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 I have sad news to report: Our little hummingbird babies didn't make it. We'd been documenting their growth by taking pictures nearly everyday. This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago, the day before they were hummingbirds no longer. We don't have the heart to tell the children. I don't know what happened. Chris wonders if the Mama bird left because she was feeling threatened because we were always out there taking pictures (thanks, Chris.) We don't know if they were attacked by another bird or animal or if something happened to their Mother. We hadn't seen her around and then yesterday when I was coming home, I'm pretty sure I saw her flying away from the nest. We are legitimately sad. Whenever the children want to look,we just tell them to not get too close. Henry was going to give a little presentation to his kindergarten class about hummingbirds and show the pictures. I think we'll still have him do that. We were all pulling for those little eggs. The nest is still there along with the birds. I don't know what to do with it. Let nature just take it's course I guess. We all need some cheering up, right? How about this:  My Mother's Day flowers which have been blooming a little everyday. Mothers Day was good, filled with extra sleep, flowers, homemade cards and my favorite perfume. I am in major birthday party planning mode right now with a lot of things that still need to be made. I've got to figure out how to make one of those cakes for Kate that has the doll standing in the middle (you know, like a big princess dress?) Oy. Henry's invites are out and I'm not even going to think about his birthday until next week! Hoping to have some fun things to share here soon! XO

 I finally broke out my silhouette last night to make some invitations for Kate's upcoming birthday. She wants a small party, only inviting about 3-5 girls, which is great. Not sure exactly what we are going to do but I think it will involve lots of pink balloons and girly things. Kate's been pukey this week with a high fever and when she saw the invites last night after I'd made them- she sobbed because she hated them so much.LOL! I think that was the fever talking. She didn't have such strong opinions about them this morning, so I guess that means we are sending them out (a wee bit late at you can tell!) 

Quilt is coming along- hoping to have it done this weekend, although I have been given strict instructions not so share it here until my sister gets it. She wants to be surprised! Hope she likes it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

 I laid out all the squares last night for the new baby quilt. I am behind on this (don't tell my sister that I lost  misplaced the fabric for 3 solid days!) I've never tried this pattern before but have fallen head over heels for it and think it's going to be perfect for the occasion. She didn't want a 'squares quilt' and although this is one, it also isn't. I realize I am talking in code….you'll see soon enough.

Happy May! It's one of my very favorite (and busy!) months!

xo

 I blame Barbara Walters. She totally guilted me into it. I was on the fence about staying up until 3:00 to watch it all LIVE. And then she goes on and on about this once in a lifetime moment…and I caved. She is Babs afterall. Besides it was already 1:30. I went to bed at 4:30 a.m. but couldn't sleep (oh the excitement!!!) 5:30: I was out. Up at 7:45 to volunteer in Henrys class for an hour. I'm feeling awesome. No caffeine yet, but I see a big gulp in my future.

Kate went to a friends house yesterday and emerged with this dress on when I picked her up.  She sobbed when they took it off, so they let her wear it home. She slept in it. She crawled into bed with us and it was this massive jumble of tulle. Try sleeping next to that. Wow, my own little Princess Kate. 

I'm not sure like where this is going.

The trip to San Francisco only lasted a few days but we knew for sure that we wanted to drive down the PCH through Carmel & Big Sur on our way home. Though a comedy of not-so-hilarious events (read: lots of traffic & accidents) we finally made it to Carmel around 2. We drove down the coast to just about where that bridge is in the picture and the PCH was closed. CLOSED! We had to turn around and drive all the way back up. Balls! Kate immediately ripped the clothes off the new birthday doll Michelle gave her and let that 'Tangled' hair flow! Instead of going all the way back to the 5, I found a road through Carmel Valley that would get us down to where were wanted to go (we'd abandoned any and all hopes of taking the coast all the way home). So we went for it. We saw cows: and more cows, and lots and lots of gorgeous scenery. It was not too soon after this that Charlie's little tummy started rumbling and you guessed it- he puked again. The road was really windey and his motion sickness set in. So we pulled over in this exact spot. I unzipped the suitcase just enough to slip my arm in and grab a change of clothes for him and lo and behold, I grabbed Kate's pink stripped leggings. It was like going home for Charlie. Post-puke and pleased as punch. The road we traveled was gorgeous but very, very long. It took us over 2 hours to go about 50 miles. And then just around the bend, we came upon this tree. "What is that in the tree??" I get out for further investigation just in time to hear Chris yelling from the car, "Throw yours up there!!" You guessed it, a tree with shoes & bras hanging from it. What does that even mean? I called Michelle and asked her. She asked if I googled it to find out. I did not. Did I throw mine up? You will never know. What should have only taken about 5 1/2 hours to get home, took 12. We've never been so happy to be home. But it was gorgeous. And we saw bras. Hanging from tree's. Who wouldn't want that?

I am taking Charlie in for surgery on Wednesday which I am just a little nervous about. Not so much the surgery part but the whole 'he can't eat for 6 hours before surgery' part. Especially because his surgery is in the middle of the day (who does that??)

Keep you posted.

XO

It's been a whole week since we got back (it's all a bit of a blur) BUT we did have a wonderful weekend last week up in Berkeley/San Francisco for my birthday. We stayed with our good friends (Hello, Anchetas!) and did some really fun things. I was mostly excited to hit the Muir Woods, which is something we've wanted to do as a family for a long time. It was so gorgeous and amazing. It's surreal to see these places in real life. It's sometimes hard to imagine that places this beautiful exist. The monkeys: Henry, Kate & their friends.
It was National Park week last week so all national parks in the US were free (this may have been helpful information to pass along when you could have taken full advantage..sorry!) It was on our drive to the Muir Woods that Charlie puked. On everything. We later realized that it was the windey drive up to the woods that made him motion sick. We scrambled for clothes to change him into but  all we had were a pair of Kate's black & pink striped leggings and Henry's sweater. He looked like a little penguin. He didn't seem to mind. At the beginning of the trail, the children were handed a scavenger hunt booklet/guide. Along the trail, they had to look for and write down clues. On the last page of their booklet, they put the clues together and were able to get the code to unlock the secret lock which was filled with a little treasure for each of them. It was really gorgeous and I can't wait to go back.  Stay tuned for part 2 of our trip which involves more puke.

I know.

First off, I have to say that I loved hearing all the places you'd go in your Shabby Apple dress (especially my brother who said he'd wear it to Dodger Stadium!) There were anniversarys, birthdays, round the world trips! I read all of them! Thank you for taking the time to enter. It was so fun reading all the entries.

There was NO WAY I was going to be the one responsible for choosing the winner (that's like trying to choose a favorite child) …so I plugged in the numbers to Random.org and they randomly chose commenter #1. How's that for random? The first commenter never wins these sorts of things!!

I told you it was going to be a good one!  Shabby Apple, creator of amazing women's dresses, has generously offered to give away one of their stunning pieces to a lucky reader (YOU ARE SO LUCKY!!)  I was supposed to choose one for you, but they are all so gorgeous, I just couldn't do it. I've rounded up my favorites and the winner will choose from my list of these vintage inspired beauties.

There are 2 ways you can enter:

1) Leave a comment here telling me where you'd wear the winning dress.

2) 'Like" Shabby Apple on Facebook and then comment here to give you another entry. 

 'Liking' them allows you to get in on special promotions and exclusive discounts.

In addition, Shabby Apple is also offering a 10% discount by entering "onemoremoore10off" at checkout.  Offer expires May 15th, 2011.

The winner must have a US shipping address. There will be no exchanges for the winning dress.

(If you are in the market for swimwear, you have to check out their line of suits. I'm CRAZY for them! Especially this one!)

Have a good weekend!

I'll pick a winner on Tuesday.

 Look what happened late this afternoon! One of the hummingbird eggs hatched! I only realized after I just uploaded them that the focus in on the nest and not the birds….oh well. The Mama has been very close by, naturally, but we'll try to get some better pic's of the chickadees tomorrow. I have been busy planning a little birthday get-away for this weekend, trying to get a quilt made for a baby who is now officially 3+ days overdue (I'm sure she doesn't want to come out until she knows her quilt is done!), working on a really, really good weekend give-away for YOU and in a state of general awe over the early birthday gift sent to me from my family today. I feel so lucky!! See you soon.

The Floola Hoop from Morgan Moore on Vimeo.

She wants a "floola hoop" for her birthday next month. She's already practicing.

"It's fun, it's healthy, it's good exercise. The kids will just love it. and we put a little sand inside to make the experience more pleasant."

Before you know it, she'll be doing this: