Monday Morning Favorites

I'm really trying hard to find things to be grateful for this week. Feeling VERY pregnant and now it's going to be super hot all week. Like 95 degree hot. I know Arizona family, that 95 is nothing. But for Seattle, it's something, especially when air conditioning is difficult to come by. So, we're surviving with lots of these:

Popsicles are the greatest!
This is a picture of what my dinner looked like on Friday night. I didn't have my camera with me or I would have taken a picture of Aaron handling those crabs, Laurel and James getting as close as they could to them, Will staying as far away as possible and all of us scarfing down. Aaron's good friends Jason and Britt live up in Marysville. They have a boat and crab pots and caught about 25 or so. This was, without a doubt, on of THE BEST dinners I've ever had. I got butter everywhere, I ate way too much (but then, Henry needed some too) and it was absolutely fantastic. I made a cheesecake for dessert - Jason and Britt are big cheesecake fans and I want to stay in their good graces!

Lemon bars. Because they are perfection and you don't have to have the oven on forever.

A new pastry book to drool over.

Our favorite kitchen appliance. Going to make some ice cream later this afternoon. I'm keeping well-stocked on ice cream making supplies. I love that there are recipes for sorbets, sherbets and slushies too. Those ones are even easier!

Happy Monday to all! Stay cool!

William and Thomas

William had a great time getting to see Thomas. It wasn't exactly the experience we expected for him, but we're learning that this little guy just marches to his own beat. Aaron said he was very excited to see the life-sized Thomas, but wasn't super interested in getting any closer.

This was about as close as he got, which is still pretty cool. And waiting in line to ride the train? Not for William.

He'd rather play with the trains. The whole time! So, a financial investment in letting Will be Will and do what he wants and what makes him happy - lesson learned! We should have just taken him to the toy store and let him pick out some new trains to play with! But he did have fun and it was his special outing, so we're happy that he was happy.

So Excited!

My William rarely, if ever, gets outings that are all his. Laurel has been to the Science Museum, and has had ballet classes, preschool, clay classes, you name it. A friend is taking her little guy to this and I just HAD to buy tickets for Will and Aaron (notice I volunteered Aaron for this? Big ol' pregnant lady is not even going to try to keep up with William at this event!). They go this afternoon and I so wish I could be there to see his face when he sees the life-sized Thomas.

Trust me, pictures to come!

Happiness is . . .

Fresh, local blackberries.

Releasing butterflies.

Two cute boys with the best toy ever - cardboard box!

One cute little man in the cardboard box.

Armed with two waterballoons.

A bubble wall at the science center - very challenging to pull off, and she did it all by herself.

Saying "Bonjour" to the butterflies at the science center.

Flying the kite you just decorated.

These three are my joy. We've been having a pretty good summer and I can't believe it's half over - or that Henry will be arriving in 4-5 weeks. Where did the time go?

Monday Morning Favorites

I think Mondays are a good day to list my favorites - kind of like counting blessings. Today, these are my favorite things:

Richard Scarry books - Will loves them and can sit and look at them for hours (not consecutively, but a good portion of his day!).

This fabric is adorable, and I bought some, with some cute coordinating fabric - projects are in the works for a bedroom makeover for Laurel's birthday. The girl loves Paris so we're just going to go with that for now.
Cherry harvest - Aaron's favorite time of year. I stained my fingers pitting them for a pie, but it was well worth it. Too bad the growers have too many cherries this year. Wish we could buy them all!

A few weeks back, we ordered caterpillars for Laurel's butterfly kit. We watched them crawl around in their little container and eat their food. Then they formed their chrysalis and we've been anxiously awaiting our Painted Lady butterflies. Well, this morning, the first one was out, followed quickly by the second one. Laurel is now parked in front of my dresser (the safest place for them right now), watching and waiting for the last three. She is bugging me to cut up the watermelon for them so they can have something to eat. This has been fun, and we are definitely going to get more caterpillars.

Last, but not least - my anniversary is this Friday. Taking the idea from some friends of my parents, we are going to trade off who plans the anniversary each year. I've got even years, so it's my turn. And we are having breakfast at our favorite bakery on Friday morning - Cafe Besalu! I don't know if I can wait that long, but it's going to be fantastic. Apple danish, pain au chocolat, probably something featuring cherries or peaches or apricots. Yummmm! After that, we're going canoeing at the arboretum by UW - we've wanted to do this for a while and we're finally getting our chance. Here's hoping for overcast skies (so I can have cocoa!) on Friday.

Have a great week! We'll post the release of the butterflies later this week!