Everest Vacation Bible School

 This year our church's VBS theme was Everest. It was fun to come up with snowy ideas during the summer heat. I did snacks again for VBS. The first day I kept it super simple with trail mix. Day 2 was a yogurt parfait. I used strawberry yogurt, crushed graham crackers and blueberries on top. It looked real messy in the cups but the kids loved it. It was also the messiest snack to clean up.

 This snack was very simple and a real crowd pleaser. 

We used cookie cutters to make quesadilla hearts and snowflakes. This was the most labor intense of all the snacks. 

This was our final snack of the week. The day before we made the cups because it is time consuming. It is a simple craft as long as you have sharpie pens and ribbon. We used an air popper to make the popcorn. It smelled so good! I put Teddy Grahams on top of the snowmen because a bear, Yeti, is the mascot for Friday. We served it with grapes on the side.

Maine a novel

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan is about 3 generations of women. It focuses most on Mother/Daughter relationships. The reviews on the back of the book leads you to believe this novel is a comedy but really it's a sad story of 4 lonely women trying to find their place in life. The one thing that kept me reading is each woman is a circumstance of their own time. Things that were taboo in 1951 you wouldn't blink an eye at in present day. J. Courtney Sullivan is a great at interwoven storytelling however I prefer her novel The Engagements.

The Vacationers

 The Vacationers is a thoroughly modern novel by Emma Straub. It's about a New York family on vacation in Mallorca, Spain. So if you can't go on vacation this summer just google Mallorca images and you will wish you were there! Franny and Jim Post are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and their daughter's graduation from high school. I enjoyed this book. It is really about family and the people we make our family. A great beach book.

   Jim kissed Franny on the forehead, which Sylvia and Bobby pretended not to see. All four Posts held their breath simultaneously, each wishing for the moment to last. Families were nothing more than hope cast out in a wide net, everyone wanting only the best. Even the poor souls who had children in an attempt to rescue a dying marriage were doing so out of the misguided hopefulness. Franny and Jim and Bobby and Sylvia did their silent best, and just like that, for a moment, they were all aboard the same ship. 

This isn't Mallorca but it ain't half bad either.

Kid Friendly Vegas Exists

 Summer 2014 is flying by and we haven't gone anywhere. A staycation is great but I needed to get out of our zip code. We decided to take a last minute road trip. The boys had never been to Sin City. A family trip to Vegas seemed questionable however midweek you can find a nice hotel in Las Vegas for under $100.

 The drive was long. We talked the whole way, I forgot how fun car games can be.

 We wanted to find a hotel that had a good pool since we would be doing more swimming than gambling. I didn't want a hotel that was in the middle of the strip. We stayed at the Tropicana. The Tropicana has a large pool perfect for cannonballs. At it's deepest point is 4 1/2 feet deep.

 We walked over to New York, New York to see the roller coaster and the Hershey's store

 At night we drove to South Eastern Ave. for my favorite brick oven pizza. The original Grimaldi's is in New York. We ate the pizza so fast I didn't get a picture*. After pizza we went across the street for custard. Nielsens Frozen Custard is amazing! We don't have anything like it in Southern California. If you are in Las Vegas you have to go to Nielsens. Nielsens' custard comes in 3 flavor, Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla.

* The only reason I have a picture of the custard is we got seconds. 

Our trip was so fun and relaxing that we are hoping to go again before summer is over. Vegas, Baby

The best thing about Las Vegas according to D...

Pools

Pizza

Custard

The last time we were in Las Vegas without the kids we saw The Beatles Love show. Wish we could have seen it again.

Kids Bowl Free

 Did you know that kids can bowl free ALL summer? 

We signed up at kids bowl free and had a blast. It is nation wide, you pick a bowling alley near you and kids get to bowl 2 games a day. 

Everything is Awesome

We went to Legoland California for D's birthday. 

 I really like Legoland. Everyone that works there is friendly and helpful. Here we are trading legos at a trading post. We were looking for Krusty the clown mini figure.

 It isn't Disneyland but it's still charming.

You can go inside Finn's Basement and see the actual set from the Lego Movie.

Summer is here

Give peace a chance

 This years theme is The Fab Fair.

The theme for our family this year was daredevils! The Hubby and F.W. bungee jumped 130 feet! Little D did some jumping too.

One last Summer Book: The Great Gatsby

Although the boys are back in school it doesn't feel like Fall yet. I keep hoping Autumn will arrive but the days are still long and hot. I thought since it still feels like July I should take advantage and read the quintessential summer book...The Great Gatsby. I also wanted to read it before I see the movie. I hadn't read The Great Gatsby since high school. I had forgotten how great this book is. So simple and elegant.

Endless Summer

Me Before You

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes is the perfect Summer book as long as you don't mind crying on the beach. Me Before You draws you in on the first page and you don't want to put it down. So good.

Big Red Trolley

Today we took the trolley to Seaport Village. Our family used to ride the trolley often when we lived closer to it. Back then D was a baby and he doesn't remember those days. So I told him it was his first time on the trolley. He loved the freedom of no seat belt. It really is convenient getting to downtown. I wish we would have used the trolley this summer to get to an afternoon Padres game. I am definitely going to do it next summer.

I love Summer but I am looking forward to Fall.

Primrose Bakery Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

 These strawberry cupcakes have a little surprise in the center.

This is the second time I used the book Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. I really love the book's frosting recipes.  Their frosting is simple and you don't have a ton of left over frosting.

 You add 1/2 cup fresh pureed strawberries to these cupcakes.

This recipe calls for mixing everything in a food processor. I don't have a food processor so I used my mixer and I think I over mixed the ingredients. 

1:: cut hole with a sharp knife
2:: scoop out hole
3:: fill hole with room temperature jam

What I Wore Sunday

"Hmm...What will I wear next Sunday?"

 It was nice to be home this Sunday and going to our usual kid's Mass at 9am. I am sad the weekend is already over.
Go to fine linen and purple and see what other Ladies wore this Sunday.

Dress:: Anthropologie 2012

This is my favorite dress. I love the versatility of it. I kept it simple this Sunday. However I can dress it up with the right belt or fancy heels.

Kingdom Rock VBS Snacks

Day 1 God's Love Helps us Stay Strong.

 When I volunteered to help our church with Vacation Bible School snacks I figured a few carrots in Ranch Dressing and Goldfish. I was mistaken! Our snack committee, one other Mom and me made snacks for 99 kids. For each day we came up with snacks to go along with the day's lesson. The VBS kit came with suggestions for snacks however we came up with a few of our own ideas.
Day 1 using cookie cutters we sliced up watermelon into hearts.

Day 2 Family & Friends Help us Stand Strong

 We made standing towers. We used washi tape to make the little flags.

Day 4 Crown of Jesus with Jewels 

 Day 4 we made quesadillas in the shape of a crown. We had colorful grapes on the side so the kids could use as jewels. Quesadillas are are a great snack. All the kids wanted seconds.
Tomorrow is our final day and we made frozen chocolate covered bananas.

What I wore Sunday:PacMan Party

Our church is getting ready for Vacation Bible School. The VBS theme is Kingdom Rock.  I am helping create fun snacks for the kiddos.

What I wore Sunday

Dress:: Gap

Sweater::JC Penny

Clutch:: Target

Check out fine linen and purple for more What I Wore Sunday, there are a lot of cute outfits this week.

We celebrated D turning 6 with a PacMan party. It was great having family and friends over. We even had a surprise guest when our nephew from North Carolina showed up! It was a great weekend.

The birthday boy making a PacMan face.

Playing crack the egg with the boys

Pac Man Party

How to have a Pac Man party in 2013...

To make the invites I got blank cards at Michael's. I got bright yellow card stock paper to cut out Pac Mans. I used a pencil eraser as the stamp for the dots.

 To make the banner I got yellow and black poster paper at Target, which was .60cents. I downloaded Pac Man font on to my computer and printed out the alphabet. Then I traced the letters cut them out and glued them onto the Black poster board.

 Pac Man walls

The cake was fun to make.

A birthday party isn't a party without a bounce house.