The happiest of birthdays to you, Elliott Elizabeth Aspiras!
Our hip hoppin’, orange chicken lovin’, cartwheelin’, picture drawin’, chapter book readin’, mermaid swimmin’, knock knock joke tellin’, brown eyed girl is {seven} today.
We’re so lucky to have you in our lives and we hope that your birthdays are happier and happier with each passing year ~ that is always our wish for you!
This afternoon I searched the garage for some old water balloons and the little do-hickey that goes over the outdoor faucet to make filling them easier. I was fortunate to find both and spent a good 30 minutes perfecting my balloon filling and tying skills and getting ready for summer.
The kids gently tossed the balloons back and forth ~ one thing is for sure….30 minutes filling = 5 minutes to break. NOT a good ratio, but they had fun and that’s all that matters. They then resorted to filling the bucket and tossing that onto each other.
Summer has definitely been teasing us this weekend.
Sleepovers.
Gentle warm breezes.
Grills being lit up.
Sorbet recipes being googled.
Corn being spotted in all the grocery stores.
Fun foods and cool beverages being pinned on The Big P.
Taking in these last few weeks before school is out and I officially have a kindergartner and a second grader…
*****
And today we are sitting still and gentle…thinking about and remembering ALL who have served, are currently serving and will serve our country.
Praying for those who are waiting for their loved ones to return and praising those who did not return.
This day is for YOU.
Happy Memorial Day!
For love of country they accepted death. ~ James A. Garfield
Another birthday party down in the books…this makes party number twelve between the two kiddos. I LOVE planning their little parties ~ this year for Elliott we decided to do a small sleepover to celebrate turning SEVEN.
She decided on a mermaid theme and I was immediately on board! Give this mama a theme and she’s immediately in action…scouting out little goodies, trinkets and treasures.
I found the invites at Marshall’s for $3.99! They came with 8 invites and 8 thank you notes…since we were keeping party small this year, these totally worked.
Elliott wanted to go to the pool with her friends which totally made sense. The weather here had been HOT for weeks, but the day of her party was supposed to be in the high 60s/low 70s! I thought about canceling the pool, but the mermaids suited up and spent about 2 hours swimming, jumping, splashing and diving.
{Matching nightgowns from Target for 50% off were part of their goody bag…they showered, shampooed and got in their jammies before we headed home}
{I also found some cute shell bracelets at our local drug store for 75% off months ago}
{The seahorse bowls and plates were from a random Kmart visit ~ 75% off before Christmas. These also went home with each guest}
{Above the table, on a big branch, I hung some Dollar Tree paper lanterns and a few jellyfish made and handed down from my friend, Mia}
{my mom made these seashell jars last summer and I filled them with Dum Dums}
The food was fun and easy…
{eating sushi after the pool}
{my four-legged [octodogs] didn’t quite look like the ones on Pinterest}
I invited the mamas over for drinks and appetizers, too. I threw together a quick 7-layer dip and picked up a sushi platter at Trader Joe’s. My neighbor, Sun, brought some Korean BBQ on a skewer ~ yum!
The mama mermaids sipped what I called Mermaid Tail Martinis ~ Vodka, Malibu, pineapple juice, blue curacao {shake that in a cocktail shaker and pour into a martini glass} add a splash of Sprite and float a mango mochi on top. I premixed a pitcher of the drink and then shook it with ice as needed. Do not add the Sprite before shaking because of the carbonation. Ratio: 2 cups vodka, 2 cups Malibu, 2 8.45 ounce cans {or the equivalent} pineapple juice, 1 ounce blue curacao. Makes 8-10 servings. The mochi can be found at Trader Joe’s and is like a little ball of ice cream.
The mochi sort of melts into the drink and makes it creamy. One mochi lasts for about two drinks…there are only six mochi to a pack so I needed to stretch them out and it worked perfectly for each guest to have one.
The cake was just a four layer cake with vanilla cream cheese buttercream. The girls also had Elliott’s favorite cotton candy push pops.
{candy sushi made with halved powdered donuts and rice krispie treats topped with a Swedish fish and then wrapped with a strip of fruit by the foot [I used Market Pantry brand from Target]}
{they drank blue lemonade out of little plastic coconuts from Dollar Tree}
The mamas left around 9:00 or so and then we were on our own to get the girls to bed! I cleaned up the kitchen while they watched their favorite Disney Channel shows and all four were asleep by 11:00pm ~ I was shocked.
7:00am wake up call courtesy of Holden!
I told Elliott she could choose any cereal she wanted and she decided on Fruit Loops…a special birthday treat. She also wanted monkey bread, but wanted to call it {mermaid bread}.
After breakfast, they lined up and I did glitter nails with polish from her friend, Emilie…
I also borrowed a mermaid cardboard cutout that my friend Mia also did for her twins’ recent mermaid luau party and we took some fun pics before the girls headed home…
*****
Not gonna lie…I was exhausted at 11:00am Sunday morning when the little mermaids swam back to their mamas!
But it was the perfect little homespun birthday celebration and I loved every minute of the planning.
Screaming/giggling/singing/dancing first graders are lots of fun.
Jay & I survived our first sleepover!
Tomorrow is the REAL birthday for my {almost} Memorial Day baby.
It looked like {fun} so I told myself I’d do it this year…
I have absolutely NO upper body strength so I was nervous about a few of the obstacles…namely the 8 foot rope wall at the END of the course.
When you are completely exhausted and out of fuel.
But I forged ahead and told myself that I just wanted to finish.
And survive.
And not have to be taken out on a stretcher.
And have fun.
It was a gorgeous morning on the lake.
Jay was a rockstar. He did the 10K and made it look like a walk in the park.
My friend Vicki and I did the 5K and made it look like I don’t know what {at least I did!}
In our corral…completely oblivious to what was ahead!
I would say the first 1/2 to 3/4 of the 5K was UP hill. Brutal. We started out around 10:45 so it was getting warm already. Made it through the first two obstacles no prob, a net crawl and scaling a short wall. Then came the ascent up a LARGE mountain. Like LARGE. Like you could see the trail of people WAY up above and ask yourself “Is that where we’re going?” large, but there was no turning back…just one foot in front of the other. Might I add that we had to drop and do 20 push-ups halfway up the mountain. Once at the top, the next obstacle was a huge inflatable slide that you had to climb up. I was extremely graceful going down the slide until I shot off the end of it onto the ground! Nice. After a mini mud crawl, we began our descent to the finish.
{How many Marines does it take to get a girl over the climbing wall? Tough!}
{Lake wade}
This was the best part…
We survived!
Two dirty mamas!
Our proof ~ dog tag medal…
*****
There you have it ladies and gents.
Wasn’t purty, but I did it.
Would I do it again?
Yes, but I’d want to be in MUCH better shape and several pounds lighter.
Meant to sit down and do a {turn your old, outdated framed print into a chalkboard} tutorial this week, but others things happened.
On Tuesday morning I got caught in some traffic on the way to Woodland Hills…
Because of a darling striped, ruffled shirt I spotted in Instagram {thanks, Richelle!}, I went on a wild goose chase for one {or two} for myself:
{now can you see why I had to have one? I got yellow & white…the pink is for the person responsible for all this! [wink wink]}
While whizzing through Wal-mart, my no sweets havin’ self spied these…
{it’s ON after Lent}
On Wednesday morning, I started a load of laundry before walking Elliott to school. By the grace of God I was upstairs brushing my teeth when the washer started overflowing. I immediately turned off the water, placed a call to the management office and waited for the fix-it guy…
{turns out there was just a hole in some hose that didn’t allow air in for the sensor thingy to signal that the water level was high enough…or something technical like that}
Fix-it guy said we could’ve had LOTS of water damage of I hadn’t been there to turn off the machine. Phew!
{this is Rascal sitting on my lap while we were waiting for fix-it guy}
Just when I was feeling down about our WHITER than WHITE walls, I realized that I will take white walls any day of the week if the are home to my babies’ fun artwork.
Cheeseburger Chopped Salad was what was for dinner on Wednesday…
Everything you’d put on a burger, but the bun!
{turkey burger sliders, chopped romaine, cheddar cheese shreds, tomato, red onion, pickles, jalapeños, real bacon bits and avocado all tossed in a bit of ranch dressing}
It was deee-lish.
Thursday Woody went to school for share day. When the letter of the week was K. Oh well, at least he buckled up for safety.
My brown-eyed, freckle nosed, side pony wearin’ girl….
Fish sticks for dinner…
Friday morning brought this gorgeous sunrise…
Getting a quick Easter gift ready for Elliott’s sweet, deserving teacher…
{reusable tumbler with little iced tea packets inside}
A trip to the mall to scope out some Easter duds…
Found some possible options for next to nothing…
{dress, $6-something and shirt, $4 ~ The Children’s Place}
Next a trip to have a picnic and feed the {duckings} as Holden calls them…
{with Ryan stocking up on bread}
{tossing bread}
{Fought the crowds at Circle K for our chance to be gazillionaires}
{we’re not gazillionaires after all}
Hit up Mickey D’s for a cone to kill time before dance class…
*****
Not too bad of a week leading up to Spring Break!
Looking forward to a fun-filled week at home ~ visiting with friends that are moving to Australia {wah!}, coloring Easter eggs, sending off Easter greetings in the mail, frolicking with Gramma, hopefully painting a chalkboard or two and making some headway on sanding and painting my little table that I’ve been putting off for a year and a half!
Linking up with Jeannett over at Life Rearranged! Come over and say, “Hello!”
The other day I was thinking back to when I started going to Starbucks. It seems like now, after almost a couple decades, that it is just part of life. Just as we drop off and pick up our kids from school, run errands, fix dinner, etc. we run to the Starbucks drive-thru or pop into a store to fetch our morning, afternoon or evening cuppa joe {or tea. or hot chocolate.}.
It’s become part of the routine. At least for ME anyways.
My first real memory of Starbucks dates back to 1993 when I worked in Hillcrest at a doctor’s office. The office manager, Susan, and I would run across Washington Street to the corner Starbucks and always get a grande nonfat no foam latte with two Equals. A half caff coffee of the day for Dr. Schmidt.
A couple years later when I moved to Pacific Beach with my best friend, Denise, our thing was the coffee frappuccino. I remember one summer when a day might consist of a morning frap and an afternoon frap!
Then around 2000, my co-worker Deb, introduced me to the americano and it was over from there. We would go down to the little coffee cart at our building in the mornings and get a hot one, but once summer came I immediately started ordering them iced. I will say that a venti extra extra ice americano with 2 Splendas and a splash of half & half is my go to coffee beverage 9 months our of the year.
Today Holden and I had a little morning adventure.
It hit me, after submitting his kindergarten registration papers to the office this week, that in just about 5 short months he will begin his academic career.
My baby will start kindergarten.
In 5 months.
5 months translates to about 2 weeks these days.
*****
I have been stashing the old ends of the bread into the freezer for the past couple weeks for the sole purpose of taking him to sit and feed the ducks down at local Bridgeport Marketplace.
What could be simpler? Stale bread and a beautiful location just minutes from our front door.
As I sat and watched him jump and climb and search out the perfect spot to toss his ripped up bread, I recalled the days when my sister and I were children growing up in San Diego and my mom would take us to Vacation Village {now Paradise Point}. We would feed the ducks under the shade of a big tree and then walk up to the top of the tower and look out at the view and down at the guests splashing in the turquoise pool.
The circus came to town this past Saturday {Holden’s actual birthday} and it was nothing short of chaos ~ beautiful chaos.
We packed almost 60 {59 to be exact} clowns, big & little, into our circus tent and I think everyone had a grand time.
The day started off with Jay taking Holden to get donuts in the trailer…
*****
The invites were just thank you notes that I flipped over so the {thank you} was on the back.
{The cards are from Target and the stickers from CVS}
I fell in love with the detail on the envelopes.
This theme was so fun to plan ~ stripes, polka dots and LOTS of color are right up my alley. About a year ago I found these little monkey flags at Kohl’s for like 49 cents and used them to start the circus craziness.
A huge orange star greeted the guests on the front door…
My friend, Hollie, made this cute “Happy Birthday” sign for the front yard.
If you’re local, you can rent it and have it personalized for your special birthday someone. Contact me and I can put you in touch with her! So fun.
Gramma threw together this “5” banner…
I picked up a rainbow of fabrics and made a little bunting to hang across the fireplace…
{just get 1/4 yard of fabric, rip into 1 inch strips, cut those strips in half, loop around a long piece of twine ~ voila!}
My mom found some polka dot paper lanterns at Pier 1 and I hung 2 of them above our big dining room table…
I love the way they look and want to get some solid colored ones to leave up permanently!
I filled my sconces with bubble gum and stuck rolls of tickets on top…
The large ticket sign is from Kohl’s for cheap…
Gramma Kathy got the clown piñata at Party City {this was the first piñata we’ve ever had!}
{I stuffed with Dum Dums, Smarties, Mott’s Medley gummies and Florida’s Natural Fruit Nuggets}
What’s a circus without popcorn?
Circus animals with sprinkles are also a must…
I made myself a gum ball necklace based on this tutorial.
Gramma schlepped her sewing machine up here to make this shirt for the birthday boy…
Of course we had to feed all the circus-goers…
I found Cotton Candy Liqueur and made this sangria…
I made a 5-layer ombre cake in cotton candy blue…
I found cotton candy sherbet push-ups at Target {Market Pantry} as modeled here by our darling neighbor Miss Nataliyah and her beautiful mama…
Singing…
Making a wish and blowing out the candles…
I wanted to set up a photo booth backdrop in the backyard, but it was too windy…the kids bounced in the jumper, hit the piñata, played Wii and ate WAY too much sugar!
Our little clown friends were sent home with some practical party favors ~ socks! Striped for the boys and polka dots for the girls…
I also made little bow ties for all to take home…if you didn’t get one and would like one, please let me know and I will whip one up.
The bigger boys {that are too cool for striped socks} got to take home a box of Bottle Caps…
