All Tangled Up: a Rapunzel party

Yesterday my niece turned 4 years old.  She is one of the most hilarious and sweetest little girls I've ever met....and she absolutely adores Rapunzel.  So what made more sense than to throw her a Tangled-theme birthday party?  When my sister mentioned the idea, we both hit the internet and started brainstorming ideas (my sister found most of them).  Here is the party in pictures:

the decorations:

I know it's hard to tell, but this painting is HAND DONE by my talented sister.   

This is another painting she did, along with a homemade yarn lantern.  So cute!

Rapunzel's hair.  We also did a brown braid and paired it with some (paper) scissors and had that hanging out on the bathroom counter.   =)

Another glimpse of Jenny's painting, along with the streamers she made.

And of course there had to be color-coordinating flowers!

What Tangled party would be complete without Rapunzel herself?  My niece spent most of her party dancing and singing with her friends and her favorite princess!  Rapunzel also practiced her painting skills on the cheeks of all the party guests.   She was awesome!

the food:

The obligatory veggies.  Something has to be healthy, right?

We kept it simple for the kids:  premade pb&j and chips.  

Jello adorned with clementine boats, perfect for lantern-watching.

We put some of the food in cast iron pans.  =)  The adults were fed rustic rolls, cold cuts and cheese with an array of spreads: chipotle ranch, pesto and honey mustard.  We also did some caprese skewers for munching on.

For drinks my sister served strawberry lemonade and iced tea.  Yummy!

the cake:

A friend of mine did a killer creative Rapunzel tower and I was determined to do one also.  

I printed out a mini version of Flynn Rider's "Wanted" poster - I thought it added a nice touch.

Another view.

The waterfall. 

By the end of the party, my niece was exhausted.  Her mommy persuaded her to take a "5 minute break" which turned into an hour-long nap.   

My guess is the party was a smashing success!

Smoothies and Pinterest

I recently taught my two older kids how to work our blender, which has turned smoothie-making into a four or five-times-a-day occurrence.  That's actually fine with me because they put healthy things like frozen berries and greek yogurt into them.  Or, at least I thought they were using the greek yogurt.  It finally occurred to me that all the yogurt was still sitting in our fridge, untouched, so I asked my daughter which yogurt she was using.  She showed me...

I really need to teach her to read better.  But at least it was the European-style sour cream...the kind that uses milk as its only ingredient.  But still, ewww.

And then there was my son's smoothie.  Our recent peanut butter purchase suggested using the peanut butter in your smoothie, so my son insisted on listening.  He said it tasted really good so I suggested he write down the ingredients so he'll remember how to make it in the future:

Cantaloupe??  Gag!  But he was proud of it so of course I praised his...uhhh....creativity, and that was all the encouragement he needed to make another one an hour later.

Oh, and I finally pintered  pinterested  made something from pinterest!  Something tells me we could use a few more coloring books but, thanks to Target's school sale, we have plenty of crayons. =)

Sure, judge me for making the easiest thing I could find, but it's done and the kids totally love it.  Now they can color while they drink their sour cream and cantaloupe smoothies.  Yum.

Summer!

What do you get when you mix weddings slash sickness slash adoption work slash summer?

Answer: no blog posts.

The last few weeks have been spent watching my kids grow up.  I am now the proud parent of TWO swimmers.  Because of my fear of water, this is especially important to me.  My mom, husband and I have really made it a point to get the kids in the water as much as possible this summer, and we're now reaping the rewards.  Woohoo!

I also got to see my nieces for an entire week, while they were down here for my sister's wedding:

My daughter and niece standing over the air conditioning vent.  =)  

Janoah driving off in Papa's jeep.

 I also had the opportunity to spend time with a friend I've known nearly all my life.  We met when I was 5 (and she was 4) and lived only 7 houses apart.  We went to the same school and spent all of our weekends together.  Here is a picture of us when we were younger:

And now....

Here is a picture of my two girls (ages 4 and 5) hanging out with her 4 year old (sorry, the lighting is terrible).  This was so surreal to me...

That's what I've been up to.  How's your summer going?

On Being a Parent

Without a doubt, some of the best parts of being a parent are...

1. Kid Talk.

 "Mommy, this marker is Grandma's.  When we see her again, I'm afraid we'll have to give it to her." 

2. Homemade cards.

3. Early morning cuddles.

The end.  =)

Better than TOMS?

When Stuart and I got married, my husband wore neither jeans nor flip flops.  As in, he didn't even own either.  And we live in Southern California!  Since I am a BIG fan of a man in jeans and flip flops, I quickly remedied the problem. =)  We jumped on the Rainbow sandals wagon because they were sturdy and comfy.  When we received a tax refund this year, I figured it'd be a good time to update my husbands flip flop wear. 

While googling for deals on Rainbows, I somehow stumbled across the website for Sole Rebels.  Sole Rebels is a shoe company based in Ethiopia.  They use sustainable, fair trade materials to make their shoes and pay their employees 3 times the industry average for similar work (4 times the minimum wage requirement).  That's crazy insane, and it's only going to foster pride in the community, as well as give the workers the ability to give their children a great education and the chance to get even better jobs.  I'm quite familiar with a different "socially aware" shoe company that appears to do a lot of social good on the surface but, as the proverb would say, merely "give a man a fish" (when you buy one for yourself).  I don't intend to judge their charity model; they've given away more shoes than I have.  However, one of the biggest gifts we can give poor economies is not money or food or shoes, but the ability to thrive via themselves.  Dependence on outside aid doesn't foster growth, it just encourages further dependence.  Sole Rebels is a shoe company that doesn't give men fish, but rather teaches fishing - and pays the fisherman quite well.  Visit their website here to read more about the benefits of their business model.  

Needless to say, I ordered a pair of flip flops for both of us and my husband's instant response to putting them on was  "YOU HAVE TO BLOG ABOUT THESE."  They are the MOST comfortable flip flops he's ever tried on, and they didn't require getting wet in an effort to help conform to his feet (true story).  They are baby-bottom soft and fit quite well (they have a nifty shoe-fitting print-out on their site).  I also ordered a pair of flats, which I LOVE.

Obviously for people on a budget (like us) this is a big splurge.  But trust me - they are totally worth it!  And they come with the added satisfaction of knowing you are supporting a fantastic company.

My husband and I wearing our Sole Rebels.  :)

Disclaimer:  no, I'm not getting paid to say any of this.

Camping

This past weekend our family went camping.  I love camping.  We went quite a bit while growing up and I completely "get it" now because, while I drank coffee and talked with adults, the kids did this...

...and this...

...and they don't fight, complain that they're bored, or make messes that I need to worry about.  

The kids also had a chance to ride horses for a bit:

....and watch the daddies dig this guy out of a gopher hole and grab him with their bare hands.  

On our last camping trip, the kids found a baby rattlesnake, which required instant death.  I think the dads liked being able to play with this one for a bit.

A friend of ours also found this little guy:

and at one point, one of my kids grabbed my phone and took some pictures.  

Not exactly sure who the culprit was, but I found a clue...

I consider it a fantastic deal to sleep on the ground in exchange for no fighting and easy bedtimes,  

plus we get to make a few memories at the same time.

WIN!

I made an apron!

I'm a complete novice when it comes to sewing.  I think my biggest fault is lack of patience, and that's a weakness I'm too impatient to work on.  I tried to take up oil painting several years ago, but oil paint takes sssooooooooo loooooooong to dry that I gave up.  I found this out when I attempted to make a panel piece (2 or more canvases that create one painting).  It's hanging in my dining room....unfinished.  I even went to a free class and some people had been working on the same painting all summer long.  Nuh-uh.  If it takes longer than an hour, I'm out.

Well, recently I needed to pull out my sewing machine to sew some tablecloths (feel free to laugh if you know that this simply means sew a straight line in fabric).  I've sewn a few more "involved" items, namely my monster crayon totes.

But its been awhile since I've done anything that creative, so I decided I wanted to make myself a "hostess apron" (aka half-size).  Using some super duper cute fabric and WITHOUT A PATTERN (though I did see a picture of a similar apron), I pulled this off:

And it only took me one episode of Dr. Phil to finish it.  =)