Vegas Trip with The Gals

Something epic happened last weekend. I went on a girls' trip. No kids, no male humans of the husband type. It was a transformative experience. An experience after which I had a fun-hangover that made me want to swear for days on end. Girls' weekends are fun, but SHOOT that kind of life is too easy to get used to and nearly impossible to recover from once you come home and the reality of your daily life hits.

Enough about the aftermath. Here's what went down in a nutshell. We met in Vegas and shopped 'til we dropped. The cast of characters: My cousins Carrie and Melinda, my aunt Rita and my very own mother, and the one, the only Korinne. Epic, epic, epic.











 We spent one entire day at the outlet mall. These ladies can SHOP.

I almost got these awesome sandal-boots! NOT.

Carrie and I got our freaky-faces on in the Kate Spade outlet dressing room.

 Meanwhile, Melinda strokes the bow on the sleeve of the cardigan she almost bought.

 Carrie had lipstick on her teeth, and we made fun of her for a very long time.

We saw the ever-epic Cirque du Soleil do their Beatles tribute. Pretty mind-blowing and I loved every minute of it.

Perhaps the best thing about Vegas? Dudes taking your pictures and saying things like, "Vegas is looking beautiful tonight!"

"Yeah, taken! With anywhere from two to six kids!" was our sassy reply. Pssh.

 A little (long) (agonizing) walk (in my gold heels) to Serendipity 3 for some frrrrrrrooozzzen hot chocolate. It was the 90s this whole trip, mind you.

 "I thought I ordered the large donut," says Melinda.

 And of course the lovely Ballagio fountains.

 Goodbye, you desolate wasteland of heated wonder.

2 May Birthdays Down, 1 to Go

Adam, Sienna and Noah were all born in May, so it's a mega birthday month here at the Warehouse. 

If you're going to put me in charge of any party plans, you'll know it's going to be all about the food. So, when Adam turned 32 on May 1st, here's what the day consisted of.

Breakfast: scones with lemon curd.

For the birthday cake, Adam's favorite lemon berry tart.

We didn't do much else that day except regular Tuesday things, but the Wednesday night after we were able to go to the Seattle Opera's dress rehearsal of Madame Butterfly. Not his birthday choice necessarily, but his friend had $4 tickets, so we went for it. It was great! This is the only photo I have of that night. McDonald's on the way! Classy.

 Sienna turned 3 on May 6th. I got her a bike the week before at Value Village for $16. We added training wheels and a helmet, and tah-dah! Biking fun for all, especially Adam, who, as you may know, loves to bike.

Her birthday landed on a Sunday, so we had a quiet little celebration after church.

 The cupcakes were really for me since she doesn't have an opinion on birthday cake just yet. They were a new recipe from a book I had read recently called A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. She's a Seattle resident, a food blogger, and owns a restaurant down the street from us, which I keep wanting to go to. They are chocolate cupcakes with a layer of bittersweet chocolate (and chocolate chips to make Bird think they were really for her). Not frosting, just a layer of chocolate on top. Wow. They were good.

 

 

Thanks relatives from afar who sent many cards and gifts! We miss you on special days like these.

Tulip Time

We went to the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon last week. It was beautiful! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

(Thanks to Noah for that smudge on my camera.)

Easter for My Keister

Happy Post-Easter Weekend! I want you to know I refrained multiple times from posting weather related status updates on Facebook these past three days that contained an annoying number of exclamation points and poetry (because I hate status updates involving weather even if they don't contain exclamation points and poetry because WHO CARES)!!! I will leave my blog for such shouting from the rooftops. Ready? There has been WARM SUNSHINE here in Seattle for three - count them, THREE - straight days, and it has unleashed an unadulterated joy from my inward bowels and bosom that was very hard to contain. PURE JOY, I tell you. JOY. We sing Joy to the World at Christmas? Well, now we sing it at Easter, too.

So, Saturday was an Easter egg hunt with friends at a park. It was very low-key, meaning no lines, no boundaries, not really any rules, and plenty of candy for both kids and adults. And it was over in a matter of minutes. Cool.

Here are our pint-sized contenders. Sienna, ready to beat the egg-glare with her sunglasses. Noah, ready to chill on the blanket, forgotten, while the parents cheered and photographed the contestants.

Here's dad, prepping Sienna.

And, they're off! There's Wally and Matthew as well. (Sidenote: apparently Matthew's younger brother, Seth, has a li'l crush on Sienna. Adam taught Sienna the word "boyfriend" when referring to Seth, much to my chagrin! No worries, though, Sienna, our little beauty who will not be allowed to date for many decades to come, remains clueless.)

There's an egg! Nice hiding. NOT.

OH NO. This one came open! Sienna is OCD, so things like this are huge disruptions in our everyday life. I had to hurry and put down the camera and run over and close it up so she could continue on the hunt!

Noah, chillin' in his Union colors. (Thanks, Grandma!)

Post-race, Sienna's mouth filled with candy.

A proud mom looks on.

Did I tell you Noah is my man? Yes? You want me to shut it already?

After the egg hunt, we did some spring cleaning in the garage. Fun Seattle Fact: daffodils grow WILD and in abundance around here. I have stopped the car to snatch some off of roundabouts around my neighborhood, assuming that's okay.... There's now a nice bunch of them on my kitchen table. They might be my favorite flower ever - bright yellow (the color of happiness), intriguing petal pattern, and they smell amazing. Noah is holding one that my neighbor had just given to Sienna. (Did I mention Sienna is getting so much better at sharing? It's a nice change.)

And, now, the only photo of Easter attire.

Not that we bought anything new or went all out or anything special. But Noah and Sienna did look adorable. (She wore a brown and white polka-dotted hand-me-down from the neighbor girl.)

Easter dinner was delectable, if I do say so myself (which is why this post is called Easter for my Keister ... turns out I don't need bad weather to eat loads of comfort food). Ham, cheesy potatoes, broccoli, and banana cream pie. We fed the missionaries, plus my neighbor, Pat. I've been wanting to unite the elders with Pat for a long time and finally decided to just go for it without telling either party. Risky? Yes. I was nervous about it all day. But, I didn't want any preconceived anything. It did turn out pretty well, even though the dinner started with one elder "complimenting" 70-something Pat on her "nice purple hair." Yikes. She took it good-naturedly, thank heavens. Further proof of my theory that missions are 90% for the young men to grow up and 10% for the people they actually help.

Anyway, our Easter was lovely. And we have the leftover ham to prove it.