OMG haven't updated since june

Well, i'm sure plenty has happened.
And you won't be privvy to any of it.
Except the following:

Sebastian got an early birthday present that almost made him cry. His busted the week before bicycle rodeo which is the most anticipated school day of the year for him.

Then Juniper turned **TWO**!!!
Yesterday. And we had our family and Juniper's girlfriends over for cake. And also a couple kids were here that I was babysitting, so they joined in on the fun, too. Lucky them!

I made a sugar free (stevia) white bean cake with hibiscus flower frosting, and then decorated it with beet sugar crystals and carob chips to look like a ladybug which is what Juniper requested.
It suited everyone's crazy food needs. haha!

I also made her a ladybug costume but she took it off before the camera came out.
She'll be wearing that for Halloween so no worry.

This one goes out to the Nonna

As Sebastian knew, and mentioned, how we should definitely show his Nonna these pictures while I was taking them. Of course, she would be delighted to see him in the kitchen.

This summer, I told Sebastian last week, he would spend at least one day a week in the kitchen, preparing a meal for the family.

He poured over a recipe book and wrote out a menu. We shopped for ingredients for a couple of meals yesterday together and tonight, he put together his first real feast. Almost totally solo. I guided, and helped with a couple of the trickier tasks like dumping boiling water etc, but he did the majority.

It was DELISH! Restaurant quality Shrimp Scampi over Angel Hair pasta. (although we couldn't find gluten free angel hair so it was really just brown rice spaghetti).

Can't wait for his next dish!

Another picture heavy update...

Since pictures tell more than I can with my minimal time to type....
Here is a mish mash of the last monthish.

Dogs and kitties love each other these days. I often catch them sharing food and snuggling in the sun together.


Easter! Juniper is a little clothes horse these days and picks most of her own attire each day. On easter, she picked an especially pixieish outfit, silk cape and all.





We went to Arbor Hills and hid eggs along the path to the educational pavilion up the back where not many people go. The children were with their Grandma and had no idea what Chad and I were doing. It was a fun surprise for them. We were even luckier this day as it was muddy at the beginning of the path and Plano-ites are afraid of awful dirty things like....wet earth. So we had the path and tables to ourselves, and it was lovely.





This is a cute shot of some good dads erecting a new play set at our friend's new house. The kids were being cute and "helping" so I snapped a shot.



Juniper, again with the clothes horse thing, got this excited when given a box of hand-me-down clothing from some girls we love. I dumped the box onto her bedroom floor and she launched herself right on top of the pile.

Awwww...


This is one of the daily outfit choices. Why can't I get away with dressing like this?


Making a MOOOOO sound when I asked her what the purple horse says. haha




Yossarian saying "Ta-Da!" about his new surfer wetsuit from Nonna for his birthday.
Speaking of birthdays!! Yossarian just turned FOUR! And he requested a Mario party for his birthday. I had planned on it being an outdoors event, full of fun and games. But....it rained. So we, along with about 45 guests, were stuck in the house. It was mostly fine, just a little cramped! A couple games were weren't able to play as they were messy stuff that would only work outside. Oh well. I didn't get many pictures either, but we made a chomp-chomp pinata, a Bowser's castle cake, Yoshi hardboiled eggs, star power fruits and cheeses, radish mushroom 1-ups, question mark block rice krispie treats, played pin the mustache on Mario, and we bought Yossarian a Mario costume to wear on the day but he arrived late and got a big shock seeing all the people here and became very shy. He's lived in it since, and yet I haven't gotten a pic!







Caught sneaking onto the table like a little squirrel and downing fistfuls of blue sugar from the cake plate. haha!

Inspired to update...

for the three people who read this.
since november?
well, we got some snow....and then it snowed some more.i think after that it snowed again.
and again.and then when we thought surely all the snow had come and gone, it snowed once more.
in the meanwhile, my sister came over in december, stayed with us for 6 weeks. it rocked.

we got kittens right before xmas. they're brothers - merlin, and gandalf. they are almost identical but we can tell them apart. they are about the sweetest cats ever ever.

juniper is talking. about everything. all the time. her favourite words are doggy, kitty, paci, mummy, daddy, and yucky. it's especially cute when she says "mmm yum yum yum" and smacks her lips.
we bought a camper trailer! it's a hi-lo towlite and it is FABULOUS.


we are in love. she will take us many places in the next few years but her pièce de résistance will be when she takes us to our new home, in Oregon, or wherever we shall land. pretty much everything is leading up to that these days.it seems like it's all we talk, eat, sleep and breathe. Oregon. Oregon.i feel it in my bones. everywhere i look, it's calling to me.

our maiden voyage was a long weekend to daingerfield state park over spring break and everything went pretty smoothly. i don't think any of us really wanted to pack up and come home. or if we did, only to refine what we do and don't need and then head out on the road again.
gypsies, the lot of us.

here are some pictures...

so school is back in now, 10ish weeks left until summer. woohoo summer.