At Christmas, we were enjoying the snow in the Sierras at our cabin. And one-week later, we were enjoying the 68-degree weather at the beach in Santa Cruz where my family lives. Life in Northern California sure is sweet!
{Bijou}
{At the tree lot}
{A view from the tub}
{I totally appreciated Bijou's Christmas Day artwork}
{Bijou and her cousin Alistair at Manresa beach}
{twin photo shoot attempt, always an action shot}
{Bijou}
As you can see, I'm playing catch-up this week here on Picnic. My excuse... one of my little guys broke out in hives and a double ear infection Christmas Day making my relaxing holiday... well, not so relaxing. So although my blogging intentions were good, I have not found a good time to sit down and share some of my holiday highlights until now.
A mother-daughter tea was decided on among myself and 3 of my close girlfriends to celebrate the upcoming holidays. Bijou was delighted that I had come up with a good alternative to taking her to the San Francisco Nutcracker. I had taken her last year and she desparately wanted to go again but I told her that I needed a year off to recuperate from last year's experience which involved a few threats and a lot of whining.
The girls enjoyed their tea sandwiches and scones and we indulged in champagne and some traditional English fare.
Bijou had good manners (for the most part) and has earned the opportunity to see the Nutcracker in 2012.
Yummies from Crown & Crumpet.
This post is a bit belated, but as I like to say, "better late than never!"
I'm couldn't be happier that my little 6-year-old has caught my entertaining bug. When she asked if she could have a holiday party with her friends this year, I knew I couldn't say "no" even though our calendar was filling up quickly and I wasn't exactly in a good position to take on any more.
We decided on a cookie decorating party and found the perfect Evite invitation with the details scrolled out onto a recipe card.
My Mom was kind enough to mix, roll and bake the cookies for me during her weekly visit.
The kids got to work, frosting and sprinkling the cookies and licking their fingers, of course.
Each year I like to come up with a new advent calendar. And last year I was so busy with colicky babies, reflux, breast pumps and night nurses that I skipped my annual tradition and bought a fair-trade chocolate one from Bittersweet instead. Fortunately, times are much easier this year so with some muslin pouches from this shop and some red embroidery thread, I went to town making this year's calendar myself. Now the true test... can Bijou tolerate having this thing hang above her bed without peeking in on what the next day's treatmay be? I think not.
As soon as Thanksgiving is wrapped up, I love to quickly indulge in the Christmas spirit and start decorating for the holiday. This year, I had to get a bit creative since our two little ones would certainly love to get their curious hands on the lower branches of a Christmas tree and pull off the fragile ornaments. And since "no" means "yes" in their world, I decided to avoid the traditional tree altogether this year. The lights and gold tinsel puffs (99 cents for a strand that I just cut into small pieces) are from IKEA.
It has really made me sad that I have only managed to post on my blog 4 times in the last year. It has come to the point that I think about getting back to it daily, I miss it SO much! Well, today is hopefully the start of some more regular posting. Fortunately, I have been able to get my hands dirty with some craft projects recently. I love nothing more than some paint dried up under my fingernails. (okay, seriously, there are a lot of things I love more than that, but you get the point.)
Today's project is simple and useful and can in fact be completed while one boy waddles around with a remote control pointing at things and making that button turn red and another boy chews on a wicker basket in attempt to relieve some teething pain.
Supplies-
Japanese masking tape
brown craft tags
* both items can be purchased in abundance from Etsy.
Directions-
Lay the tape in whatever design you'd like and trim the excess with scissors. I choose the classic and currentlytrendy chevron design.
voila!
I'm sure the recipient of your gifts this holiday will appreciate this handmade touch.
For Doug- A personalized wood tree slice/candle holder.
For Olive- A fuzzy felted love bowl for little earrings and things.
For Bijou- Five-years-old is the perfect age to master the yo-yo.
For Wilder- What 5-month-old doesn't need a mustache on a stick?
For Eero- A collection of stamps. Now I realize he won't be able to use them for probably another year and a half but I figured it's never to early to start the art supply collection.
I requested a little extra notice this year from Bijou's teacher of when and how many Valentines would be due at school. Since he has a newborn at home himself, he totally understood why it may take me 2 weeks to help Bijou complete 20 Valentines instead of two days.
As you know, I always like going the homemade route and this year would be no different. Well, to be honest, we incorporated a major shortcut.
Tip: Sipping a glass of white wine while helping your children with their school projects makes it much more fun. Especially when it's February and 75 degrees outside. I love California!
Japanese masking tape can spruce up any paper craft project.
The results!
My Mother's Day card Bijou made for me at "french school."
I love that she drew a picture of her favorite things: kitty, piggy, butterfly, flower, and sun.
A book she made for me at school with her hand print, footprint, self portrait and flower garden. I wonder what those enormous hands in her self portrait mean? (I'm off to Goggle search now...)
In addition to enjoying my homemade gifts, I also enjoyed brunch at my favorite cafe, Cafe Fanny, and my new MINIVAN! I never thought I would want a minivan as much as I do now with 3 kids under 5 on the horizon.
The downside...
I drive a minivan. However, I'd like to point out that we are just LEASING the minivan which technically means that we are still not minivan owners. This was just the loop-hole I needed to convince Doug to buy me one of these things. Thank you Honey!
Beignets with homemade apricot jam at Cafe Fanny.
Hot cocoa in big cafe bowls.
Poached eggs and prosciutto on toast.
The best cinnamon toast ever!
