Birthday Invitations

I finished Lily's birthday party invitations last night and we handed them out to friends this morning. I wanted to get them out early enough for planning...but now Lily thinks her party is tomorrow..oops. She's having a Princess Party...





The inside is super cute too but...um it has my phone number and address on it so I didn't want to post it on here...you know 'cause of the crazies.  : )

So my budget for Lily's party is about $100- total for everything (including her gifts). Wanna know how much these cards cost me??? $1.09. Yeah. That's right. I used only stuff I had on hand other than a little dollar book of stickers (each card used only two stickers on the inside and back) and the rest are going to be for party favors. Ha. I am so good! And I still have $98.91 left!  Maybe I can even come in under budget...we'll see about that.

One more thing off the list...only a million more to go!

If you have any great Princess Party ideas- post a comment! Help a (not very girly) girl out!

My very own Bad Mom confession...though a bit less anonymous

Check out this great blog I stumbled across... 1000reasonsimabadmom

Which inspired this post...

Every morning Lily and I pick out her clothes together. We check outside the window to see what the day looks like and decide from there- not that everything she wears is weather appropriate (remember the rain boots and winter coat in 80 degree weather?) but we try to get it in the ballpark with some gentle steering on my part.

This morning we checked out the window and saw a beautiful sunny morning barely a cloud in the sky. Lily picked capri pants and a tank top. Perfectly reasonable I thought, especially for an August morning. As we were walking out the door I briefly considered grabbing her a coat but decided against spending the extra time to hunt one down (I'm pretty sure since I haven't done any laundry lately she doesn't have a clean one anyway).

While were were driving to her school the weather lady on the radio says something to the effect of "bye bye sunshine!" Me: ????? Slowly we crest over a hill and I look due south toward the city...a very ominous very dark cloud lingers there...apparently Lily's little bedroom window only gave a partial view of the weather to come and by the time we hit her school it feels like a very gray late fall kind of morning. Lily huddles in the back seat shivering. Well, too late to turn around...

I drop her at school anyway and head off to work as it starts to rain.

I'm sure someone will lend her a coat...right?

Just try and keep up with us!

Boy have we been running around having all kinds of fun. I'm sad that summer is kind of winding down but also hoping for a few more chill out and relax weekends in the near future. We have had every weekend packed full...of course we've got to take advantage of the good weather while we can.

Last weekend we had two days off and went to Long Beach for the Kite Festival. I have (and Briana has) a ton more pictures...but here's a few until I get a chance to put up an album.

Martin's mom Jody got to spend both days with us at the beach!

So much sand...and everywhere! Lily brought home a whole "beach" in her hair.

Also on the agenda...we are getting ready and excited for Kendra to start Kindergarten in a couple weeks...we're a little sad too since Lily and Kendra won't be at daycare together anymore. I am getting invitations ready for Lily's 5th Birthday party coming up in less than a month (OMG!) and have several crafty projects brewing in my little brain that I can't wait to have a few minutes to work on. Oh yeah and BBQ at our house this Saturday!!!

See I told you you'd never keep up!

Silver Lake Hike

Saturday Martin and I got up super early and drove out past Granite Falls to go on a day hike. We biked into Monte Cristo- an old ghost town tucked away in the mountains- about 4 miles off the main road. From Monte Cristo we hiked pretty much straight up for a couple miles to get to Silver Lake- a crystal clear lake fed by melting snow caps. The hike was full of switchbacks and loose rock that made it extremely challenging for the both of us...but even though it was really hard we both agreed it was worth it- the beauty and peacefullness of being out in nature for the day. The whole trip took pretty much the whole day and we were sore and tired when we finally got home- just before 9 o'clock. We had a quick dip in the hot tub- then promptly came home and fell asleep. Here are some favorite pictures from our awesome day together.

Not sure how old this sign really is..but cool anyway

The railroad turntable still turns-though it's pretty squeaky

Success! We made it!

Could you ask for anything more beautiful??? What a reward!

We can't wait to go up again and explore more of Monte Cristo- apparently there was a whole section we totally missed!! Yay for adventure!

Bunk Beds Part 2

Kendra finally came over to see the new bunk bed and stay the night...

Kendra closes her eyes for the "Surprise" moment

Wow! The top bunk is high!

They played so well- barely an argument at all- then they went right to sleep. Such good girls. Especially after the marshmallows/s'mores Martin let them roast over the BBQ.