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The last month for this little one was full of milestones. His unintentional rolling has now turned into very intentional rolling, over & over & over. He's moved from being a newborn baby to baby who is no longer completely dependent his Mama for nourishment (only 3/4 dependant. But still.) The move from 6 months-7 months feels big. He's holding toys and playing with things. The world is his oyster. My baby is growing up. 

Henry declares him "The cutest person in our family." 

 An extra special thanks to Rebecca who sends me the best hand-me-downs from Mini-Boden.

Artwork by Henry

"Pops Happy 34 Birthday"

Today was Chris' birthday. We sent him away for a day of fly-fishing with his friend Russ in the Angeles Mountains. Henry said that only Pops was allowed to catch a fish because it was his birthday. Chris, the root beer connoisseur that he is, requested an assortment of beers for this birthday: 
Hands-down the  A.J Stephans is the best and I'm not just saying that because we lived in Boston all those years. I picked up one called "Sparkys" which was Chris' bowling name when he was on a league (we have the bowling shirt to prove it.) The Berghoff was pretty good as was the Rhode Island Molasses. A few were meh but it's all about the experience. 
Henry only sometimes calls Chris "Papa" now. He's moved on to "Pops" & "Poppy." This Pops loads the children on his back (a.k.a the camel, or sometimes it's the Tauntaun) nearly every night and carts their sleepy bodies off to bed. They always turn back, arms flailing, "Bye, Mama!!! Good Night!!!" as they round the corner to their room. He is so good to them and they love him so much. As do I. Happy Birthday Sweets!

xo

Chris is a peanut butter & chocolate man. Big time. Mostly chocolate, but the peanut butter is a very, very close second. Sometimes I catch him dipping miniature chocolate bars into the peanut butter jar. I say 'catch' which implies he's sneaking chocolate & peanut butter in some deep dark corner somewhere (which he only sometimes does.) He had to work all day on Father's Day (as in 7:30 a.m. – 10:30 p.m) so we decided to make him something chocolatey and peanut buttery.  

 These little numbers were pretty good- I'd give them  7 1/2 out of 10. It's basically a cookie with a mini reeses peanut butter cup  pressed down in the middle. The pops of the house gives them a "8.5" If you want to try them yourself here's the recipe: 

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
3. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.
4. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

Recipe from allrecipes.com

 Our Jedi's come armed with blue & white gingham kitchen mitts, milk & insect rain boots. And a leg, in just the right pose.

Tonight we had friends over and grilled zucchini, asparagus, yellow peppers, chicken/apple/gouda sausages and steak tips. It makes me want to grill every meal. We drizzled olive oil over the veggies and sprinkled with kosher salt & pepper. They were really good. I'm crazy for zucchini and asparagus but I think the yellow peppers ended up being my favorite. Here's to a Summer full of grilling!

When I was downtown looking for fabric for new curtains, I picked up a yard of this mustard print fabric for the lampshades in our living room. For the most part they were fairly simple to re-cover. I used this to adhere the fabric to the lampshade which was what I had on hand because it's the same stuff I used for Henry's R2-D2 costume for Halloween. I'm sure it's not specifically made for fabric- but it worked well. It's a heavier weight upholstery fabric (but still pretty light-weight) so there was no problem getting it to adhere. Beware: it's really sticky. It feels good to finally get some of these smaller projects completed. 

 They belong to Henry. He loves to feel the wind blowing through them. 

I love watching them in my mirror.

 Hoping that the baby this is for doesn't come early! Need to fix some wonky stuff on the back & finish hand sewing the binding. Give it a hot wash & dry and should be good to go. So glad it's almost Friday!

 I've got less than 24 hours to take this pile of fabric and make it into something good.

 A day at home, making bread with friends. 

The children played together for nearly 9 hours straight. Heaven. 

The recipe makes 2 loaves- a loaf for us and one for our dear friends. 
(it was so good, it deserved 2 pictures.)