Happy Birthday Dear Sweet Andrew!

Our little baby boy turned 3 on February 8! Yeah and Boo hoo. It's bitter sweet when our little ones celebrate a birthday, isn't it? Call me silly, but I was a little sad on Feb 7, because it was his last day as a 2 year old. Anyways, Andrew had a wonderful birthday, in all its many parts. First we celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa on Wednesday night. They came over for dinner and brought cupcakes! Then, Justin, Eva, and I celebrated with Andrew on Friday (his actual birthdate). Justin baked him a whale cake to commemorate our trip to San Diego and Sea World. Andrew stayed up late and opened his presents, which included a wooden tool bench. The next morning we woke up early and headed to San Diego. Instead of throwing a big party for Andrew's birthday, we decided to take him to Sea World.

What $6 Can Buy You!

***UPDATE***
These sold over the weekend. After it was all said and done, I made $260!


I found these a few months ago. These tiles are beautiful and I've seen them in different galleries in Florida and Ohio, so I knew they were valuable. At the time I also fell in love with this artist's work, but never bought any tiles. They are Sid Dickens tiles, and apparently these are retired ones. Well I purchased them for $3 each. (Oh, I might add that the woman who sold them to me also threw in two beautiful lamp shades-- so this was a really good deal!) Justin and I put them up in our bedroom for a while, but decided that we'd like to see how much we could get for them. They're now on ebay...wonder how much this $6 investment will bring????
You can see them here and here.

happy birthday SOFIA!!!

We wish you the best, best Hello Kitty Birthday ever!

Eva the Fixer Upper

Eva loves to play with Andrew's tool box. Today she enjoyed walking around with his work goggles on. After I put them on her face, she immediately walked over to look at her reflection on the oven door.

Thursday Afternoon at the Zoo

It was such a beautiful winter day that we decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo. Normally we head to the zoo in the mornings, but since it was quite a bit cooler (in the 50s), we decided to go in the afternoon. I loaded up the kids after Eva's nap and we trekked over to see the animals. The first stop was Sting Ray Bay. Wow. The kids had so much fun! The water was nice and warm, and the kids leaned over the wall to try to pet the sting rays. Andrew was quite scared to touch them at first, but one got really close to him, which totally spooked and excited him at the same time. Even Eva was into the experience. She tried to lean over and put her hands in the water too. The girl is fearless (not that the sting rays are at all dangerous-- quite the opposite, they're very friendly). We also visited the giraffes, monkeys, otters, flamingos, zebras, and we fed ducks, played in the tree house, and looked at the koi pond. What joy to see the kids having so much fun!

Marshmallows

We made marshmallows the other day....unfortunately they didn't turn out very good. Although we don't have a candy thermometer, I thought we'd give the recipe a try, but apparently the mixture didn't get hot enough. My mother in law and I have made these before and they turned out excellent, so this try was a sore disappointment. Regardless, the kids still had a blast. I don't ever let the kids lick spoons or bowls when we bake, but since this recipe doesn't call for raw eggs, I let them have at it. At one point Andrew had his whole head in the bowl. yikes! I had no choice but to give them a bath afterward.

The Best $1 I Ever Spent

Bought these recently for $1. They're now selling on ebay. I wonder how much this $1 investment will bring????

Aunt Linda Gettin Crafty!

Thank you Aunt Linda for crocheting these adorable beanie caps for Andrew and Eva. We had fun trying them on. They're super cute and really well done.