Anyone want to guess where Alethea fell asleep tonight?
I’ll give you a hint….
It wasn’t in her bed.
But it was in something.
Something that was in the hallway…
… with laundry in it…
*sigh*
I just don’t get it. That can’t be comfortable.
Memorial Day Weekend 2012
My baby sister graduated from college. Where does the time go?
Long pants in 90 degree weather? Check. Shirt on backwards? Check. Wearing Mom’s flip flops just because they have polka dots, even though she can’t walk in them? Check. Backpack on back that contains a toy baby bottle, a hair brush and a pair of bedroom slippers? Check. Let Mom or Dad talk her out of any of that? Absolutely-completely-utterly-unthinkable.
Walked into Lowe’s to find concrete stain for our front porch facelift. Found the exact product in the exact color we needed on the mistint shelf for $4. Uh-huh. That’s right. Score one for the home team.
How do you know when it’s time to harvest your rhubarb? Not really sure, but figured if it was twice as tall as my 16 month old, it was big enough. Looks like I’ll be whipping up some cherry rhubarb jam this week.
Spent a lot of time outdoors this weekend communing with nature and working on the yard. Saw lots of birds, a fat brown toad, some fairly large spiders, way too many mosquitoes, and this cute little guy who had found a crevice in one of our boulders to hide in. Alethea wanted to pet him, but insisted that she put on her gardening gloves first.
Hope you all had a great weekend too!
Guess what everyone! We are getting a new couch! I am so pumped, and here’s why…
When Peter and I bought our house in November of 2008, it meant we were moving from a little cabin in the woods to a two story suburban home. In terms of square feet, we tripled our living space. So when we decided to put our green couch and love seat in the basement family room upon moving in, we were left with zero furniture for our first floor living room. And I do mean zero furniture. Not a couch or a chair or a rug or a lamp or an end table was in sight. We just had a TV, which we watched while sitting on kitchen chairs. Not good for snuggling. So we went shopping.
I found an old trunk on Craigslist that we turned into a coffee table, we nabbed an area rug at Home Depot and then took a trip to the Slumberland Clearance center where we acquired a couch, chair and end table. (If Peter were writing this post he would tell you all about how I had the poor sales guy carrying pieces of furniture around the store to see how they looked next to each other, but Peter isn’t writing this post, so we’ll skip it. But if you ever hear him refer to the “Slumberland Incident” you’ll know what he’s talking about.) So in a few weeks we went from this much furniture…
To (about) this much…
The picture above is actually about 11 months after we moved in, during which time we added several things (console table, stuff on the mantle, etc.) but all the major pieces were in place after just a couple weeks of living in our house.
Here’s what our couch looked like from the front:
Now we knew when we bought one of the cheapest couch models available that we would want to eventually replace it once we had more time for shopping and money in our budget. We were crossing our fingers that we’d like the couch for 5-7 years. Well, it’s only been four and a half, but we’re calling that ‘close enough’. Peter thinks the couch is terribly uncomfortable. He’s been talking about replacing it for at least a year now. I don’t think it’s as bad as he does, but my sister is getting married and needs furniture for their new place. What’s that old saying? When opportunity knocks… you give away the couch. Yeah, something like that.
So last weekend we went couch shopping again. Our goal was to find a couch with the following features:
– super duper comfortable
– similar overall size to our current couch
– bigger seating area (i.e. smaller arms) than what we have now
– clean lined, but not ultra modern
– made in the USA
– built to last 20+ years
We went to a furniture gallery in Minneapolis and quickly fell in love with a manufacturer (Lee Industries) and a fabric (a heavy 100% cotton with a subtle basket weave texture, in a putty color). But since this is me and Peter we are talking about, you had to have already guessed the one thing we couldn’t agree on. That’s right… style!
To help us sort it out I put together an idea board for our living room. This first one shows my couch choice (pictured in a linen fabric, not the cotton we like):
And this is the same board with Peter’s choice (again, not in the fabric we chose):
Peter’s biggest objections to my choice were that it is two inches shallower than his (possibly making it less comfortable) and that he didn’t like the ‘swooping arms’. My objection to his choice was that it was just too boxy for the slightly ornate rug that it would be sitting on. We sat on the decision for a few days and it was beginning to look like we might just keep our current couch after all, when Peter came up with a compromise. He said he would let me have final say on the living room couch if he got final say when it came time to replace the family room couch. And while I am loathe to give up an ounce of decorative control in my house, I had to acknowledge the fairness of the offer, and I took it.
So, we will be getting my couch for the living room. (Picture me doing a Rocky-style victory dance around my house.) Now we just have to finalize the order and wait eight to ten weeks for delivery. Eight to ten weeks… uggg! But they say you can’t rush perfection, so I will sit on pins and needles and pray that it really will be perfect. Because if it’s not, I’ll never hear the end of it.
Oh the suspense!
Our weekend was sort of insane, but so much fun. I feel a bit like I’ve just completed a marathon. I mean, not that I’ve ever come close to running that far. I know, I know, my runner’s physique had you all fooled, but I really am tired. In the 48 hours between Friday and Sunday evening we squeezed in: a bonfire 30th birthday party for Peter, my piano studio student recital, shopping for Mother’s Day gifts, a little work on our front porch sprucing up project, a second bonfire (this time with some neighbors), a Sunday morning church service, hosting Mother’s Day brunch/Peter’s family birthday party, some much needed Sunday afternoon naps and finally, a trip to the playground with the girls.
Since I was busy running around like a chicken with her head cut off, I didn’t get too many pictures from the weekend, but here are the best of the few that I did take:
They are building a new house just a few lots down from ours. Lots of dust around here lately, so Saturday afternoon I moved the porch furniture to the front lawn to spray it with the hose and give it a good wipe down. It looked so inviting sitting there in front of The Bean that I just had to take a picture. I’d like to tell you that I then proceeded to grab a glass of lemonade and a good book and sit for a nice long while, but alas, that did not happen. Instead, my photo shoot was pleasantly interrupted by this little lady who wanted some attention…
I just love taking pictures of my girls. Can you believe Lydia climbed up into the chair all by herself? She totally surprised me with that one. I know it’s such a cliche thing to say, but they really do grow up too fast.
Friday afternoon I was contemplating the best way to serve s’mores at Peter’s party, when the most brilliant plan occurred to me. (Okay, so it’s not like I managed to invade Troy in a large wooden horse, but I think this idea is a pretty good one too.) I’ve had this old 7up bottle crate from my grandmother’s basement sitting in my garage for a while now and it turns out it makes the perfect s’more tray. Toss the marshmallows into clear cups, cut the top couple inches off the plastic graham cracker sleeve, throw them each into a square along with assorted chocolate bars and you’ve got yourself a cute, organized and easy to carry to the fire s’more buffet!
And last but certainly not least, I had to share this picture of Alethea helping Peter blow out his birthday candles. It just melts my heart!
Happy belated Mother’s Day to all you moms out there! Hope your day was great!
Today we’re having perfect weather, 67 degrees, light breeze and a wide blue cloudless sky as far as the eye can see. Ahhhhh!
Time to head outside and enjoy the goodie bags from Alethea’s party…
Hope your day was perfect too!
Last Saturday was Alethea’s long awaited third birthday party. As requested by the birthday girl, I decorated with a bumble bee theme.
Here’s how the cake table turned out:
A friend of mine made these beautiful cupcakes for the party. They were amazingly delicious and made for a cute display on the tiered tray I borrowed from her, wrapped with ribbons and topped with a bee I cut out of one of the dessert plates.
Alethea made the coated pretzels herself using some pretzel rods dipped into yellow dyed almond bark. She did such a good job that every last one of them was gone by the end of the party.
I put together a photo display on the console table behind the couch in the living room highlighting a few of my favorite Alethea moments from this past year.
Peter rolled his eyes when he saw me wrapping the silverware. A little over the top? Maybe, but I’m justifying it by imagining that it made it just a tad easier for everyone filling their plates.
I couldn’t resist getting Alethea this bumblebee pillowcase dress I found on Etsy. It made me a little nervous when Alethea repeated declined any interest in wearing it prior to the party, but when the day arrived she willingly donned her dress. Buzzzz!
The first order of party business was to eat lunch. We kept it simple with hot dogs and brats on the grill with easy sides like chips and fruit. The kids thought it was perfect party cuisine.
Alethea had a lot of fun opening presents. She got some great clothes, lots of outdoor toys like chalk and bubbles, some stuff for playing dress up, a cute wooden microwave, as well as more clothes and a swing for her baby doll.
Her favorite present though was the trike from Mommy and Daddy. After stuffing Lullaby and Dee into the basket, she promptly climbed aboard to pedal her way around the kitchen and down the hall.
Alethea probably would have been happy to spend the rest of the party on her trike, but she did get off long enough to blow out her birthday candles…
… and to devour her cupcake.
Alethea wasn’t the only one who liked the cupcakes; Lydia enjoyed hers as well.
At the end of the party, each child went home with a little goody bag filled with bee themed delights – stickers, bubbles, a party blower and a big yellow sucker (Alethea’s requirement).
All in all, I’d say it was a perfect 3rd Bee-day celebration.
Thanks for buzzing over!
To view more BobbleHeadBaby celebrations, visit my Parties Page!
Please forgive my blog’s slightly random new look. I probably should have waited for Peter to have time to help me work on a better header and a tweak the layout, but I just couldn’t take the pink any more. It’s been annoying me for several months now. It had to go…