Happy Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day (except for the part when the person who was supposed to teach Relief Society wasn't there so I had to fill in, but at least I had read the lesson and everyone offered helpful comments). I slept in, didn't have to get Creed ready for church because Larry was there to take care of it, and I was incredibly spoiled (Larry got me a new watch and Creed got me a cupcake tower).

Since I neglected to take even a single picture on Mother's Day, here's a picture of what I made for our moms. I got the idea from Danielle Thompson's blog. She just bought little business card holders at Target made by Real Simple and then filled them with pictures so the grandmas could have little brag books that fit in their purses. I got pictures from family members and added a little square in the corner with the pictured person's name and the year (because I swear grandmas always have outdated pictures, "This is Johnny in his batman costume. He's seven here, but he's fourteen now. . . ")

I hope our moms enjoyed them!

Larry's birthday Hullabaloo!

 Mr. Ford had a birthday yesterday. I knew he wouldn't have much time for celebrations on his actual birthday so I surprised him with Spoil Larry Day on Saturday.  In the morning I handed him nine little envelopes with cards directing him to his plans for the day.

Larry's the kind of guy who will say he just wants a hug or dinner together for his birthday, and with all the chaos that has ensued this last year, I'm afraid he's been gypped on Father's Day and our anniversary so I wanted to make up for it.  

I almost asked for a day alone for my birthday to do whatever I like because as much as I love my children, it's almost impossible to try on new jeans or have a relaxing lunch with them in tow, and it's nice to have the opportunity to do things like that once in a while.  Larry always wants to spend his birthdays as a family, but I knew he needed a chance to do a few things on his own too so I tried to plan the day to be a mixture of the two.

I had a few letterpressed little cards from Sycamore Street Press so I wrote an activity on each one and Larry had to complete it before he opened the next one. Most of them were simple things that I knew would please him like, downloading some new songs for the soundtrack to his day (his I-tunes wish list is a mile long because he sticks to an agreement that we made when he was in medical school to only buy one song a month) and a few apps in case he got stuck in line anywhere.

The second one was to meet up with us for brunch.  Third was get a haircut (he's been saying he's needed a haircuts for days, but we've just been to busy). Fourth, stop a Barnes and Noble, browse all you want and don't come out without a new book.  And so on.

I made a reservation for him to get a massage, but the night before he mentioned the circus was in town and he really wanted to take the boys so I cancelled the appointment and bought tickets to the circus instead.

Larry was right, the boys LOVED it!

 Ollie was enraptured by any animal act, but he especially loved the elephants.

 Since yesterday was Larry's real birthday, we couldn't let it go unnoticed.  He woke up to a note on the bathroom mirror (thank you chalk ink pen)

 He worked and then met us a Creed's last soccer game. We had just enough time to go out to dinner and end the night with a stack of Larry's favorite cookies from Flour Boys & Dough Girls (have you had their chocolate chip shortbread cookies?  SO GOOD!) before we tucked the boys into bed.

It was simple and sweet, but I think a good time was had by all.

By the light of the silvery moon

How did I get so behind on blogging?  Sooner or later, I will catch up.

We have an annual tradition of holding a moonlight flashlight Easter egg hunt for grownups the Saturday before Easter, but we were in California so the hunt was off.  Since we planned the trip fairly last moment, I had already stocked up on goodies so two weeks later as I started taking down the Easter decorations, we decided to leave them up and hold an impromptu hunt. It was too late to invite any of our friends with kids who would need babysitters, but luckily we talked Tyler, Lisa, and Danielle into heading over.  We were all still in our church clothes but we had to bundle up a little because it was COLD.  This is after I hid the eggs, but before the hunt started.

Larry made me promise to post this closeup so you can see how awesome my outfit truly was.
And here are our hunters, ready to go!
The rules were simple.  Everyone was assigned a color of egg to find (13 each) and there were four golden eggs that anyone could find and redeem for a bigger treat.  This year was the best hunt so far because I found the coolest nesting eggs that stacked together in groups of four so I had a lot of different sizes to hide.  

I also hid 10 Cascarones (hollowed out real eggs filled with confetti) and if you found one and smashed it on someone, you got to steal one of the eggs in their basket.  It made the hunt really exciting.

Tyler ended up with most of the gold eggs, but he shared with everyone.
We spent the rest of the night talking and enjoying our spoils.

It always ends up being way more fun than we expect (And we expect to be pretty fun).  I highly recommend holding a moonlight flashlight Easter egg hunt of your own!

Note to self: next year, plan ahead so we can invite more people and make sure to have plenty of flashlights on hand.

Craft Pudding

My mind has already been drifting to Christmas. Crazy I know, but I'm trying to shop ahead since the budget around here is not what it used to be. I have splurged on one item I've been wanting for a while. Personalized Stamps from Etsy seller Craft Pudding. You can send the woman who runs the shop a picture of someone and she will draw a little sketch of them and convert it to a stamp with their name. I decided to order them for each member of our family because I want to use them to label our Christmas presents (and besides, PayPal money is not like real money, right?)

I've been eagerly awaiting their arrival and I'm so happy with them. Ok, I could be one of a million women out there, but Larry looks remarkably like Larry for such a simple drawing and Creed's stamp is PERFECT! It was worth it for his stamp alone!

I can't wait to use these on everything! Christmas cards, fabric labels to sew into clothing, gift tags . . .
Each stamp is handcarved and wonderful!

Oliver Danger Turns Two

Once upon a time, way back in February, Ollie turned two.  We had a simple family party for him later, but we tried to fill his real birthday with the things he loves.  We started off the day with my favorite birthday tradition, I always like to gift them a book they love to add to their own collection to share with their own families someday and I write a little note to them in it (and someday when I'm really on top of things, I tell myself I will tape A picture of them at that age in their books).

I usually have the books ready ahead of time, but this time Ollie came along to make his selection.  He picked Spot Says Goodnight and I picked up Stuck because I deserve a reward for having him, right?

 I had to run to Michael's on an errand so I let him go to town picking out $1 windup toys to play with at home/

 And we had just enough time to stop for a treat before we had to pick up Creed at preschool

 Larry was home when he woke up from his nap so we gave him his gifts, a tent and his own Hex bug track (because that's the number one thing snatches from Creed)

 Then we were off on adventure. I think the highlight of the day for him was when we turned around his car seat, a momentous occasion indeed.

 We spent the afternoon at the dinosaur museum because Ollie LOVES dinosaurs.

 My parents met up with us afterward to give Ollie his gift (you can see him hoarding the Hex Bugs)

 And in true Ollie fashion, he was excited about the cupcake but couldn't be bothered to eat much of it.

We are so lucky to have this sweet little guy in our lives.