THE QUEEN OF QUIRK

recap: mia's 7th birthday

Mia's birthday was bittersweet this year. She would have loved nothing more than to have a big bash with all of her girlfriends, but since the move she's been on the quiet side and was disappointed when she realized that her friends wouldn't be able to join her.

We tried to make the best of it, however.

We found Halli Galli and decided to take Mia there for a day of arcading and playing. She, of course, had a wonderful time and was thoroughly distracted. 

After the climbing wall, we took a break and Mia rode the mini  carousel and every time she came around shed make a new face for me. So glad I captured these. :)

A good old-fashioned round of Whack the Mole. I thought I'd animate it for you. :)

And then we came home and had a little party for her. She got to open up her presents and we decorated the apartment as well as we could. She was thrilled, of course, and I think the sting of our recent move was lessened a bit as she realized that there would be a party and that she would still have a wonderful time.

The calm before the storm. We were loosely inspired by the movie UP with its massive amount of balloons and all the colors of the rainbow. I think it turned out really sweet. :)

Mia, eagerly anticipating her cake that we kept hidden from her.

That adorable smile on her face when she realized her cake was, in fact, a giant cupcake.

Blowing out her seven lucky candles.

Her wish?

To get her ears pierced. More on that to come. :)

recap: halloween 09

Before 2009 is officially over, I want to recap some of the things I failed to blog since October.

Words will be minimal as I'll be letting the photos take center stage. :)

Colin and I decided to dress up this year with the kidlets. I will not embarrass myself any more than necessary so I am leaving out my photo. I will, however, show off my family. Lara and Mia were witches and Norah went as Supergirl.

Colin dressed up as a luchador. You can read more about them here. I will let his photo speak for itself though. 

Needless to say we were on the receiving end of a lot of strange looks. The girls were thrilled that we were all dressing up as a family and we had a lot of fun. Next year, though, we want to throw a proper Halloween party and get all our friends to dress up as well.

And, of course, that means that I get to plan a party and bake ridiculously cute Halloween treats. :) Yum.

happy birthday colin!

It's Colin's birthday today and we're hoping to have a relaxing day with our #1 guy!

Happy birthday, Babe!

pics from the 4th

This year we were invited to a wonderful party for the 4th of July! It's been years and years since we've actually had the chance to celebrate this holiday. It just doesn't seem the same when there's no one else to celebrate with. The 4th just seems like such a social time! :) It's no fun tailgating with just one car, right!?!?

So, this year we got the kids all gussied up in red, white and blue and headed to a mutual friend's house for fun, fireworks and new friends! :)

This is me (I won't tell you just how many drinks I'd had at this point!) with my dear friend Tracy (middle) and a new friend, Karen, on the right. :)

Colin with Tracy's husband, Keith. These two were ridiculously inseparable the whole night. I love it when boys start drinking. ;)

The whole gang :) Such an incredibly fun night. Fireworks, a bonfire, incredible food...

And I'll have you know there are only 3 Americans in this photo and we failed MISERABLY in the American Facts quiz. Yikes! Need to dust off those history books! :)

I'm standing next to our lovely hostess, Kari, and her lovely lively husband, Ray. Thanks, you two, for an unforgettable night!

The photo is, of course, all gussied up with my newest designs, available for free at 2Ps! :)

I hope everyone is having a lovely day! :)

legoland for father's day

We took off Friday night for some much needed down time/family time. We'd been planning a trip to Legoland Windsor for weeks and the kiddos were so excited to finally be on the road! Colin is a big kid himself and Legos are his absolute favorite toys, so we knew we were going to have a blast. I'm a big Lego fan myself, but the rest of my family? Absolutely bonkers for them.

They say that getting there is half the fun. Well, it is if you have the Doots along for the ride.

This would be called: Sponge Bop Square Doots, Norah's impression of Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Doots then insisted on playing with the camera, so I showed her how to use it and she took a photo of me. This one came out considerably better than the one she took of Mia.

Considering just how much Mia is drooling in this photo, that may not be such a bad thing...

At last! Now the fun part begins...trying to please 3 princesses who all have very different ideas of how these two days are going to play out. Everyone wants to be first to do everything.

So we told them that if they fought over anything as ridiculous as who gets to what with whom, when and where, then we would feed them to the dinosaur.

It didn't work...but hey, we tried.

We rode the Space Tower first since it was closest.

The sun kept playing hide and seek with us, so all our shots have wonky sunlight. This is Lara trying to pull herself up while being blinded by the sudden rays of sunshine.

Mia and I took a turn on the monorail together. Love that we got this shot. Yay! One of my kids looks like me!!

A shot of miniland as seen from our ride.

YOU can dance!!! YOU can JI-IVE!

I think this one of the first highlights of our trip. ABBA, immortalized in LEGO.

Groovy.

The English seaside, complete with windbreaks. It looks just like Hunstanton!

Doots, completely ice-creamerific, having the time of her life, sooo wanting to go Godzilla on miniland. I could tell.

More shots of miniland.

I forget which castle this is...I think it's here in England, though.

One thing we didn't take a photo of was the model of Minack Theatre. However, I was so impressed with the model, that I made it a point to look it up when we got home.

We are so going here. 

photo courtesy of falmouth-cottage.co.uk

The model of Sacre Coeur, one of my favorite spots in Paris.

A rare treat...a family photo in which I do not look barfilicious! SCORE!

We watched the Johnny Thunder Adventure Show and the kids were tickled pink. These guys were having a good time jumping off this tower, you could just tell.

After a full day, we made our way back to our hotel. Colin set up the entire trip and we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at our hotel, St. Anne's Manor. It really was beautiful, inside and out, and the staff was super friendly and talked to the kiddos endlessly about Legoland.

photo courtesy of hilton.co.uk/stannesmanor 

The Doots crashed pretty hard that night and we had a hard time waking her up the next day. She looked so peaceful that we didn't really want to disturb her. But, hey, we had another fun-filled day waiting for us!

Besides, it was Father's Day and we needed to have some very important Daddy time before we headed to the park!

Wakey wakey!! :)

I so want this at the front door of our dream house. Everyone would be so jealous.

Next up: driving school. Mia was absolutely hopeless on the track. Lara, on the other hand, kept a very cool head about her. She was just so dang excited to be behind the wheel of a car!

We then went on a fairytale boat ride.

Look! A fairy godmother!! I made the kids stop asking for wishes and I asked her for a $500 gift certificate to Anthropologie. I know she heard me because her little animatronic arm swung her clear lego encrusted wand right down on my head. And then she winked. She loves me.

By the end of the second day we were all a little bit tired. Lara and Mia were still all smiles and rarin' to go. The Doots, however, was full of stink and bile. Little stinker. She's supposed to be having fun!! 

That's normally how she looks at me. Don't let all these smiley pictures fool you!

But kids never act how they're supposed to, right? So, with a sulky, cranky Doots, we stopped one last time at the gift shop/blackhole and then we headed home.

Goodbye, dear Legoland. Thank you for entertaining our punks and lifting the burden of all that cash we had in our wallets. What would we do without you?

(((HUGS)))

happy 4th!

For those of you who celebrate it, happy 4th of July! :)

I've got a cute kit available to download at 2Ps! :) I hope you like it!

It's similar to one I offered before, but I completely revamped it and added some new goodies! :)

up to my knees in HSM

We had Lara's party a week before her actual birthday because her birthday fell during half term (spring break). It worked out perfectly because we had a very low-key birthday for her on the actual day which was nice because there was no running around.

I can't believe I have an 8 year old. Where does the time go???

It's been all about High School Musical around here. I've put it off for as long as I could,but there's just no stopping it now. I'm not big into brands and I really do not like my kids wearing clothes with logos and such on them. I don't know why I'm supposed to it. I guess I just don't like walking around like a giant billboard. Unless it's for Mr. T or the Beatles or something especially important. ;)

Lara absolutely loved her cake. The girlier the better in her opinion.

The pinata was a big hit as you can see by Noodle's face.

We still can't believe that Lara is 8, but she rang it in in style! When she was allowed to open her gifts on Thursday, she was completely overwhelmed by HSM stuff. Hopefully that will keep her happy since I've so -called "deprived" her of it for the past few years. :)

Ah, kids.

ok

It seems that discipline in my work life doesn't fit in so well with my play time. Hence the neglected blog. But it does feel really good to get a lot of work done (and some of it before deadline, I might add!)

We've had a few trips and today is a certain someone's birthday.

I have lots of photos to edit and then they will be posted shortly. Still have lots of work to do for 2Ps and Songbird, but I'm leaving for Santorini on Sunday for a much needed girly weekend with a friend and I have to get all my work done and blogging done so that when I come back on Tuesday I can blog about black sand beaches, guilt free!

I hope everyone is having a lovely day! :)

happy easter (a tad late)

Because Colin didn't get back til midnight on Sunday, we held off on the Easter festivities til Monday. On Sunday we just decorated the eggs and had lunch with a friend. When Colin came home from work on Monday we went outside to hide the eggs together and spent some time with the kiddos.

Mia danced around like a loon every time she found an egg. Such a funny bunny.


Norah, reaching beyond her grasp but trying so hard to get that inch she so desperately needed.


Lara, distressed over the sheer number of eggs she's found...trying to figure out how to carry them all. :) Norah, standing by, being chubby.

Our girls :)

Love this photo. It makes me happy. :)

And just so no one is wondering about Norah's dress...here's a bit of back story.

I wore this dress when I was 3. I have a portrait of me in it, with hair down to my tush and the biggest grin ever. My mom brought it out here for us last summer so that Norah could enjoy it. She had to really clean it and she had to re-attach the velvet ribbon. But the tinkly little bell in the petticoats still rings and even though I would never buy this dress if I saw it in the store, I love that Norah loves it so. She wears it every chance she gets.

If you celebrate Easter, we hope you had a lovely holiday.

Tomorrow the girls and I are heading to Mallorca, Spain for a week long vacation with a friend and her 3 kiddos. We will be outnumbered 3:1. :)

Wish us luck.

a lonely week

It's been kinda lonely around here since Wednesday. Colin left for LA to attend a memorial service for his favorite uncle. We miss him terribly and we're holding off our Easter plans til he gets back late on Sunday evening. We're having our egg hunt Monday evening and we've been trying to lessen the sting of having him gone by going out and being with friends and having a good time. We can't wait for him to get back. I hate it when he flies alone. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. I hope you have a lovely Easter weekend. :)