Life Lately...Birthdays and Such

Life is busy as always. This month we celebrated Riley's 8th birthday. We had a party for his friends at our local skating rink...or ring? I don't know. I call it a rink but it is listed as a ring. Go figure. I have found out that yes, I can still skate and yes, I need to practice more to feel more sure of myself out on the floor. Riley is learning and he is doing well for this to only be his third time on eight tiny wheels. We had Baymax cupcakes for his friends party!

Then we had a low key party at the house for just the family a couple of weeks later. I had to have it early...like right after school at 3pm...so some family members were still at work. Poo! But I had to squeeze the party in before I dropped him off with his dad for another round of birthday fun on that side of the family! Woowee! He probably has had enough cake to sink a ship. This time the theme was Pete the Cat! We LOVE PETE!

We surprised the little guy in the end with a zipline. He loved it! I gave it a whirl too. Pretty fun I must say.

In other news, little guy got his pilot wings at Awana. Proud proud proud.

We took in our first Asheville Tourist baseball game of the season last week. I mindlessly nibbled on Cracker Jack's which I don't even like. That's what happens at a baseball game. You just gotta munch.

I saw rainbow after rainbow this week! Finally got to use that darn rainbow emoji!

I'll leave you with this awesome video I shot of Princess Josie

Life Lately: Kids & Stuff

Hey there everyone! Sorry for the long pause in blogging. I've been having some blah days and then I've been having some busy days. Some days I get the outfit photo taken but never get around to getting it posted. Other days, I clearly have no motivation. A couple days were full of rain and what I was wearing consisted of these rain boots and a boring raincoat. Fashion runway let me tell ya!

But really the main question for today is can there be anyone better dressed for the rain than my niece?!

Of course my son needs a photo with the star of the hour

The ever-so-frustrating-for-parents school fundraising has commenced and just my luck they are awarding kids these monkeys on lanyards for every 2 items that they sell. You sell 2 items, you get a monkey. Allll the kids at school have tons of monkeys mom! So here I go to grandpa, grandma....pleading to help with monkeys. Here he is with his first one, cool dude monkey.

Which is a much happier face than the one he had on the first day of school:

The enthusiasm! WOW!

Life Lately: Bubbles

Blowing bubbles....all well and good until I've blown so many I start getting light headed. Here's a solution. And I cannot take credit for this one - heard it from a girl I used to work with. Brilliant!

Hold it over the air conditioner unit and let the blowing begin. Whew. Mommy doesn't pass out today.

Life Lately: Fun Times To Be Had

We have been volunteering at the Community Garden down the road. It has been really rewarding. I have learned a lot about gardening, plants, and how to harvest. The master gardener always lets us come home with a little bit. I don't like to take too much. We are so blessed and are definitely not in need like others. I need to get some more photos of the garden but there is no easy way to lug my huge camera. I don't have a fancy smart phone...yet. I'm fighting it off until the bitter end. I will have to go back on an off day when I'm not covered in mud and sweat and snap some photos. It's really a beautiful spot. I am so glad that families and people in need get super fresh food on a regular basis from this wonderful garden. Part of the garden is rented lots too but each renter must donate 10% of their harvest.

After the garden we usually head straight to the pool because we are sweaty and exhausted.

I love love love the view of the mountains from our little community pool. It's so calming.

Life Lately: First Timer's Club

Welcome, Riley, to the joy of riding a bike...and the road rash that will follow soon whenever you feel cool enough to ride down that really big hill and try to fit between two trees and hit one of the trees face on. Well, at least that's what your mom did.

Teaching Riley how to ride a bike has me dragging my bike out more, which conjures up lots of moments of fun. 

Riley's 6th Birthday

We celebrated my son's 6th birthday last week. He had his official party on Saturday but his birthday was actually on Wednesday. I made him a little cake in the shape of Kipper, one of his favorite book/cartoon characters, and gave him his gifts from us. Then Saturday the rest of the family came and his friends from school. That was at Chuck E. Cheese which, my friend, is the loudest place on earth. And possibly the best place for a kid to go cray cray.

The little "at-home" party

A bike, NintendoDS Legos game, bubble tape, a ring pop and the cutest little card with a puppet pig



The version of the Kipper cake I found online and then my version:

Not as good as the original but I was happy with it! I had to come home on my lunch break on Wednesday to do it because I wanted him to be surprised when we got home that night. I bought 2 vanilla cake mixes and 2 cans of white icing. One cake I did in a 9 x 13 pan and then the other cake mix I put in 2 8" round cake pans. I freehanded cutting the head out of the 9 x 13 and then I cut the ears out of one of the round cake pans. I found out that you can hide a multitude of sins with icing. Hey...that might be a motto for life....Anyway! I mixed up orange with red and yellow food coloring and then I "tried" to make black but it continued to come out a dark gray. I just went with it. I added the sprinkles to his mouth and nose to kind of seem like whiskers. Then last night when we were watching Kipper I noticed his ears were brown! Ha! I wasn't really tempted to graze on this cake for days while it sat around because it wasn't chocolate! Yay!

On Saturday he got a much needed haircut and then he rocked it out at Chuck E Cheese with his friends from school. He had a blast. Slightly obnoxious for parents but the kids ate.it.up.

The ticket blaster with his best friend

All in all - a great day for everyone. The best part - I didn't have to clean up!!! YAY!!

Bits of Love

Me on the left, my son on the right. Yes, I realize I sent my kid to preschool with that "haircut". And I also realize that someone dressed me like a boy for a photo shoot. Thanks mom :)

the rest of the nails, while they lasted...and part of a cat. This manicure didn't last long. I couldn't stop picking at the hearts. I popped them all of in church.
 Ah well.

Saturday Haircuts Girl

Sweater: Royal Robbins, Dress: Thrifted, Tights: Modcloth, Socks: Kmart, Mocs: Minnetonka

An easy going Saturday afternoon outfit with lots of layers for a chilly wind but warm sunshine. My little boy and I went to see Wreck-It-Ralph around lunchtime and then we grabbed some frozen yogurt afterwards. The yogurt treat was just a ploy to get him to get a haircut. I don't know why he hates it so much - he ends up doing really well. I miss when his head used to be full of blonde curls.

Life Lately

 I don't really like this manicure. Toothpicks are not working for me to make straight lines. I need a fine brush. This ended up looking like Team USA gymnastics uniform. FAIL.

On a woolier note,

Fall is here!

And my 5 year old brought this home

If you have on your deciphering glasses you can tell that says I go to the school. Or I pity the po fool. Or I pot to the stool.

I'm just so dang proud of him whatever he wrote.