DON'T READ THIS if love makes you gag

Watch out.  This one's about Valentine's Day.

Our family Valentine tradition is to have a yummy, red breakfast.  I think I have figured out why I love breakfast foods so much.  It is because they have a lot in common with desserts.

 Our "breakfast" consisted of strawberry milkshakes,

 red velvet crepes with cream cheese filling, and chocolates.  And what is breakfast without a little gift?

 I guess you could say that I love them.  Yeah.  I do.

I went out to dinner with my handsome man, too, who turns out to be just as smart as he is handsome.  He made dinner reservations for a time that would generally be considered too early to be romantic.  But it was the perfect time to catch this view from the restaurant.  Take note, men.

 Mmmm.

 And the dinner looked good too.  I had lobster bisque and this salmon concoction.

 Then I wanted to walk around the mall for a few minutes while we still had a sitter.  Check out these babies.  Too bad you could only wear them one day a year.  Can we say, "over the top"?

 And speaking of over-the-top, thanks for my mounds of roses, Nick!  They are beeee-utiful.

Brownie Sleepover

Bethelle has a fantastic girl scout troop with an ideal leader.  We love it.  And a Brownie sleepover?  What could be better?

Here is the troop: Bethelle on the left, her bestie on the right.

 The theme was Nocturnal.  As I recall.  They made crafts and learned to draw animals and studied constellations with a black light.  Then there was a dance party.  It was right up Bethelle's alley.  I went with her, including sleeping on a concrete floor.  Next year, I will invest in one of those fatty folding mattresses at Costco.

We've Joined the Crowd

The green smoothie crowd.  They're awesome and my kids love them.  Who wouldn't want to drink that?

That's all.

Glasses with my Posse

Glasses give me a headache.  Literally.  And it's been getting worse.  I generally wear contacts, but I don't like to depend on them because in my heart of hearts I think that the world will end someday and we'll all be scraping to survive and contacts really won't be readily available.  I should stop watching movies.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that 90% of my headache is due to my prescription being too strong.  My prescription actually improved!  So I took my little fleet out to pick some new glasses for Mommy.  It's always a good idea to bring an honest friend with you when trying on glasses.  I brought four.

 I did not buy these.  I guess I'm just not hipster.

Curie Singing

Piercy in January/February

I just like to show how he is growing and changing.  Except that I don't want him to grow or change.

 Give this one a click.  He needed some ink.

 Oooh, he's going to be mad about this one someday.  Let me just say that the outfit was all Rigby's doing.  Only the picture taking, posting, and immortalizing of the event was my fault.

 Dressed up for church.  Who needs pants at church?

 He really is always this happy.

 This one was technically taken in early March, but who's counting?

Postworthy: The American Girl Store

I put off introducing American Girl dolls to my family for a couple reasons.  As it turns out, I'm just old enough to be the youngest person who almost never heard of them as a kid (get it?), so I didn't already have a love-attachement to them in my own heart.  Secondly, it's just an expensive doll, right?

Well, I've grown up a little on this subject.  Yes, they are pricy dolls, but try walking down a doll aisle at Target.  Other than the infant dolls, the rest of them are disturbed and disturbing.  It is pretty difficult to find a doll with a realistic waist who has any modesty and is not a vampire.  C'mon!  American Girl dolls are young, realistic, and beautiful and each one is from a particular period in American history and has her own interesting story.  As a lover of historical novels, this feels homey to me.  The whole brand, while definitely expensive, teaches history as well as moving lessons about friendship, behavior, growing up, etc.  And I don't mean the surface, silly lessons like those taught in preschool TV shows.

Anyhoo.

My niece, Joee, turned seven in January and had a little party at the American Girl store.  I had heard the tales of what a magical experience the store is, but Bethelle and I had never been, and Bethelle had just gotten a Caroline doll for Christmas.  To make matters even more important, we had recently learned that Joee and her family would soon be moving to Arizona, so this was to be possibly the last birthday celebrated together.

We first ate in their little restaurant.  They have little chairs and tableware for your dolls so that they can eat with you.

 There is no "kid menu" so I was chuckled at a bit when I ordered grilled cheese and tomato soup, a seemingly "kid" choice, but I find it to be perfectly "adult."  And isn't it pretty?  Don't you want some?

 The store is large and wonderful, but we seemed to spend most our time at the doll hair salon.  Joee had her doll pampered with an up-do.

 Bethelle's Caroline just got her hair brushed and a little bow added.

 Happy birthday, Joee, and thanks for the fun idea.  Let's go again sometime!

Gettin' It Done

If you don't consider making and birthing a baby a "project," then we really haven't done very many around this house since we moved into it.  Things are picking up speed, though, and here are a few that we have been working on:

First, the counter over the laundry machines.

This may not excite my male readers (if I have any), but you ladies know what I mean when I say how great this is.  The square footage of that room is about twice the area that those machines take up.  This little beauty seems to double size and function of the room.  A biiiiiiiiiiiiig thanks to Nick's dad for heading up the whole project.  It sure is nice to marry into a handy family.

Speaking of handy dads, mine can hold his own in that department.  I asked him for a few pointers on the engineering of a large storage shelf for my garage.  That turned into a visit from both parents (and their truck) that lasted long enough to build this baby:

Yeah, it's pretty sweet.

While the men were building, I went in to take some pictures and video and just happened to catch this little gem (the first 30 seconds are pretty funny if you listen closely):

For today's third and final project, Nick and the kids and I put together some ikea shelves/cabinet/boxes as a floating entertainment cabinet.  We moved around some outlets and drilled some new holes for wires.  All the electrical stuff was handily hidden in the space behind the wall, as that is an unfinished but accessible area under the stairs.  The kids had a lot of fun climbing around in there with headlamps and screwdrivers.

Pierce was pretty confused by the process.  First he was intrigued by the new hole in the wall...

... and then Rigby's hand came out to pat him on the head!

I don't have the after picture yet.  Maybe because it is only 97% complete, but getting all this work done is like sugar in my blood.  Love it!

The Great Wheel

Nick took a few days off from work after Christmas.  I was really looking forward to the quality family time and a chance to clean up and catch up after the chaos of Christmas.  As it turned out, we had one good day before I got crazy-sick, followed by everyone else getting sick.  Oh well, it was a nice dream.  And the one nice day was beautiful.

We started with a lunch in downtown Seattle at The Cheesecake Factory.  Mmmm.  I'm sure you know just what I'm talking about.  I love me some herbed salmon and any kind of dessert there.

 The big event for the day was the Great Wheel.  This is a fairly new ferris wheel on the water off of one of Seattle's piers.  The kids were pretty pumped about the idea, but we still worked hard to keep the positive thoughts going.  I know grown men who won't get on the thing.

 The kids nearly broke their necks that day.  By falling off?  No, no, no...  We had a long wait before we could get on, and this is pretty much how they spent that time:

Curie stared in awe and traced the motion with her finger.

It really was pretty awesome to watch.  Each of those cars are the size of an elevator carriage, so maybe you can imagine how tall it felt.

The setting is perfectly Seattle and the ride hangs out over the water.

 Piercy was nice and patient.  Do yourself a favor and click on this picture to make it big.  Then sit back and take in those eyes.

Curie got a little nervous and clingy just as we entered our cell, but she worked though it and we all enjoyed our three trips around the wheel.  The people on the ground sure looked like tiny ants from up top.

 Ahhh, December.  Who says we don't have blue skies in Seattle?  Those clouds look blue to me!  And pretty.

Our Great Wheel verdict: do it!