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I’m inside snug as a bug, while my 3.5 year old is outside romping around in the rain.  Its nice that he is old enough that he can explore on his own without me there at every moment. He spent a while looking for snails, emptying containers that had been filled with rain water overnight, and playing in the sandbox.  Then he noticed the bubble container that we had left out.  So he has been blowing bubbles on the back deck for a while.  When the door glass had become so soapy from flying bubbles, the activity morphed into window washing with a spray bottle and rag. Then once the window was clean and dry, he asked for my foaming hand soap and purple water. Now there are purple suds streaming down the window. Fun!

We just whipped up an Egg Snake while Lily is napping! Take a look…

Last weekend we attended an egg hunt, and general spring party.  Unfortunately it poured rain the entire time we were there.  I’d say we are pretty hardcore because we still participated in most of the events (not the flooded jumpy houses, to the kids great sadness). Both kids did the egg hunt in the rain (bundled up in snow suits). We came home with cheap toys and candy, tucked inside even cheaper plastic eggs.

Photo from aforementioned rainy event.

So I was excited when I saw this idea for egg decorating! It was easy to do, no mess, and even my 1 year old who is allergic to eggs could participate. Its just strips and bits of colored tape (we use Japanese washi paper tape) stuck all over the egg.

I made this tape dispenser from an old cigar box of my fathers a long while back.  The little tape ends always fall back in, but the box is so darn cute, its hard to mind too much.

We also made a giant nest for the eggs to rest in. Happy, snuggly eggs!

Late night marshmallow sculptures…

Tools needed:

– mini vanilla marshmallows

– toothpicks

– imagination!

This month we celebrated two birthdays!

Lily, just turned ONE!  I can’t even believe it’s been a whole year since she was in my belly. Just blows my mind how fast time goes by these days. Last year Lily’s due date was Maddox’s 2nd birthday. So of course this year we had two birthdays to celebrate back to back. They each had their own day with special activities and gifts, then we had one big party on the weekend in between their special days. Maddox is now a 3 year old! Wow.

Rainbow cakes and rainbow parties have been kind of big in the world of the internet this past year.  So of course we had to up the ante and make not one 6 layer rainbow cake, but rather two 12 layer rainbow cakes! This of course was the feat of the year for this dear old mom. Baking 24 different colored layers, while planning a party, tending to out-of-country house guests, and caring for 2 children took a bit of work. But I did it!  Of course I couldn’t have done it without the help of some very special people (you know who you are!), thank you!

So to the best part… Cake photos!

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Finally I have some downtime, and of course the first thing I do is look at photos of the kids. Crazy that. Anyway, I found tons of photos that deserve a blog posting, so I’ll do that when I can. In the meantime here are some cute photos of Maddox holding Lily when she was 5 1/2 months old.

Larva of the White-lined sphinx moth, Hyles lineate

[photos by John Kashuba]

This is Maddox’s “smile”.

If you ask him to “smile” when taking his picture, this is what you get.  nice eh?!

[Fort Funston – Dog Beach]