Gwen's 3rd Birthday

We had an eventful day!  My baby girl turned three yesterday.  This first photo is a birthday gift from Uncle Preston.  This peacock grew feathers when you sat it in water.  It's fabulous!

My kitchen funnels turned into trumpets.

Ah... the face of an angel.

Running in the sprinkler.

My sweetie peetie.

Taking a swing at the pinata.

after Gwen threw a fit at seeing the other kids get turns at hitting the pinata we all decided we'd better pull the ribbons and fast.

Opening presents.

and after everyone had left and naps were over... the kids went out again to enjoy the water again... except this time, in their birthday suits.

More

Today I went to Home Goods to get a butter dish cause mine has finally bitten the dust and I came out with glasses.  Oh well.  I love these glasses!  They say on there authentic glass 100% recycled.  I love it.

Zeke and Gwen ate one of the cookies on a stick today and approved of them.

Cooks

Last night I made cookies on sticks for take home gifts for Gwen's party.  They are pretty neat and I'll show you the finished product later.

Gwen went to a VBS (Vacation Bible School) down the street this week and the theme was "Stir it up".  She didn't have a good day on Monday so she begged me not to go on Tuesday and so she didn't.  I convinced her to give it another try on Wednesday and I was so worried about her only to arrive and she had this chef's hat on, apron, and holding a raccoon with a chef's hat also and singing waving her arms.  She had a great time!  It almost made me cry.  She'll be three on Friday... wow! 

Little Things Make Me Happy

A couple of things that made me happy today.  I got a free little picket fence holder from someone, I had the styrofoam cube from my friend, and I had the construction paper for the grass and I bought the long suckers today as take home gifts for Gwen's birthday party.  You can't really see in the picture, but the suckers are watermelon slices.  I plan on making chocolate chip cookies on sticks also, but I kind of like the long sticks and watermelon slices in there.  It makes me happy OK?

Another thing that has made me very happy in the last few months is this little framed footprint of Zeke's feet when he was two months.  I had it laying around and I thought... I'm going to frame it and I just LOVE looking at them.  When I'm having a frustrating moment I look at these little tiny feet and it makes me happy.

Now in case you are wondering... I'm toying with making a t-shirt blanket and also getting a frame for my peep hole on my door.  More on that another day.  What makes YOU happy?

Omaha Trip

Ben and I got away to Omaha, Nebraska without kids this weekend.  We had such a great time!  Omaha is a very family oriented city and not too big.  One thing I noticed is that almost everyone in Omaha has tattoos.  We stayed in the Old Market area downtown so we didn't drive the whole weekend.  It was lovely.

Here we are after renting a couple of bikes.  We had a nice bike ride over the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Missouri river.

Ben and his crepes one morning for breakfast.  He could not eat all of this, but they were delicious.

We went to the farmer's market to look around.

One Asian lady was selling these flowers.  I loved them and asked her what they were.  She said "love in the mist."  Interesting.

Omaha has street trash cans that have recycling on one side and trash on the other... love it!

We went to the zoo while we were there.  Here are a few of my favorite shots.

I learned a group of jellyfish are called a "smack".  How are these even animals?  They are gorgeous!

A stonefish blending in.

a blue hummingbird.

Us in the rainforest under a waterfall.

One of my absolute favs... silverback (adult male) gorillas. 

Old Market passageway.  We ate dinner here after the zoo.  Lovely.

slides in a park.

We went to a diner one morning for breakfast.  It was run by an Asian family.

It had a working jukebox and Ben chose "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and I chose "I Fall To Pieces" by Patsy Cline.

Success

Success at Any Age:
4 – not wetting your pants
12 – having friends
16 – having a driver’s license
25 – being intimate with your spouse
35 – having money
50 – having money
60 – being intimate with your spouse
70 – having a driver’s license
80 – having friends
90 – not wetting your pants

Little Things

I found this egg under a tree yesterday hatched.  It made me smile.  And yes, we have a tiny little wagon to tote it in. 

Zeke fitting into the tight spots.  He's still little to me.

Big Friend, Little Friend

 We have a book with this fold tale in it.  I love it and reminds me it is wise to be friends with everyone.

One day Lion closed his eyes.  He wanted to fall asleep.  Then, Mouse came by.  Lion heard Mouse and woke up.  Lion glared at Mouse.  Then he grabbed him.  Mouse began to shake.  He didn't want to fall.  "Great Lion, let me go!" said Mouse. 

"Why should I let you go?" asked Lion.  Mouse said, "I am a little mouse.  But I can be a good friend to you."  "How could a little mouse be my friend?" asked Lion.  "You will see," said Mouse.  "Ha!  Ha!  Ha!" said Lion.  "You can go.  You made me happy today."

Many days passed.  Then one day Mouse heard a great and scary roar.  "Is that my friend?" asked Mouse.  "Did something happen to Lion?"  Mouse ran in haste.  Before long, Mouse saw what had happened.  Lion was in a big net.  "I will help you," Mouse told Lion.  "How can you help?" asked Lion.  "You are so little."  "I can help," said Mouse.  "Don't move," he told Lion.  Mouse began to nibble at the net.  He made a little hole.  Before long, the hold got bigger and bigger.  Soon Lion was free.

Lion was so happy.  "Hop on my back," he told Mouse.  "We will ride together."  That day, Lion and Mouse became friends.  They are still good friends today. 

The Cutting of the Trees

We went to Serb Fest on Saturday and I thought I had more pictures, but I guess they didn't take.  We had Serbian food and listened to Serbian music and Zeke tried to kiss this little girl.  He was determined.  It made us laugh.  Here he is leaning in for the kiss.

Ben single handedly chopped down two trees in our back yard.  I'd like to put two more planters there for gardening.  It's a good thing we chopped them down as they were half rotten on the inside.

Lately

It's summer time here and so we are outside a lot these days.  Sprinklers, baby pools, swingsets and trampolines are our companions when it's not raining.  Today we visited a new park.  There are some gorgeous parks in the area and I've been going to the same ok ones.  Little did I know!  By the way, this park today had a sand box and I've decided DEFINITELY NOT to put sand in our back yard.  :)

and I told my mom I'd send her a picture of my newest project, but why not just show all of you.  My friend, Janna, gave me this kit that you make tiles and you are supposed to transfer a photograph onto them.  I decided to choose a stamp I liked and stamped them instead.  I think they turned out pretty well.  What projects are you doing?  I've added bell pepper and dill to my back yard garden and Ben's bamboo is now taller than our fence.  

Homemade Vanilla Coffee Creamer

This is a wonderful way to use your homemade vanilla extract.  The store bought kind is plenty good tasting, but has oil and other scarey ingredients.  I'm going to give this one a whirl and let you know what I think.

1 C half and half or heavy cream
1 1/2 C milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 T vanilla extract or whatever flavor you like
Put in a quart sized jar and shake

Stays good for two weeks in the fridge.  Cheers! (or "ching" in our house)