A Discovery of Witches & plenty of ice cream

 I've been reading Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches all summer. I've slowly been reading it. The beginning of the book takes place in modern day London in the fall. There is lots of fog and hot tea by the fireplace. If you like history chances are you will like this book. Harkness's writing makes you believe that a witch who doesn't want to use her powers would join forces with a 1500 year old vampire to find a mysterious book that could unlock the secret why and how vampires and witches were created. I've heard and read reviews with people saying 50 Shades of Grey trilogy will fill the void of the Twilight saga. I had high hopes for 50 Shades of Grey but I could NOT get into it. As far as I'm concern Christian Grey is no Edward Cullen. However I think A Discovery of Witches fills the void more. It has forbidden love, historical back stories and strong female characters.

Summer Treat
Chocolate Malted Crunch is the best!

Serious Summer Sewing Slump

I'm in a serious summer sewing slump. I haven't had the itch to sew this summer. I checked out a few sewing books from the library to get some inspiration. I got the book Sewing with Oilcloth By: Kelly McCants. I've never sewn with oilcloth so this book intrigued me. This book has a pattern for snack bags. Making a reusable snack bag would be really useful if only I can find boyish print oilcloth. I also like the book Sewing in a Straight Line By: Brett Bara. It has lots of hip girly patterns. I think the reason I'm so relaxed about sewing is that come September both boys will be in school full time and I'll be left to my lonesome. I think it would be interesting to take a higher level sewing class at city college. However for right now I will continue to enjoy the lazy days of summer.

Puggles love to bounce

Have you ever seen a dog that loves a bounce house? We couldn't keep our puggle, Angus out of the jumpy. 

 Bouncing with D and his cousin.

 I made a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. D wanted the dinosaurs trapped in tar. I also made strawberry cupcakes. However I made them from a box. I love that STRONG strawberry flavor the box brands have. It's not the same when you make strawberry cupcakes from scratch. Kids loved them both.

I ruffled the streamers...that was the extent of my creativity on this party. I wanted to keep it simple. Let the kids jump and the adults hang out. No grab bags, No piñata. It made for a less stressful time getting ready for the party.

Summer Birthday

 Somebody in our house had a major milestone birthday.

 D turned 5!

Wow that's a lot of ice cream

We went to the Corvette Diner for his birthday dinner. When I was a kid it was a BIG deal to go to this restaurant. Now it is a tradition that we take the boys every year on their birthday to this fun 50's style diner. It was featured on Food Networks Diners, Drive Ins and Dives but we still love it. They have a live DJ that plays requests. The waitresses wear wigs and dance to the tunes. We were in the "black room". The walls are painted black and there are black lights all over. F.W. wore a white shirt hoping we would be seated in this room. It's cool all the posters and tables glow but it is terrible for taking pictures.

Blue & Gold

 Padres nails
colors: OPI Road House Blues & Sephora by OPI Charge It

 My Mom & me

(I got a haircut but you can't really tell from these pics)

 Going crazy for the Padres

 So happy to get rid of that extra weight. 

Happy Birthday America

 We spent the 4th of July close to home. We are really lucky because the neighborhood we live in has a great Independence Day celebration. Music, beer garden, bounce house, kettle corn but no fireworks. Everything is SO dry you really can't do fireworks in southern California. I am so glad we didn't go downtown to see the Big Bay Boom because it was a Big Bay Bust. Something went wrong and all the fireworks went off at the same time. The fireworks show was over in 10 seconds. I am glad we stayed home and watched in our PJs.

 Who Who

 Brothers bungee race

The sun never came out for us. On the bright side it was chilly enough to bake. I made Hershey's chocolate 4th of July cupcakes. Not exactly red, white and blue. They look like baby shower cupcakes. This project made me realize I need to get some of that neon food coloring. They tasted great with a cup of tea.