Day 116 (4/26/11) - End of the Crafting

OK, so maybe those are famous last words, but I really am trying to not buy anymore craft supplies including fabric, etc. I think this means I will have to stop looking at my favorite craft blogs as well. Wah. I love other people's ideas since I don't have a single one of my own. It is so fun to create, but it gets expensive and time consuming so it's time to stop and use up what I have. This quilt is all ready for some quilting, but I am trying to decide how I want to go about it...hand quilting? machine quilting? wishful thinking that I had a long arm quilting machine or money to pay to have it done? Whatever the case, I need to finish it and move on. Well, move on to the Anthropolgie knock off that is next in line and then I am done. Really. I mean it. Truly.

Day 115 (4/25/11) - Crayola Color Bubbles

Oh yes, we all love colored bubbles when they are in a brightly colored magazine ad or on display at your neighborhood Target and Wal-mart. They look so fun and harmless. But do we still love them when they do this to your house:

BTW - taking this picture made me notice that the guy who painted the house painted part of the vinyl on the window. Nice.

Day 114 (4/24/11) - Easter

Wow the Easter Bunny was very generous this year! I guess he knows that Maelen sometimes needs to be able to get places without the car and without Mom driving her even though we do call it our bonding time. Also, longboards tend to come in handy when boys want to skate to the pier.

Kendall wanted her hair in rollers last night so her hair would be curly for Easter. It turned out really cute. Jared, on the other hand, was irritated because his hair needed to be cut and he couldn't spike it. I think it's the first time he wouldn't pose for the camera.

Day 113 (4/23/11) - Saturday is a Special Day

Well, maybe Saturday is not such a special day for my kids. Saturday is chores day. And depending what Matt has on his to-do list, sometimes there are more chores than they would like. Now that the rain has finally stopped, Matt decided to take on the ivy. I was surprised when it ended up looking like this. I thought maybe they were all worn out. Turns out our green trash can was just overflowing. I'm sure the kids will be happy to know this task will continue another day. Yippee!

Day 112 (4/22/11) - Hydrangea

When my cute niece, Lauren, got married last year, Vicki and I helped with serving the food at the reception (oh yea, and dipped hundreds of strawberries). We had a great time doing everything and met some pretty great people and top of that, received a beautiful white hydrangea as a thank you. I took it home and planted it, but it didn't do so well, which made me sad. So when I saw this come up, buds and all, next to my big pink hydrangea, I was thrilled! I can't wait to see it bloom. I heart spring.

Day 111 (4/21/11) - Skirball Museum

I have been wanting to go to the Skirball for some time now. We found out that on Thursdays, you can get in free to all exhibits. I was afraid my kids would be too old for this Noah's Ark exhibity, however, the LOVED it! It was so much fun! All the animals were made of recycled items...check out the elephant's eyes (disco balls). There was also some interactive things to do in the exhibit. It was amazing!

Here are some wild animals at the Noah's Ark exhibit. I love the picture of Matt because it took him a while to figure out Jared was doing a little show behind him with that hand puppet. I was laughing so hard that I'm surprised the picture isn't blurry.

After the Skirball tour, we headed out on Mulholland drive and took in some views. We then headed down to Hollywood at Kendall's request and walked around a little bit.

Day 110 (4/20/11) - Easter Eggs

Another tradition - dying Easter eggs. Now matter how old they get (Maelen is 18) there are some traditions my kids just continue to want to do. We never found our cups made specifically for dying eggs so I used plastic cups. Big mistake. No matter how many times I said to be careful because those cups tend to tip easier, we managed to spill two cups of dye. Fun. I went to the temple that night with green fingernails.

Day 109 (4/19/11) - New Longboard

It was time for Maelen to get a new mode of transportation of the tragic accident involving the last one. I was looking around Craig's List and found a guy who is starting up a business building boards. He has been doing it for 10 months and works out of his garage in HB. He custom makes each board and came up with this cool grip tape design. I can't wait to see her face when she sees it!!

Day 108 (4/18/11) - Rubys

After spending about six hours at a car dealership, I was trying to figure out what dinner I could whip up quickly for my family before Maelen had to leave for Seacliff's FHE. Matt suggested Ruby's on the pier. We love Ruby's but rarely head out there because it is such a pain to get there. Tonight we were looking forward to the walk and the nice ocean view.

Day 107 (4/17/11) - Dad's Birthday

Dad's Birthday. I love this first picture because you can see everyone seeing their little hearts out. This is a family tradition to get everyone together in a picture by the person celebrating their birthday.

And then there is the new tradition:

Oh yes...Dance Central. Everyone had a chance to break out their mad dance moves in a family dance off.

Maelen hadn't started dancing yet, but the look on Scotty's face is priceless.

Even white boy Matt got his moves on. Of course Kendall, who used to be our shy child, broke out her moves as well.

Day 106 (4/16/11) - Twins Birthday Part II and Dad!!

Bonnie and Mike couldn't make it to the twins party on their actual birthday since Ali was getting baptized in Utah on the same day. For that reason, we had a twins birthday party redux.

We also had part I of Dad's birthday since we had Bonnie & Mike and Mike and some of his family there. To be continued tomorrow on his real birthday....

Day 105 (4/15/11) - Twinnies

I love these babies! I just can't get enough of them! Even though they can definitely get enough of all of us. Bonnie and Mike came to town to see their California kids and grandkids. It was fun to visit with them and as an extra added bonus, we got to hang out with the twinnies too!

Day 104 (4/14/11) - Easter Chickies

Darn you Martha Stewart. I had decided not to make any Easter gifties or give away decorations this year. Then you had to come along with your e-mail of easy crafts and show off a craft that I just happened to already have all the supplies for! Curse you and your imaginative staff.

Day 103 (4/13/11) - Waffle Wednesday

Somehow Wednesday has become the day we have waffles for breakfast. Jared is a notoriously messy kid. In fact, Matt has nicknamed him "Chaka", like the under-evolved primate on Land of the Lost. Any day we have a breakfast with syrup, Jared never fails to get it somewhere on the table. We are still not sure how. Perhaps if we installed a nanny cam?

Day 102 (4/12/11) - Chauffer

So here is my typical view most days....sitting in the van waiting to pick kids up, drop kids off, and on and on. This particular day, for some reason I went to pick up Kendall an hour early. I sat there for probably 10 minutes wondering why they were getting out so late before I realized I was there an hour early. Really?? I think I have completely lost it.

Day 101 (4/11/11) - Spring Weather

The weather is finally getting nice enough for the kids to go out and have some fun. You can tell from one of the pictures that Kendall is avoiding getting hit by a ball that Jared is throwing....typical.

This is Jared's impression of a Tyrannosaurus. Again...typical.

Day 100 (4/10/11) - 100 Days of Pictures!

Admittedly I should have a more exciting picture than this for day 100, but Sundays I generally forget to take pictures with all we have going on. This was a Fast Sunday, so I decided to make a dessert since Jared usually feels food deprived on this day. We made a brownie recipe I found on line and wanted to try. Here are Jared and Kendall enjoying the outcome, although from the look on Jared's face you would think he is not enjoying it. Believe it or not, that's normal for Jared.

Day 99 (4/9/11) - Busy Day

Our ward had an activity to ride bikes from the pier down to Seapoint for breakfast. Kendall had been looking forward to this all week! The weather ended up being beautiful considering it had rained earlier in the week. It is so awesome living only one mile from the beach! At the end of the journey, there was a catered breakfast waiting for us with breakfast burritos and all the fixings. We are definitely spoiled. There was an Easter egg hunt for the kids and then we made our way up the hill more commonly known as Seapoint. I thought I might die, but we made it!

Today was Grant and Simone's first birthday. Mandy and Rob had a big party at Rob's parents house...conveniently located next door to my parents. Everything was soooo cute! Mandy did a storybook theme and had pictures from kids books all around the patio cover. She also made paper chains out of book pages and all kinds of cute decorations incorporating books. The twins were so good considering there were so many people there. Oh, the incredible Mandy also made their birthday cakes from scratch including pureeing the raspberries for the filling. I don't know how she manages to accomplish so much and still be such a great mommy.