This particular day we were shopping at Ikea and I couldn’t help but adore Ben as he was walking ahead of me with the three big girls. That dude has four little girls to lead, protect, and love and that is a mighty big responsibility! Then throw me in the mix, well, his job just got a whole lot harder.
I will always wonder what a little boy that consisted of Ben and me would look like, but I really think a boy would totally throw off our mojo. Having girls is all we know and we love it. Tutus everywhere, pink all the time, princesses and playing house galore. Ben does a great job with all of that.
Ben always said that when he was younger he could never get girls. I think the scale about evened out now, don’t you?!!
on me: shirt, thrifted. jean, f21. brick me up heel (on sale!), c/o modcloth. necklace, homako. on ben: shirt, vintage. jeans, diesel. shoes, nike. on true: shirt and pants, c/o molo kids. shoes, salt-waters. on brave: dress and shorts, misha lulu. shoes, salt-waters. on soul: dress, vintage. shoes, pediped. on glow: shirt and pants, misha lulu.
The BFF sent an email demanding to know why I was MIA? I told her the next post would be good and by golly, I think this little animated gif is pretty darn good. What do you think? Glow really makes our days brighter!
We’re loving our floors and Glow loves crawling on it. Our weekend was spent putting our kitchen back together and gardening. The kitchen is almost done, but not quite as we still have to get knobs in. I am loving it already and I have a few more changes I would like to do to it (ahem, subway tile), but I would like a break from construction before we dive into another. Anyone have white/grey subway tile in their kitchen? I am particularly curious on how well is does on the backsplash of the stove because I am wondering if it is a pain to maintain the grout? We are cookers over here, so the kitchen will be used a lot and it will get dirty. If anyone has any tips or suggestions regarding subway tile, I would love to hear it! This and this picture is my inspiration.
Learned and links…
Glow loves drinking water from a bottle! None of my girls ever liked the bottle though.
Soul’s is one spunky kid. She goes from happy to mad in 0.5 seconds.
True officially finished kinder.
Brave is excited about starting kinder.
I am not well-versed in brand name sunglasses, but I like these from the Sunglasses Shop, which is a new sponsor.
Just got these pants and I have a feeling I will live in them all summer.
The Foam Fest is my second run and we ran it as team “Bad to the Foam”. It was a 5k, but it wasn’t constant running because there were a whole lot of hills, like steep hills and steep downhills, and some waiting in line for the foamy stuff. Overall though, this was a fun run and it is best done with good company (like sexytay and new friends… hi angela!) and with Ben (and Melody) watching from the sidelines. This definitely was good practice to see how I would do on an obstacle course race filled with water and mud. I think I feel slightly more ready for the Zombie Run, but I am still so nervous about that one. Good thing it’s in October and not tomorrow.
Lance, my friend who made the video, does tons of these races that I think he should turn this into a career of sorts… you never know. Enjoy the video, it’s good and you will wish you were part of our team! Oh and watch us on the tube crossing here, the end is funny! See the last run here.
on me: bandana, ben’s. ripped up shirt and vest, thrifted. iron-on, made by ben. boy shorts & board shorts c/o lime ricki (can’t see them under the board shorts). shoes, old new balances.
p.s. just curious, anyone do the zombie run yet? it has already started touring on the east coast. if you have, let me know because i have a question for you!
That’s it. Enrichment classes are done for the year and next year I will be sending two little girls off to school one day a week. The last day went out with a bang as there was a big water party filled with water games. I hung out at the school and helped out and observed my little shy girl in action.
The day before, as I was pondering what we could gift to her four teachers, I asked True, “True, what do your teachers like?” She replied, “Well, my math teacher likes math. My Spanish teacher likes Spanish. My art teacher likes art and my theatre teacher likes games.” I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. She’s cute.
Had my kitchen been operable, I would have baked them something, but instead when I needed a de-stresser from this game, I went to the grocery store to get her teachers strawberries. I think it was a simple and sweet gift and True took care of the note all by herself.
The Bratcher house is almost ready for summertime (technically one day of homeschool left) and we have lots of summertime activities ahead. Now, if we could just finish up all this house construction.on true: bathing suit, target. dress, little bean shop. flip flops, target.
{circa 2005. my family all rallied together to show the spurs some support. they won the championship a month before we got married}
Yes, I was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, but I was raised by a serious anti-Laker fan. When my dad moved here from the Philippines when he was only 7, the first basketball game he ever watched was a Lakers-Celtics game. His family decided to be Laker fans, my dad, at the very young age, defied his family and became a Boston Celtics fan. I was raised a Laker hater.
Well, as a little girl I wanted to be a Boston Celtics cheerleader and I remember saving my monies to buy my dad a Larry Bird book at the school book fair. Then as a I grew older, I vowed to not marry a sports loving man because I got tired of my dad hogging the television when the games were on. It all changed when I met Ben. Ben is from San Antonio, Texas transplanted in southern California and he introduced me to the Spurs. As I fell in love with Ben, I fell in love with Spurs and basketball. I enjoyed watching basketball games and it stuck. In college, I used to even log into Spurs Talk to read all the discussions in the forums. The Spurs are such a classy organization and they were easy to fall in love with.
The fact that I was raised by an anti-Laker was a dream come true for Ben. For someone who detests them, but moved to a city of Angelenos, he kinda lucked out that he ended up marrying a girl who was raised under an anti-Laker. We’re kind of rare commodity here in southern California. If I had been a Laker fan, that may have been a deal breaker for him. Here we are. The Spurs went out on game 6. What makes this even tougher is that San Antonio won 20 straight. It was an unexpected season. Then to lose 4 straight games, it was an unexpected ending. That’s how God planned it though. God knows better, right? As game 6 began to unravel and my stress levels increased because of the sadness that seemed to be imminent, the thought that stood out to me was that I don’t even feel this heavy for God’s kingdom. God’s using these losses as heart checks for me.
We’re sad over here. We sat in the dark as the game ended. Stunned in disbelief. We were so hopeful. Then Ben asked to cuddle (he’s cute!) and he told me stories of when he was little and a huge Spurs fan in the 80’s and about how much he loved the Spurs even when they were losing and not so great of a team and watched them grow into the great team they are. We gotta give it to OKC. They put up a good fight and won.
The girls were in bed and Ben had to break the news to them. True came out of her room and said, “Papi, I’m sad that there’s not going to be a parade.” She really wanted to go and we might have just made it out there for one.
Yeah, I know this isn’t a basketball blog, but it’s part of our family. The girls know all the players and we all get into it together. It’s all part of creating memories together as a family. Now, we might need to move out of state to ensure that the girls don’t marry Laker fans. That’s gonna be a tough one though. What are the chances that all four girls marry anti-Laker fans? Hmm… not sure about that.
Now we wait to see who OKC will play. If you have been following this story, then you know who we will be rooting for. We don’t like the Heat. We don’t really want OKC to win because frankly, we don’t care for Derek Fisher, so, come on Boston… let’s do this! And now the basketball coverage will continue on with baby sister because she loves the Celtics just as much as we love the Spurs.
In my opinion, the best kind of art are the kinds my kids make. There is just something so raw and natural about kid art that makes it so beautiful. This particular project was an easy one and can easily be created with any photograph. Sure this one was of the Eiffel Tower, which is already beautiful, but I think adding some kid art on top gives it an extra punch and makes it look less like a print I bought at some random shop. Wouldn’t you agree? I have a few more instant art projects that can help fill your summer and your walls. Stay tuned.
Watercolors and colored tape were purchased from the Target Kid Made Modern line. You better stock up while supplies last!
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
