THE QUEEN OF QUIRK

let the baking begin

Tomorrow all 3 girlies have Thanksgiving feasts at school and it's gotten to the point where I cannot volunteer for one class without getting some pretty pouty sulks from the other two. So, when I volunteered to make my awesome pumpkin spice cake for one class I knew I was going to end up making 3.

Thank goodness I love baking! :)

I was feeling a little overwhelmed but in the end it all came together pretty well. I have enough pumpkin puree in my pantry to crank out quite a few treats, though, now. I can't remember the last time I purchased 5 cans of the stuff!

I hope your Tuesday is fantastic and don't forget to stop by tomorrow to find out what's up for One Buck Wednesday in my shop! :)

if you give a kid a camera...

The girls are always swiping my camera and running off with it. I usually find some gems on there when I get it back.

We went to an apple fest a couple of weeks ago and on our way back to the car, jug of freshly pressed DELICIOUS juice in hand, Norah snapped this and I thought it was really sweet.

photo by Norah 10.09.2011

I love that Colin and I are holding hands and that Lara and I have practically the same jacket on. Too cute.

On a personal note:

Colin and I are counting down the days until the coolest anniversary date. EVER.

On 11.11.11 this year, it's our 11th anniversary and we're throwing a huge party to celebrate. More details on that to come. Also apple fest photos, too. :) Til tomorrow!

weekend recap

Lara and her BFF went to the fair this weekend and Lara raved about it so much that we just had to take the other kiddos. So, yesterday we set out to have some good old fashioned fun at the fair!

Colin and Norah on the walk downtown. Can you tell Norah's excited!?!?

All the photos are from my iPhone since I forgot the camera. They're not the greatest, but they turned out good enough. ;)

the kiddos on the big swing. this is always a favorite. :)

i love ferris wheel photos!

colin and mia on the ferris wheel. snuggling because it's SO HIGH. well, and because they just like to snuggle :)

another shot of the ferris wheel. love the bavarian flag theme. so pretty!

norah on the pony ride. it was, by far, her favorite ride!

one last shot before we left for the night.

It was such a fun night. It was decided totally last minute but I am so glad we went!

It didn't come without drama though. On the last ride, the girlies were getting bullied by bigger kids (and ADULTS!!) and couldn't get on the rides because there's no line and it's basically a free for all. So we had to get up there and fight to get them seats. Poor little things were crying and upset at getting pushed around, but we managed to get everyone on the ride at the end. The drama never stops with this many princesses in tow! ;)

our halloween

...was so much fun! In the past we never dressed up with the kiddos but for the past couple of years we have been and it's been so much more fun! I've re-connected with my obsession with costumes and we have so much fun getting into character! :)

Lara was so proud of her Hermione costume. She really looked the part, too! Mia is either a witch or a cat every. single. year. It's too funny. And Norah...Norah is a princess. Naturally. I am a huge dork but, in my defense, I'm not as huge a dork as my husband.

It's pretty awesome to go shopping with the Swedish Chef, though. Especially as he hums and "bork"s the entire time.

I hope you had a fantastically spooky Halloween!

norah: overheard

backstory:

Colin was working late and running errands tonight so the girls and I had movie night and watched Ramona & Beezus (which was a really sweet movie, I have to say). There is a sad part involving the death of a pet and we were discussing it over dinner because the girls cried their eyes out during that particular scene. Norah sat with a very confused/concerned look on her face and this is what followed:

Me: What's wrong, baby?

Norah: Why do they put the kitty in the ground?

Me: Because we bury people when they die and sometimes people do it for pets, too.

Norah: ....But, uh... can we eat the cherry?

Me:  :::crickets:::   Sorry, honey.... what?

Norah: The cherry. When the kitty grows from the ground.

Me & Lara & Mia commence giggling while trying to hide it.

Me: Baby, that only happens with seeds. When a kitty dies, their body just goes away in the ground. Nothing grows, though.

Norah: OH!!! (looking like she's just had a revelation) Well, it's prolly not very nice to eat dead kitty cherries. They prolly taste disGUSTing! :P

And then I left my chair immediately to come here to write this down. I love my kids. :) They're always good for a laugh. :)

 

gardenin'

The girls have been helping me tend the garden in our backyard. We started small this year as I didn't want to overwhelm us by being too ambitious. Some radishes, Parisien carrots and cherry tomatoes sounded easy enough.

Norah hamming it up. I asked her to smile and I got her fake grin.

 

Once more with a real smile this time. :)

 

So proud of her radish picking. :)

moving right along...

So happy to be well again. It seems our lives have been on hold since last Wednesday when Norah first started feeling crummy. So happy to have that all behind us.

I've been busy, behind the scene, working to revamp the Songbird Avenue blog. I've got lots of fun posts in store for everyone over there. I'm hoping to get to a point where I have a post a day. Now if only I could give my own blog that same attention, right? :)

I did get a chance to scrap (and design).

I've been having fun with it. Designing had lost a lot of it's appeal to me for a few months. With moving to a new country and trying to get everyone settled it's no wonder designing got put on the back burner. But, I'm feeling the energy bubbling up to the top and the ideas are whirling around in the old noggin again. So excited about that. I've been sketching and creating patterns and finding inspiration in everything I see.

Where will all this lead, though? That's a little bag of beans I can't spill yet. Soon, though. ;)

In the meantime, the Doots and I are cranking up ABBA and shaking our tushies!

three's a crowd

Well, my weekend didn't really go as planned. ALL THREE of my girls were sick.

And when I say sick, I mean eeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww SICK.

It was pretty scary there for a while. Friday was the worst. Friday had me scrubbing the carpet of the van a million times. Friday was not fun.

Today, however, they are all over (HALLELUJAH!) and are off at their respective little schools and I am playing a frantic game of catchup. :)

I'll have something much more worthwhile to post later, but as for right now...I'm just happy to report that no one is hurling on me or my floors. :)

Later, gators!

change of plans

I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment today along with a mini morning off for myself but Norah came down with a tummy bug yesterday and hasn't been able to keep anything down since. So, instead I had some of the yummy banana bread I made yesterday for breakfast today. I tried out a new recipe and I have to say I was impressed. There's not a lot of sugar so the natural sweetness of the banana gets to take center stage. You can find the recipe HERE. Did you know there's a banana bread site? Neither did I until yesterday. I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to banana bread so I tend to not add anything unnecessary. My mom used to make it for us all the time and I remember getting sooo excited every single time. However, when she made banana pudding I wanted to cry. Go figure. :)

But while I spent my morning a yummy breakfast we found out that Norah still cannot keep down water or dry toast. So she is spending her morning like this. She is so miserable right now. I'm taking lots of breaks to snuggle with her and check on her. I think I'm going to move her to the chair in my office so I can keep a closer eye on her, though.

So, we'll be nursing the icky sickies while I finishing washing the other couch slipcover, the first victim of Norah's tummy bug.

I hope everyone is having a tummy bug-free day.

And I hope Norah perks up a bit enough later to go outside. I've told her that when she feels better we can go outside and see the new pink blossoms on the tree in our backyard. She's looking forward to it, too, as she said she wants to send some blossoms to my parents so they feel better, too.

Love this girl.

back...sorta

Well, I've been back a week now and I'm still playing catch up. I can't stand that feeling, but as soon as I'm away from the computer it's very hard for me to get back into the groove of things. I always wonder why that is. Maybe I just don't want that vacation feeling to end. :)

I had such a good time with my family, though. After I get over my initial apprehension about meeting new people I always have a blast. I got to meet my new sister-in-law who is an absolute doll. She makes me laugh and she and my brother are so in love. I am so happy for them. I got to see my parents, too, but we were all so busy that we didn't really get a chance to really be with each other. I did get to hug on them though, and that's all I needed.

I wish I had photos but I completely forgot to bring a camera with me. I know!! What kind of scrapbooker am I!??! So, I'm waiting for my brother to send me some of the wedding photos. :)

I'm also working on some stuff to sell. I've been invited to sell at a completely amazing store that I adore and is owned by one of my scrap idols. So excited. Can't wait to spill the beans on that one. :)

So, right now, I have my head ducked down trying to get as much work done and product designed as possible. Til next time, I leave you with this.