High tea for Sunshine

Ok step aside Foo Foo Laroux. We had us a "proper ladylike" tea party for our Miss Sunshine. We had tea and cakes and even finger sandwiches. She had some of her little friends over and in all honesty, I don't think I have ever in my life seen something quite so cute. These little girls were dressed to the nines with their foo foo hats and gloves. I was very impressed.

It was girls only so Rockstar husband was bummed that he missed it and frankly I am too. But her brothers wouldn't have liked it and most likely would have made them self conscience of doing dress up in the first place. I loved that they really got into it.

The girls eventually migrated up to her room so that she could have someone to play girly stuff with. She was so tickled by the whole thing.

Also in attendance were my Mom, Mother in law, Aunt, and 3 of my good friends. So she had plenty of "ladies" to play dress up right along with them.

It really was great fun. She had a totally memorable 5th birthday party.

I could easily be a mad hatter

So Sunshine's birthday was yesterday, but her party is tomorrow. It just works out easier to do it over the weekend. Her theme this year is a foo foo tea party. We are doing dress up and having a girls only party. One of the things I really wanted to do was make some super foo foo over the top Kentucky derby-esq hats. (Because in my fantasy world, that's what would be worn at a ritzy tea party)

So we got some basic straw hats and embellishments and went to town. I was surprised at how easy they came together and how good I actually was at it. I very rarely toot my own horn, mostly because there are few things I can do above average, but I dare say I may have a career in haberdashery in my future.

Miss Sunshine turns 5!!

So today is my baby's birthday. I always have a hard time with 5. It is just such a cute age, but again you are reminded that they are leaving baby and toddlerhood behind and are almost ready for school. I am having an especially hard time letting Sunshine grow up. I'll be ok. This is normal so I hear. I'm just having Mommy issues today. I'll pull it together in time for the party.
In the meantime, I was up half the night (weeping uncontrollably and drinking) putting together a slide show following her young life. So enjoy.

**Kleenex alert!! I seem to be good at tugging on hearts and turning all you sissy la-las into mush, so unless you don't mind falling apart at your desk at work, I suggest you tread lightly. Also, it is an 8 minute video. But stick it out to the end, because it is worth it.

Simple joys

I don't have anything really insightful or profound to say here. I just thought I would share some of the great simple joys of childhood.

A nice day.
A box of sidewalk chalk in every color of the rainbow.
Countless hours to time.





Artistic integrity....

Priceless.

The wheels are creativity are turning.

So I got all inspired with the whole flooring thing. It totally changed the look of that room. My next big thing that I wanted to do was paint the back wall a accenting color. I have wanted to paint a wall red since I moved into this house. But the problem was that the carpets in every room were teal green. I have hated them. But with the carpet now gone, I was free to paint whatever color I wanted. So I didn't waste any time. I figured better do it now before I put the floor boards back on.

It came out a little darker than I had planned, but I am getting used to it.

Twilight tour

So I know I haven't been talking about it as much, but I am in fact still completely obsessed with Twilight. The movie, the books, you name it. I have stopped being ashamed and have now embraced it. I know it's dumb. I know it's meant for teenagers. I'm over the shame.

So my friends Erin and Molly have come over to the dark side with me and have taken on a healthy addiction along with me. It's nice to know that I am not alone in my nerdyness.

So we were in luck as the movie was filmed right here in or around my hometown. So my friend Molly and I set out on a mission to find as many filming sites as we could. We spent the day yesterday driving all over the Willamette valley peeking in windows and trying to be nonchalant as we snapped pictures of obscure things.

So I give you now my Twilight tour and I will narrate what is what.

This is the main character, Bella's house.


This is me in front of Bella's house. Of course it isn't really Bella's house because Bella is a fictional character. But let me pretend. Apparently I am not the only freak show fan that has taken it a little too far....

Next stop on the tour is a bookstore that Bella visits in "Port Angeles".
This is the movie still of it.


This is my picture. It is really a law office or something.

Next, while Bella was in Port Angeles, she got herself into some trouble and got chased into a dark alley. Only to have Edward come and rescue her.

This is the alley used in the movie.

Not very scary in the light of day.

Ok next Bella visits a dress shop in Port Angeles.
This is really a salon, but it was made up as a dress shop.
This is the movie still.
If you could see past that truck, you would see the courthouse across the street as seen in the movie.


Like this picture here.

Ok, next, Bella and Edward had dinner at a restaurant called the Bloated toad. This is said restaurant although it is really an office building made up like a restaurant.

Next....we hop over to Washington. Kalama to be exact. The Kalama high school was the set for many scenes.

This is the movie still set up to look like "Forks" high school.


Then this is my picture. Not a lot of cinematic magic going on here. Although what could you really do?

And then there is the famous parking lot .

Here's where Edward was ( looking smoking hot) standing next to his car.

Ok then this is where Bella's truck was parked when the accident happened.

Exciting isn't it?

Ok..moving on.
Then we have the field behind the school that (in the movie) leads to the infamous meadow. This is the field that Edward follows Bella into the woods for the big confrontation scene.


Then we are moving on to the final scene of the movie when they go to Prom. The whole prom scene was held up at the View point inn up at crown point in the Gorge.


Then with the magic of movies and an awesome gazebo, here's what it looked like in the movie.


So there you have it. My awesome uuber geeky twilight tour. Hope you liked it. I had fun doing it.

New flooring!! Hizzah!!

Oh happy day!! At long last we got rid of our icky carpet in our family room. It has been a long time coming. It's not something that we could really afford to do, but it was something that we really needed to do. I am not going to go into specifics, but 3 kids, 8 pets over the years , lots of traffic. You do the math. It was time.
Rockstar did it all himself. He pulled up the carpet and padding. Then we had to pull out 10,000 tiny nails and staples.

Then he carefully started cutting and laying out the flooring. It all snapped together like a puzzle. It really is pretty cool.

Then, before you know it, 6 hours later, we have a complete room done. It looks so much better. It just makes the room seem bigger.

We are still getting used to the echo of the room still. Without carpet there to absorb the sheer volume of our family it is a little deafening. But a throw run will help.

But yeah. I think it looks nice and does wonders for the room.

That pesky (suddenly literate) Merlyn

So if any of you remember this post, you will remember that Merlyn is quite an amazing animal. Well it turns out that he is also learning to write his name. Or at least someone's name that is completely different than Sunshine. He has been going nuts around the house with his mad graffiti.

This is the bathtub.

This is the back of the loveseat.
Good times.
I am proud of this new skill, but really?

Oh L'Amour!!

Broke my heart
Now I'm aching for you.
Oh L'Amour
whats a boy in love supposed to do?

Alright enough with the sing along. Although that is now guaranteed to be in your head for the rest of the day.
You can thank me later.

Anyhow, with the great and terrible day of the Valentine almost upon us, most red blooded "normal" girls get all swoony and require roses and chocolates. I am not one of those girls. It is in my mind just another day created for the sole purpose to sell something. Rockstar and I have never really made a big thing of it. Although he usually does make a passing remark to note the day.

My reason for living and love of my life is going way better than that this year. We are spending the Valentine weekend tearing up carpet and laying laminate flooring. When most girls would scoff and not see this as exciting, I jump up and down in rejoice. What a guy! What a stud!!

Home remodeling!!! A man after my own heart :)

Seeing as the flooring project pretty much taps us out, I am making his Valentine this year. So I know it is a couple days early, but better early than late.

So Happy Valentine's day!

I plea the fif!!

Ok so I know only like 2 of you actually get the title of this blog, but don't worry, it will be explained. Because apparently if it were not for pop culture, we would have nothing to reference in the real world. But I need these for you to get an idea of what was going on in my head here.


So before I tell you this story of woe.....I want you to watch this and remember it for later use. This entire speech rings through my head when most things go south in this house.


So here's the story.

A couple days ago, Bug went out front to play. It was a nice day and he has been all full of stink, so outside is where he needed to be to get his wiggles out. Sunshine decided that she wanted to watch a movie in the front room. I begin to figure out what we are having for dinner and get it under way. Nothing unusual about it.
Before long, Sunshine starts giggling and talking to no body. I then realize that she is talking to Bug through the front window (Which is closed). In the past I have caught them playing this game. It usually ends up with Bug throwing a dirt ball or something at the house to make his sister jump. I have come down pretty hard on this game because I get tired of cleaning the dirt off of the side of the house. But he has not thrown anything at the house yet, so I keep with making dinner. My husband and I get to talking about something when Sunshine really gets to laughing. I figure it's just Bug being goofy on the other side of the window.
Then we hear it.......
Huge crash.
We run in there and what do we see? Our front window shattered to pieces.
Luckily it was a 2 paned glass and it only went through one of the panes. What was it you ask?
A rock.
!!!???
Yeah, I know. Brain damage.
Somehow Bug thought it would be a hilarious game to throw rocks at the house to startle Sunshine. Turns out it worked!
His defense in all this was what cracked us up the most. It was one of those moment that all parents have where you know it would destroy your credibility to bust up laughing, so you hold it in and look away to not let your kids see you laugh while you are trying to punish them. But he just stood there and looked at us blankly.
Us- "Bug, how did this happen?"
Bug- silence
Us-"why were you throwing rocks in the first place?"
Bug-silence
Us- "seriously dude, you could have really found a better game to play than this. This is a pretty big deal. It's going to cost a lot of money to fix this"
Bug-silence ( but looking like he just shot a puppy. It was all over his face what had happened and his obvious miscalculation of the situation)
Us- "why don't you go up to your room for a while and think about your story a little better"
Bug- silent, but goes up to his room.

At that point Rockstar and I could not hold it in any longer. We both giggle to ourselves as quietly as we could so the other kids couldn't see or hear us. Both of us were thinking the same thing.
"He pleads da fif!!"


I know it's a big deal, but it really was just a dumb mistake. Not a mistake that he didn't really do. He really did it and he owned up to it. He felt horrible about the whole thing. It's probably going to be an expensive mistake, but I know he didn't mean to break the window. I think it scared the tar right out of him when it all went down. In the end it is just another example of the great and wonderful brain damage that all kids have.

If there is anybody out there...

So if there is anybody out there that cares, I have taken the ultimate step in attention seeking behavior and jumped on the twitter bandwagon. It basically just follows your every move for the last 3 people that care of my coming and going.

Not quite sure where I am going with this, but there it is. Follow it or don't. The link is over on the right side bar here. I have become obsessively addicted to following other people. It's like a weird peeping tom, but invited peeping tom. And not creepy.

I promise I will get in here and dig up another story of the strange and unusual happenings of my life, but it will have to be a moment that I can carve out a few minutes. I have some good ones too, so be patient.