THE QUEEN OF QUIRK

happy {belated} valentine's day!

Hello all!
It seems I'm always a day behind lately! :)
I hope you all are having a lovely weekend filled with snuggles and affection.
We had a wonderful morning yesterday of hanging out and gift-giving. Then we went shopping all afternoon. Nothing special! We just ran a bunch of errands and got a bunch of stuff we needed for the house. But it was a nice day and it was good to spend time with my family!

Oh! I also have a couple of new goodies available at 2Ps!


If you're at all familiar with my designs,you will recognize this kit It's an oldie but a goodie! You can purchase it HERE if you feel so inclined. ;)
Thanks so much for stopping by! I've gotta get back to work...seems like it never stops around here anymore! :) Ciao!

3 going on 13

Yesterday we celebrated the littlest Crowley's 3rd birthday. She is soooo milking it for all it's worth! She has been an absolute terror and a total cutie pie at the same time. She is definitely trying to get away with as much as possible. With potty training conquered and a birthday filled with chocolate, showers of affection and all things girly, she is making sure every single person knows just how fabulous she is! :)

Yesterday, first thing in the morning, Maria's son Daniel, ran up to Norah with a little gift that she had to open right then. He'd picked out a birthday badge for her to wear on her special day and she was just tickled pink when we put it on her. She wore it all day and wants to wear it to bed! So sweet!

Trying to get a decent photo of this child is no easy task. She is so go-go-go that she can hardly stand still long enough for a snapshot. This is one of the 2 or 3 decent ones out of about 25!!

Since Tuesday Noodle has been singing happy birthday to herself and to others. She is so cute! If someone said "Happy Birthday, Norah!" She would say "Happy Birthday, (insert name here)!" SO funny! I love it when they're still little enough to get completely and totally excited about something and still have no clue what's going on!

The big hit was definitely the Thomas train she got. It's remote controlled and it has "safe steam" (whatever that means). This thing is probably the slowest remote controlled anything on the planet. She loves it, though. We saw here eyeballing it at the store one day and so we hid it in the cart for her.
We had a really small party...just a few close friends after dinner for some cake and ice cream. I actually went all out and made her cake from scratch using my Magnolia cookbook. It turned out so yummy even if I do say so myself. ;)
Our littlest princess definitely had a good day and she crashed hard last night. So much excitement and fun that she was exhausted!

Today I went with her to preschool and baked cupcakes with all her little friends for Valentine's Day. It was so sweet! I mixed the batter with the older kids because I thought they could handle it better and be a bit more patient. Then I let the younger ones spoon the batter into the cups for me. It was so messy but they had such a great time. Then I pulled them aside each, one by one, to decorate their cupcake with pink frosting and heart shaped sprinkles. They were all so sweet and so into it. Then we labeled their bags and put red and white hearts on them and set them aside to take home.
I am totally impressed with her little buddies. Not one of them threw a fit at having to set their cupcake aside til they went home. They were so chill about it all. Love that.

I always have these grand ideas in my head of doing things but you know how sometimes it can just turn into a nightmare? I was really worried that trying to bake with 10 kids was going to deteriorate rapidly into total chaos, but we had a lovely time. I think the key was breaking it all up into steps with smaller groups and then taking the kids aside one by one to decorate. I could give them my full attention that way. Of course, it took almost 3 hours! LOL

So now I'm home again, trying to squeeze in a bit of work before I have to go pick up the kiddos from school. Colin is taking all the girls shopping tonight for me for Valentine's day and I think that's really sweet. :) They've been begging both of us to do it and I think they're really excited about having a special shopping trip. :)
While they're gone I'm hoping to get my Lurve Day gifts wrapped and then hopefully get some more work done.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Ciao! :)

snow (uk edition)

It's so funny to me to see our different attitudes towards weather. I think the British are weather obsessed. I really don't think I've ever talked about weather so much in my life. It is constantly on everyone's minds around here. I think it may be because it changes so quickly, so often. Don't get me wrong, I don't fault them for it...it's just one of those lovely little English quirks that I am starting to see and I find it endearing.
On Monday we had a "snowstorm" hit us that originated in Siberia. Everyone here was taking it very seriously and going to the grocery store and stocking up on food. Although Colin did read a news story about how the British were stocking up on kitty litter and beer instead of milk and bread like Americans. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but I can just imagine that all those outdoor cats wouldn't be going too far from home so maybe it was a necessity. :) And the beer is a given.
So, on Monday we had a bit of snow (enough to cause quite a ruckus) and we heard we were due for some more so we eagerly anticipated a snow day on Tuesday.

Unfortunately that didn't come so we trudged to school, sad little chublets in tow.
Wednesday went by as usual as well.
This morning, however, we were woken up by a phone call from one of Colin's coworkers at 6:30 (and let me just tell you I sound HOT at 6:30 am...kinda like a cross between a dog and a troll. HOT.) to let us know that he didn't have to come in because of the severe weather conditions.
We then got up to look out the window and, lo and behold, there's 6 inches of snow out there! Now that we are thoroughly excited and have a TON of snow to play with (alright, it's not a ton...but it's a lot for the Midlands!) I'm gonna get the Noodle dressed so we can make snowmen and snow angels! I hope you're having a wonderful day!