Cut, cook and cutie pie

Updated "do"

Another of my hairdressers has left the shop that I go to. My hair grows quite slowly so I only get it cut about every 10-12 weeks. I let the stylist have a hand in deciding what it looks like. I figure they know what their doing. The one I went to this week had both sides of her head shaved to about a quarter inch and had a red stenciled heart on her purple tinted stubble.

But once again, I'm not disappointed. It is really short on one side and longer on the other. Asymmetrical works for me. And it's great if I can find only one earring!

Henry has a big boy kitchen

Henry mentioned that he'd like to play with Garrett's kitchen. I'm sure the feeling is mutual. It would be fun to have Gar-bear co-cooking with Hens. Henry knows a lot more about kitchen safety than Gar at this point. Look, he's using an oven mitt. Garrett just puts things into our oven. I found his sippy cup in there recently.

My honey bunch, sugar plum,

pumpy-umpy-umpkin!

We sure love this little sweetie pie!

You're my honey bunch,
sugar plum,
pumpie umpy umpkin...
you're my sweetie pie.
You're my cuppy cake,
gum drop,
snookum snookums
you're...
the apple of my eye!

Early b'day dinner

Birthday + married kid = double date night

Courtney and Charlie being their silly selves. Given that Charles only has weekends free, we had to have the birthday outing for Courtney a few days early. After much deliberation and input from some of our other adult kids via multiple text messages, Courtney chose Gustav's for her birthday dinner. Har and I love going there so it was fun for us too.

Birthday girl's choice

This was one of the entrees on the Valentine specialty menu. Crab stuffed chicken with a fancy German name. After having fondue, and wanting to save room for dessert, most of this lovely food was taken to go.

Charles, Har and I had great dishes too!

Desserts!

Two more days as a teenager

Happy Early Birthday COURTNEY!!!

Has it been twenty years since we spent Valentine's Day at Providence Hospital waiting for our baby girl to arrive?

I remember it like it was yesterday. Our nephew, Quentin, was watching our other 5 kids that day. In thinking back on that time in our life it was interesting that we saw a family of 7 at Gustav's last night. The woman was pregnant with #6. The oldest child with them was a boy followed by 4 girls. I didn't want to intrude on their evening but was curious as to whether they were having a boy or a girl. Each of the girls had an obviously handmade poncho on. Very fun to see. I wonder if we were looked at with curiosity when we were out with our bunch back in the day.

Garrett and his goofiness

Krystle's mini Super Hero!

He got my camera out of my purse and said "cheese" and pointed to his teeth.

Someone got into my dark chocolate truffles.

Looks like he's working on his own version of a soul patch.

New experiences on Pizza Night

Garrett in the kitchen

I've been looking for toddler toys that will keep this little boy occupied for more than a few seconds. He saw this on the clearance table at Freddies and started pushing buttons and flipping switches. I found my something to distract and teach him things. Best money I've spent in recent weeks.

New item at Papa Murphy's

Papa Murphy's now carries small individual pizzas. They are geared toward kids making their own pie.

After picking them up I can see that they would be perfect for a kid's birthday party. These kids had a great time building theirs.

"We are chefs!"

Danika made the above announcement as she opened the box and started following my instructions. Krystle helped Garrett but even he could do most of the patting, spreading and sprinkling with minor supervision.

Out of the oven and ready to eat

Each of the kids was thrilled with their creations. They mostly managed to eat the whole thing as well. Garrett ate about half of his crust and all of his toppings but he seemed to do better with this than he usually does with the pieces of "big people" pizza that I cut up for him.

We will be doing this again!

Simply loverly

Another redo of my floral arrangement

I bought a wonderful bouquet at Safeway and snipped and placed the flowers into the floral foam. The result was another beautiful arrangement for us to enjoy. It is back up on the mantle by the only Valentine's decorations we have in the house this year.

Can you say "eclectic"?

Danika dressed herself for school. I was cool with her choices. Sometimes I am not. She had fun and but it was pretty funky. I believe that the glasses made the outfit. Stylin'!

Kettleman Bagels

One of the few things I miss about not driving to the west side to drop kids off at school is the occasional stop I'd make at Sunrise Bagels. It was such a nice place. I wish we had one on this side of town. I even mentioned it to the owner at one point. Hinted that he should move into the old Bibo location that was most recently Noodles and Co. It would be ideal... or would have been. Just about that time a Kettleman's Bagels came in on NE 22nd and Broadway.

Today was the first time I've been there. It had good bagels, but the clerk was a bit brusk. Having never been there before I guess I wasn't making decisions fast enough. Next time, if there is one, I will go in, find a table, sit, and peruse the giant menu on the wall that wasn't evident when I walked in this morning, as it is on the same wall as the entrance. I will then decide what I want, make my order and enjoy the lovely view of the street through the enormous windows.

Both the cheese with cream cheese and the blueberry with cream cheese had a bit too much cream cheese for Courtney and my liking but the bagels themselves were tasty.

Garrett loved the window sill that was wide enough for him to sit on and scoot from one side of the booth to the other along it.

I felt a bit like Eliza Doolittle

It's primrose season! The displays at Fred Meyer were so gorgeous. I love the variety that resembles a hibiscus crossed with a rose. So lovely. They had plenty of the traditional kind too.

The Postman only rang once

We have a doorbell again! It rang and I found a package from my mother!!! I loved all of the stamps she put on there.

She bought me a new pair of shoes. They are super fancy walking shoes. Though according to the box they can be used for running. I don't think I've ever actually run in my life.

I will attempt to achieve a "new balance" in my life. But I don't think I can promise to "Love RUNNING more". Perhaps we can compromise to having me "dislike running less".

Who knows I may end up being a runner one of these years.

For now I'll be a fancy walker with my new shoes.

Thanks MOM!!!

Preschoolers are cool

A megadose of cuteness

All of the photos of Katie, Evie and Rowan have been provided by my wonderful sister Kelly not to be confused with my other wonderful sister Kara. They both are amazing! Miss Kate was pleading to go to the park. So to the park they went yesterday afternoon.

Katie loves being outside. No matter what the weather. Rowan is an outdoorsman too and is in his element at a playground like this one.

I was thrilled to see a picture of Alyssa and Evie taken there as well. Everyone looks so happy! :D

Word on the street

As Danika and I climbed these steps up to her school this morning, she turned to me and asked, "What's the word on the street?" At first I didn't know what she was taking about. That phrase doesn't usually come out of the mouth of a pre-schooler. Turning around I looked down and saw this.

The words on the street were "NO PARKING". I told her, and her eyes got big and she said,

"We parked!"

As long as we didn't park on the words we're just fine.

Sometimes that girl makes me chuckle.

My random wonderings

How long ago was this hedge planted? And... How many times was it pruned to have it grow this dense and hugged up so closely to this tree? It is not growing on the tree; the roots are in the soil' but the branches have conformed to the shape of the trunk. It looked kinda cool.

I've turned into a coffee snob

I went through the drive through at Burger King this morning for breakfast. Their cup of coffee was literally one cup. 8oz of really nasty coffee. Not only am I a coffee snob but I've also fallen prey to the "super size me" generation. I love my 16oz decaf nonfat lattes when I can get one. It didn't dawn on me, until comparing it to the BK cup, that they are twice the size of a "normal" cup of coffee.

I had to get creative and make my own sippy cup for Garrett's milk. It worked great. With a little supervision he managed not to spill.

The new words on the street

Love!

It's February after all.

all my ~ LOVE ~always!

It's like the before and after category on "Wheel of Fortune!"

I love that show!