Now We Are Six

When I was one,
I had just begun.

When I was two,
I was nearly new.

When I was three,
I was hardly me.

When I was four,
I was not much more.

When I was five,
I was just alive.

 But now I am six,

I am clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six
Now and forever.

Poem by A.A. Milne

A Case of Mistaken Identity

It's almost embarassing. I mean, it happens all the time. I'll be just walking along, or standing in line at the post office and it will happen. Someone always asks!

Here's what I look like before showering and without makeup. That's actually probably a pretty fair sampling of how I look most of the time. Sorry to those I encounter on a daily basis. And to the lady who just came to my door and caught me with a carrot juice mustache.

This is me in my readers.

So, you can understand why people might come up to me and say...

"I'm thirsty." I mean, the resemblance is uncanny.

I also get told, "I'm hungry." All the time.

And at least once a day, someone comes up to me with a yogurt lid or granola bar wrapper
having mistaken me for the picture above.

And, of course, anytime I sit down I am immediately mistaken for this.

Big Baby's Big Birthday and How We Celebrated (for cheap!)

Sob...

She started out with dark, reddish hair...

And now she has white hair!

OMG, I can't believe my baby is one! It baffles me to try to figure out where the last year has gone.

It was awesome to finally get to celebrate a birthday in the summer. I love outdoor parties and found a lot of inspiring pictures on pinterest, but since our budget for Big Baby's big birthday was somewhere just above nothing I had to figure out a way to make it all happen for CHEAP!

Here's how I did it:

Homemade reusable snack-bags as treat bags filled with a little bit of candy and some fruit snacks.
Bubble wands from the Dollar Store paired with homemade bubble solution (water, dish soap, and light corn syrup)

For the menu, I made slow cooker, BBQ pulled pork from a pork roast and hot dogs. I paired that with fresh corn and a pasta salad with artichokes, feta, and tortellini. My mom and mother-in-law both helped out by bringing a seven layer (I guess technically a six layer since I made her leave the bacon off...did you know I'm a vegetarian?) and a fruit salad, respectively. Plus, I made vanilla AND chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing, because that's how I roll people. My mom also helped with set up and clean up because she's awesome.

We didn't do a lot as far as presents go, but I made her a cute top with fabric from the dollar table at Hancock, and some sheets also off the dollar table.

And that's it, folks! If you want anymore info on anything just let me know, and I'll be happy to oblige with a tutorial or two.

March Madness!

I know you probably clicked on this post thinking that I'd be jabbering on about my love for all things basketball; what with the tall guys, orange balls, and impossibly boring details to the game. Instead, you have to read about me waxing poetic about this, The Month of Birthdays, as it's known in our house.

March is the month where a full 3/5ths of our family gets another year older (if you're including the dog, which we had to this year, the proportion leaps to an astounding 2/3rds) in just two weeks. Insanity. The weeks go a little something like this:

1. Mmm...cake!
2. Mmmm...leftover cake
3. Fresh cake!
4. Uh....lots of leftover cake
5. Birthday party cupcakes (God, I hope I don't have to bring any of these home)
6. A cupcake is really pretty close to a pancake, it totally counts as breakfast 
7. Really? one more cake
8. Who the hell wants to eat cake?

But this year the birthdays had me all misty and doe-eyed. I'm not sure if it was the specific ages the boys were turning (5 and 3), or if it's knowing that we're all done having kids and there will be no babies to fill the crib once these kids grow up. And it's amazing how fast they are growing.

I don't know how we went from this...

..all the way to this.

But, God, how I love these little boys. Enough to bake cakes and cupcakes until I want to scream.





Come to think of it...there's not a whole lot I won't do for them.