My Favorite Place on Earth

This California girl finally went home this summer! And not only that, brought her whole family with her. Which means ... yes ... flying with five kids. Which was ... fun.

Look at those two! Don't those looks just say "we will be perfect angels on this flight?"

We had a great time with my parents! So much fun. It was a crazy whirlwind of a trip, kicked off with a day in my favorite place with my Dad. I haven't been to Yosemite in way too long - it was gorgeous, the weather was beautiful, and I got to tell my kids all of the crazy adventures we had there so long ago. It was so much fun I could even ignore the crazy crowds. I love Yosemite, but I sometimes wish not so many other people did. At least not on the same day ...

The rest of the week was filled with a ton of pool time,

And OBVIOUSLY we had a great time with my Dad's underwater camera.

We had fireworks ...

 

(Anyone recognize what R is drawing?)

We had a great baby shower for my fabulous sister-in-law ...

 

Fun at a local water park ...

And not enough In-N-Out. But at least some.

We had a great time with cousins and uncles and aunts and grandparents ...

And it ended with an amazing day at Disneyland. Amazing! SO much fun. For the first half of the day there were barely any crowds, which means barely any lines. I'm usually the one waving goodbye when family leaves - it was really really hard to be the one leaving. Thanks Mom and Dad for an amazing time!

My Blog is Like a Time Machine

So I've decided my blog is like a time machine - you may THINK it's the middle of September, and then all of a sudden I'll whisk you back to mid-June and pretend the last three months never happened. 

Also, I've decided I hate having pseudonyms for my kids. It is uber annoying and is probably the ONLY reason I don't blog more ;) But I can't use their real names because it makes my husband too nervous (with reason), so what does that leave me? I can't use first initials, because there are too many of the same initial. So after much thought I've decided to try using middle name initials - Erik will be R, Jace will be C, Diva will be M, Dane will be D, and Peanut will be T. It may be more confusing for YOU, but it will be so much easier for me. We'll see how this works! I'll probably put ages next to initials for a bit so you still know who I'm talking about.

First off, I had an amazing flower garden. The previous owner was a botanist and loves plants and flowers and planted a zillion. It was fun to see new flowers come up in the spring and summer and try not to kill them. Here are only a few (this is mostly so my Mom can see some of my gorgeous irises. Mom! I have irises!)

 

At the end of the school year there was an art show; my first grader and third grader both had art shown. D's (7) is the houses and M's (9) is the Halloween one. Hooray! I'm glad no one has so far inherited my abysmal artistic ability.

T (4) and I went to D's (7) field day - so much fun! He is the age when having Mom show up at school is thrilling and delightful. I felt like a hero - he was so darn cute and waved at me every few minutes.

The last few months have been baking extravaganzas in this household! R (14) has always been my go-to baker. I always ask him to make dessert for mutual/scouts, make bread, whatever. Lately, though it has been THE THING TO DO. C (12) is my main baker now - he loves making yummy things every Sunday for brunch. Here he is, still in his suit, making something divine. M (9) and D (7) have also been baking, which means there is always something fabulous to eat and R finally gets a well deserved break.

Early summer also brought the Father Son campout! Aren't they adorable? M and I missed them desperately. Of course. I promise. ;)

Summer also meant the local gun club had their field day - my hubby and C (12) spent the whole day fishing, shooting rifles, shooting arrows, trapping, canoeing - they were both in heaven. I love having an adventurous hubby! He can go to outdoorsy naturey things and I can stay home. Win win.

And more is yet to come ...

Pinterest

So my wicked cute and creative husband decided to make something, but wouldn't tell me what it was. He asked me to order some pictures from Shutterfly (correction: LOTS of pictures from Shutterfly). I watched him fiddle with an old pallet we found in our backyard. I listened to my four year old tell me "Mom! Don't look! It's a SECRET! You can't know it's a SECRET!" He took me to Jo-Ann's (I'm thinking he was incapable of going by himself without losing some manliness) and searched all over for something. Finally I admitted I might be able to help better if he told me what he was looking for - he said he needed small little clips. So we found these adorable little mini clothespins that he said were perfect.

And then I came home from book group last week to a wicked cute smile and this on my wall.

Isn't it cute? Here are the little clothespins - aren't they PRECIOUS? He weaved the clothespins through thick rustic wire and attached it to the board with antique square nails. He removed all of the old nails from the pallets, ran them through his planer, and used a blow torch to bring out the grain in the wood before varnishing.

He made it so all of the pictures are interchangeable. He calls it our "love board" because it is supposed to remind our children how much they love each other. We play a game during dinner (it's in our dining room) where someone gives clues and we all try to guess what picture they are talking about. We've already switched the pictures around once - it's a great way to remind the kids of fun family memories.

And now I'm blogging about it because I love it. And also because he decided it should be on pinterest. Which I think is adorable. So here it is - a blog so I can pin myself. But I'm actually pinning my husband, so that's a little better, right? :)