the music party

We celebrated the Little Miss' second birthday with family over the weekend.

My mom made her a cute polka-dot birthday dress from a vintage pattern. (She is still learning how to make a two with her fingers, but this is her attempt)

One of her gifts was a children's music book originally published in 1947. The illustrations are amazing, I'll show you some later. My sister also made her a bunch of cute flower hair clips. We put them in all at once and it looked like she had a pretty crown of flowers on her head.

The kids played some games with musical instruments and we all sang some of her favorite songs.

Then we ate the yummy carrot cake that Husband made all by himself. (We ran out of powdered sugar so we didn't have enough frosting for the sides)

She was wary about us holding fire so close to her face, but with a little help the candles were blown out and I'm sure her birthday wish will come true!

party prep

Today I am going through old 45 records, choosing my favorites and cleaning them up. I was so happy to find out my mother had kept these along with some toy musical instruments that I remember playing with as a child because the Little Miss will be having a belated family musical birthday party this weekend! These records will be part of the decorations.

Have I told you that she loves to sing? She was singing the day she was born. The first thing my mother said when she held her was what a clear, beautiful voice she had. I actually had a hard time thinking of a theme for her party until one day she woke up from her nap and I could hear her sweetly singing in her room. That's when I knew she needed to have a music and singing party.

I was going to make record invitations like these to send out, but I ran out of time (and maybe motivation) so instead I sent out a 'singing invitation' video to all her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas. In it she sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and then invites them to her party to sing with her and blows them a kiss. I think it turned out sweeter and more memorable.

I'll let you know how it all turns out. Have a wonderful weekend!

san diego trip

We started our trip off with a stop to see a Styx concert with the in-laws. It was so fun, they were very entertaining, still sound great, and didn't look too bad in their tight pants. The whole time they were throwing little prizes into the audience; I got a guitar pick and my brother-in-law caught a beach ball. It was a great night.

Then we had two full days in San Diego. The first day we spent entirely at the zoo. We all loved seeing the animals up close. My favorite part was turning a corner and coming face to face with a huge black panther gnawing on a leg bone. There are so many beautiful creatures on this Earth. It was the Little Miss' first trip to the zoo and a memorable one. When we got back for the night Husband randomly got stung by a bee in our hotel bathroom - I still can't believe it happened!

The next day we spent the morning at the beach. It was the Little Miss' first trip to the beach and her birthday! She had fun building sand castles with her daddy and testing out the water with her toes.

That night we went to La Jolla Cove and had a BBQ then walked along the path to see the seals. I love the look of wonder on her face. Then we found a cupcake shop and celebrated her turning two!

It was the perfect getaway for our family and a trip at least Husband and I will always remember :)

happy birthday!

(photo from the fourth of july taken by my sis-in-law. that face makes my heart melt)

We're back! We had such a great time, it was just what we all needed. Now I am trying to tackle the laundry and unpacking before it gets too out of control and adjust back to normal life. But, I wanted to pop in and say hi and wish my beautiful little girl a happy second birthday! It was this past Saturday. We spent it on the beach and celebrated with yummy cupcakes. We love her so much!

I'll share more of our trip later.

road trip

While camping a couple weekends ago the Little Miss spent all of her free time playing in her cousins Jeep Power Wheel. She is going through a car obsessed phase, so I know she would absolutely love this vintage pedal car (seen here). And so would I, isn't it gorgeous?

Speaking of cars, we are going on our first real family road trip tomorrow so I'm signing off for the week. Life hasn't allowed for much blogging lately, but when I get back I have a fun surprise to share with you so I hope you stick around. Have a great week!

oh, and p.s. I'll be closing the shop tonight for the rest of the week, and when I re-open the sale will be over so take advantage now!

first harvest

(mesclun mix lettuce, early girl tomatoes, rainbow chard, spinach)

After losing half our garden to a late frost and having to start over with seed, this little harvest I picked today is very satisfying. Especially since I was able to get to the lettuce before whatever animal has been eating it. Soon we will have zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, kale, and orange and purple carrots as well. I'll have to incorporate this into our dinner tonight. Yum.

weekend snapshot

I convinced Husband to start what my father dubbed as "a dreaded 'honey-do' project" - stripping the paint off the dresser I found a few weeks ago. It is much less white than this now, but there is still a long way to go. This blog post was providential in timing and gave us some helpful tips, but I don't think we will have the grand unveiling of the 'after' for some weeks. Stripping is definitely a labor of love. Don't think about that sentence too hard.

Did you get any projects started/done this weekend?