Raindrops on Roses...

and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings! This week has been a long, tough one, so I've decided to dedicate this post to happy things, a.k.a some of my favorite things right now. Please try to contain your disappointment about me not talking about lil'bub. But y'all already know she is one of my favorite things, right? Right. OK, let's begin.

♥ddp. that's right, it's back on.

♥Fresh flowers in the house make me so happy!

I buy the $4 bouquets right now, but one day, when I hit the lottery, we are going to have amazing bouquets delivered, WEEKLY.

 

♥Cake balls!! Finally made my first batch last weekend to celebrate a baby boy :) and they were so cute and delicious.

♥Bulletproof by La Roux...can't get this song out of my head! Though I'm so very glad it's replaced the reverberating "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" song, and I like the message.

♥Sewing!! I'm getting much better at it. My mom and Aunt Kay are very good teachers. I've graduated from burp cloths to bath hoodies and aprons!

♥Lazy Rivers, in particular the one that I will partake in next week on our vacation!!!

♥Watching my daughter swing

♥Watching Bub the hub with other lil'munchkins....and especially when they stick their tongue out at him!

♥Last but not least, how celebrities read my blog....ok, this might be a stretch, but did anyone else notice that Sarah Jessica Parker is wearing pretty much THE EXACT SHOES I HAVE BEEN COVETING (posted on my sidebar way before the movie premiered) (but in gold with closed-toe) in the opening scene of Sex and the City?? anyone?? well, I did. STOP stealing my style, SJP.

Four Words

Mad Men.
Tonight.
Finally.

The Plan

This week we had a lot of stuff planned: speech therapy, swim therapy, multiple doctor appointments, dinner with girlfriends, end-of-school-year presents to make, poker parties to attend, and baking to do. You know what was not in the plan?

me twisting my footie all up!! BUM-MER.  It's a good thing that I have a Bub the hub who is experienced in ankle twisting (in athletic accidents that is, not silly missing the bottom stair accidents :() and who knows how to wrap it with ice and elevate like a pro! I can hop/walk on it a little bit, and hopefully tomorrow it will be way better. WAY better. Toes crossed.

Meanwhile, I have to post some photos from last week when my best good friend Ali came to visit with precious lil'Leah. Look at this sweet pumpkin, she's getting so big!

She is smiling so much now! Most especially when her momma makes silly faces at her.

Ali said she just starting noticing her hands, it's so cute! Look at that focus! And guess what else? My sweet friend even brought over some lunch, and it was so pretty I had to take a pic. It looks like pizza but it's really flatbread with a garlic hummis spread and tabouleh on top. I gave y'all a little link there because Bub the hub had never heard of tabouleh, which is A TRAVESTY my friends. So delicious! 

She even brought over fresh cherries and blueberries too, what a friend! :)

Ali is very well practiced in the holding-baby-in-one-arm-while-you-eat-with-the-other trick. Ah, I remember that well.

Leah was sweet enough to let me cuddle with her. She's cool like that. At this point I had two munchkins to cuddle with. And I liked it. A lot :)

Twins' Birthday Bash

When I say "bash," what I really mean is petit party for close friends. But you know, it just sounds good. So my cousins and I hosted this lil'party to celebrate my mom and aunt Kay turning six-o. I hope they don't mind me announcing that to the world. I don't think they will be too mad though, especially since they certainly don't look a day over...35! :)

I was very happy to design the invitations for the party, and I really loved how they turned out. They were 4x6 folded cards and went like this:

front

inside (open)

back

So we kept with the light blue and gold motif for the party too. I found these matchy napkins and plates at Berings. I love that place. They have awesome party stuff, and great invitations too (that is, if you don't want unique custom invitations by me, of course).

My cousin Alysia put together (and cooked up!) this beautiful, coordinated dessert table:

everything was delicious, but these cupcakes were especially heaven

so were these little guys! yum yum

I made some colorful fruit skewers, and this here in front is BRIE!! one of my all-time favorite things. I almost didn't have room for the rest of the menu because I had a few (nine?) too many. We also had avocado soup, shrimp-cherry tomato-mozzarella pasta salad and peach bellinis, all made by my cousin Kingslea--all amazing!

Do you want to see some actual people now? That might be nice right? ok-

hostesses: Kingslea, me, Alysia

the birthday girls!

more party animals...

here are the mommas and daughters

thanks girls, it was tons of fun :)

Oh July

July, July....can't believe this year is half over. And busier than ever! We just added two speech therapies and swim therapy to our weekly schedule. I know I know. I'm nuts right? Yep. But lil'bub is just making leaps and bounds all of the sudden, and we want to keep the momentum going! Let me re-cap:

-Someone asked me about photos from 4th of July....hmmm, how do I put this? Let me be direct. I took approximately nine million photos and the munchkin was being a stinker in all of them! Don't believe me? I'll have to prove it then.

Avery, will you smile for the camera?

please? pretty please?

we tried inside...

we tried outside...

tried just with mamma...
but no luck.

we did get this one of her telling me a secret though,
and you can see her cute shoes :) so at least that.

-Moving on, lil'bub has been getting so much better with her utensils! we are really thrilled! her teachers at school have worked especially hard at this.

and she is using big girl plates now!

-Avery still looks great in yellow. I'm just sayin'
 

-Uncle Drew came into town this past weekend and we had some fun. He can't resist kissin' on lil'bub, just like the rest of us.

-Last but not least, my cousins and I threw a lovely birthday party for my mom (Nana) and her twinkie, Aunt Kay this past weekend. It was a lot of fun, super delicious, and I have lots of cute photos. Here's a teaser of the invite I made, I'll post the rest later this week!