March Details

Spring Break started this week for us. We are off until March 29th. All we have seen thus far is rain, rain and more rain. It feels like Christmas Break, not Spring Break. However, my tulip says otherwise.

I finally figured out fondant! One of my 29 Things for my 29th Year was to figure out fondant. Well, check! It was actually much less intimidating that I thought it would be.

Paizlee's Foofa birthday cake was made out of fondant. Foofa ended up being a little, well, overweight. She actually sank down into the cake after a few hours. Ahem. I had a little, um, incident with the formation of Foofa, so I had to make her out of solid fondant. Heavy is an understatement. She just got heavier and heavier... but I learned a lot about fondant and when I tackle Maddux's Phineas & Ferb cake, I will know a little bit more.

This little girl would not have cared if Foofa weighed 800 pounds and fell through the kitchen table. She was absolutely enamored by her cake. So much so that we weren't allowed to eat it.

It's a good thing that I made cupcakes. We ate cupcakes while Foofa sank slowly into the cake.

This is the mug that I painted on my birthday. My bestie, Becs, took me to the Painted Clay Studio (after Starbucks, haircuts, antique shopping and lunch!!) and we painted these perfectly ginormous mugs. Earl Grey, Chai Lattes, Chamomile and hot chocolate all taste better in this mug. A little love goes a long way in a polka-dotted mug.

My basil and cilantro are dreaming of warm summer sun. It won't be long before I will be up to my eyeballs in pesto. Sigh. A girl can dream.

What have you been up to this March?

Better Than Birthday Cake

Yes, the cookies and cream ice cream cake was amazing.

But the view of three Happy Birthday singing kids on the other side of the cake was even better.

(PS... Don't forget to leave a comment for my Birthday Giveaway!)

A Special Birthday Giveaway!

I am now thirty. Thirty. Wow. I have to say, I am having a hard time letting go of my twenties. I absolutely loved, loved, loved my twenties. In my twenties I studied abroad, graduated from college, got engaged, got married and had three kids. It was good. It seems a little scary to look at the next 10 years and not know the adventures that are waiting for me. Just a little scary.

So, I say goodbye to my twenties. And I enjoy today. I am appreciating all of the small things in my life that make me happy.

Sprinkles make me happy. They foretell of afternoons filled up with cupcake baking with the monsters.
My glass bottle collection makes me happy. My little collection is just waiting for a few daffodils from the backyard.
It makes me happy to have a whole new collection. I am going to buy all of my African violets tomorrow and will be planting my planters with a little sunshine.

Sidewalk chalk makes me happy along with Maddux's stick figures. Warm weather brings happy afternoons playing hopscotch, drawing pictures of our family and playing tic-tac-toe.

New springy sandals definitely make me happy. I have been stalking these online forever and finally bought them. Breuklyn wants to know when she can borrow them.

Technology makes me happy. Where would I be without the ability to listen to the theme song from my Prom (I Will Remember You, by Sarah McLachlan) or the latest Dave Matthews Band song at any given moment? Also, the Sanford & Son Theme song that plays whenever Brad calls my cellphone makes me laugh so hard that I often miss his call. The fact that he doesn't know that it's his ring tone makes it even more entertaining.

And I love putting together little prize packs and giving them away! Would you like win a set of socks, nail file, lip gloss and scrapbook embellishments? I have three prize packs to give away. You have until 11:59 CST, Thursday, March 11th to leave me a comment. I will announce the winners on Friday. I would love to hear about your favorite thing right now. A favorite song? A favorite moment? A new recipe? I want to hear about it!

I am going to enjoy the last few moments of my special day, I hope that your day was just as special.

The Chocolate Covered Fortune Cookie Said So

... and the chocolate/sprinkle covered fortune cookie people will be hearing from me if my fortune goes awry. Trust me. You don't mess with a girl and a happy fortune.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for the Bella Blvd / Jillibean Soup / Nikki Sivils Blog Crawl! I will be giving away three prizes! See you tomorrow!

It's OCTOBER!

Things that make me happy today:

I love love love October. Good things happen in October. There are pumpkin patches to visit in October. The days start to get cooler in October. There is an abundance of cinnamon being used in my kitchen in October. Good things will happen in October. I can just feel it.

My mom will be here in 3 days. That's right. Just 3 more days! In her honor, I purchased this Chrysanthemum, aptly named 'Spicy Cheryl.' (hint: my mom's name is Cheryl.) We talk to Spicy Cheryl every time we walk out the door. Breuklyn asked Spicy Cheryl this morning if she was thirsty and if she got cold during the night. Maddux thinks we should provide her with a blanket. Brad looks at all of us like we are bananas.

I am keeping Sonic in business by purchasing Route 44 diet Cherry Dr. Peppers. It's getting kind of ridiculous.

I got a package in the mail from my dear sweet friend Kelsey at Scrapbook.com. I have been happily working on a new October contest. Super exciting.

Thank you thank you thank you for all of the super sweet comments on my last post! I have read and re-read them at least a dozen times. You guys are the best! I let Paizlee pick a name out of her Halloween bucket for our giveaway winner and she picked...

KariAnnS!!!

Send me an email at EsteeLynn(at)gmail(dot)com with your address!! :) I am disappearing tomorrow morning for a haircut and will be able to sneak into the post office without kids, so I can get these mailed out to you!!!

Happy October everyone!! What are you looking forward to this month?

My Weekend, In Pictures

This weekend is the first weekend in a gazillion weeks that we don't have soccer, softball, birthday parties or any kind of obligation whatsoever. It is glorious. At this very moment I am sitting here in my pajamas. I have no plans of putting on makeup, no plans of dragging the kids to the store and no plans of stressing about anything. It is going to be wonderful.

The kids are in their bathing suits, just waiting for the OK to run wild in the backyard and play on the new Slip and Slide.

While they slip and slide, I am going to spend some quality time with my happy little vegetables. They have doubled in size since I planted them two weeks ago. I will have tomatoes and bell peppers in no time. Yum. Yum. Yum.

And since we can't live on vegetables alone, I made Chewy Milk Dud cookies. What could be better than a peanut butter cookie dough wrapped around a Milk Dud? Yummmm...

Oh, and I finally got a haircut! Sigh. Life is good.

What are you doing this weekend?

Happy Memorial Day

I did it. I actually went away for 27-ish hours without my children. My super awesome friend, Becs, decided that we deserved a break and off we went to Nashville with 3 other friends who also craved children-free moments. It was glorious. It was actually beyond glorious. Chinese Food, Starbucks, shoe shopping, Loaded Questions and laughing hysterically like we were teenagers is the ultimate vacation for me.

And now I am ready to enjoy the evening with my family and tackle the last week of school. I hope that you had a wonderful weekend! :)

The Five Senses (in my corner of the world)

I love this time of year. There is so much to smell, touch, hear, see and taste. Breuklyn has been learning about the 5 senses at school, so I thought I would try a grown-up version. :)

Smell. The herbs that I planted in terra cotta pots. Basil. Flat leaf Parsley. Rosemary. All sitting happily on Nan's old chair. A welcome sight and smell.


Sound. Maddux yelling, "Push me higher, Mommy!!!" while we play at the park in the evenings after dinner.


Touch. Zucchini plant safely transported into fresh soil.


Taste. Fat free vanilla yogurt, almonds and fresh strawberries. A very happy breakfast.


Sight. Breuklyn scoring yet another goal. Running as fast as she can and looking too grown up to be my little Kindergartner (only 8 days until she becomes a first grader! gasp!).
Are you sensing a scrapbook layout? Me too!

What are the five senses at your house this season?

Today I Am - May Edition

Five months in a row! January. February. March. April.

Today (pretend it's May 1st) I am...

Reading: The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner. This is one of my goals for the year.

Listening to: My kids argue. Also, Lisa Hannigan - I Don't Know.

Obsessed With: Finding an absolutely perfect birthday cake for Maddux's birthday. I am leaning towards this dinosaur cake. Another goal for this year is to conquer fondant, so I am thinking that this would be a fun challenge.

Thinking About: Garage sales. I love garage sales. I think that I need Terra Cotta pots, ugly bowls and some new recipe books. Now I just need someone to come with me! (I can't possibly go on my own. Who would I gossip with?)

Planning to: Plant flowers this weekend, if it doesn't rain! I am thinking of doing groupings of Terra Cotta pots instead of just planting in the ground. We have a HUGE problem with stray cats in our neighborhood and they killed my flowers last year. I found a cool idea on how to antique Terra Cotta pots, so now I just need to get some!

Dreaming of: A fun new bracelet from Etsy. A Mother's Day gift, perhaps?

Enjoying: All of Breuklyn's soccer and softball games. I love to see her so enthusiastic and happy. And I love the hands in the air, I just scored a goal!!!! pose.

The clumsy, nerdy 6 year old girl in me is rejoicing for a daughter who has really come into her own so gracefully.

Vowing to: Organize and streamline my scrapbooking supplies. Does anyone really need thousands of sheets of patterned paper? (Especially since I just ordered Sassafras Lass - Bungle Jungle, Crate Paper - Little Sprout Collection and the American Crafts - Craft Fair Collection!!)

Working On: A Fancy Pants Window Frame as a Mother's Day gift for my mom.

Excited About: Mother's Day. A whole morning of reading in bed is the perfect gift for this exhausted mom! :)

What are you up to this rainy May morning?

A Day In My Life

Is anywhere else out there drowning in socks? It can't just be me. I can.not.wait until everyone is wearing mandatory summertime flip flops so that there will be no more socks to match. Well, except for Brad's, but his are all the same which makes my life easy. :)

In honor of the little moments in our days, I am hosting a contest over at Scrapbook.com. The contest requires you to create a layout that documents your day. One winner will receive a $100.00 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com's Superstore!

And just because you know how much I love to share the crazy stories that happen in my life, I present to you... the Fire Hydrant Story. I hereby solemnly swear that this story is 100% true. I couldn't make this stuff up.

(This is a copy and paste deal from my column this week)

"... Every once in a while, I find an excuse to escape. Like, for example, last Monday. The Alzheimer’s Facility had called and said that Nan needed more vitamins. Once the kids were in bed, I grabbed the box of Centrum Silver vitamins, my iPod and practically sprinted down the driveway. I rolled down all of the windows and opened the sun roof.

The road that I drive to get to Nan’s is a 4 lane highway that is really, really dark at night. I saw a vehicle ahead that had a flashing white light. It was pulled off in the grass on the right side of the road, beyond the shoulder. There was no else on the road coming in either direction and I didn’t think much of the vehicle sitting there. Well, I should have.

I had a brief recollection of reading a notice in the newspaper about the city flushing out fire hydrants when I was hit in the side of the face by a blast of cold water that was arching across the four lanes of traffic. You would never imagine how strong those jets of water are from those seemingly smallish hydrants. But when you are sitting in the front seat of your car with mascara smeared across your nose and water dripping on your head from the sunroof, you start to get the general idea... "

Today I Am - a little belated April Edition!

Today I Am:

Reading: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. It's on my list of 29 Things as part of reading 50 of the Top 100 books of all time. I have already finished To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I love reading. There is something so very powerful in the written word, don't you think?

Listening to: James Morrison, The All-American Rejects and The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. (Thanks, Carolyn!!)

Obsessed With: The Biggest Loser. I have never watched this before, but I am hooked this season!

Thinking About: How worried I was last month about Breuklyn. Now that soccer and softball have started (plus a self-esteem boosting visit from Grandpa and Aunt Murray) I am happy to report that she is back to her happy self. Can you hear my relief? Phew!

(she is #2 for the Red Team)


Planning To: Scrapbook tonight! The Mosh Posh Design Team is unveiling their April layouts tomorrow at 10:00PM and I am way behind! Shocking, I know.

Dreaming Of: A strawberry birthday cake for Breuklyn's 6th birthday, which is only 13 days away! She wants a digital camera and a strawberry birthday cake. I think I can do that. I just can't believe that my baby is going to be six. It seems impossible.


Enjoying: The excitement over at the GCD Studios Blog! I feel so lucky to have been asked to join the GCD Studios Design Team. I can't wait to meet the girls that I will be working with!

Vowing To: Get more sleep. AND to get packages in the mail! I haven't forgotten you!

Working On: Getting all the materials together to make Egg Creatures and Spring Chickens cake pops. My box from Bake It Pretty came in the mail today, so I am ready to make some Spring Chickens!

What are YOU up to?

Why, Hello there!

What an amazing week! I love, love, love it when Carolyn is here. We spent the entire week gossiping, giggling and talking nonstop. It was fantastic. The kids loved having Aunt Mur around to play with. Breuklyn even got to have a special Breuklyn & Aunt Mur day. Priceless.

So... what did we actually accomplish, you ask?

We had a big birthday party for Paizlee complete with ginormous cupcake-cake. Yum.

We planted some Easter grass to use as decoration for some glitter eggs.

We made beads out of salt dough. What? You don't make your own jewelry? Carolyn and I had a Salt Dough Jewelry Throwdown.

We played with sidewalk chalk. Um, hello super cute striped leggings!

We painted our salt dough beads. (I will have a blog about this later this week. You MUST try this)
And then my dad flew in from Virginia! (Boy were his arms tired) He gave Breuklyn lots of tips for softball.
In just a few days, the Easter grass grew! Well, it is really Rye grass, but I am calling it Easter grass. I am just dying to use my scissors to give it a little trim. Hee Hee!

AND I made a mini-album for my 29 goals for my 29th year. This is my favorite project of all time. Love it.

That's what I have been up to, what about you?? My dad flies home tomorrow and then school starts back on Monday after 2 weeks of Spring Break. We will be right back into the thick of things and all I can think about is a road trip to Virginia to see my family!