Hearts and Marbles

Pinterest is monopolizing all my time. I love it. It inspires me so much. Big Sis DIVA and I got busy in the kitchen with one of the inspirations I discovered on pinterest. WE made simple cupcakes SNAZZY with a simple marble.

Check it out. Lemon cake batter. Placed in cupcake liners. And a single marble placed just so, to make a lovely little welcome home dessert for Train Main H4L from his daughters! Easy Peasy and adorable.

Thank you Pinterest. Now I am off for more inspiration!

Pinterest

Pinterest.

I am in love.

That is all.

Cupcake Ice Flowers

Really! It is so hot. Too hot. My poor kid hasn't seen a park in weeks. I can not handle even opening the door after 8am. I melt. Pink puddles of me line the sidewalk. So we stay in. But I want my kiddo to have fresh air, so we head outdoors early early in the morning and do a fun little craft, swing a few swings on the backyard swing set and then its back into our Pink Haired Cave for the day.

This was a fun little activity we did. It was actually a two parter. On the first day we braved the heat and waltzed through our family garden at Gha's (grandma) ranch. We studied leaves and bugs and most important, Flws, or Flowers.

Big Sis DIVA loves flowers these days. She examines them with a keen eye. Smells them and carries around her pretty flws. She loves them. So we picked a variety of flowers as we named off what color they were and a few leaves and brought them home. I decided to take these fabulous find and freeze them in water in a muffin tin. So day 2, before the heat set in outside, found us in the backyard exploring "Cupcake" flowers.

Quite enjoyable. Cool. Easy and educational.

Colored noodles

Every morning before the heat sets in and we have to lock our doors, pull our shades and watch Toy Story for the zillionth time, Big Sis DIVA and Princess Pork Chop get to do a little fun activity outside. This week we had some fun with noodles.

Colored Noodles

I took a package of Ramen Noodles (CHEAP) and cooked them. Then drained them. Added a bit of grapeseed oil and food coloring and stirred them up. I then set them in the fridge overnight. In the morning I pulled the noodles out of the fridge and we headed outside to play. We used utensils from our outdoor kitchen to give it a look. Big Sis DIVA does not like to get her hands dirty, despite all my attempts to get her to, so I settled for tongs and spoon play. Now, Princess Pork Chop has no problem getting dirty and playing with colored spaghetti.

We had a really fun time and discussed colors and bugs and worms and cooking and pretty much every single thought a toddler could come up with.

Big Sis DIVA loved the colored noodles but did not like it when Princess Pork Chop climbed in the bowl. She told me, "not right momma, sisa doesn't go in the bowl." Gotta love my everything has to be in perfect order 2 year old!

Tin can windchime

I love color. I love whimsy. I love things that are a little bit funky. And I LOVE doing activities with my kids. So when I happened upon this lovely little idea, I knew Big Sis DIVA and I had to get to crafting.

Tin Can Wind Chime.

Awesome!

I saved up some veggie cans and tuna fish cans. Cleaned them, sent them through the dishwasher and laid them out to dry. I am a bit of a worrier, so I took black electrical tape and covered the "open" edge of all the cans.

Then I set up the workspace and surprised Big Sis DIVA. We used spray paint for our project.

I allowed her to watch me paint the cans while she played on her swing set. I didn't want her to breathe in the fumes.

After the cans dried, Big Sis DIVA helped me use the hammer to poke holes in the cans (you know this was a riot, right?) and thread wire to hang our cans. Simple. fun. Exciting.

We now have a lovely little colorful funky piece of whimsy hanging on the swing set, a fine choice by Big Sis DIVA, that blows in the wind and makes beautiful sounds. Oh! Wait! We have no wind. It is a summer in Houston! Perhaps in the fall the whimsical tunes will accompany the whimsical appearance of our fun little craft!

The definition of friendship.

When we are tots, friendship is defined by who has the best dessert and is willing to share during lunch. We all know this is a big deal when we are 5! As we grow up, we begin to look a little deeper and our friendships are defined by who gets their drivers license first and who can use the car most often. And then we grow a little more and friendships become defined as who can pass off the fake id and score beer for the next party.

Time continues on and so do friendships. We find ourselves married and friendships begin to take on new definitions yet again. We look more for those cool couples we can hang out with and enjoy a young party style lifestyle and yet be "mature" as we purchase adult things like houses. At first it is young couples who have no children. Then as the womb begins to speak out, we define our friendships by those young couples who have young kids. We surround ourselves with these friends to gain perspective and guidance. We fake our way through kid parties with these friends, definition being friends with cute babies we can spoil.

And then it happens. We ourselves have kids and thus a new definition of friendship is formed.

This is where I am in the great journey of life. My friendships are defined by the simple notion of if I make the guest list to my kids play date friend's birthday parties. It might sound silly or irrational, but it is the truth. At this point in life, your social circle seems to surround your children. It is only natural. Its what happens. We really come full circle on the definition of friendship. Perhaps more dessert sharing should go on in adulthood.

Looking forward to the next stage and definition of friendship as Big Sis DIVA starts preschool in the fall. Any tips?

Midsummer catchup

Are you enjoying your Summer?

We are, here in the Pink Haired House of Chaos. We totally enjoy the sunny 100 plus temperature days that keep us indoors longing for a day of rain, so we can then go outside and play. But that aside, we are having a great summer here. Hence the reason my posts have been so infrequent. Oh and the fact that I have a new baby. Ha!

We have been running around town introducing Princess Pork Chop to the play date circuit. And Big Sis DIVA has been honing in her crafting skills and learning how to make masterpieces. I have snapped all sorts of pictures and hope to share these fun activities with you in the coming days. If for nothing else than to show off my beautiful kids and their beautiful smiles as we live day by day!

Thanks for popping in and stay tuned!!

Princess Pork Chop

Critter2 has earned herself an official nickname in our home. She is now affectionately known to those who love her dearly as Princess Pork Chop. Someday, I am pretty sure she will hate me for allowing this name to come about, but I can not help it. It is cute. It fits her and I like it.

And lets not mention she is a bit "porky". We went for the 2 month checkup. you know the yucky one with the first round of shots. BOOOOOO! But aside from those horrible few moments we discovered that Princess Pork Chop has doubled her birth weight in 2 short months, weighing in at 10.2 pounds. She is now 4 inches longer/taller whatever we call it at this point. She is developmentally and physically soaring and showing no signs of trouble from her early birth.

She is amazing cute with her fluffy little legs and chunky little cheeks. I could sit and smooch her all day. She has started to coo and this is really cute. Big Sis DIVA was not a coo'er, so I find this development thrilling. Princess Pork Chop has also stolen my heart as she has started smiling real smiles, in response to my voice and face. Ahhhh. Melts a momma's heart I tell ya.

Big Sis DIVA is still enjoying her baby sister and so far no attempts to throw her out in the trash have been uncovered! So we will continue on with these two cute babes and live and love life!

We had a Date Night!

View of Kemah from the Cruise

I have 2 kids. It takes me 4 hours to get out the door, just to drive a letter to the mailbox and back. I forget when the last time I showered was. With all this going on you can imagine that finding time for a date night gets dropped to the bottom of the list and long forgotten. Well, not anymore!

Princess Pork chop, living it up

H4L and I broke down and had a semi date night. By semi, I mean we sent Big Sis DIVA off to grandma's and we loaded up Princess Pork Chop (whom we knew in womb as Critter2), and headed down to Kemah to embark on a fabulous Murder Mystery dinner Cruise. You see, it might have been 4 years ago that we had an actual date night, and it is possible it may be another 4 years before wee have another one, so we felt we should do it big and RIGHT since we had a chance.

Handsome H4L striking blog poses for me! :)

We were honored to participate in the murder mystery dinner plot among the most accommodating and lovely cruise boat provided by Star Fleet Yachts. From the moment we arrived we found nothing but an adoring staff, enter the beautiful Princess Pork Chop, who provided us with anything and everything we needed to fill our bellies and quench our thirst as well as guide us through the experience with great ease.

Once aboard we were shown our assigned table and greeted our fellow shipmates. We sat down and the entertainment began. I enjoyed the way the cast and crew casually integrated the murder mystery plot into our dinner, enabling a smooth transition for both. AND H4L was even part of the show playing a mobster! Ain't he a doll???

H4L acting all mobster, he is on the left!

Our fellow shipmates were a riot and we had a blast laughing and working our way through the murder mystery show. We dined on some absolutely delicious dinner and watched the sun set in the distance over the water. Princess Pork Chop fit right in to the fun family centered dinner cruise and yet we also felt like grownups and enjoyed our "Date night".

Clearly, this momma needed a DATE NIGHT!

If you are looking for a fun evening out, with your hubbs, or kids if need be :), I would highly recommend looking in to the Star Fleet Yachts dinner cruises. The fabulous Murder Mystery dinner cruise H4L and I attended is not the only offering. Star Fleet has a wide variety of cruise options to fit any appetite. Everything from Murder mystery to Firework spectacular, your dinner cruise wish can be granted. It really is a wonderful night out. We had a grand time and we look forward to going back again, alone and with both girls!

**Star Fleet Yachts provided me with the opportunity to cruise their line at no charge. My experience and my thoughts are that of my own and honest and not persuaded by the company.**