My Backyard View

My backyard view at 6:00PM on a Thursday...

My NO maintenence garden

popsicles any time. any where.

climbin' the apple tree

tooth number 3 is hanging on for dear life

chocolate giggles... priceless

Tea Time Made Easy!

I heart tea.

and I heart my new dream gadget for tea lovers.

208 degree water all day long! Endless cups of tea!

It's also convenient for oatmeal. :)

Tea time, made better.

I'll end with a funny story about me and tea...

My family is English, and I grew up with mom brewing at least two pots of tea every day. I have loved it as far back as my memory takes me. 

On a drizzly day when I was 9 and mom was at work, I had a brilliant idea to have a hot tea stand in my neighborhood. I brewed a big pot of loose tea and set up a table for my customers. Then I posted a sign that read, "HOT INGLISH TEA. GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT! 10 cents/cup. I was ready and eager to serve tea all day long if I had to. Maybe I'll do it every week, I thought. I'll be the richest kid in the neighborhood, cuz tea is the best! 

Only no one showed up. All day. Poor little 9 year old me.

Did you notice how I spelled English on my sign? I only know this because my mom still has the sign, with hello kitty tape still attached. :)

Pencil Sharpening Lessons from My 4 yr old

I sharpened a bunch of pencils with my 4 yr old this morning....

We used the glass slipper pencil sharpeners left over from their birthday party goodie bags... aren't they cute?..

Hers turned out sharp.

Mine did not.

She had almost no shavings. I had a lot.

I asked her what her trick was. "Just keep going. Doing is slowly and doing it hard-ly".

I should have known!

A Day at the Beach

The weather has been so beautiful here. We soaked it all in yesterday, joining my dad and step mom for a day at the beach.

I didn't want to babysit my SLR, so I brought my crappy camera...

We looked for sea shells and rocks along the beach.

 This is my 4 yr old's idea of "rocks"....

My dad and step mom bought an ancient motor home (it's in really good shape) and made it into their beach mobile. The kids think it's cooler than Disneyland. This was in the parking lot. We didn't drive without carseats!

Life is good.

Time

Happy Spring!!!

Remember me? It's been a while.

Most of my time lately has been spent on these things:

Physiology... a lot of it.

My favorite 4 and 6 yr olds, who happen to be on spring break with me...

And lastly, daydreaming about getting one of these...

I hope this post finds you well. I'm sure I'll be back in blog land soon!

An Un-Martha Double Birthday Party

Not all bloggers are Martha.

Here's one that's not even close.

We threw a double birthday party for my girls this past weekend.

It was super fun but I can assure you, Martha wouldn't have been proud. The only thing homemade were the cupcakes (all 72 of them) - from a boxed mix.

I'm so dissapointed that I didn't take more photos. I kept meaning to take some cool photos but it all went by in a blur!

Why didn't I get a photo of them together?! Urgh. In my defense, their parties were at separate times. The 4 yr olds party was at 10:00 and my 6 yr olds party was at noon. Two separate cupcake decorating events. :) 

You guys, i suck. This photo isn't even from this party! This is from a party we went to a couple weeks ago, when I got the idea to decorate cupcakes! I forgot to get a cool photo when my kids were decorating, so I threw this one in for effect. I cannot tell a lie.

It may not have been up to Martha's standards, but the parents seemed to have fun. And the kids didn't notice anything but the bounce house, cupcake frosting, and goodie bags.

We had games, yes we did. But did we play them? No! Everyone was having so much fun, I backed off and let them enjoy themselves. I'm not type A, in case it's not abundantly clear here.

look at this poor child panicking to get out of the bounce house to decorate cupcakes.

Nothing fancy. Just a bunch of kids coming together to wish two special girls a happy 4th and 6th birthday!

I have to give a shout out to my wonderful husband who set up the bounce house three times until it was perfect, and went on four different car runs for me during the party.

Thanks Sugar. You are the best!

Crazy busy and a quote by Rockefeller

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great"

-John D. Rockefeller

I've been super busy with Physiology and planning my kids double birthday party (which was a total success!). I will post a real post soon. In the meantime, I thought i'd share a quick quote. Enjoy!