Love, Unexpected

I was surprised recently when, at one of my regular Starbucks visits, my friendly barista took the time to send me this little message! Sweet! I think she loved that I saved a tree and ordered my mocha in a mug. I loved that she took a little time to pass on such a positive thought. Today in Mondo Beyondo, we are challenged to do just this - leave a secret message for someone - anyone - to find, just hoping that through our hope notes, we can change the world, one kind message at a time.

So, thank you for reading this! I hope you have a beautiful, peaceful, and inspiring day! You deserve it!

Mom's Day

Awwww, heck. What a great day! I'm just head over heals in love with my kiddos, and it feels so right to celebrate each other once in a while. Hope you had an awesome day too!

Jolly Good!

Leading up to last week's "Wedding of the Century", I hadn't given much thought as to how I was going to actually be able to watch the ceremony. We cancelled our cable subscription right before we left for Nicaragua (take that, Comcast!), so maybe I hadn't come to the realization yet that I would either have to watch in the middle of the night, or wait for it to come out on Netflix. Thankfully, my unspoken prayers were answered when my buddy Bonney invited me to the viewing party she was going to. In a very giddy text message conversation, I told her, "I would love to watch! I thought I was the only one!" Ha! Little did I know that approximately 2 billion people would watch - but could they possibly be as stylish as I us? Oh, I think not!

Bonney arrives at the party with the breakfast of champions -
cupcakes and champagne. Oh, and wearing the veil from her actual wedding!

I had told Rachel early that morning that if she could get ready for school super fast, then maybe she could watch a little coverage while she ate breakfast. It was the speediest costume change ever! I told her that I didn't want to know any details because I wanted to see it for myself, but I couldn't help asking her, "Did you think her dress was pretty?" She told me, "It's the most beautiful dress in the world, and she's the most beautiful lady in the world." Awwww!

The rest of the day went by in this fantastic, giggly blur. I followed Bonney to her friends' house, hoping that I wasn't imposing, but also excited beyond belief that this was going to be a girl's event! Girls really know how to do these things correctly, I think! Just look at this spread that was waiting for us! We died and went straight to England!

Our beautiful hostess, Pam, had thought of every detail. Seriously, the menu was in a frame!

Bonney, Mo, Pam, Linda & I enjoying one for the team!

After a lot of genuine gasping, ooohing and ahhhhing over the sweet party set-up, plus some picture taking, and after more friends arrived, we finally got down to business and started watching the event. As typical girls will do, we picked apart every outfit (even the men). We loved Kate's mom's dress, were surprised that we liked Camilla's ensemble, and hated everything about what William's cousins, Beatrice and Eugenie, wore. Poor girls! Oh, but didn't David Beckham look like a million bucks??? We couldn't agree about his hair, so we had to do a fair bit of rewinding and freeze-framing to discuss it properly. What?

Then things really heated up when we saw the princes arrive in their lovely car! We took a moment to toast Diana, who we all wished could have been there with her sons, and who we decided was there, actually.

Wow, is Pippa stunning, or what? I didn't even know there was a Pippa until two days before the wedding, but I decided immediately that if Andy and I ever renew our vows, I'm wearing THAT dress!

We were all gaga for the happy couple, of course, but we couldn't stop loving that adorable rascal, Prince Harry! We're also going to start a petition or something to get him together with Pippa. Wouldn't that be grand?!

The best moment of the day! Yes, I know they've been together for eight years already, and it's probably not the first time they've ever kissed, but I'm a sucker for romance, especially on a grand scale. I loved getting this picture of Pam in there with them!

To send us off properly, Pam put together swag bags. Swag bags!! Unbelievable.

Thank you so much to Pam for putting this beautiful party together, and for not minding that I was a total stranger, and to Bonney for inviting me in the first place! It was one of the funnest things I've done all year! (Thanks also to CNN, for giving us the best seats in the house - we saw a lot more than even Kate's mum did!) Good times!

 

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Today is my husband's birthday, and although he doesn't want a lot of fanfare, and would rather not be getting any older (tough luck, Babe!), I'd like to wish him a Happy Birthday and a year of love and adventure! We're off to a fantastic start - we leave for Nicaragua in two days!! He can't even sleep now, he's so excited. He's been packed for days! His surfboards are waxed and waiting, he bought about eight cans of sunscreen - the good stuff - not what I grew up calling "suntan lotion" with an SPF4. He's got our transportation all worked out, and we'll be one of those big shot families at the airport looking for a guy holding a sign with our name on it. Sweet! Not to mention the mansion we're staying at! Dios mio!! There is a very cool group of people coming along to join us there, and in all we have twelve to fifteen people (including kids, and yes, they should be included)! Should be a fantastic time!

This photo booth picture strip was taken on Oliver's 6th birthday - ten days ago! I told you I've been busy - and from the following pictures you'll see why. It was super funny to see him wake up on his birthday morning, with me kind of shaking him awake, saying, "Hey sleepy head! It's your birthday, you know!" He sat straight up in bed, then shot out of the room yelling, "Dada! It's my birthday, you know!" It was only 6:30 a.m., but we needed to get things going. They left right away to get some fresh doughnuts at Voodoo, the best place on earth for fresh doughnuts, and that's where the pictures were taken. Andy told me later that Ollie really wanted to play all three of their pinball machines, and he let him, although the people sitting at the table near them were giving him the stink eye, mentally saying, "It's only 7:00 a.m., you know!"

Oliver lined up his presents from us in a nice straight row. He likes building walls.

After his party, which was a fantastic success at a place that specializes in making dreams come true for six year olds (think enormous jungle gym, arcade games, trading tickets for "treasures", etc.), we went down to the Willamette under the St. John's bridge to play with the remote control speed boat we got him! It was awesome! Afternoon sunshine, not rain! Woohoo!

He was so happy! But wait, the fun continues! The next day we headed to Build-A-Bear Workshop so that Rachel could pick out some cute stuff for her bear (her birthday present from Grammy & Granddaddy - her birthday post is coming too), and of course I couldn't resist getting a new lovey for Ollie. I'm such a softie!

To end the day on a high note (oh that's bad - you'll see), the kids asked if they could climb the wall at REI. Although they've been climbing (bouldering, really) their whole lives, they've never done it in a harness before. This time, I said yes!

Looking back at where he just came down from.

Turning six is a blast! Don't you agree?

Love and Bowling

Andy and I decided to spend Valentine's Day 2011 with the kids. (Don't worry, we had our own date night on Sunday - out by ourselves to see True Grit (4 stars!) Romance galore!). We figured that it's not so easy to get a babysitter on the actual Day of Love, and our kids are our real valentines anyway, so it made perfect sense. What better way to express our love for each other than to go bowling?! Naturally, we had a blast!

No, she isn't growing dreadlocks -
we came straight from swimming lessons. 

Daddy giving Ollie a little tutorial,
but he'd better just get out of the way!

Ack! It is not supposed to bounce!

Wait for it... 

This place was a feast for the eyes. Color everywhere! Of course they have Cosmic Bowling (you know, bowling in the dark with black lights to make everything glow). Of course they have disco balls - like, four of them! And of course everyone that works there is super nice in a slightly weird way. It's a bowling alley! What more could you ask for? (Ahem...I'm thinking 80's music....just a suggestion.)

Hope your Valentine's Day was just as great as mine!

What a Hoot!

The kids and I had such a crazy adventure on Saturday night! I heard about this night-time Family Hike that was happening at Tryon Creek, and on a whim decided to sign us up. It was absolutely amazing! That Great Horned Owl up there has been taxidermied, otherwise he would have been thinking about ripping my face off - they're so serious!

Hi, I'm a barred owl, and I'd like to eat your cat!

We started off this informational session in just the right way - dissecting owl pellets! (Hopefully, you're not eating right now...I'm just saying.) Here are some fun owl facts that we learned: owl pellets are NOT poop! They're not really even throw up! An owl is not able to chew its food, but it can somehow separate the fur, feathers and bones from the good stuff, then sort of spits all that back out onto the ground. Classy! Oh my gosh, this was seriously so much fun...

We sat down at our stations to unroll a little tin foil object about the size of a prune. You have to start by prying away at the tightly rolled up fur, then voila! Here come the goodies! Bones! You can't believe how funny it is to hear kids and adults alike getting so excited about this process, saying out loud, "Oh, I found teeth!" "WOW! You've got a skull!"

Ollie didn't care so much about touching the icky -
especially when he figured out those were - gulp - rodent teeth!

R.I.P. little mouse.

After a while, we had to clean up and move on to the next classroom to learn more owl facts, but the kids could have done this all night. In fact, Oliver almost stole one of the pellets for later, but I made him put it back. I wonder if you can buy those things on Amazon...

Did you know that owls can't smell? And that they have double the number of vertebrae in their necks compared to what humans have, and that's what allows them to turn their heads in that crazy way. I didn't know that their ears are at slightly different levels on their head - it's true! Owls are awesome.

The final part of this night, as I mentioned, was a hike into the dark woods to see if we could hear the nesting pair of Great Horned owls that have been making a ruckus in the park lately. Have you ever done a night hike? And I don't mean having to pee in the middle of the night while camping - I mean going on a walk in the freaky forest at night??? What the heck was I thinking?! It gave me a whole new respect for Snow White, getting grabbed at by those spooky trees! Yikes!

As we started out in our small group with two other kids and their parents, plus our guide (who asked us not to use our flashlights, haha!), these thoughts started to race through my head..."This isn't so bad. Are there bears out here? So glad it's not that cold. Must breathe. What was that? Glad it's not raining too hard.  How can they walk so fast? Breathe. I feel like I'm being watched. Am I scarring the kids for life? What was that???"

Luckily, the guide stopped us a couple times to talk about more owl facts and to show us their nests. We never did hear them, but they were obviously out there, laughing at us, probably.

On our first stop, she asked the kids what owls eat, and then proceeded to pull a rabbit out of her bag! Dead, of course. The next two pictures are probably the worst two pics you'll ever see on a blog, but I was proud of my new lens for getting them in the absolute darkness, with only a flashlight for help.

So that's what a mole looks like!

She also had a squirrel skin and a skunk too, which I couldn't pass up touching. She said an owl would eat a skunk because as you learned earlier, they can't smell! See, owls are awesome!