Fondue Preview

Tomorrow is the big day... our third annual MOPS leaders' fondue.
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Still got lots to do! I'll show pictures of the San Diego soon.

Candy Cane Hearts

I know, I know... candy cane hearts are nothing new. They have been all over blog land for the past few years. But, they are new to me! This is the first year I actually remembered to purchase mini candy canes at the post-Christmas sales. They are so simple, and you can find the directions almost anywhere, but in case you need them, here they are:

Place candy canes together to form a heart on parchment-lined cookie sheet. (I have a reusable piece of parchment that I LOVE... thanks, Mom!) Bake at 250 for 8 - 9 minutes. Gently squeeze ends together. (I was afraid to use my fingers at first, and used a large food clip, which stuck to the candy canes; hence my casualty. Lesson learned.... use fingers!) That's is!

These are just another item I'm getting prepared for our upcoming MOPS fondue dinner. I'll show you how I use them, soon! One more day in San Diego, then it's time to come home and get to work -- the fondue is Friday!!

What color is that?

Natalie decided she wanted to paint while I took a shower on Saturday, so I left her just one brush and went off to get clean. When I came back, she had the funniest look on her face. (I told her to re-create it for the picture on the left.) "I don't like this color," she was saying. "What should we call it?" I asked. I didn't even hear her response, but she cracked herself up! She is my expression girl!

And, in case you're wondering, we are in San Diego right now, but I wrote this post and tomorrow's post before leaving... :)

Daniel's Home!

My sweetie is home for 6 days... and tomorrow is our anniversary... and we're going to San Diego for 3 days... and in case you can't read my tone, I am SO EXCITED! Originally, we were hoping to go to a cabin in the snow. However, this 70 degree weather is beckoning us back to one of our favorite spots! In the picture above, Daniel and the girls are looking at videos of whales. Whale waching season officially started yesterday, so we are considering that as one of our activities!

We will begin our trip at Legoland. For all you homeschoolers, admission is just $21 for homeschool students on Mondays. (Only $6 per person if you have a group of 15 or more... and regular admission is $69 per person!)

Just for fun... can you tell who is Allison and who is Natalie in the above picture? Leave your conjecture in the comments. I'll let you know the answer when I get back!

More with Penguins

We finished up our penguin week on a pretty light note... school consisted of just 2 projects; penguins with a lesson on fractions for the wings, (thanks again, Almost Unschoolers), and then Mama's demonstration on how to paint a penguin.

This was my second "How to Paint a..." lesson, my first being, "How to paint an elephant." Would you believe they did better with an elephant than a penguin? (Or perhaps I did better with an elephant than a penguin??) Either way, they seem to like these demonstrative lessons quite a bit. And, just because Natalie's expression is once again adorable, here is a close-up:

Meanwhile, when I look down to see what's tugging on my legs, this is what I find:

Sure, she is whining... sure, she is about to pull down my jammie pants... But, the worst part about it is the black acrylic paint she is getting all over (my pants!)! Where did she get it, you ask? Just look at the lovely streak marks under my penguin...

Yes, I was aware this might happen... Yes, it occurred to me to wait until Sierra went to sleep... Yes, I pondered using a pen for my demonstration... but where's the fun in that? :)

Romantic Ideas

Looking for some fun romantic ideas for Valentine's Day? I've compiled a few for an upcoming MOPS newsletter, and thought I would share them with you, as well! Let's start with this one... remember these from New Year's Eve?

1. Homemade Fortune cookies! They were truly simple to make. Just think... if you dip them in chocolate and add some sprinkles, they would be perfect for Valentine's Day!

2. A love/ thank-you note journal. I originally bought this journal for Daniel for our first anniversary, (January 24, 2005). It is a place to record all the "little things" that we wouldn't necessarily write a thank-you card for, such as "thanks so much for doing dishes tonight," or "thanks for taking the girls so I could nap," etc. It's fun to stick it in different places for the other to find!

3. A decoupaged card holder. Being the romantic I am, I save all my cards and notes from Daniel. (Of course, what girl isn't a romantic?) And, being the romantic he is, he saves them all from me! So, I made him this box for our first Valentine's Day as a place to store all his cards. Unfortunately, I didn't make it large enough, so it now houses all the Valentine cards he writes to the girls each year. He started when each girl was a baby! What a treasure for them some day!


I have no more pictures, (at least not yet), but here are a few more ideas I've come across:

4. Date night coupon book with 12 dates... one for each month of the year!

5. I saw somewhere someone had framed old cards that were written to their spouse and hung them in a collage over their bed; it was very cute!

6. Alisa Burke turned her old love notes into pillows! You can get the tutorial HERE. Ok, I lied... here is one more picture:

If you're not into pillows, you can do a whole duvet cover like we did for Daniel for Father's Day this year! You can get that tutorial here.

7. You can never go wrong with flowers and chocolate... at least, not in my book! Being that Valentine's Day is also my birthday, those two items are always standard faire! However, my husband likes to go the "extra mile," and often thinks of more "creative" items to surprise me with. If he were a fan of chocolate, I would love to surprise him with these chocolate cupckaes with fire strawberries from Sprinkles Bakes. Creative. Original. Fire. If it weren't for the chocolate, which my husband doesn't like, I would be making these in a heartbeat! What the heck... here's another picture:
Lovely, aren't they? Ok, moving on...

9. Recycled Jar filled with sweet notes. If you're a scrapbooker, (or wish you had the time, but love the idea like me!), take the time to use some of your fun materials to dress-up an old applesauce jar and fill it with love notes your honey can pull out whenever he is feeling down.


10. Praise board! (Yes, you can completely disregard my "no more pictures," comment.) I just thought of this one! My dear friend made me this "praise board" for Christmas last year. I have it hung up... and I love it... but, we haven't really written notes to each other on it, simply because we don't have any dry erase markers near by!

She got the idea from Jeanne Winter's book, Inspirational Home, which I absolutely love! There are endless more ideas: other good resources include Be Different, Act Normal, and Family Fun. Let me know some of your creative romantic ideas!

Penguin Mosaic

This week's theme is penguins. Once again, Almost Unschoolers was a source of inspiration, as they just recently completed the same theme. Ironically, the library had penguin books displayed as their theme this week, as well. Talk about making my job easier! We had fun with these mosaic penguins.

We then decided to go for a family jog... Nevermind the fact that it was 82 degrees out and we went in the heat of the day! Sierra and Natalie conked out, and Allison did her reading... so we multi-tasked, as well! :)

Total Randomness

Warning: This post has no theme whatsoever... just some random, disconnected thoughts!

See the picture above? If you lived here, you would see it a lot, lately. I don't know how or when it happened, but Allison is suddenly a reader. And, I do mean suddenly! It was like something clicked, and suddenly she was reading away. It is amazing to see, (and hear!) I snuck up on her, (or so I thought), to take the first picture. As I walked out, I heard her say, "I heard you," so I came back and took a picture with her smiling. So, if you can't find Allison, just listen for a little storyteller, and chances are you'll find her curled up somewhere reading a book aloud!

It may be winter here, but spring cleaning is well underway. Daniel and I spent the last 3 days organizing our master closet... anything from sorting and folding tissue paper to organizing the used ribbon drawer and sorting gift bags. Daniel even built an entire new shelf, which helped a lot with space! We have a ton of extra room, now. We'll see how long that will last!

Since the house is getting cleaned and organized, it was time to pull out Valentine decor. The girls gravitated to last year's heart crayons and stamps right away. I even bought a ton of candy for our upcoming MOPS leader fondue party, but have to admit I have had way too many a few pieces of Dove dark chocolate.

Besides the closet, Daniel also was able to finally re-stain the deck. It only took him a month once he cleared off the deck, due to our non-stop rainy season, which seems to have been replaced with summer! The girls and I are outside most the day enjoying it.

Today we needed veggies for dinner. So, I decided to go to the Asian Market, just so I could splurge on boba and California rolls for lunch. It was worth it! I love that I can enjoy such a lunch with Allison. I foresee future dates with her going to try fun new foods. Hopefully she'll like coffee some day, (far, far away), and we can have coffee dates, too!

I got this adorable bunting banner printable free from Catch My Party. Another step closer to being ready for my party!

Last, but not least, I also ended up picking out these steaks for dinner tonight from the Asian market. I felt a little guilty not waiting for Daniel, but I got tired of processed frozen food I've been having too much of lately when he's at work. Yes, I can even enjoy a grilled steak dinner with my girls!

Just Another Day in Paradise!

The trees look like fall... The weather feels like spring... The calendar says it's winter... We must live in Southern California! Today I'm feeling grateful for an awesome church, the beautiful weather, and neighbors with a bounce house! :)

Poor Doggy

Our poor doggy... First, he broke his dew claw; again! (Can't tell you how much money this "free" dog has cost us!) Then he comes home to some "extra love." Have you ever met a camera-shy dog? Every time we try to take his picture with his little buddy, he tries to run away. Today we yelled "stay," but you can see the disdain in his eyes. Luckily, with no camera around, he will sit there forever, enjoying Sierra's abuse. What a good doggy!
And, just so you know... this is my 700th post! Gosh, I blog too much!

Slumber Party Girls

See these two cuties?
They're at their first birthday party... without me!
***Sigh***
It's suppose to be a sleepover, but they're just not ready! So, I let them bring their jammies and sleeping bags, and they should be calling in about an hour for me to pick them up. I will then bring them back in the morning for breakfast.
If they were home, they would already be in bed. I have a feeling their adrenaline, (and birthday cake sugar), will keep them going just fine.
I miss them. Am I crazy?

The Last Meal

It's been GORGEOUS outside the last few days... low 70's, sunshine, and blue skies! You know, the type of weather that calls you outside to do hopscotch with sidewalk chalk! So, what did we do?

Yes, inside hopscotch. Why? I'm not really sure! The girls just kept hopping, so I decided to put some tape down for numbers to play the real thing :)

As you can see, we at least left the front door open for fresh air. (In case you were wondering -- Sierra didn't escape, though it may look like it from the picture below!) We did get out quite a bit to ride bikes, play ball, play with Triscuit, and just sit on the front porch. I absolutely love living on a cul-de-sac!

And, I managed to squeeze in a 5.7 mile run today. Don't worry, though. I quickly put back the calories thanks to my husband's miso seared scallops, bacon green beans, and a glass of wine!

As Fancy Nancy would say... "Ooh, la, la!" As always, he did an awesome job. Of course, he had some practice. The night before he cooked his "last meal," at his station. You see, as a firefighter, every time you switch stations, there is an unwritten rule; a tradition, per se, that you are to make an awesome meal before leaving. I often hear of these meals he has, and become quite jealous. I was pleasantly surprised tonight to find out not only did I not have to cook, but I got to partake in one of these special meals! (He left out the leg of lamb, as I am not a lamb fan!)