the hills are alive

If you remember, I've managed to transfer my love of musicals to Kaitlyn.

A couple of weeks ago she announced she was going to be Maria from the classic Sound of Music.

I knew I had to call in reinforcements for this one -- a.k.a. Miyo.

(Again, thank you Miyo!)

She fashioned the apron out of an XL men's shirt I found at a thrift store.

Mo snatched this costume the moment we walked through the doors of Old Navy a couple of weeks ago.

She literally dragged it around the store the entire time we were there refusing to let me carry it for her.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

sleeping with sissy

We are officially going to move the girls into the same room.

Katie has been sleeping on her mattress in Maddie's room almost two weeks now and they both love it.

Katie: I want to sleep with sissy all the time!

Mo: Me too! (although yelling "me too" seems to be a knee-jerk response, and not always one she means)

How can we say no to these faces?

So, for those of you who have kids who share a room: Do you have any tips? Pointers? Absolute Dos or Don'ts?

homemaker of the year

Scene: At Miyo's house. She is making Katie's Halloween costume and ironing a piece of fabric.

Katie (pointing to the iron/ironing board): What's that?

for mo

Maddie loves yellow. When she paints she always chooses yellow paper and yellow paint. Her work is like modern art you see in museums.

When we shop she always grabs random yellow clothing. Most of the time we are not shopping for her as she has a ton of beautiful hand-me-downs from both her sister and Dylann.

Today I found this in a thrift store and had to buy it for her.

Looked up the label and it turns out I scored a vintage 1950s Jean Durain dress for $5.

celebrity sighting

Pulling into a Montecito neighborhood on the way to a lovely friend’s baby shower.

Jen: Okay guys, THAT’S Jack Johnson.

Tracy (rolling down her window): Hey, great show this week!

He walks over to the car pushing a stroller (I'm guessing being five moms and a baby in a minivan is a less-than-threatening scenario).

I dig frantically through Miyo's purse looking for my camera.

Tracy: I was one of the people underneath you when you were surfing the crowd this week.

He reaches in the car to shake Tracy’s hand and then shake’s Jen’s hand. Amy, in the backseat thrusts her hand out the window between Tracy and the front window. He shakes her hand.

Tracy: Becky in the back was also at your concert too.

He glances through the tinted windows and waves.

I wave frantically at him even though he can’t see me, snapping pictures like a maniac.

He walks away.

Amy: I should have called shotgun.

Jen: I had to be driving a minvan when I meet Jack Johnson?

procrastination

takes odd forms sometimes.

I'm on deadline this week so, what do I do this afternoon? Try to recreate Jenn's awesome mobile project with Katie and Maddie's artwork of course.

my babygirl

Me: Come over here baby girl.

Katie: I'm not a baby anymore Mama.

Me: Honey, you will always be my baby girl. Even when you're 40, you'll still be my baby girl.

Katie: Okay, but do you think you'll still remember then?

Me: Oh, I hope so.

a party for papa

In Katie's world all parties have themes.

Katie: What theme is Papa's birthday going to be this year?

Me: Uh, what do you want it to be?

Katie: Well, last year he had a prince party. I think he should have a cat party this year.

Logical, right?

A cat party it was.

We made cat decorations.

We crafted cat masks.

Mama jerry-rigged some cat ears.

As well as some tails out of old leggings.

There were cat races.

And, the aforementioned inedible cat cake.

Hope you had a good one Papa!

making lemonade

While I bake often for some reason I had never made a cake from scratch before. So, for Papa's birthday I made a first attempt and it was in word: Bad.

Katie (with a half-eaten cake in front of her): I think I'm all done Mama.

Papa: That was the litmus test you know.

No idea what I did wrong. It was so disappointing. I even made strawberry butter cream frosting, which we all tried to eat off the awful cake.

We had some leftover frosting, so we made sugar cookies today in order to salvage some of the labor that went into making that.

I will be making cakes over the next few weeks to try to ameliorate this situation.

In the meantime, here is my strawberry frosting recipe, which took me many batches to perfect.

Strawberry Butter Cream Frosting

1 C. unsalted butter (two cubes)

1 C. fresh or frozen strawberries, hulled

2 lbs. powdered sugar (two boxes)

1. Press strawberries through a sieve to get rid of as much liquid as possible. Result should yield approximately 1/2 C. strawberry pulp.

2. Puree pulp.

3. Cream butter with a hand mixer.

4. Add powdered sugar and pulp little by little while with hand mixer on low until you reach desired consistency.

happy birthday babycakes

Thank you for being the best papa ever. Mama and the Little Wickies love you.

trifecta

We had a mini heat wave here which is hopefully breaking today.

So, for the third day in a row we hit the beach in the afternoon when it gets the hottest in our non-air conditioned house.

I love that we live close enough that we can go for just an hour or two to cool off for a bit (And, yes I am aware of the fact we live in one of the most moderate climates in the world.)

We brought some Yan-Yan treats. The girls had never had them before and Katie thought the sayings on the sticks were hilarious.

Apparently the Japanese guy at Meiji with an English thesaurus and 4-year old humor align because if you haven't seen the sticks, they are a bit -- um quirky.

music for the masses

Now that is it's officially fall it has been blazing hot.

Perfect for sitting out in the sun at the Hillsides concert this weekend, right?

Virtually the entire seating area was smack in the sun.

We spent most of the time in the kids craft area.

You couldn't see the stage, but you could hear the music. So we listened to pretty much all of the Gin Blossoms back there. Not exactly how we envisioned it, but the girls were happy.

We have Katie's class stuffed owl for the week, so we also took her (Olivia) with us.

One booth featured raptors -- as well dead raptors on sticks (nice, right?). We found a distant cousin of Olivia's...

We finally got a lick of shade at our seats toward the end of the concert. So we sat and ate some snow cones.

Mo whole-hand feeding Papa some snack

what happens

when Papa supervises a craft after dinner.

The three of them blew through $10 worth of glitter in about 12 minutes.

But, the girls had fun (and then, a bath).

bubble fun

I'm loving that they are truly enjoying each other these days.

making bubble beards

The increased interaction has definitely upped the ante when it comes to fights. But, I'm sure it's nothing compared to what it will be like later when -- say, they are fighting over the same boy at school.

Until then...

burgeoning elizabeth taylor?

Choir teacher: What is something God made that you like?

Katie: Jewelry.

Happy Friday!

imagination at play

We went to the beach yesterday with friends and it never ceases to amaze me how much imagination kids can have.

Last year the girls were afraid of the seaweed. This year, they have embraced it.

They've learned they can jump over it.

Go under it.

Make it into a lasso or "fish" with it.

Sometimes the old stairs are a bus that takes them to different places. They'll leap off run around on an adventure and then high-tail it back to the bus so they can "go" somewhere else.

Playing with feathers has also been a big hit these days. It still kind of grosses me out when I see my children carrying bouquets of dirty feathers.

But they were so happy yesterday making their garden (a.k.a. feather graveyard) and sprinkling it with sand and water.

There are even days when the girls will ignore everything around them and just sit in the sand and play as we don't have a sandbox in our backyard (we do) or sand isn't a fixture at virtually every playground we go to (it is).

I don't know what it is, I mean, my kids don't make sand angels at the playground.

Tent-building has become a popular activity at home, which has extended to the beach as well.

Nothing like trying to shove 4 girls under a single beach towel.

And, of course they love the water even though they don't quite swim, boogie board or body surf yet.

Here's to more beach days for everyone.

snack time

I heart

Combine it with these cookies we have leftover from Mo's birthday party.

And, they taste an awful lot like Yan Yan sticks.

I'm currently about half-way through the jar.

$2.50 of happiness

Went to the flea market with Mo yesterday and bought three pairs of clip on earrings.

They could not have been bestowed on happier recipients.

(I could not get a good shot of Mo wearing them for the life of me.)

Speaking of fashion. I'm selling these beloved shoes here if you or anyone else is interested.

They have never been worn. I've been holding onto them -- since the late 90s -- waiting for the perfect outfit/event. Alas, it's time to get rid of them. Sniff, sniff.