Beach Photo Tour 2012

I haven't been blogging much lately, just super busy lately!!  Just wanted to share some pics I took to spell out Rehoboth from local businesses that make Rehoboth beach so special.  Do you know where the letters are from?

  Enjoy! I did :)

Tye Dye Photo Tour

My sister and her family love to tye dye, so we did a little while we were visiting in August.  Here are the before and after pictures.

t-shirt for O

pillowcase for O

cami for E

cami for E

bandana for O

oops! how did this Firefly and Lemonade get here!? :)

 End Results I am pretty proud of:

TTFN!

Music Edit and Memorial Day

Hi everyone!  Memorial Day weekend was really great.  We had so much fun visiting friends in PA and you know what? I drank responsibly and didn't make a fool out of myself!  Then an impromptu stop at my parents for an afternoon of swimming and food. The ride back Sunday evening was a little dicey.  Our son was out like a light, but our 16 month old daughter is the only child I have ever known who does not sleep in the car.  She grunted and groaned until almost 10 pm.  She didn't fall asleep until i got in the back seat with her and put her head against her blanket and patted it! She hates car rides and now, so do we.  We were so spoiled with our son.  I could plan road trips with his nap schedule and it would be awesome!  Now, I seriously don't want to go anywhere.
Memorial Day itself was great as well.  More swimming for everyone.  Our son and one of his friends frolicked in the water entertaining each other.  It is so nice to finally to get to this part where they don't need your undivided attention and would rather play with their friends.  Don't get me wrong, I love to play with my son, but I welcome the time where he is engaged with a more age-appropriate playmate.  He and my husband got a little too much sun and are a bit crispy today.  We will have to remember to re-apply next time. I also can not believe that I didn't take one single picture this whole weekend.  Oh well!
Also, I have updated the music player to turn the auto-play off.  So if you want to listen to it, you will have to manually press play. Sorry (to those of you who like it) and for those of you who didn't, you can thank me later. I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend! TTFN!

On a School Night!?

As a lot of my nearest and dearest friends and family know, I am not good with change or spontaneous ideas or anything that I have not been able to plan or at least have my hand in a little bit.  I am also not really good with 'evening activities' during the week.  They get in the way of my re-organization of the children's toys, dinner, cleaning up the kitchen, general tidying (for what reason I have yet to know b/c the minute I walk out the door in the morning everything goes back t sh*#), and catching up on DVR'd shows.  Oh, and wine consumption.  Plus my daughter goes to bed EXTREMELY early, like 6 PM, so it's hard to ever do anything for fear of baby breakdown and public embarrassment .  So yesterday when I was talking to my lovely sister on my way home from work, and I informed her that my family was going to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel and then go to Family Jump Time at Pump it Up, she asked cautiously, "On a school night?" Yup, on a school night.  I was actually really excited about it and it worked out very well.  Both kids were well behaved at the restaurant and had a blast running around it P.I.U.  I was also very excited to order my favorite Cracker Barrel offering, Eggs In a Basket (sometimes known as Rocky Mountain Oysters Toast) with a side of Hash Brown Casserole and bacon, as pictured above.  I mean really, does it get any better, minus the fact that is goes straight to the ass and arteries?  My plate was so clean at the end you would have thought I licked it.  I was kind of embarrassed. Anyway the Hash Brown Casserole at Cracker Barrel is T.D.F. (To Die For), a little abbreviation I made up over the weekend. My husband was mortified when I uttered my new term and my mother was elated.
I am really proud of myself for participating in this family event that I would otherwise shy away from.  It was a success!  Yay me.............TTFN!

Cherry Blossoms

Today kicks off the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.  These trees are beautiful, but the make one hell of a mess.  We have a huge one in our front yard (pictured above), and every year I am so excited to see the fluffy pink blooms.  But then the rain comes and the petals stick to the soles of your shoes and get tracked into the house and if not swept up immediately stick the floor.  Nothing a little elbow grease can't handle, but most definitely irritating.
As far ads the festival in our Nation's Capital, our family has yet to participate. Pretty sad considering we have been in the D.C. Metro area for almost 10 years.  2011 will be the year.  I am insisting that we go and check it out.  I would like to see the blooms in their peak and here is the schedule for 2011.

Average Peak Bloom Date: April 4

2011 Peak Bloom Date Forecast: March 29 – April 1

2011 Blooming Period Forecast: March 26 – April 7

Oh, and festival food?  Woot! I can't seem to find any info about independent food vendors other than participating restaurants, but I hope there are some food carts along the way.  This lady needs snacks at consistent intervals, especially to deal with large crowds. 
Now I just have to convince my better half that this will be a great experience.......


**Also, I take back my Why-Reinvent the Wheel Wed. comment that I have no motivation to do anything cute, because this week we made Cherry Blossom Paintings with sequin flowers to kick off the Spring Season!  Check out my fine motor skills**

Bienvenue au printemps!

Well not quite yet, but only a few more days!  There is nothing more I love than getting outside with my family, opening the windows to let the fresh air in, and enjoying a crisp glass of wine on the patio on a warm evening.   I spent a lot of time this weekend getting my 'garden' ready for the new green sprouts to make their way into the world.  This is something you may not know about me, but I tend to my plants almost constantly starting this time of year.  I love to stand outside in the warm evening and water them, pretending like I actually know what I am doing.  I also encourage my son to help me in the garden so he can appreciate the life cycle of plants and caring for personal belongings (responsibility, see Heigh Ho Heigh Ho).

When my grandmother moved from her home in Havertown, PA to an apartment in Wayne, she gave my parents some of her irises.  Some were then given to me when we bought our house and I now have numerous plants that bloom, gorgeous purple flowers every spring.   So it means a lot to me to take care of them.  When we move from our current home, I plan to take a few with me and keep the traditional alive.  I also love my hydrangea plants that were given to me on mother's day two years on a a row.  They will be going with me as well!

At every change of the season I like to look around for home decor to match.  I mean I don't go crazy and buy matching throw pillows and hand towels, however I do pick up little pieces, like the one picture above, to place sparingly around the house.  This is one I just found at my local Home Goods, which I check our regularly for just about anything to decorate my house.  I love this piece because it is a bit primitive being that is is a sampler (a handstitched piece of embroidery used to demonstrate skill in needlework), but the robin egg blue frame brightens up the traditional brown or black.  I also have a hard time finding Spring decor that is not 'Eastery,' and there are no bunnies or easter eggs in sight on this one!  The ribbon flowers and pearl and button centers are so perfect; a big warm welcome to Spring...............