Happy 7th Birthday Bubbers

I am late posting pictures of Maya and her 7th birthday. Maya surprised us all when she ended up being a surprise home birth and she has continued to have an element of surprise in all that she does. I love Maya because she is an absolute original and you never know what she will say or do. Since she "turned seven" she has really been trying her best to step it up a notch and be all she can be. I remember when she used to dance around saying, "la la la" over and over again with a huge smile on her face. She still dances around-a lot and she still smiles a lot but she has also been showing me lately just how smart she is. I love my little bubbers and I can't wait to see what she has in store for me in the years to come. We had a bit of a Barbie purge so all we could find was this Liv doll. Maya was thrilled and proclaimed this the best birthday ever. I also attempted in the same day to make some puppy cake pops. I admit I didn't have some necessary items on hand and the edible marker I had was not up to bakerella's standards. I think she must use a sharpie equivalent of a edible marker because the ones I tried did not work well. I think I need to find a better marker before I attempt it again. However, the kids loved the pops and honestly Mark and I had a really good laugh at ourselves trying to put it all together midnight the night before Maya was to bring them to school. Thanks to my buddy for sending me the book to work from ;).

Isn't she lovely? -Lionel Richie

The lady is on fire!

Classic Maya not listening to a word I say when I tell her to smile-instead she stuffs cake in her mouth. Nice.

Lucy specializes in homemade wrapping paper. Here is Maya's head with dot art.

Aida made her a 3 D house and even made a cloth covered bed and princess wallpaper. If anyone comes by you must see it in person.

Aida's homemade card reads, "Maya sometimes I don't like you. but usually I love you My little Princess" Maya really loved it.

Puppies in a basket anyone? Mark said it looked like I was suffocating them-Mark is one sick puppy if you ask me!

I couldn't resist making a chicken. I had to us the blue marker because my black one was rubbish!

Maya couldn't stop looking at the beautiful cake-haha.

Attn: Jaffa

I think you're going to like this one.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Today Lucy is nine. We love her and her crazy animals! Lucy is an original and has a very sweet heart she brings so much to our family. I will write more to her about her in her yearly birthday letter but I wanted to get something done. Every year I miss posting her birthday because it is at the beginning of the school year and things get crazy and I get overwhelmed. :) She requested a purple cake and submitted a drawing for what she wanted the top to look like. I think I really hit it out of the park.

I Have This Neigbor

that is AWESOME! Out of everyone we have met since we have moved here I have to admit she is one of my favorites. We are lucky to have great neighbors all around but I actually like her. Her yard is a collection of plants shared from friends and various finds sculpted around her own visions of her yard. I like my neighbor, she is smart and funny, willing to not only collect eggs for me while I am gone on vacays but she actually likes my birds. I like that she is herself and confident about that. I got to go inside her house and WOW it was not at all what I expected. It was very unique and cool!
Why did i get to go over there? I was invited to be a judge for her and her friends' honey. My neigbor has 3 hives on her property (one is her brothers) and she has some friends with several hives each. My job? To pick out the best honey. The honey was collected from various times of the year from different hives. I think I tasted seven in all. She had even crafted a blue ribbon for the event-a present bow with a bee emblem glued into the middle of it. Apple juice and honey cake was served and a passage from Winnie the Pooh ( I swear she had like the first edition in her hand) talking about when the white cloth was placed on the table and a descriptive part about Tigger tasting the honey including lip smacking until he finally proclaims "Tiggers don't like honey!". We proceeded outside to the jars of honey set up on a white table clothed table. It was clever and fun and I got to take the winning jar of honey home. Since it was the first time I met these people (one of which has heaps of chickens) I didn't bring my camera and I took a secret photo with my phone. so here goes.

Laziness

This summer I have come in and out of laziness. Now that most of the work is done I feel good that I don't have to feel too bad about my laziness. There is school paperwork to be done, clothes to sort, and kids to tend but I feel like I can let that slide for just a little bit longer-okay I guess I should feed the children. Mark found this clip for one of his classes and when he first showed it to me it was totally how I was feeling. I think it was sometime at the beginning of the summer perhaps when I was feeling burned out and lazy and it has come and gone as summer has. If you cared for this clip I also really enjoyed the clip about bacon, no okay the cake one I like the cake one. PS go bakerella for getting to go to the emmys!

Tah dah

I guess Kim and Ruth have waited long enough. I admit I hesitated because I do feel like it looks much better in "real life" but I am too lazy to take pictures again to do it justice. I do love it though-easy to clean and not smelly I couldn't have asked for more. I would have liked to get a mirror trimmed in wood but this one is a medicine cabinet that can hold extra rolls of toilet paper, huge shampoo bottles and has a very clear image. We decided the extra storage in the cabinet would be better than having to add other shelves and cupboards in such a small space. We decided the hand held shower was important to wash all the sand down from the beach. It is so great to be able to come home from the beach and shower off everyone before they get all through the house and then we hung a double shower bar up so we can have extra drying space for beach towels and swimming suits.

BEFORE

AFTER

I really like my shower curtain it-it softens things up a bit.

My straight sided toilet-look no bolts to clean around-I LOVE it!

Pipes and Drains

I was so close to posting the after pictures but I just could not deprive Mark of showing off his work.  I tried to tell Mark how the more work he does the more we save.  So the way I see it every outlet I have him move or put in is money we would have had to pay someone hence the more we would have saved.  The behind the scenes before the cosmetics are never interesting and they do take awhile but Mark did complete a lot of stuff in a couple of days.  These pictures show Mark's awesome plumbing work-don't them pipes look nice?  Also he had to move the toilet drain to the other side of the room where the coat closet was and then plumb for the shower drain where the toilet was. More importantly is a picture of me doing all the tiling. Ok, not really Mark cut everything and put the gooey stuff on the walls and I stuck the tiles on-it still counts as helping.

Coop

From the Kitchen Window

Okay so we have had our chicken coop for awhile now. Mark built it for me in one day which wasn't an easy job with his wimpy staple gun :). I have put off putting up pictures until it was painted and landscaped. Then the dog ate the landscaping and rain foiled my staining plans and I realized that maybe I should just take a picture. I guess no project of ours is ever 100% done because there is always that little bit left that we don't want to invest in just yet. Mark is disappointed because i never posted a picture of our office but I wanted curtains and a reupholstered love seat so everyone could see my whole vision and isn't the little things that make the room? So with that, I PROMISE to post bathroom pictures as soon as I finish with the wall decor because it is important to the room and this will be the only room/project that is 100% done. Whew!

Before

This Way to After-thanks for the sign Aida and Lucy

After

We