birthday celebration island

photo taken Tuesday, March 22

in celebration of Casey and Mallory's birthdays, we hosted supper and cupcakes. Casey's birthday is March 23. Mallory's birthday is March 21. we call it their birthday hump day, the day between their birthdays. I won't tell you their ages, they can do that on their own. 

but here's our island while preparing their meal. I made supper. Casey drank a margarita. Pretty typical.

smoothie island

Saturday we skipped lunch and had smoothies instead. They were sooo good the kids ate extra well for supper ;) they definitely weren't the worst, but may need a bit of tweaking to get it just right. Here's the island right smack dab in the middle of smoothies. and unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for you guys!) we didn't follow any recipes... mostly: some of this, some of that, a handful of those, a dollop of anything sweet (no sugar though, oddly enough) and wwwwaaaallllaaaaa "smoothies!"

clarification: no sausages made it into any of the smoothies. you could call those lunch ;)

supper prep island

Monday, February 8

coffee mornin at the island often turns into supper at the island. sometimes the entire mess isn't cleaned up from breakfast and supper prep spills over other messes. literally. milk has been spilled here more times than I can count!

made with love. and sparkle tape.

a little late in the game as most of you have probably sent Valentines to school with your kiddos, but this was our process in Drew's Valentines :)

I try to keep it simple with the little ones' projects. and as little clean up for me. ;) watercolor painting has been their favorite lately so it seemed obvious to use this for her Valentines. I simply drew a heart in a marker (gold, per Drew's request) ;) and the girls painted over them. easy.peasy.

all my girls love to write so when the "cards" were all dry, she wrote her name on each of them. probably the cutest thing ever.

instead of candy, I convinced her she wanted to give tiny erasers. and on second thought after fishing aboutttt 5 of these out of Will's mouth in the last couple weeks, this may not have been the wisest choice for her treat. we'll get it right one of these times! so we got ourselves some pretty, sparkly tape and taped those buggers right on there :)

Casey and I had sort of similar ideas for the kids' cards. not surprising. but I feel as though Drew may have pulled hers off a little better. I suggested to Casey maybe to use paper without lines next time. and it makes a huge difference when the little ones write their own name, probably makes the cards! Homer is a bit younger so I'll be expecting some pure awesomeness with next years cards :)

sooooo I'm here to keep it reallllll. yo. Casey, here:)

i'll admit a few things here.

1. this project was above all else...a distraction. Have I mentioned how I'm obsessed slightly into, Felicity?!?!? SLIGHTLY;) I kid...mostly:) 

in case you thought I was trying to pull off that "she's a SAHM and has all the time in the worldddddd to hover over Pinterest and sit down and 'help' the kids with the most adorably-perfect Valentine's EVAAAAA"....even I have enough sense to admit that that's not what these are screaming;)

2. after Courts sent a photo of what her and Rowdy were working on (which was completely random that we were both working on something so similar!) - while she cared for 7 other children...is she still breastfeeding one???;)...making supper and organizing a corner of some part of the house and helping one with homework and bringing Dave a beer and just being calm and collected in all ways of life - I started to doubt whether Homer would be accepted into the Gifted and Talented Program...which Courtney informed me, she was a part of. Hmmm. 

3. i found a little book of those pro Valentine's, way back in the closet. Some Star Wars ones, even!! And I almostttttt turned into that mom. I almostttttt redid them all that morning before school. 

luckily, I came to my senses. Homer's are perfect! He can't write his name quite yet...we did manage to get a few letters on some, in case that isn't obvious;) And that additional crinkle has an adorable story behind it...of Theo grabbing hold of the entire pile and bolting and us then having to hold her down to pry them out of her irrational/screaming paws!!!! Good times;)

rowdy and Homer did such a great job and seriously...homemade or Target-bought...you're doin' good mama:)

now...back to what Court's was saying;)...

she snuck some candies before I could feed her after school, but she thoroughly enjoyed all her goodies... and even shared!

wishing you all a happy valentines day!

coffee mornin island

photo taken Tuesday, February 2

this was a particularly productive coffee mornin. blog planning. banana bread. brownies... (lots of B's, as in the letter. not BS) ;) ran out of eggs while making those brownies... shocking actually as we buy them seven dozen at a time (no joke!)

this seems fairly boring to me actually... maybe we should have the kids dancing on the island for this series instead... hmm, something to ponder ;)

coffee mornin island

since lots of our followers love our coffee mornins, we thought a series about my kitchen island would be fun. we spend a lot of time here. uhhhh lot. our best ideas come from this very spot!

not too long ago, my dad built me this beautiful kitchen island because I begged him relentlessly we congregate here all.the.time. and now we do coffee here! 

photo taken Wednesday, January 27

a few things to keep in mind when you see these posts:
unfortunately for you, none of this is staged
we may not be able to explain any of the nonsense
it ain't always puuuurty
one of those halos may or may not have been rotten

#reallifesmiths