Celebrating Jonah's Birthday

I just realized that the whole month has nearly flown by and there are so many things I've wanted to document, so today I'm catching up with my birthday boy's actual birthday day. It was a fabulous day! (We had his big party over the weekend so I'll be sharing that soon, too.)

 J wanted a ginormous Whoopie Pie for his birthday cake - it was huge! And really yummy!

 Just a snapshot of French Toast and berries. Oh, and my glamorous life.

Birthday hugs before school

I swear I never leave the kitchen! With all the birthdays around here, and all the requests for special treats and dinners and such, I basically live in the kitchen.
Jonah had the bright idea of trying to make a giant Whoopie Pie Cake, and I wasn't sure if it would come out okay, but it did and he loooved it. Love it when that happens. :)

This was such a fun day!

The guys watched Percy Jackson while I baked the whoopie pies, and then I brought them out to Pizza Hut for lunch. We were going to sneak up to go swimming before school ended, but it started to snow, a lot!, so we waited for Isabelle to get home and to see if the snow lessened.

This was when I sang Happy Birthday to him in front of everyone. I have no shame.

He was super embarrassed but I think he liked it, too.

It did, so off we went. Such a nice afternoon!

Just a few presents for your real birthday day

He wanted a new hockey stick and was pretty happy about this - all the photos are blurry because he was so excited he just couldn't be still.  :)

Moms of boys, I know you totally get this
ha ha ha ha

And I just noticed Caleb's reflection in the mirror- HA

March 5th was a teeth-chattering, finger-numbing, bitterly cold kind of day, but at least the snow was shining. For a while anyway...it began to snow, a lot!, throughout the day. A special sort of homage to the Nor'easter 13 years ago, during which my baby boy was born.

Though this was technically our first official week of homeschool, I didn't have a moment's hesitation to call off school for the day and celebrate my son. And we did everything we wanted to do!

Jonah kept telling me what an awesome day he'd had, and that just made my heart swell to the point of bursting. How blessed am I.

I just had to share this one... Jonah and Caleb started taking care of sweet Abby shortly after his birthday. Isn't she the sweetest little thing?!?! They have both been so responsible and trust-worthy, and I'm incredibly proud of them. Plus, we get to play with this adorable puppy. It's a win-win!

New Employment

I blinked and it's Friday. I've got so much to do for Jonah's party tomorrow, but at least the cleaning part is pretty much done. Well, until I whip up a ginormous mess in the kitchen again later. Oh well, it's always worth it.

Throughout the week I've used up all my brain energy tackling some new tech kinds of things...and totally failed. Blech. Two steps forward, eighteen back. Ha! It was in an effort to streamline things for my shop, but... Not so much. Words seems to be getting out and I've been crazy-busy with orders, for which I'm so thankful, but it means that my time is even more limited, and there doesn't seem to be enough to go around. Only the list of things I need to get done never gets that memo.

Anyhoo.

So here is something fun that has happened in the last week: Caleb and Jonah got a puppy-sitting job for our sweet neighbors. She's a brand new Golden Retriever, and she's so fuzzy and cute! Her name is Abby. While I adore her, this has completely reaffirmed my thinking that I enjoy other people's puppies.  ;)

Okay, my list isn't tackling itself, so I'm off! Wish me luck!

Spring Fever & Random Fun Things

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

We headed straight for the beach on Saturday when the temperature began to rise (for the first time in many, many days). We were snowboarding and sledding the day before, and yesterday we woke up to more new snowfall. I've got SPRING FEVER something fierce! I slipped my feet into a pair of flip flops, and then felt the warm sand between my toes. There's no going back now. I'll probably end up with frostbitten toes or something, but... worth it. ha ha

Speaking of Spring, I've been adding to my fashion board here. Please keep in mind, fashionista I am not. But I like to look cute, and there are some really pretty outfits and things this year.

Some adorable sewing things have caught my attention recently. One of them is from my friend Lindsay, a busy Mom, fellow seamstress and Etsy seller (PA Country Crafts). I have fallen head over heels for the beautiful Quiet Book she made for one of her girls. She's written a series about making it on her blog. Here's a link to one of the pages.

This video just makes me smile. There's really nothing more I can say. So, so cute.

I've got a birthday party to finish planning for this weekend. Watching my kids grow up is rewarding and amazing and inspiring, but it's bittersweet. Always bittersweet. I just want to hold on tight and savor those snippets of time, but I can't. Nobody can. It goes by so, so quickly.

Oh, and here's a shot of that gorgeous "gymnaskets" ponytail I referred to in this post. =)

Gulp. Why does she look sixteen in that last photo?

Happy Monday! We've got a busy, busy day ahead of us!

Cute Things from Isabelle & a Home Office Sneak Peak

This week has been one ginormous UP and DOWN, with the weather, with moods and temperaments, life things, school things....ahh, you name it, and we've had a high and a low about it this week!

One of the highs was hosting a brunch yesterday, and then visiting with other friends later in the day, and then... getting to watch Ethan play soccer for the first time since October! It would have been completely awesome had it not been for my lurching-to-my-throat heart every time another player got even the slightest bit aggressive with him. Or the ball flew past his head. Or pretty much anytime he left the sidelines. (Ethan is our oldest son who suffered a severe concussion in October than landed him an overnight in the hospital, and then months and months of physical and neurological therapy, in case you're new and don't know- he's much better now!)

Isabelle is that gloriously fun age where she's trying to understand everything, so she asks lots of questions. Lots. Of. Questions.

Lately she has been trying to wrap her brain around what's real and what isn't. Disney makes this no easy task, ha!

She is completely baffled about the notion of  "actual, real, live people" when Anna ecstatically sings about the big party because she can't fathom how the two belong together in the movie. Because, after all, she informs me time and time again that there were actually no real, live people in it. Ha Ha

One other day, totally out of the blue, she asked me how Flynn Rider and Rapunzel could be singing their song with their "mouthas" closed. That one took me a second, because I hadn't remembered; but she's right, they aren't singing at first. Try explaining that one. Background music and voice-overs didn't seem to be the thrilling answers she was hoping for, not that she got what I was saying in the first place.  ;)

And then, the instant the van stopped in the garage after gymnastics practice Thursday afternoon, she pops out of her seat and squishes her face against my cheek, raspy-voiced and whispering, "I think you broke my smolder."  I nearly died. But wait, it gets even better... she backs up and tells me to watch her "smolder" as she proceeds to wrinkle up her face and smirk her little lips, and then tilt her head to the side. That's when her very-high gymnastics ponytail smacks my right eye, and now we're both dying. Such a funny, endearing little moment- I don't ever want to forget it.

This picture popped up for some reason the other day when I was going through some other albums- cutest thing ever! That grin, those curls, that adorable little dented chin. I love it all!

As for the office, I've made a few subtle changes. There is quite the explosion of color from all the fabrics that are folded on shelves (and generally spilling out from baskets, across the ironing board, and all over my sewing machine), so I've made things a bit more neutral on the office side of the room. This is just a little sneak peak...

I might even have some updated kitchen photos to share soon. I'm sure you can hardly wait.  =)

I hear the weather may get warmer today so we'll be heading outside for sure! Have a great weekend!