Luke and Lola

Lola's Room

Lola has been asking me to take some new photos of her room and her favorite things.  Here is one we took today.

 

Cute T

Found here.  Less than 2 weeks before Kindergarten is done.  I am lining up summer camps for Luke and am almost there...

A distraction so that I can garden

Animating photos

Another little trick I learned this weekend--how to animate photos in photoshop.  This afternoon the kids and I are going to the park to take some action photos to practice on.  In between, we are interviewing new nannies.  Luke and Lola have been practicing their interview questions all morning.

Field trips

The kids are so excited to go on field trips and even more excited if one of us goes with them.  I know it won't always be that way so Ted and I are trying to go on as many as we can.   We went to the Audubon Society on Friday.

I'm taking a fun photoshop class this weekend and am so excited to finally know how to write on photos! 

Put a sharpie on it

Take a white mug, a black sharpie and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Here.
The kids are going swimming and to the fair this weekend while Ted plays super dad so that I can take a fun class.  Thank you Ted!

Must Make

I really want to make these pretty constellation jars.

 

Fun neon garland

I swore I never would like neon again after recalling the neon pink and yellow sweatshirts I used to wear with black pleather pants and white heels in the sixth grade.

But I was wrong.  I still like it and these spray painted toy garlands.

I love this garden

Ted has spent multiple weekends working in the yard, preparing new planting beds and putting in steel edging.  Now I just need to plant it so that it looks kind of like this one.

Playing with food

Peppers, hummus, cucumber and jicama designed by Oh Happy Day.

Be Back Soon

New job, lots of travel, lots of family visiting...will pick the blog back up soon!

Awesome Fort

Maybe instead of redoing the basement we just turn it into this fort.

A New Favorite

We recently introduced a new game called "race cleaning" that the kids love (and we love more).  Bring an ipod with speakers, pick a song, pick a room and when you say "go" the kids and you race around cleaning and counting things as you put them away.  At the end of the song, the person who has put away the most things wins.  We cleaned the whole house in 6 songs, and under 24 minutes.  Awesome!

Boy Outfit

I love everything here.

Useful

How to Scare Away Burglars

“Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button of your car. The alarm tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator.”

Via swissmiss

Crepe dot garlands

Lola's room needs lots of these pretty crepe paper garlands.  From this gorgeous engagement party.

Grateful

My family gave me a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.  Today Ted installed steel edging in the new garden beds, put away 7 loads of laundry, gifted me with a pretty necklace and sent me away to a pedicure and massage.  And we had a dinner picnic in the backyard to take advantage of Portland's 85 degree weather.  Whenever the kids asked to do something this weekend it went kind of like this:

me:  "What is today?"
them: "Mother's Day!"
me: "What does that mean?"
them: "We do whatever mommy wants"
me: "Do we get to do what you want to do?"
them: "No!"
me: "Why is that?"
them: (less excitedly) "Because it's Mother's Day"

image is from here.

Wall Love

I love this periodic chart for Luke's room.

It is Mother's Day weekend.  Ted spent the morning redrawing and cutting our new garden beds and then hired two guys to come and do a yard clean up so that I have my annual "clean slate".  I love it. 

Day Off with Daddy

I'm traveling this week (Texas) and Ted also had a trip so we relied on the kindness of friends for weeknight sleepovers.  Our friends picked the kids up from their respective schoosl, fed them dinner, and then took them to school the next day and brought them to home to a babysitter.  I am very grateful and appreciative.  I have always wanted a community where you can interchange kids and help out other parents. 

Today, Lola's school is closed and Ted snapped this picture of the two of them having lunch on Mississippi street. 

New Habits

I read the book "the Power of Habit" (highly recommend) and it inspired me to start a new exercise habit.  Anyone who knows me knows that I would much rather take a nap than exercise.  I have never gotten to a point where I enjoy it or stick to it even though I know it is one of the most important habits you can create.  So far it has been about 2 or three weeks and I've exercised at least 5 times a week.  The trick for me was to find the right cue to trigger a real habit.  My cue is waking up.  If I don't do it first thing I will find every excuse in the book to not do it at all.   I am also starting very small.  Most days I exercise for only 10-15 minutes total and plan to add a little more time every week.  Ted is also exercising first thing in the morning although he is doing a much more rigours 60-90 minute program in our basement.  I am super impressed.

Mini Masterpiece Photobooks

I would love to make this book for Lola (and maybe one for Luke with photos of his favorite toys).  Would be fun to make one big creative book for each kid for the holidays. 

How to live well

I love Leo Babuta's post on how to live well.  I have been thinking a lot about how I already have everything that I want (Ted, the kids, our home).  My fixation on our garden is really to make my vision of our home complete and to get me back working in the yard on the weekends. 

Darth Vadar and Son

I would get this cute book for Luke but I think it will bring on too many questions about the conflicts between the book and movie.

Ted's mom is visiting this weekend and we are having a nice time together.  The kids love it when family visits.

Keeping your sparkle

I liked Andrea's post about what to do when you feel like you are losing your sparkle.  List making is pretty much my go to approach for anything...

Lola's art wall

Whenever I ask Lola about her favorite part of the day, her answer is always "making art".  So last night while she was watching tv I made this art wall with her paintings and drawings as a surprise.  She loved it.

100 things to do this summer

I love this checklist of 100 things to do this summer.

See the whole checklist here.

Lunchbox app

Luke is the easiest person in the world to make a lunch for (turkey sandwich, some kind of fruit, some kind of treat) so I don't want to mess with what I have but this new lunchbox app does intrigue me...

 

I wish I thought of this

Luke lost his third front tooth yesterday.  I love this idea of making tooth fairy money a little more special with some glitter and hairspray. 

We are feeling a little extravagant because Luke receives $5 for every tooth (we only had $5 the first time and didn't know how to scale back). 

You are my sunshine

I like these simple prints...

Potato stamping

I really want to make some potato stamp clothes with the kids this summer like these simple pajamas.

Lunchboxes

Luke has lost two lunchboxes this year and his third one is hanging on by a thread.  I think it is a boy thing.  This Star Wars one is next on my list.

15 Ways to Stay Married

I liked this article that Sharon sent over.

Easy Storage

I like these simple tote bags for storage.  Picture from the style files.  Our 'dinner nanny' moved to Italy in March and our laundry and clothes systems have not been the same.

Natural Sunscreen

Every summer I get a flurry of emails from my mom friends rating all the different kid safe sunscreens.  Joanna's post has convinced me to try this one.

I am traveling for work and looking forward to returning home late tonight!

Secret Hideout

I am inspired by Victoria's teepee hideout.  Now that our kitchen is done, this summer is all about our backyard...

Bend

We did a house exchange and spent the weekend in Bend, Oregon.  Ted, Luke and Lola went skiing (Lola's first time) while I read in the sun.  We also took the kids swimming and to the High Desert Museum and Luke lost another tooth. 

Bend is a three hour drive each way and Luke is in a phase where he does not stop talking EVER.  It was quite funny to hear the random things he came up with to hear his own voice and when we needed some peace and quiet we just handed him a phone to play games. 

I could barely make this boat out of paper, not sure about phyllo, but I like it.

I love this photo

One of the mom's from Luke's class emailed me this photo taken on a class field trip earlier in the year...

Superhero Socks

I really love these superhero socks.

Would be fun to make with Altoid tins

Found here. 

Happy Birthday Luke!

We celebrated Luke's sixth birthday all weekend, starting with a Friday night sleepover and Chuck E. Cheese date with his best friend Oliver.  Lola and I surprised Luke with a fish named Momo (actually our third Momo), Luke got a haircut styled into a mohawk (his request) and we held his birthday party at a martial arts studio with 8 of his friends.  After the party, Luke's best friend threw up birthday cake and pizza all over Luke's room and Ted cleaned it up which makes him hero of the month!

Bangs

I got a haircut today and decided to make a change and get bangs.  Looking at this photo I'm realizing that Lola and I now have almost exactly the same haircut! 

I really loved this 10 minute video

Caine's Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Fairy Dress

I love this room and this fairy dress.

Pretty much sums it up

We are on the verge of sickness around here.  We're all pretty tired, but also oddly in heavy spring cleaning mode.  The kids and I got rid of 85% of their toys this weekend (they let go of things so much easier than I do) and Ted has been vacuuming and mopping the basement.  The house is slowly becoming unburdened of stuff and I love it.

Land of Lost Toys

I had an idea to photograph all of Luke and Lola's favorite toys with a story that they told about them and never did it.  How cool would it be to have a photobook of all of your favorite toys from throughout your entire childhood? 

I don't know the story behind the Land of Lost Toys project but I like it.

We had a birthday party, easter egg making, bike ride, garden time, park time, sleepover (Lola), and soccer game (Ted and Luke) all in one day. 

Luke would love this wallpaper

Made here.  But you could also use a projector and a sharpie and make your own.  Just "white out" with white paint if you mess up. 

Last night I learned the lesson to not ask the kids where they want to eat when we go out.  Two kids = two different answers= someone is not going to be happy if they don't get their way = everyone stays in the car for a really long time until the dissapointed one is restaurant presentable.

Introvert Working From Home Wall Art

I think I love this.

Highly Recommended

Shona lent me this book and I absolutely loved it. Inspiring story and beautifully written.  A new favorite.

Lola's 4th

Lola's 4th from Sophie on Vimeo.