Who got a makeover?

That's right, I did! The twins brought out their stash of nail polish, face powder, and lipstick and did their mom up last night. We were trying to keep cool, enjoying the evening temperatures outside when they pounced on me. I had on four layers of lip stick/gloss by the time they were done, the most prominent layer being bright, bright pink. (Sorry, no photo of that.) The best part, while my nails were drying, they took turns giving me a massage! Now THAT made my day! It was the most fun, least fighting, and most positive interaction I've had with them in many a day.

Happy Summer to You!

Happy Summering!

Sorry I've been absent. We had a big week here. First week of summer vacation, our dog's first birthday, and the first camping trip of the summer. (impromptu, too - awesome!) Here is Charley's first birthday cake, made lovingly by his "sisters". Yes, we lit a candle and sang to him. He just wondered when the heck they were going to put that delicious smelling pile of ground beef, potatoes, carrots and apples down where he could reach it!

Then we were able to acquire some camping in one of our national parks. I'll bet you can guess which one. We've been here before with the girls, but always in September, so they've never seen the waterfalls. It was a great trip, despite one child having an accident in their sleeping bag the first night, the super cold nights, and going to bed one night, leaving Charley tied to the picnic table - he almost was a bear snack! (Don't worry - he was only out there for about five minutes before I realized.) We had a minimal about of fighting - for our family.

Hope your first days of summer vacation are going great!

Decisions, decisions

What do you call it when you have baby brain, but no baby? Had-Too-Many-Babies-Brain? I WROTE a {this moment} post. Picked out a picture. Had my cursor hovering over the Publish button, when I suddenly realized, "It's not Friday." It's Wednesday. I think trying to decide what we are doing with our holiday weekend has made the week speed up on me. :)

We have an opportunity for a spontaneous camping trip (well, 3 day warning spontaneous), which is so tempting. Or we can just continue with our plans to "staycation", which is also tempting.

How about you? Have big plans this weekend? A get-a-way? Home improvement? Gardening? Lazy-ing? Shopping? Do tell.

I wasn't gonna post today

even though it's been awhile & I even have something to share. I've just got a gazillion things to do, so I was gonna skip it. But while eating my delayed breakfast, I read SouleMama's 10 good things list & I thought, "well, I can manage that." So here's my 10 good things:

-getting plants in the ground (that have been waiting a week)
-eating a delicious dinner someone else cooked
-& then being blessed with leftovers!
-eating CANDY for the first time since February SQUEE!!!
-the husband that went WAY overboard in supplying me with my first candy since February
-preschool (hey, I'm not gonna lie)
-babysitter day (ditto)
-seeing some amazing help and cooperation out of my 3 littles
-the inspiration I get from the creative women I come across on the internets
-a house, food, money to pay my bills and then some, my health, my children's health, my children, my husband (I can roll this into one, right?)

cake WRECK

You've seen this blog before, right?

Here's my submission:
My attempt at a "cupcakes falling off the cake" style. I thought I had it figured out: bamboo skewers & toothpicks. Even some strawberries to prop up some cupcakes. Totally cute & easy to decorate.

Good start, no? But the Teenager wanted whipped cream for frosting. No problemo. Except it was an 80 degree day. And I had the Twinnies helping assemble. I do not have air conditioning. You see where this is going.

This is where it ended up.

We ate it anyway, and it did get polite, "It's delicious!" But I'll definitely have to try again...in December.

(Please excuse the poor photos. My phone was the only handy camera.)

Reminders from SouleMama

I have been feeling constantly running behind for the past 7 months or so. I realized that I have nearly no pictures of the puppy growing up & that also meant that I don't have any pictures of my kids in the past 5 months also. So, I'm promising myself to join SouleMama's friday ritual of {this moment}, to slow down & take some time to pick up my camera. Because just like their infancy, they won't be 14, 7 & 4 forever.

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.