AHHH!!! Did you guess it?!!

I’ve been sitting on this big secret for so long and I’m so excited to finally be able to share it with you!!! It’s been a dream come true and I can’t wait to share more with you in the next few weeks. It’s done and (almost) ready to go, so you will be able to get it in your hands before the summer starts (just in time for when you’ll want some projects to fill those summer days). I’m really nervous and excited about it… I don’t think it’s hit me yet. I’m sure you all have many more questions for me, so I promise I will share more really soon. If you want to learn how to sew, more specifically sew with, and for, the little ones in your life (or just learn the basics so you can eventually make dresses like this and this), this is it guys… I’ll teach you!

Hip hip, hooray!
Today I can finally say,
I’ve got a book,
And it’s coming your way!

My good friend, Reese, celebrated a birthday this past weekend and her husband enlisted our help in plotting out a surprise party for her. We provided the place, decor, and some snacks, and the rest of our friends pitched in with more snacks and lots of cheer to pull off the surprise. I did a “gold and gemstone” theme because it’s sort of an inside joke. I picked up gold fringe garland from the party store and (30 minutes before the party started) I drew gemstones on bright colored poster board, cut those out, added some wooden skewers, and inserted them into the various snacks for the par-tay! I cut off a branch of bougainvillea from our yard, put out a couple little plates of tea light candles, and we were good to go. Then we just had to wait for the birthday girl to arrive!

The birthday girl isn’t much of a sweets person, so crackers, cheese (served on this bark cheese board), hummus, and chips were mostly what dominated. The snack winner of the night was brie with a little bit of the jalapeño raspberry jam on top of some crackers; that combo was so deliciously good!

Reese was definitely surprised and declared, “This is the best birthday ever!” Apparently, she always wanted a surprise party and this was her first! The evening continued on with everyone hanging out singing worship music together and giving Reese words of encouragement. It was just such a great night of celebrating what God’s been doing in her life thus far.

Sunday was spent at my mom and dad’s house celebrating their second engagement. Yes, you read that right, second engagement. My mom and dad got married quite young (20 & 21), and the first time around my mom kind of proposed to my dad. Since they were so young (and didn’t have money), my dad just got my mom the tiniest diamond ring he could afford. Fast forward 33 years later, he upgraded that rock and planned a romantic proposal (this time he did it, and one knee) for her when their wedding anniversary came around this past Valentine’s Day. Yup, my parents got married on Valentine’s day in 1981. My mom called me after it happened all giggly and saying it went too fast, and how she wished she could relive that moment again. I just laughed because they are already married! HA!

My parents are the sweetest. Sure! They have fights and can both get crazy on each other (I remember tons of times my dad got kicked out), but they are also very much crazy in love. It’s because they are passionate when they fight and they are passionate when they love. They set a good example of marriage for me (and my siblings) growing up, and it’s one of the reasons I was excited to get married myself. My parents didn’t make it look easy, but they would go through the good, bad, and ugliness of marriage trying to love each other and Christ through all the selfishness. Though I kinda laugh at the silliness of my parents wanting to have another wedding (we are really planning another wedding for them two years from now), I’m really so thankful that my parents are still are madly in love with each other and that they want to share that with all their family and friends. Thanks mom and dad for the good example you set for us! 

Obviously, our weekend was full and busy, but is was for sure good as there were a lot of good things to celebrate! But oh man, oh man, I’m so tired today. #draggingmyfeetmonday

Balloon Time sent us a tank of helium and some balloons and wanted us to figure out how we could share an extra dose of happy. We identified 4 people we wanted to share these bits of floating happiness with, and then, the two older girls wrote down a sweet message on each of the balloons. There was a bit of yelping here and there because balloons kept popping on us as they were writing on them, and the girls were giggling because I kept getting freaked out. After I think 7 (loud) balloon pops, we finally had 4 balloons with some delightful messages to share with some neighbors.
The girls loved this idea! There were so excited to be able to write on balloons! Seriously, who needs fancy toys when you can give a sharpie and a balloon?! Just make sure to supervise because you don’t want that sharpie to end up on the wall.

True’s message was, “Good morning!” and we gave that balloon along with some baked goodies to the people who serve us weekly at the local aquatic center…Brave’s message was, “It’s springtime!” and that went to one of our neighbors…
Soul chose to share, “Hello sunshine!” to another neighbor friend…
Glow’s balloon said, “Yippee!” and that went to another neighbor friend…
I said, “We have one more balloon for us to keep, so what message do you want to put on it?” And they said, “We’re so excited!!!” so that’s just what True wrote down.

It’s totally cute how they get all about this kind of stuff. My girls light up when it comes to creating presents for each other, for Ben and me, or other people. They are all about making and giving. It makes me so thankful for their very loving hearts.
In the evening, we went to deliver to the balloons and messages (along with a little treat from a local bakery) to our neighbor friends. We brought the first balloon with us to swim class in the morning. Everyone was so excited to know the girls thought of them and loved their fun messages! We don’t know all our neighbors really well, but we’ve been trying to reach out and make an effort. Ben and I are by nature introverted (I’m an extroverted introvert), so it really takes a lot of us to get out of our comfort zone (leave our house), but we’re totally working on it.

Our girls are super shy (it takes about 30 minutes to get them to talk to someone new), but we want them to love serving people (and giving to people), and one of the ways to encourage that is to model that behavior, which is another reason we do our Dinner Club Thursdays. I loved this little #HappinessFloats challenge Balloon Time had for us. It also goes perfectly with yesterday’s Fairy Birds story of giving.

Balloons were a simple gesture and it really doesn’t take much to bring a little sunshine into someone’s day. It could be a simple hand-picked flower (my girls do this all the time!), a little hand written note (I like to sneak it in Ben’s lunch), or even just a hug. Just that wee bit of extra effort really does make a difference!

Happy first day of spring! Maybe there’s a little special surprise you can do for someone today to celebrate it.

Sunday afternoon, True came up to me and said, “Oh mommy! I can’t wait until Saint Patrick’s Day tomorrow! I can’t wait for the surprises!” I had totally forgotten and in my head I said, “Oh crap. What am I going to do?!” Then, the rest of the afternoon was a whirlwind and I forgot about it, until it was time to put the girls to bed, and then I started coming up with a plan.

Luckily, I had a helium tank, so I started blowing up tiny balloons and putting them all on a string in rainbow order. I would have done an air pump, but we couldn’t find our hand held one, so it was helium tank it is! I made a quick little note, added that to the beginning of the string at the top of the stairs and the whole string of balloons led to their pot of “gold” at the bottom of the stairs. For the prizes, thankfully I had some little things I had bought from the dollar section at target (was saving it for a rainy day) and each of the girls got one little special treat: Glow got sunglasses, Soul got a My Little Pony coloring book, and True and Brave got those skip-hop-rope-ball things.

I woke up before them, so that I can make one more little string of rainbow ordered balloons. I attached that to their pot, so it would still be floating when they discovered it, and waited for them to wake up. Once they did, they saw the note, and started following the rainbow to their pot of gold. They were all so excited to get their “magical” treats.

The day proceeded like normal, but they all just made sure to wear green, and they made sure I wore green too! We had breakfast together, did school, then lunch, then more school, and then they played and crafted up their own St. Paddy’s Day treats for Ben and me.

Snack time yesterday afternoon was a little bit special too. I took out some ice cream, we just happen to have vanilla and mint chocolate chip on hand (totally perfect for the occasion!), and some rainbow colored sprinkles (the sprinkles and containers are from Layer Cake Shop), and we had ourselves a nice little ice cream celebration. The girls loved it and were totally relishing that they got ice cream as a snack. The rest of the afternoon was a blur of play and crafts, and while we did have some unlucky news regarding Ben’s car yesterday (it bit the dust and now we’re down to one car), our Saint Patrick’s Day was definitely a good day. These girls get so excited about the simplest holidays and it’s fun to feed off their excitement and make those days special for them (even if my ideas did come last minute!).

I’m always honored to be in print and this time you can find my A-frame tent the newest issue of Mollie Makes Mama (along with other great thinks from other mamas). I’ve seen them over at Barnes & Noble, but I also just ordered my copy online here. It’s a really great issue full of inspiration and lots of eye candy! I’m thankful to be able to contribute to it.

The past few celebratory days (e.g., our birthday, Christmas, etc.), we just give each other a house thing present or something store bought, which there’s nothing wrong with that and those presents are fun too, but there haven’t been too many handmade gifts of late. 1) We both have our hands full. 2) Free time is hard to find these days. Thus, when we were talking about Valentine’s, we both talked about how we miss those handmade gifts, but because of time, we both understood.

Ben is such a sweetheart and he had a nice little surprise up his sleeve for Valentine’s. After we had spent time cuddling and celebrating with the girls, we got our own quiet time together. First, we spent time eating a special meal I made for the occasion, and then he gave me my gift. He busted out this red paper and started reading me “Tus Pies” by Pablo Neruda, in Spanish of course. I love it when he does that! Naturally, I couldn’t understand it though I knew pies and could make out some things here and there, so after he read it in Spanish, he read me the English translation. It’s a pretty hot poem and if I could blush, I totally would have.

The surprises just didn’t end there and with the whole “tus pies” theme, he handed me a big painted pink box (no wonder the garage smelled like spray paint!) and when I unwrapped it, I saw the cute shoes I had been eyeing. Then after that, there was one more surprise, and he busted out some oils because he was going to give me a foot massage! Seriously, he’s such a romantic! I was pretty giddy from being spoiled.

I was so stuck for awhile on what to make (or give) Ben for Valentine’s, so this idea didn’t come to me until the day before and thankfully that night he was at his Rare Fruit Growers Association meeting, so that gave me time to work on his gift. I had purchased an invisible ink pen with a black light a few weeks prior and decided that making him a “Round the Clock Invisible Valentine Card” with lots of sweet (and naughty) messages would be fun surprises for him. So on Valentine’s morning, right as he was walking out the door for work, I handed him a brown paper bag with his surprise.

I was excited knowing his messages would start at 9:00 am, so I knew he’d text me once he got started with the first one. It’s funny because he texted me saying he could tell there was a message and he was trying hard to read the indentation, and that he didn’t realize to use the black light until after. D’oh! He’d text me almost every hour after he’d get the newest message and it was fun staying connected that way throughout the day. It was a simple gift, but I just wanted Ben to know how much I love him!

I know some people are jaded about the commercialism of February 14th, but it’s still fun to have a day set aside to go the extra mile. I appreciate the everyday ways of showing love and I appreciate the extra miles too.