rascal can drive?

 

 

lunch break with the hubby at the park.

it's so wonderful having him home.

not talking to him on a phone where i have to say "WHAT??? WHAT DID YOU SAY?" 100 times in one conversation.

i love that he is close.

close enough for us to drive and meet him at the park for lunch. :)

 

rowan was writing her thank you cards from her birthday party.. will be posting pics of that later

she decided to whip out these fancy goods to make them! :)

love her.

rascal decided he wanted a try at driving.

 

don't let those buggy eyes fool you.. he wasn't scared.

well he may have been... but we can never tell.

it's his perma-look.

 

Rowan's Birthday

my girl, my baby girl, yeah she turned 5.

and she thinks she's pretty cool.

 

which she is.. so i guess its ok. :)

 

 

cake for breakfast.

literally cake. cooked like a pancake.

 

she loved it.

but no one could eat that much sugar for breakfast.

we all started out with bellyaches.

 

 

 

this was the day before her birthday after school, where she got her crown that she LOVED.

{as seen in pictures above}

 

went to the mall... she got her ears pierced.

she was awesome.

she cried. and then she cried because she was crying.

she said she didn't think it would hurt that much.

but she got some makeup from claire's afterwards, so she was thrilled.

 

went to forever 21... to buy some new earrings.. oh yeah.

popped in here.

went to h&m so she could pick out a brand new outfit.

she said that she was a big girl now that she was buying her owns clothes.

pssshh.

 

ok for reals, check out that top photo. the girl has got some beautiful looks.

 

and we of course ended the day at Chuck E. Cheese.

the other day

i had intentions of posting this as "my day"

which was really like 3 weeks ago.

ha.. so much for that.

 

made a cake bunting for my little girl's birthday cake

 

made these awesome cans for our "knockout" game at the carnival party.

used scrapbook paper. paintbrushed on elmer's glue.

printed the labels off of here

 

and read some more of this book.

i'm only halfway through.

and i've already started another book.

why do i always do this? i'm like halfway through 5 books..

and 2 of them are library books. oy.

Cupcakes for Preschool!

a few weeks ago Rowan helped me to make her cupcakes that we brought for her special birthday at school!

 

 

sometimes i just can't even handle how cute she is.

 

seriously though.

 

being a goober. :)

 

i saw this idea on pinterest.

cupcakes with mini cupcakes (peanut butter cups) on top.

rowan absolutely loved them.

 

rustic chocolate cake & peanut butter frosting

those were for us at home.. yum.

 

{all photos with iphone}

DIY Chalkboard for Announcements

I whipped up this little chalkboard a couple of weeks ago.

I meant to take pictures as I was making it, but forgot.

 

i found a plain cheap wood frame thing at michael's

i had some wood stain already, so i just used it on all of it.

painted the flat part with chalkboard paint

i got strings of pearls for a buck at michaels

the little doilies i found for $1.50 at michaels.

hot glued the pearls on a strand and the doilies onto it.

 

next up... will be using in our adoption announcement pics!

Adoption Paperwork

This has been quite the week!

 

We had Rowan's birthday party on Saturday and it was awesome, amazing and super fun! :) Now that the party is over, I start another college class this week and I still have this staring at me.

 

 

Our current stack of adoption paperwork.

and the funny thing is... this isn't everything.

being as we send a lot of paperwork through email.

and now including the books we've read and still are going to read.

 

one day... it will be over.

one day.. this stack of paperwork will be gone.

 

but until then.. we work our way through..

knowing that the end will be so sweet and so worth the work. and the wait.

The Bronze Star

 

I've been waiting to post this... for the right time where I could get my feelings and thoughts on this onto paper.

 

but as i wait.. i feel like the perfect words will never come.

 

my husband got the bronze star as an E-5 while deployed to Afghanistan.

 

proud is an understatement.

 

this is a man that has changed before my eyes.

has become such an important person in my everyday life.

more than just a husband. or a best friend.

 

he has turned into someone that amazes me everyday.

he is one of the hardest working people i know and completely deserves this honor.

 

the head honcho of the battalion (excuse me as i got a lot of the ranks confused, but he's probably been in for over 20 years) had said to him that he was only the second E-5 (SGT) that he has ever seen get a bronze star and that he deserved it.

 

if that doesn't fill your heart i don't know what will.

that is a very important and special SGT, who is committed and fully deserving of such an award!

DIY Circus Party Supplies

i've been putting together some more quick decor for the circus party!

That is now a week away! aahhh.. where has the time gone?

 

 

i found these felt hats at the dollar tree!

i just used elmer's glue and added some glitter.

i'll be hanging these up somewhere for decoration.

 

this is a "5" cardboard cutout. thankfully bubba had ordered a bike through amazon so we had some huge cardboard pieces here!

just painted on glue and dumped on the glitter.

at first, i was shaking the glitter around and i found that i got better coverage if i took my hand and spread it around. it was faster even though at the end my hand was covered in glitter and glue

 

and these adorable hats.

my love hate relationship with them.

i love them. i use the template here.

cute. but oh man did i struggle at first.

i did get to catch up on some shows on my DVR while i attempted to assemble these bad boys.

who would have thought it would be so difficult to take a piece of paper and stick it in a slit. oy.

 

now i get to make a few more, being as today was the cut off RSVP day... yay me!

Rowan + phone

she loves to take pictures with my phone.

loves it.

a night where bubba and i were both working on our homework and rowan was playing in the living room by us..

these are the results:

 

skeeter, our miniature american eskimo, he puts up with so much!

 

he just lets her dress him. growling the whole time. ha.

i think he secretly likes it.

 

see that's a smile there, isn't it?

Garden Update

I tend to take most of my pictures with my iphone because it's so handy and so easy to take a picture and then upload it onto my blogger app.

it cuts so much time, when i feel like i have so many other things going on right now, so instead of using my better camera and uploading it on the computer and then onto blogger i just whip out my phone.

but that means... low quality pictures. eh.

 

right now this is what i have time for. iphone pics.

 

 

bubba built a little homemade trellis for the sweet pea flowers that rowan has chosen to grow.

she planted the seeds in the pots and we started them inside and put them outside last week.

she also planted some purple flower seeds, morning glorys maybe?

 

bubba also put together a trellis for my sugar snap peas! yay!

i started them inside awhile back.

i'm so excited to actually have something for them to grow up this year.

last year i had some makeshift thing and they grew all funny.

hoping this year we get more harvest from a better set up.

 

oh geez. i have never planted or even seen asparagus growing. i had no idea what they even looked like growing. and then i bought these 2 year old asparagus roots. and had NO IDEA what to do with them.

after attempting to plant them and looking at them thinking "this can't be right" so then google HERE I COME.

and thank goodness.. seriously.

i'm not even sure that my set up is right STILL.

but it looks a LOT better then what i had before.

oh my. we shall what happens.. ha.

 

my "trench"

 

one day i will get the hang of this gardening thing.

can't learn unless you try

Fire station field trip.

Rowan was really excited to go to her fire station field right before spring break!

 

being as she was the one who wouldn't stop talking and telling stories, she became the volunteer!

She had a great time and so did bubba and i. i was really glad that he got to go along because he missed out on the pumpkin patch field trip when he was in afghanistan.

happy girl.

Sunny Day.

We had a great day out at the park the other day.

it actually felt like spring, almost summer being here in WA!

 

65 degrees for 7 hours..

 

 

sunburnt. in march. in washington. awesome!

 

me and my lady. right out of the bath

 

she's soooo sweet when she sleeps.

however, sometimes she can be a bit creepy.

she does this thing with her eyes where they are part open and you can see her eyes moving and you think she is faking it, but she's really zonked out cold sleeping.

but she's still cute.

Circus party supplies

Bubba took the week off last week from work. And during the week we noticed that his windshield got a huge crack across it. so while we were waiting for the windshield to be replaced we ran over to party city and grabbed some supplies for the upcoming partay!

 

we found this super cute lion pinata. we figured it's way too small for all of our goodies but we couldn't justify spending $35 on the bigger pinata. this one was only $15. yay!

so bubba thought we would just throw the extra out once the pinata was broken.

 

i finally found some mustard and ketchup bottles that i was looking for, at a pretty price from a party store, but it was one of the things i really wanted.

and we found this great section of circus supplies, but it was for a 1st birthday. boo!

i did manage to get these cute cutouts that i will attach to a wall or some of the game setups. there are a couple of them that have "I'm ONE" or something, but we will just put a five there or not use that one.

 

i'm so excited about these! i found all of these from oriental trading!

gummy lips and gummy moustaches. love them!

and finger tattoos! these will either go inside of the water balloons that we are filling up for the dart game or to go with the face painting table.. not sure yet.

 

and these suckers. oh my!! they are SO cute! i just love them.

i'm so glad i ordered them.

who needs animal crackers when you can have animal suckers?!

 

these are some of the goodies that we picked up for the pinata.

it was so fun to be able to pick out from their assortment all of the ones that we thought were fun!

 

and lastly, for now, our noise makers!! instead of the traditional noise makers or party blowers, we went with lip whistles and these other things that are whirly and twirly and loud!

 

as this party nears, i'm getting excited, but overwhelmed with what is left to do.

rowan is very excited for this party and so am i!

 

*All photos are from my iphone.