of the bay nearby. I...

This feels like it's my song. 

This year was a 'birthday party' year for Lukka, and it seemed he was able to stretch his birthday out over a couple of days pretty easily. Every other year, each child gets a birthday party, with family, and on the other year, they get a special date with mom and dad. Remember Ani's Paint Yourself Silly day? This was her off year. Next year she'll get a party, and we'll have to think about something Lukka would enjoy more one on one.  For his birthday this year, I sent out invites 3 weeks in advance to let family know we'd have a backyard bbq to celebrate. Almost everyone was able to come, the kids dug in the dirt and got messy (which they of course loved), and the adults were able to hang out for 2-3 hours and chit chat, in between mouthfuls of pulled pork, baked beans, cold fruit, chips, and finally some delicious gluten free chocolate cupcakes !  Each birthday, the kiddo gets 2 special dates along with a party or a 'date out'. Stefan cont...

This {moment} deserves an explanation. Yes that is my daughter. Yes she wanted a spider-man face. No, she has no idea who spider-man is... We went to a birthday party that had live entertainment along with awesome face painting, a magic show, and the most creative balloon animals I've ever seen. This was a fun way to celebrate a sweet boy that goes to our church! *** Join the fun and capture a moment from your week.

Remember when I had last call for this a bit ago? There were a number of things I did over the weekend, and here is just a small (minutely small) snippet of it. The rest I either didn't take pictures of, or can't because of the holiday coming up. Here's just a small taste of our weekend. *** We spend 24 hours together (about 15 women, 10 of which stay the night) at Roger's B&B, and craft til we drop (or realize it's time to go out to eat!). This year we had a great group of gals, mostly ladies who have always gone to it, with a few newbies. We worked all day and night until 5 of us decided to go to Blue Orchid for dinner. Yum. End of story. When we got back we resumed our craft stance until well into the night when I was the first one to go to bed at 11:30! Wake up at 7:30 and get ready for the day. Breakfast around 9 (another yum) was quiche, fruit + granola, juice, coffee, and a muffin. Just a few of us decided to stay after that until around 11 when the las...

A couple weekends ago, I helped throw a baby shower for a good friend. This shower was a bit more specific than your average shower--because the mom-in-honor already has 3 children! She is expecting her fourth, but recently moved to Lincoln and had never had a Grace baby shower. That had to be fixed! Since she has both genders already at home, she doesn't really need a lot of baby gear/clothing, but I feel that every baby should be celebrated, and so I had the idea to do a Diaper + Book shower . It was a really fun and the small crowd of good friends made it a good experience. I'll tell you a little bit about it and the crafts I did to give it a bit of an extra whimsical touch. I love hanging garlands or banners of any kind, but I had seen something similar to the above picture on Pinterest , and thought the pastel colors would really make a sweet entrance. All of the fabric I had gotten from a friend for free, and with the help of a friend (my co-host) J, we were able to make ...