Delish!!

Doug returned home to us on Thursday at 11am.  He came home on a red eye and hasn't quite recovered from his sleep deprivation.  He brought us some delicious desserts from his trip to LA!!

 They were heavenly!!!

Luke's bed broke a couple of weeks ago and he has been sleeping in it without one wall. 

So we broke out the Big Boy Bed for him and gave him his new bedspread yesterday.  He went around church all day today saying "I have a big boy bed now" to everyone.

Friday we put the top onto our Banquette.  Hope to be finished with this soon.

And lastly, Max, Mer and Jack had soccer games yesterday.  Jack knocked in 2 goals. He was so excited. He earned Ice cream for the whole family. And that's what's happening around here!
 

The Soccer Players

Soccer season has begun!!  That's where you will find us Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. We have three official players and one who thinks he's official.

Doug is coaching Mer's team, they won their first game and Mer drove in a sweet goal that popped over the goalie's head.  It's Jack's first season and he's super excited and running hard with the pack.

 

Max says Soccer is his sport.  He took a beating in his first game with a foul that sent him to the ground followed by a ball to the face.  He's tough though!

And Luke just loves the fact that he has a uniform and he keeps saying "maybe I'm 5 now" in hopes that he can go play on the team.

 Switching gears, here are a few things you missed last week.

• Jack celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday at school and thought he was going to Dr. Suess' Birthday party that night.  "Is he going to be there mom, he asked" Not sure how he got that idea in his head, but to ease his disappointment we celebrated with a quick cake decorated by the kids.

 

 Here he his is being Luke's cat

• Mer won 5th place in the Science Fair.  She tested Chemical vs. Organic Fertilizers on Cucumber plants.  She was so excited that she placed.
• Luke got new Flip Flops and he's totally in love with them.

And finally, Doug is out of town for the week.  He left Saturday and gets home Thursday.  Which is a little bit good cause I'm getting to sew a lot and have the computer all to myself, but bad because I'm not very good at getting myself in bed at night which means I'm staying up way too late.  Head on over to my sewing blog and see what I've been making.  I just finished up a bag for myself last night.  Miss you Doug!! XOXO

Kitchen Update!

We have a few new things to show on our kitchen.  Not completely done, but making progress.  This weekend I got the tile grouted and painted the wall as well.  Have a look.

For the back splash, all that's left is to seal it and caulk along the bottom of the tile where it meets the granite...So close! 

We painted the Red wall Gray...

I think it looks good, but what I really like is the way the gray looks with all my colorful fabrics on the other side.

The other exciting project in the works is a built in bench in our nook area.  We installed the face of it today.  Here's what it looks like so far...

It will provide some good storage I think!

Over and Out!

ABC, LUKE IS THREE

One week ago today, our little Luke turned 3...yes THREE!  Sadly he is growing up, Jack remarked to Doug yesterday... we don't have any more babies in our house... I think Doug is a little distraught at the thought. 

Let's pretend it's one week ago....Here's how we celebrated!



Of course we woke up and it was first things first... Presents!

Lightning McQueen lego...

 a sword from Max,

 A bike, a big bouncy ball, a  bat and ball...

And lots of cute new clothes...



including one from Aunt Liz that matches Max's

Of course the day was filled with playing, church (I had to give a talk that day), and more playing.  Luke chose his own dinner, Hot Dogs, Cheetos, and soda.

 He also chose his cake.  He wanted an "ABC cake with letters standing up and laying down all around."

 

It was yummy!!  I tried out a copycat Publix buttercream frosting (didn't add all the crisco though) It turned out delish!

 Happy Birthday Luke! We love you!!

Max's big weekend

Our life has been nonstop.  I know it's way past the weekend but Max had a few experiences this weekend that were especially noteworthy. First of all he participated in his first Pinewood Derby on Friday.


Here are the cars. Jack had to make one too, of course.  Max's is the one with the yellow sticker.

He won a few races, but mostly had a great time cheering on everyone else's cars. It was super exciting!

Saturday Max woke up bright and early to play his last Basketball game of the season.  He has been a bit of a slow starter in ball this year.  He never made a shot in a game all year but then Saturday, he sunk two of them.  It was such an exciting game.  They lost but only by two points and they really rallied together at the end to catch the other team. 

[The above description needs a little embellishment from a father's perspective.  Max had not scored all season long.  He has been working hard on his shot for the last month.  It was the 4th quarter of his last game.  Our team was down by 10 points with ~3 minutes left on the clock.  Max got the ball down low and put it up, it bounced around the rim and then dropped in.  Max ran back to play defense while trying to keep back his smile.  On one of the next few plays Max sunk his second shot.  By this time our team was closing the gap and the other team called time-out to put his first string players back in.  During the time-out I gave Max a high-five and then he requested to give me knuckles.  (That almost brought tears to my eyes.)  We lost the game but it was by far the most exciting game we played.]


Here he is getting his medal at the park afterward.

Probably the best part of the season was that he got to play on a team with his best friend Sam. 


And, that Doug and Sam's dad got to coach them.

So Basketball season is over and what did we do on Saturday night you may ask?  Why we went out and bought a basketball hoop for our driveway of course.  The taste of those two shots was so sweet, we have to start practicing for next year.

We're back!

Mer and I just got back from a quick trip to San Fransisco for a girls weekend with Aunt Lizzie.  We had so much fun. It was nice, happy, and relaxing.  Liz and John were wonderful hosts.  We dined, shopped at great stores, saw a few sites, and had a blast playing with George and Grace. 

This was the view in the back seat pretty much the whole weekend.

As tourists, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge...

...and ventured into Muir Woods to see the Redwoods. The largest ones are around 2000 years old

I've always wanted to see these big beauties in real life.

Next up, with no cupcake shop in our own home town we had to sample some cupcakes to see what we were missing.  First stop, Kara's Cupcakes ... the Coconut was my favorite... so creamy

And then for comparison sake (another day of course) we just had to try out the famous Sprinkles...Red Velvet won my vote as favorite... so dreamy.

 Next stop as a tourist was the Bell Tower on Stanford campus.  Stanford was beautiful.  It made me think a bit about my own college days.....

Love this picture!!!  These three are so cute.

Here they are dipping their toes in the nearby fountain.

For the Stanford trip Mer had the privilege of riding with John in his Convertible.  Seriously a dream come true for her...

 Here are a few other favorites...Liz and John live near a commuter train track and George covers his ears every train a train rumbles by.  So cute!

Mer enjoyed every minute playing with these two.

We arrived home about 11:30 last night and got up bright and early, business as usual this morning.  Mer had to go to school to turn in her science fair project, and it was Valentine's day... so much to do.

Tonight we Celebrated, exchanging cards and chocolates!!

A special THANKS!! to the Balena Family for our wonderful weekend, you made our dreams come true.   Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Good night!